11th Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture takes a look at life

Save the Rhino International and the Environmental Investigation Agency are collaborating once again to celebrate the unique talent of Douglas Adams, best known as author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series and a genuine conservation enthusiast.

Douglas Adams by Michael Hughes

Douglas Adams was a founder patron of Save the Rhino. He once joined us for a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro in a rhino costume and even writes about it in The Salmon of Doubt:

“Great wumps of equatorial heat are coming up at me from the Tarmac … I’m slathered in sunblock, the road stretches off into the distant heat haze, and my legs are settling in nicely. Dotted along the road ahead and behind me are other walkers, some striding vigorously, others appearing to just amble, but all in fact moving at the same speed. One of them is wearing a large, grey, sculptural edifice … A large horn bobs in front of it. The thing is a grotesque but oddly beautiful caricature of a rhinoceros moving along with swift, busy strides.”

After Douglas’ death in 2001, his family began working with Save the Rhino to set up the Douglas Adams Memorial Lectures; each lecture focuses on a topic that Douglas was interest in, such as science, exploration, conservation and comedy.

Through each lecture money is raised for Save the Rhino and EIA, two of Douglas’ favourite charities. Meanwhile, we get to explore incredible, mind-bending topics from some of the most exciting contemporary speakers. In recent years we’ve been privileged to hear lectures from Brian Cox, Marcus du Sautoy, Benedict Allen and Steven Pinker.

Dr Adam Rutherford

It is to our next lecture in the series that we invite you now. This year, Dr Adam Rutherford, scientist, writer and BBC presenter, will be speaking about Creation: the origin and the future of life. After four billion years of evolution, and a century of taking cells apart to find out how they work, we have a pretty robust understanding of DNA, evolution and the mechanics of life. Now, we are just beginning to put them back together to do two things: recreate the origin of life and invent new lifeforms to kickstart a global industrial revolution.

The lecture will take place at the Royal Geographical Society and we can also excitingly announce that comedian Stephen Mangan, best known for roles in the Green Wing, Episodes and Dirk Gently, has agreed to MC the 11th Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture.

Stephen Mangan

I hope you can join us for what will be a fantastic evening; apart from all the intellectual stuff, the 11th Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture will help to raise money for the environmental, wildlife and rhino protection work of both Save the Rhino and EIA.

For more information about the event please get in touch with me via laura@savetherhino.org.

As a taster, why not catch up with Adams’ latest BBC series, Sexual Nature: A Brief Natural History of Sex on BBC Radio 4, here?

The 11th Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture
6.30pm for a 7.30pm start on Tuesday, March 12, 2013
The Royal Geographical Society, Kensington Gore, London, SW7

You can buy tickets for £15 each from www.savetherhino.org/events, or call the Save the Rhino office on 020 7357 7474.

Laura Adams
Events Manager
Save the Rhino