Darwin

As you may know, today is the 198th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Birthday wishes have been posted on a number of blogs, as an assortment of scientists and scientific enthusiasts mark the occasion. For my own little tribute to Mr. Darwin, I'm going to talk about why he is the subject of such admiration from scientists when others who were involved in the discovery of the history of life are not.

The admiration for Darwin has little to do with what the Discovery Institute calls, "The Deification of Charles Darwin." This is not a case of where we, "celebrate the birth of [our] saint, Charles Darwin." (By the way, guys, if he's a saint, then he clearly hasn't been deified. I know you're shaky on science, but I'd have thought you could at least get the religious terminology right.) I know of very few people who think that either Darwin or his work were flawless.

Darwin is admired (and admirable) for a number of different reasons by different people. The fascination that people have with Darwin is similar, in many respects, to the fascination that people have for another of the great figures of that period - Abraham Lincoln (who also celebrates his 198th birthday today). Both were intellectual giants, both made important decisions with long lasting impact, both were concerned about the impact of their choices. The two were, in different ways, gifted communicators. And, of course, both are very clearly human figures, with human weaknesses and more than their fair share of human quirks. In short, Lincoln and Darwin were both walking human interest stories, and are interesting characters to study.

For scientists, the human fascination of Darwin's life is only part of the picture. He is also admired because he was a scientist's scientist - a role model for the ages. He had a keen insight into the way that nature worked, and he was able to use his observations to formulate hypotheses. He was also a very careful and methodical scientist. In the years between when he first formulated his evolutionary hypothesis and when he (reluctantly) published it, he conducted experiment after experiment, looking at different aspects of life. He bred pigeons to study how selection could result in changes in offspring. He spent years dissecting barnacles and observing the similarities and differences within and among species. He (with some help from his son and butler) soaked seeds in a tub of saltwater for months at a time to study dispersal. He gathered information from a web of collaborators that spanned the world, on a range of topics that covered a great deal of the science of biology. Darwin's combination of insight and patience is what makes him a role model for scientists, and it's one of the reasons that most of us have such great respect for him.