Today in Science History

From Today in Science History:

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (Born 11 May 1752; died 22 Jan 1840). German physiologist and comparative anatomist, frequently called the father of physical anthropology, who proposed one of the earliest classifications of the races of mankind. He divided humanity into five races: Caucasian, Ethiopian, American, Mongolian, and Malay. Blumenbach coined the term Caucasian (derived from the residents of Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains) to describe the white race; and the term Mongolian. Blumenbach was a pioneer collector of human crania and was among the first to place comparative anatomy on a completely scientific basis. His book Collectionis Suae Craniorum Diversarum Gentium Illustratae Decades (1790-1828) contains the results of his observations of the skulls of different races.

Today in Science History:

From Today in Science History:

Alexander Carl Heinrich Braun (Born 10 May 1805; died 29 Mar 1877). German botanist who was the most highly regarded botanist of the "nature philosophy" school, a doctrine which attempted to explain natural phenomena in terms of the speculative theories that dominated early 19th-century German science. Several species of cryptogams he discovered bear his name, such as Chara braunii. With Karl Schimper, he established the theory of spiral phyllotaxy. In his book Betrachtungern über die Erscheinung der Verjüngung in der Natur (1851) he made some significant contributions to the morphology of plants, to the biology of freshwater algae, and especially to cell theory. He opposed Darwinian selection, and remained a believer of "nature philosophy" when the doctrine was falling out of favour.

Leonhard Fuchs (Died 10 May 1566; born 17 Jan 1501). German botanist who prepared the first important glossary of botanical terms. This made a definite break from Dioscorides, and helped make the transition to modern botany. Although he was at first a private physician, and then professor of medicine, he actively persued an interest in natural history. He wrote books such as History of Plants (1542), in which he described numerous plant species in detail. His name was honored later by the naming of the fuchsia shrub. The distinctive bluish red colour of the flowers is also now known as fuchsia, eternally perpetuating his name.

Scopes hearing In 1925, John T. Scopes was given a preliminary hearing before three judges. He had been arrested and charged under a new Tennessee's state law, the Butler act, which prohibited the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution in public schools. Scopes had agreed to participate in a challenge to that law, with the support of local leaders in Dayton, Tennessee, and the American Civil Liberties Union. A few weeks later, at what became known as the Scope's Monkey Trial, he was found guilty and fined $100. Although upon appeal the fine was ruled excessive and over-ruled, the state law itself was not found unconstitutional. Thereafter, the law was not enforced, but it was not repealed until 1967.

After 9 years...

... I can finally say I have my undergraduate degree. I started commmunity college down in California in 1999, received an associate's degree in math & science, then I attended San Diego State University (yes, this SDSU!) for three semesters (2001-2002), intending to major in biology. Working too hard as a restaurant manager for the California chain Pat & Oscar's, as well as my grandfather passing away from pancreatic cancer, translated to a below than average performance in my biology courses. I was on academic probation for a period of time. I decided San Diego wasn't the place for me to live nor SDSU the school. I applied to Montana State University intending to be in the paleontology program. I was accepted, and decided to live at home for a year to save money. During that time, I demoted myself to a server (read: tips) at Pat & Oscar's (yes, one in my hometown too), and took a few geology courses at another local community college. I moved to Bozeman at the beginning of 2004, and worked for a year to get residency. Before I even started classes in January of 2005, I changed my major to history (of science). Finally, after three years at MSU (I finished in December), tomorrow I will celebrate receiving my Bachelor of Arts in History and minor in Museum Studies.

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough!

Just extending Adrian's birthday message to naturalist and filmmaker David Attenborough.

[Image]

LOLDarwin

Photograph by Bora at A Blog Around the Clock.

Books About Darwin's Garden & Botanical Work

1. Darwin's Garden: An Evolutionary Perspective accompanies the exhibit of the same name currently at the New York Botanical Garden (see these three posts). From the NYBG:

This 60-page catalog describes Charles Darwin’s little-known work with plants, featuring an illustrated essay by Darwin scholar David Kohn. It explains Darwin’s botanical formation, the development of his theories of evolution and natural selection, and his studies of plants. The catalog provides descriptions of the historical documents displayed in the Mertz Library gallery and of Darwin’s plant experiments, some of which will be presented in the Haupt Conservatory in a re-creation of Darwin’s own garden at his home in England. Also included are a sample Darwin activity for children, a fold-out diagram of the plant “Tree of Life,” and summaries of other major components of Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure.

Purchase it here.

2. Darwin's Garden: Down House and the Origin of Species by Michael Boulter is due out in June from Constable & Robinson Publishing. From the publisher:

Five years after returning from his trip around the world on HMS Beagle, the young Charles Darwin became the owner of Down House in Kent, where he moved his growing family, far away from the turmoil and distractions of London. He would live here for the rest of his life. It would become the place where he began work on his masterpiece On the Origin of Species.

For almost twenty years he used the garden around him as his laboratory. In the orchard he conducted experiments on pollination. He built a dovecot where he could breed new strains of pigeons that helped him understand the questions of generation. On his daily walk along the sandbank he observed how plants competed for survival. In his heated greenhouse he conducted experiments on orchids and primulas. In solitude he was also able to struggle with the ideas of evolution that had haunted him since his voyage, and give him the courage to publish his revolutionary new ideas.

Bringing Darwin’s garden to the present day, Boulter unfolds a shining portrait of the formation of one of England’s greatest thinkers and his relationship with the place he loved and shows how his experiments that he conducted over 150 years ago are still revealing new proofs and revelations as we continue to search for the origins of life.

Purchase it here (U.S.) or here (UK).

Also due out this year, from Pickering & Chatto Publishers, is The Aliveness of Plants: The Darwins at the Dawn of Plant Science by Peter Ayres:

The Darwin family was instrumental in the history of botany. For Erasmus (1731–1802), it was a hobby, for Charles (1809–1882) an inspiration, and for Francis (1848–1925), a profession. Their experiences illustrate the growing specialization and professionalization of science throughout the nineteenth century. Ayres shows how botany escaped the burdens of medicine, feminization and the sterility of classification and nomenclature to become a rigorous laboratory science.

LECTURE: Archbishop Ussher and the Age of the Earth

From the Geological Society of London:

A Burlington House Lecture for the general public at the Geological Society of London

Archbishop Ussher and the Age of the Earth
Professor Graham Parry (University of York) and Dr Patrick Wyse Jackson (Trinity College, Dublin)

Archbishop Ussher's pronouncement that the Earth was created on the evening preceding Sunday 23 October 4004 BC has tended to make him a laughingstock. However Ussher's was a serious work of scholarship that began a tradition of inquiry into geochronology at Trinity College Dublin that led directly to the radiometric dating techniques that have now established the Earth's age at 4567 million years. The speakers will examine the man behind the legend, the great work he left behind, and his successors at Trinity College – such as Professor John Joly, the man in the radioactive hat. A copy of Annales Veteris Testamenti (1650) by Ussher will be on display.

Date: 13 June Tea: 1730 Lecture: 1800 Close: 1900

Entry is free to all, but by ticket only. To reserve a ticket please email admin@sal.org.uk

LOL Tortoises

My oldest brother sent this to me...

Dispersal Event 2008-05-06

First & foremost: Happy Belated Birthday! to Thomas Henry Huxley, "Darwin's Bulldog," born May 4, 1825. More from Palaeoblog and Prof. Olsen and especially Brian at Laelaps. From Today in Science History:

English biologist who made his reputation as a marine biologist while a ship's surgeon. Later he turned to the study of fossils, especially of fishes and reptiles. He is best known as the main advocate of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. In 1860, one year after The Origin of Species was published, Huxley debated with the bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, at the British Association for the Advancement of Science. During the discussion Wilberforce asked whether he traced his ancestry to the apes. Huxley's withering reply was that given the choice of a miserable ape and a man who could make such a remark at a serious scientific gathering, he would select the ape. Huxley coined the word agnostic to describe his own beliefs.

Website for Stony Brook University's Darwin 2009 meeting.

Nature Network interviews Karen James of The HMS Beagle Project.

Darwin's embryo drawings flawed? at Playing Chess with Pigeons.

First, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland assigned Quammen's The Reluctant Mr. Darwin for its Common Reading Program (for all incoming students), and now the University of Pennsylvania has selected Neil Shubin's Your Inner Fish for their 2008-2009 Reading Project for new students. What a way to start off your time in college, by reading books that make sense.

stuff.co.nz (May 3, 2008): Historian links Darwinian theory with artist [A New Zealand historian claims that writings by British artist Augustus Earle may have contributed to Darwin's "theory of evolution]; also from The Sydney Morning Herald and Scoop, and John has thoughts at Evolving Thoughts

The complete text of Robert M. Young's Darwin's Metaphor: Nature's Place in Victorian Culture is online on his wesbite.

Systematics and Biogeography (blog): The Enduring Legacy of Misinterpreting Darwin [on Kevin Padian's article in Nature earlier this year]

Gizmodo: Darwin Manuscripts Evolve From Paper Notes to Online Archive (see image at left)

Toronto Star (May 4, 2008): Explore nature, as Darwin did

A website for the Darwin exhibit in Brazil, and a brief mention of it at Blog de Arara.

UC Observer (May 2008): A natural selection: Why a faith-based magazine feels it's important to sponsor a museum exhibit on Charles Darwin

Forthcoming book: Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

A film review from the H-SCI-MED-TECH listserve for Proteus: A Nineteenth-Century Vision, about Ernst Haeckel and his radiolarian work.

Linda Hall Library exhibit chronicles Victorian interest in polar exploration

First Expelled, now this: Challenging Darwin in 2009 from Creation Ministries International [Hat-tip to the commenter on this post, and John has thoughts at Thoughts in a Haystack].

An image of Darwin as Hitler and Wallace as Mussolini. The page is in German, so I don't know if it supporting the Expelled-endorsed view of the Darwin-Hitler pseudo-link, or if it's just a joke - the atheist, Dawkins, and evowiki links in the sidebar lead me to think it's a joke...

Will Thomas of Ether Wave Propaganda looks forward to the latest issue of Isis.

Today in Science History: Alexander von Humboldt died

Charles Darwin wrote in his Beagle diary on February 28, 1832, while in Bahia:

The houses are white & lofty & from the windows being narrow & long have a very light & elegant appearance. Convents, Porticos & public buildings vary the uniformity of the houses: the bay is scattered over with large ships; in short the view is one of the finest in the Brazils. — But their beauties are as nothing compared to the Vegetation; I believe from what I have seen Humboldts glorious descriptions are & will for ever be unparalleled: but even he with his dark blue skies & the rare union of poetry with science which he so strongly displays when writing on tropical scenery, with all this falls far short of the truth. The delight one experiences in such times bewilders the mind, — if the eye attempts to follow the flight of a gaudy butter-fly, it is arrested by some strange tree or fruit; if watching an insect one forgets it in the stranger flower it is crawling over, — if turning to admire the splendour of the scenery, the individual character of the foreground fixes the attention. The mind is a chaos of delight, out of which a world of future & more quiet pleasure will arise. — I am at present fit only to read Humboldt; he like another Sun illumines everything I behold. —

Alexander von Humboldt had great influence on Darwin's desire to travel the tropics. BBC's In Our Time did a show on Humboldt last year, and here's the Today in Science History entry:

Alexander von Humboldt (Died 6 May 1859, born 14 Sep 1769). (Baron) Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a German natural scientist, archeologist, explorer and geographer, who made two major expeditions to Latin America (1799-1804) and to Asia (1829). During the first, equipped with the best scientific instruments, he surveyed and collected geological, zoological, botanical, and ethnographic specimens, including over 60,000 rare or new tropical plants. He charted and made observations on a cold ocean current along the Peruvian coast, now named, the Humboldt Current. In geology, he made pioneering observations of stratigraphy, structure and geomorphology; he understood the connections between volcanism and earthquakes. Humboldt named the Jurassic System.

LECTURE: Hooker and Islands

From the Linnean Society:

Hooker and Islands

Thursday 8th May 2008, 6.00pm
Sam Berry PPLS

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), friend and scientific confidant of Charles Darwin, lectured in 1866 on “Insular floras” at the Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. His interest and knowledge of islands had been aroused when he travelled to the Antarctic aboard the Erebus under Sir James Clark Ross. On his return, Darwin passed on to Hooker the botanical collections he had made on the Beagle voyage. Hooker’s conclusions from these and his own material and experiences were important to Darwin as he developed his own ideas. The 1866 lecture provided a focus for subsequent and informative studies on evolution, and islands continue to provide invaluable natural laboratories for evolutionary biology and genetics.

Tea will be served in the Library from 5.30pm and the lecture will be followed by a wine reception. This meeting is free and open to all, registration is not necessary.

Darwin bicentennial series features lectures, films and theatre presentation

From Appalachian State University:

Darwin bicentennial series features lectures, films and theatre presentation
Posted May 5, 2008 at 8:09 am · By ASU News

BOONE—Appalachian State University will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth during the 2008-09 academic year with a series of lectures and events focusing on Darwin’s ideas and their impacts on society, and his theory of evolution.

A yearlong lecture series will feature prominent scientists, philosophers, historians, and theologians. Among the speakers are Pulitzer Prize winners Edward Larson and Jonathan Weiner. Other speakers include Niles Eldredge, curator at the American Museum of Natural History and recent curator of a traveling exhibit on Darwin. All talks are free and open to the public.

The presentations are sponsored by the University Forum Committee (UFC) and the Office of the Provost. Additional support is provided by several academic departments across campus.

For more information, e-mail UFC chairman Howard Neufeld at neufeldhs@appstate.edu.

The series begins Sept. 16 with a presentation by Eugenie Scott at 8 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium. Scott is executive director of the National Center for Science Education. Her talk is titled “Why Darwin Matters.”

Jay Hosler from Juniata College’s Department of Biology will present “Comic Books, Darwin and the ‘E’ Word” Sept. 29 at 8 p.m. in I.G. Greer Auditorium.

John Haught from Georgetown University will lecture on “Evolution and Faith: What is at Stake?” Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium. Haught is a professor in Georgetown’s Department of Theology and is a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center.

Brown University biology professor Ken Miller will present “Is Evolution Only a Theory? Charles Darwin and the Design of Life” Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. in the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center’s Powers Grand Hall.

On Nov. 13, Janet Browne from Harvard University’s Department of the History of Science will present “Commemorating Darwin: 1809-2009: A History of Prior Darwin Celebrations. Her talk begins at 8 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Blue Ridge Ballroom.

Edward Larson presents “The Scopes Trial in History and the Theatre” Jan. 22, 2009 at 8 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium. Larson is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and a professor of law at Pepperdine University.

Michael Ruse from the University of Florida will present “Darwin at Two Hundred Years Old: Does He Still Speak to Us?” Feb. 2, 2009, at 8 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium.

On Feb. 12, 2009, Jim Costa, director of the Highlands Biological Station at Western Carolina University, will discuss “Charles Darwin and the Origin of the Origin.” Costa is the author of a soon-to-be-released annotated “On the Origin of Species,” discussing how Darwin came to write The Origin.

Sean Carroll presents “Into the Jungle: The Epic Search for the Origins of Species and the Discoveries that Forged a Revolution” Feb. 24, 2009, at 8 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium. Carroll is a professor of molecular biology, genetic, and medical genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His talk is sponsored by the university’s Morgan Lecture Series.

Paul Ewald from the University of Louisville’s Department of Biology will present a lecture March 17, 2009 at 8 p.m. in the Broyhill Inn’s Powers Grand Hall. His topic will focus on the evolution of diseases in humans.

Elisabeth Lloyd from Indiana University will present the lecture “Darwinian Evolution and the Female Orgasm: Explanations and Puzzles” April 2, 2009, in a location yet to be determined.

Niles Eldredge, curator of the American Museum of Natural History, will speak on “Darwin, the Beagle and the Origin of Modern Evolutionary Biology” April 6, 2009, at 8 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium.

Also in April 2009, Pulitzer Prize winning author Jonathan Weiner will speak at a date and location to be announced later. Weiner is a professor in Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

In addition to the lectures, a series of affiliated events has been planned, including a film festival on the subject of evolution; a play by the L.A. Theater on the Scopes Trial (Feb. 11, 2009); local productions by the Department of Theater and Dance, including a performance of the courtroom scene from “Inherit the Wind”; art and music events; plus special outreach activities for students and teachers.

Today in Science History: Scopes Monkey Trial development

From Today in Science History:

In 1925, a meeting of local leaders was held in Dayton, Tennessee, to plan a challenge to that state's new law, the Butler Act, which made it illegal to teach Darwin's theory of evolution in a public school. George W. Rappelyea and other local leaders of the small mining town met at Robinson's drug store. The American Civil Liberties Union in New York, concerned by the law's infringement on constitutional rights, had advertised an offer to give legal support to any teacher who would challenge the law. Rappelyea saw the publicity that would accompany such a trial as an opportunity to promote his town. He approached John T. Scopes, a 24-year-old teacher and football coach, who was hesitant at first, to test the legality of the law in court.

More about the Scopes Monkey Trial at Famous Trials in American History, and a comment from Brian at Laelaps in his review of Monkey Trials and Gorilla Sermons.

Jane Goodall Lecture at MSU

In my several years here at Montana State University, I have seen lectures by Salman Rushdie, Tim Flannery, Paul Russebegina, and Edward O. Wilson. Last Monday, I was fortunate to see primatologist and environmentalist Jane Goodall lecture at MSU (now I expect David Attenborough). She gave her talk, "A Reason for Hope," in which she highlights events in her life and career in order to urge people today to take a step toward becoming advocates for the environment. Goodall was first introduced by nature writer (and Darwin biographer) David Quammen, who was instrumental in getting Goodall to come to MSU, and who shared his surprise at how active the 74-year-old Goodall remains in the field. Goodall then proceeded to greet the crowd of nearly 3,000 as chimpazees do, as can be heard at about 3:50 in this TED talk from 2002:

I enjoyed listening to her talk about, when only four years old or so, she was determined to find out where the hole on a hen is that an egg comes out, and remaining in a chicken coup while her parents worried over their disappeared daughter. Her lecture stressed her mother's role in her life, from getting a young Jane animal books, spending the first months with her with the chimpanzee field study in 1960, to continuing to posthumously inspire her today. She recalled her feeling jealous about "that other Jane" that caught Tarzan's fancy. And she mentioned this video, where a man jumped into a chimpanzee enclosure to save a drowning male chimp, risking his life as several angry chimps were charging nearby. She told how the man had described seeing the chimps eyes, and connecting as if the chimp were a fellow human being.

Despite her soft, scratchy voice, Jane had a very strong presence in front of the crowd. And she had a way of combining wonderful personal stories with current events and calls for action. Local articles discuss all of this (see here and here), so I won't reiterate. All I know is that I am definitely interested in having my son sign up for Goodall's Roots & Shoots program in about three years or so, if they have them where ever we are living then. The program strives to "foster respect and compassion for all living things, to promote understanding of all cultures and beliefs and to inspire each individual to take action to make the world a better place for people, animals and the environment." I wish Patrick was old enough to have come to the lecture, but at just a little over 2 years old, he would not have been able to focus for two hours on someone 50 yards down the bleachers.

This picture is from the book signing after the lecture, as is the picture of the autographed book and ticket above.

More:

The Jane Goodall Institute

Primate Diaries: Jane Goodall - A Personal Tribute

The Intersection: A Reason For Hope

Replanting Darwin's Fertile Ground For Thought

There was an article in May 3rd's Washington Post about the Darwin's Garden exhibit in New York:

Window on the World
In New York, Replanting Darwin's Fertile Ground For Thought

By Adrian HigginsWashington Post Staff Writer Saturday, May 3, 2008

NEW YORK Enter the New York Botanical Garden's Haupt Conservatory and you will see a pretty evocation of an English cottage garden. Foxgloves, delphiniums, wallflowers, roses, stocks and poppies form a sea of flowers before a partially re-created house facade. It looks thrillingly springlike from outside it, but if you go behind the set and look out from a window into this garden, the mood shifts from one of innocence to something cosmically important. This is the view, more or less, that Charles Darwin would have had of his own garden at Down House, 20 miles south of London. His worldview, really.

It was in the garden that he cemented his theory of evolution. Through close observation and imaginative experiments, he looked long and hard into flowers, which is to say, the sex life of plants, and demonstrated that these wondrous machines changed over time to permit the survival and spread of each species. Here, Darwin discovered "the notion that the flower is the organ of evolution," David Kohn says.

Kohn, 67, is a Darwin scholar and curator of a multifaceted exhibition at the botanical garden, which runs through July 20. He hopes the show will change our understanding of Darwin as a scientist, that our view of him will, well, evolve.

In his 20s, Darwin pondered the origin of species while on the five-year expedition of the H.M.S. Beagle. He collected fossils throughout South America, and in the Galapagos Islands discovered isolated species of finches. But it was not geology or ornithology that defined Darwin's personal scientific journey as much as his abiding interest in unlocking the secrets of his garden in Kent, on the southern fringe of London.

In the lean-to greenhouses he built, in wife Emma's flower garden and in outlying woodland and meadows, he would put to the test all the little ideas that added up to his earth-shattering theory of the origins of life.

It was here that we would have seen the guy who could peer into the tiny orifices of a cowslip flower and turn the universe on its head.

What strikes the horticulturists who helped put this show together is that however much they have been trained to observe plants, Darwin was looking harder. His handwriting and drawing were awful, but he had eyes like a hawk and the perseverance of a heron.

"He was just endlessly patient," says Margaret Falk, the associate vice president for horticulture who helped stage the garden re-creation, which includes re-creations of his botanical investigations. "Minute by minute, second by second -- what the plant was doing, what the insect was doing," Falk says.

In 1860, a year after "The Origin of Species" was published, Darwin began these plant experiments that produced six books to change the face of botany while providing the evidence for his theory that new species evolve through natural selection.

"Botany became the central focus of Darwin's research for the remaining 22 years of his life," Kohn writes in the show catalogue. By turning his domestic environment into a field station, he began the first efforts "to apply the principles of evolution to plants."

Gardeners take it for granted now that plants such as apple trees and blueberry bushes can pollinate their own flowers to produce fruit, but are more fruitful if bees deliver pollen from a neighbor.

Darwin found the answer in cowslips that grew in the fields around his home. He discovered that some plants had a short ovarian tube (or style), others had long styles that extended beyond the plants' own pollen-bearing anthers. This had to be an adaptation to prevent self-fertilization. And he then observed that cross-pollination produced more seeds.

He was also fascinated by carnivorous plants in the acid bogs of Ashdown Forest, 20 miles from his home. The tiny sundew plant is marked by hairs that end in balls (a little like a snail's extended eye) and are covered in sticky secretions. When an insect lands on it, the hairs converge to trap it, and it is then digested by enzymes. Darwin put some boiled egg white on the hairs to observe the phenomenon. Why would a plant adapt such a mechanism? The answer turned out to be that peat bogs are devoid of nutrients, but plants could live in them if they found another way to feed.

One of the exhibits in the conservatory is of vines -- passionflowers, jasmines, solanums -- good for showing how plants have adapted so that they can wander. Today, we take it for granted that plants are animated; we see it in the time-lapse photography of nature programs. But 150 years ago only a patient observer could discover the grasping gyrations of a tendril.

Darwin also conducted experiments in his greenhouse that revealed the ability of some plants to sleep, often by folding their leaves. He believed they did this to reduce heat loss at night.

Darwin sat on his theory for 20 years but was forced to publish it when an obscure naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, sent Darwin a paper in 1858 summarizing the same idea. In an exhibit of Darwin's letters, notebooks and specimens -- some original, some facsimiles -- Kohn points out a letter that Darwin wrote in 1857, outlining his theory, to the preeminent American botanist of the day, Asa Gray. This, in Kohn's view, established Darwin's primacy.

"I think of Darwin as the founding father of biodiversity, in his meadow," Kohn says. Darwin's ideas were quickly accepted by scientists around the globe, including those at the New York Botanical Garden, which opened in 1891.

"That's what we [continue to] study here," says Gregory Long, the botanical garden's president. "Plant systematics, and that's the study of the evolutionary history of plants. It really begins with Darwin."

Kohn has been studying Darwin and botany since he was a graduate student in the early 1970s and has come to see his subject as a man who was genial, brilliant, not as dissolute as a student as widely believed nor as reclusive in later years as supposed. He also sees a scientist who was ambitious, shrewd and patient. "He was concerned about [the theory] being stolen," Kohn says. "He was concerned about being wrong. Then, the idea itself is dangerous; it challenges religious and social understanding" of where we come from.

And, of course, it still does.

"The theory is supported by all the available data we have," says Dennis W. Stevenson, the botanical garden's vice president for laboratory science. "It's an important point because society says evolution is just a theory. But it's not an idea. It's a scientific theory that has stood up to many tests, including many done by Darwin himself."

Darwin's Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure is at the New York Botanical Garden. The re-creation of the garden runs through June 15. Another part of the show, in the botanical library, runs through July 20. An exhibit in the children's adventure garden runs through June 29. The exhibits are open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. For more information, call 718-817-8700 or visit http://www.nybg.org/.

Today in Science History: I have no idea!

Is anyone missing the today in science history posts? I tried to keep up with them, but it became a bother to do it everyday - too much else going on...

What I'm Listening To: Some Movie Music

Pieces from the scores to Rain Man (Hans Zimmer, 1988), Hook (John Williams, 1991), and The Last of the Mohicans (Randy Edelman and Trevor Jones, 1992). The first two I enjoy not only for how good they are, but because they're not often the music one thinks of when considering their composers - everyone knows the music from Gladiator and The Lion King, Jaws and Star Wars, but for reasons I like these better.





No embedding for the video for The Last of the Mohicans, so click this link to listen.

PREVIOUS:
What I'm Listening To: John Butler Trio

For Instant Headache...

A comment from my recent post about Darwin movies for 2009:

Apparently there is another anti-Darwin film in production to be released in 2009. It is the work of Creation Ministries International. I think this is the same group that had the fallout with Ken Ham. For instant headache, go to:http://www.darwinfilm.com/

I think I need to take something...

"What's New" at Darwin Online

These were added to The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online between April 22 and April 29, 2008:

Darwin, C. R. 1845. [Letter on Patagonian stone]. In Ehrenberg, C. G. Vorläufige zweite Mittheilung über die . . . Beziehungen des kleinsten organischen Lebens zu den vulkanischen Massen der Erde. Bericht über die zur Bekanntmachung geeigneten Verhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, pp. 143-4. Text A newly recorded Darwin publication!

Anon. 1882. Darwin's kindness of heart. Literary News (July): 219. Text

New colour scans, courtesy of Angus Carroll, of:
Darwin, C. R. 1876. [Evidence given to the Commission]. Report of the Royal Commission on the practice of subjecting live animals to experiments for scientific purposes. Image PDF

Darwin, C. R. 1846. Geological observations on South America. Being the third part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. Fitzroy, R.N. during the years 1832 to 1836. London: Smith Elder and Co. Text Images PDF

New! Audio book of Darwin's Beagle diary here.

Darwin, C. R. 1874. The structure and distribution of coral reefs. 2d ed. London: Smith Elder and Co. Text Image PDF

Cassin's Finches Outside My Apartment

Right outside my porch, these male and female Cassin's finches were flirting/chasing in the trees.

Although no good at it, I have a bunch of other bird photographs here. Please correct me if I have wrongly identified any of the birds...