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Creation: A Conversation with Darwin’s Descendant

Posted by Coturnix on January 29, 2010
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This week on PRI/BBC World Science:

This month, the movie Creation opened in theaters across the United States.

The film chronicles the life and work of Charles Darwin.

The movie is directed by Jon Amiel. Paul Bettany stars as Darwin. Jennfer Connelly plays Darwin’s wife, Emma.

Creation is based on a biography written by Charles Darwin’s great great grandson, Randal Keynes.

Keynes is a conservation biologist who lives in London.

The World’s science correspondent, Rhitu Chatterjee, spoke with Keynes about his famous ancestor and the experience of seeing his book turned into a movie.

Listen to that interview here: Download MP3.

Now it’s your turn to chat with Randal Keynes. Join the conversation — it’s just to the right.

* Did Keynes’s famous pedigree prompt his decision to become a conservation biologist?
* What is it like for Keynes to see the species Darwin studied — in the Galapagos, for instance — threatened with extinction?
* Have you seen the movie Creation? Did it change your view of Darwin as a man?

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Comments

  1. #1 Prof M.Wainwright
    January 29, 2010

    I bet the movie does not show the point at which Charles Darewn reads a letter from Patrick Matthew pointing out that he published the idea of natural selection in 1831,i.e before Darwin even voyaged on the Beagle.To his credit Darwin admitted that Matthew got there before him and later acknowledged the fact that William Charles Wells beat them both(search Google for “wainwrightscience for more detials).
    Prof.Milton Wainwright

  2. #2 Coturnix
    January 29, 2010

    Evolutionary ideas certainly predate Darwin, even as far back as ancient Greece. But they were dismissed or laughed at until Darwin. Why? Because he was the first one to propose a mechanism for it – natural selection. Until then, this was a theological/philosophical armchair idea. Darwin made the first truly scientific case for it. Which explains why it immediately gained traction – “Why didn’t I think of this”, Huxley supposedly said after reading the Origin. And all of them have read Chambers and Lamarck and others before, without being persuaded in the least. Darwin made evolution persuasive.

  3. #3 Michael D. Barton, FCD
    January 29, 2010

    @Bora – Just so you know, Milton repeatedly comments on blog posts relating to Darwin and the theory of evolution about Patrick Matthew. I mean repeatedly – I see it all the time.