Award-winning Author and NPR Commentator Richard Conniff to Speak at Ursinus College

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FREE

Award-winning author Richard Conniff will speak at 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Feb. 26 in the Kaleidoscope Performing Arts Center’s Lenfest Theater. The event is free and open to the public.

A science writer and National Public Radio commentator, Conniff will tell the story of the bold and colorful adventurers who risked death to discover strange life forms in the farthest corners of planet Earth. He will discuss daredevil species seekers, ranging from Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, and Thomas Jefferson, who laid out mastodon bones on the White House floor, to the Harvard anatomist who helped introduce the world to the most spectacular species discovery of the nineteenth century.

Conniff’s The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth is "a swashbuckling romp" that "brilliantly evokes that just-before Darwin era" (BBC Focus) and "an enduring story bursting at the seams with intriguing, fantastical and disturbing anecdotes" (New Scientist).  There will be a book signing after the talk.