'Flock of Dodos' Events to Focus on Intelligent Design Controversy

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- To celebrate the launching of the University at Buffalo's new graduate program in evolution, ecology and behavior, the founding departments in the College of Arts and Sciences are screening the film, "Flock of Dodos," and holding a roundtable discussion about intelligent design and science communication.

The screenings and the roundtable discussion will be held on Nov. 2 and 3 at UB and Buffalo State College.

"Flock of Dodos," an official selection of the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, is a serious and often humorous examination of the ongoing public argument between proponents and opponents of Intelligent Design. According to press materials for the film, spectators should not presume beforehand that they know to whom the filmmaker is referring with the label "dodos."

The film will be shown at 8 p.m. Nov. 2 in Room 225 in the Natural Sciences Complex on the UB North (Amherst) Campus and at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3 in Bulger Communication Center North on the Buffalo State College campus. Both screenings will be followed by question-and-answer sessions with the film's writer/director Randy Olson, a Harvard-trained ecologist.

A roundtable discussion on "The Intelligent Design Controversy and the Art of Communicating Science" will be held on Nov. 3 at 3:30 in Room 280 in Park Hall on UB's North (Amherst) Campus. In addition to Olson, participants will include Clyde (Kipp) Herreid, UB professor of biological sciences; Charles Mitchell, UB professor of geology; Donna Fernandes, president and chief executive officer of the Buffalo Zoological Society, and David Henry, associate professor of elementary education at Buffalo State College.

Information is available at http://wings.buffalo.edu/fnsm/geog/ggebe/dodos/flock_of_dodos.html.