The First DNA Memorial Lecture
Created | Updated Mar 7, 2003
On 11 March, 2003, the Royal Institution in London will be the venue for a very special event - the first DNA Memorial Lecture to be given by Professor Richard Dawkins in memory of Douglas Adams. Dawkins has taken as his title 'Queerer Than We Can Suppose: The Strangeness of Science'. It reflects Douglas deep love of the quirkiness of science, a recurrent theme that we can all recognise in his books.
The lecture is being held in aid of two of the causes Douglas felt most passionately about; the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and Save the Rhino International.
Save the Rhino International (SRI) was founded in 1991 by Johnny Roberts and David Sterling. They were appalled at the indiscriminate killing of rhinos that they had seen whilst travelling through Africa and desperately wanted to do something about it. SRI aims are to tackle the problem at its root by working with communities living in rhino areas. Currently they are running projects in Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia and Sumatra.
Field work is expensive, but SRI has a hardcore attitude to raising funds concentrating on endurance events, often involving their representatives wearing rhino costumes. SRI runners have have negotiated the courses in London, New York Los Angeles, Boston, Paris, Cape Town and Durban. In April 2002, a team took on the ultimate marathon challenge: the seven-day, 220km, Marathon Des Sables, in the Moroccan Sahara Desert and set a record for being the first team EVER to complete the course in a costume!
I am lucky enough to be attending this event and will report back next week.
