Last Saturday afternoon at Tenby Museum, a rapt audience enjoyed a most interesting and informative talk on the subject of 'Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwin's inspiration'.

Professor Anthony Campbell, of the Cardiff School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science, is one of life's genuine enthusiasts. He is a polymath, having extraordinary abilities as an original scientific thinker, inspiring communicator, musician, networker, and cook. He is a true natural scientist, believing that science begins with curiosity, leading to discoveries and inventions that explain how the living world works, and evolved.

He first explained how Wallace became interested in the natural world and then proceeded to map his journey through many journeys of discovery and exploration and his relationship with Charles Darwin. In spite of many views to the contrary, he proved beyond doubt that Wallace and Darwin had great respect for each other and that Darwin did not poach his theory of evolution from Wallace.

They did however come to similar conclusions, but from slightly different angles. Through many exploits, disasters and successes, his reputation grew and he became the world authority on the flora and fauna of the Indonesian Archipelago.

One of his most important discoveries was an imaginary line running through Indonesia, now known as 'The Wallace Line' which explains the distribution of species between Asia and Australia.

This fascinating talk was followed by a question and answer session which rounded off a most enjoyable afternoon.