Erasmus Darwin was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was a natural philosopher, slave-trade abolitionist and poet, his poems included much natural history, including a statement of evolution and the relatedness of all forms of life. He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family, which includes his grandsons Charles Darwin and Francis Galton. Darwin was a founding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, a discussion group of pioneering industrialists and natural philosophers, he turned down an invitation of George III's to become a physician to the King. Darwin was born in 1731 at Elston Hall, Nottinghamshire near Newark-on-Trent, the youngest of seven children of Robert Darwin of Elston, a lawyer and physician, his wife Elizabeth Hill; the name Erasmus had been used by a number of his family and derives from his ancestor Erasmus Earle, Common Sergent of England under Oliver Cromwell. His siblings were: Robert Darwin Elizabeth Darwin William Alvey Darwin Anne Darwin Susannah Darwin Charles Darwin, rector of Elston He was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School later at St John's College, Cambridge.

He obtained his medical education at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. Whether Darwin obtained the formal degree of MD is not known. Darwin settled in 1756 as a physician at Nottingham, but met with little success and so moved the following year to Lichfield to try to establish a practice there. A few weeks after his arrival, using a novel course of treatment, he restored the health of a young man whose death seemed inevitable; this ensured his success in the new locale. Darwin was a successful physician for more than fifty years in the Midlands. George III invited him to be Royal Physician. In Lichfield, Darwin wrote "didactic poetry, developed his system of evolution, invented amongst other things, a carriage steering mechanism, a manuscript copier and a speaking machine. Darwin married twice and had 14 children, including two illegitimate daughters by an employee, at least one further illegitimate daughter. In 1757 he married Mary Howard, they had four sons and one daughter, two of whom died in infancy: Charles Darwin, uncle of the naturalist Erasmus Darwin II Elizabeth Darwin Robert Waring Darwin, father of the naturalist Charles Darwin William Alvey Darwin The first Mrs. Darwin died in 1770.

A governess, Mary Parker, was hired to look after Robert. By late 1771, employer and employee had become intimately involved and together they had two illegitimate daughters: Susanna Parker Mary Parker Jr Susanna and Mary Jr established a boarding school for girls. In 1782, Mary Sr married Joseph Day, a Birmingham merchant, moved away. Darwin may have fathered this time with a married woman. A Lucy Swift gave birth in 1771 to a baby named Lucy, christened a daughter of her mother and William Swift, but there is reason to believe the father was Darwin. Lucy Jr. married John Hardcastle in Derby in 1792 and their daughter, married Francis Boott, the physician. In 1775 Darwin met Elizabeth Pole, daughter of Charles Colyear, 2nd Earl of Portmore, wife of Colonel Edward Pole; when Edward Pole died, Darwin married Elizabeth and moved to her home, Radbourne Hall, four miles west of Derby. The hall and village are these days known as Radbourne. In 1782, they moved to Derby, they had four sons, one of whom died in infancy, three daughters: Edward Darwin Frances Ann Violetta Darwin, married Samuel Tertius Galton, was the mother of Francis Galton Emma Georgina Elizabeth Darwin Sir Francis Sacheverel Darwin John Darwin Henry Darwin, died in infancy.

Harriet Darwin, married Admiral Thomas James MalingDarwin's personal appearance is described in unflattering detail in his Biographical Memoirs, printed by the Monthly Magazine in 1802. Darwin, the description reads, "was in person gross and corpulent; the print of him, from a painting of Mr. Wright, is a good likeness. In his gait and dress he was rather clumsy and slovenly, walked with his tongue hanging out of his mouth." Darwin died on 18 April 1802, weeks after having moved to Breadsall Priory, just north of Derby. The Monthly Magazine of 1802, in its Biographical Memoirs of the Late Dr. Darwin, reports that "during the last few years, Dr. Darwin was much subject to inflammation in his breast and lungs. Darwin's death, the Biographical Memoirs continues, "is variously accounted for: it is supposed to have been caused by the cold fit of an inflammatory fever. Dr. Fox, of Derby, considers the disease. Whatever was the disease, it is not improbable that the fatal event was hastened by the violent fit of

Phares is a monumental interactive sculpture by Milène Guermont. This monument made of golden aluminium and light can be considered as a “beacon of headlights”; the first location of this 100 foot high artwork is next to the Obelisk on Place de la Concorde in Paris where happened the first public test of electric lighting in the world in 1843. Passers-by can transmit their heart rhythms directly into PHARES via a built-in sensor, see it sparkle as it replicates the heart beats in real-time. In February 2016, PHARES interacted with the Eiffel Tower and the Montparnasse Tower that illuminate at the rhythm of the same heartbeat, it is labelled “COP21 / CMP11“, “PARIS FOR THE CLIMATE” and by the international jury of “2015 international year of light“ launched by UNESCO. Official website of Milène Guermont Official website of PHARES

Who Are We? is a 1955 recording of Aldous Huxley giving a lecture at the Vedanta Society of Southern California's Hollywood temple. The lecture was recorded on a wire recorder and digitally transferred to CD. Huxley was a student of Swami Prabhavananda. Along with Christopher Isherwood and other notable disciples of the Swami, Huxley would give lectures at the society's temples in Hollywood and Santa Barbara. In the lecture, Huxley goes into some depth about core issues about human existence, asking the primal question: what is our true nature. Included in the CD is a recording of a question and answer session between Huxley and the audience held after the lecture; the lecture was given just a year after the publication of Huxley's book, The Doors of Perception, he discusses the significance of the drug experience. In 1955, the same year as the lecture recording, an article with the same title based on the lecture was published in Vedanta and the West, the bi-monthly magazine produced by the Vedanta Society of Southern California.

The recording was released on the GemsTone label. Official Website