Charles Darwin
gregladen | February 10, 2009Charles Darwin wrote a book called Geological Observations on South America. Since Fitzroy needed to carry out intensive and extensive coastal mapping in South America, and Darwin was, at heart, a geologist more than anything else (at least during the Beagle's voyage), this meant that Darwin would become the world's expert on South American geology. Much of The Voyage is about his expeditions and observations. Part of this, of course, was figuring out the paleontology of the region.
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Bahia Blanca is a port at the northern end of Patagonia. Chapter V of The…
gregladen | February 10, 2009Thursday, February 12, 2009, 7 to 9 p.m.
Bell Museum Auditorium
$10/ free to museum members and University students
The speakers will present in the auditorium from 7 to 8 pm. Birthday cake and refreshments are served after the presentations.
Celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday! Part of a world wide celebration, the Twin Cities' version is at The Bell Museum of Natural History this Thursday night. Join in the fun with cake, drinks and presentations by U of M scientists and educators. They will present funny, outrageous and controversial rapid-fire, media-rich…
grrlscientist | February 10, 2009tags: Charles Darwin, nature, evolution, streaming video
The life and times of Charles Darwin -- a failed student from a rich family whose five year voyage round the world inspired The Origin of Species, a groundbreaking work outlining the theory of evolution. Dr. Chapman explains how Darwin's ideas caused outrage in polite society at the time. [8:34]
gregladen | February 9, 2009We're half way through Darwin Month, and only a tiny ways through the voyage. Need to hurry up! So, let's skip ahead a bit and hit the Gauchos....
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Well, you don't really want to hit at Gaucho ... they hit back rather hard....
The Gauchos are the cowboys of the so-called Southern Cone and Pampas. The Gauchos are a Latin American version the horse mounted pastoralists that emerge wherever four things are found together: Grasslands, horses, people and cattle. Like all horse-mounted pastoralists, they have been known to have certain cultural tendencies or…
gregladen | February 9, 2009Eventually, the Beagle headed south to the area of Uruguay and Argentina, still on the Atlantic Coast, where extensive mapping of the coastal waters was required.
The Parana and Uruguay Rivers meet in the Atlantic estuary known as Rio de la Plata. On the north side of this huge body of water is Montevideo, Uruguay, and on the south side, the northern coast of Argentina. There is an interesting story linked with early European exploration of this area. A Spanish ship is the first known European craft to explore La Plata. The ship's captain and a small crew went inland, and never came…
gregladen | February 9, 2009When reading the Voyage, it is impossible to miss the observation that much of the time Darwin was engaged in adolescent boy behavior: Pulling the heads off insects, noting how long they would wiggle after cut in half, closely examining the ooze and guts, occupied much of his time. Obviously, careful observation and a strong stomach were not all that was required to think up Natural Selection and his other theories, or the Origin of Species would have been written dozens of times by dozens of grown up kids.
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In the following passages, Darwin is still along…
grrlscientist | February 9, 2009tags: Charles Darwin, nature, evolution, streaming video
The life and times of Charles Darwin -- a failed student from a rich family whose five year voyage round the world inspired The Origin of Species, a groundbreaking work outlining the theory of evolution. Dr. Chapman explains how Darwin's ideas caused outrage in polite society at the time. [9:08]
gregladen | February 6, 2009It's out! Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction Second Edition is now available on line and in bookstores (or at least it is being shipped out as we speak).
This is the newly revamped edition of Genie Scott's essential reference supporting the Evolutionist Perspective in the so called "debate" over creationism vs. evolution. The original version of this book was excellent, but this updated version is essential. There is quite a bit of new information in this volume reflecting the fact that quite a few things have happened since the publication of the prior edition.
Scott's book…
gregladen | February 6, 2009I am hosting The Giant's Shoulders this month. Please get me your submissions by the 15th. Hint: Darwin's birthday is this month. Hint: Darwin was a giant. Do Darwin!
Send submissions via the blog carnival submission thingie.
Berry Go Round #13: Winter-Tough is here, at Watching The World Wake Up.
The Carnival of the Blue #21 is here, at The Oyster's Garter.
Brain Blogging, Forty-Third Edition is here, at Brain Blogger.
I and the Bird #93: The Compelling Nature of Birds is at Vickie Henderson's place.
Grand Rounds 5(20) is at Not Totally Rad.
Festival of the Trees 32 is at…
gregladen | February 6, 2009What do you eat when you are traveling the world in search of truth about the natural world? Most of the time Darwin ate pretty well...
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While traveling through the South American interior near Rio, Darwin makes note of some of the agricultural practices of the region. He is visiting farms ... plantations .. carved out of the forest.
The chief produce of this part of the country is coffee. Each tree is supposed to yield annually, on an average, two pounds; but some give as much as eight. Mandioca or cassada is likewise cultivated in great quantity.
... that would be Manihot, or…
gregladen | February 5, 2009I became acquainted with an Englishman who was going to visit his estate ... more than a hundred miles [north] of Cape Frio. As I was quite unused to travelling, I gladly accepted his kind offer of allowing me to accompany him.
And so was the case with a number of Darwin's excursions into the bush.
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Although he organized expeditions to the interior, he also took advantage of individuals or groups traveling one place or another, such as this Englishman, in order to carry out random acts of geologizing and opportunistic biologizing.
And thus seven men, including Darwin and his…
gregladen | February 5, 2009The first time I read the following passage from The Voyage, I was reminded of my own first experience in a rain forest (in Zaire, not Congo). Evident in this passage is at least a glimmering of Darwin's appreciation for the complexity of ecosystems. Darwin could be considered the first scientific ecologist.
But enough of my commentary ... this passage very much stands on it's own ...
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BAHIA, OR SAN SALVADOR. BRAZIL, FEB. 29TH.--The day has past delightfully. Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for the first…
gregladen | February 5, 2009
Behold this humble passage by Darwin, which is what immediately follows his discussion of the octopus. This passage is a touchstone to several important aspects of what Darwin was doing and thinking, and is a poignant link to what Darwin did not know:
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ST. PAUL'S ROCKS.--In crossing the Atlantic we hove to, during the morning of February 16th, close to the island of St. Paul.
Ah, sorry to interrupt. Saint Paul's Rocks are in the Atlantic roughly half way between South America and Africa. That geographical information should give you a hint of why…
ddobbs | February 5, 2009
A coral atoll, from Darwin's The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, 1842.
For those teeming millions near Hanover, N.H., here's notice that I'll be giving a talk at Dartmouth at 4pm today -- Thu, Feb 5 -- about Darwin's first, favorite, and (to me) most interesting theory, which was his theory about how coral reefs formed.
This is the subject of my book Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral, and I'll be posting more about it next week, during the Blog for Darwin festival. But the short version -- and the topic of my talk -- is this:
Darwin's coral…
gregladen | February 4, 2009Of his time on the Beagle (1832 - 1836), Darwin wrote, "The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career." Of the manuscript describing that voyage, he wrote, "The success of this my first literary child always tickles my vanity more than that of any of my other books."
Taking a cue from these reflections, I'd like to spend some time with this book, in celebration of Darwin's 200th birthday, coming up in just a few days.
(Reposted and slightly revised from last year)
An early version of "The Voyage."To begin with, it is…
gregladen | February 4, 2009The complete genome of a Neanderthal dating to about 38,000 years ago has been sequenced by the team lead by Svante Paabo. The genome will be announced on Darwin's Birthay, Feb 12.
"We are working like crazy at the moment," says Pääbo, adding that his Max Planck colleague, computational biologist Richard Green, is coordinating the analysis of the genome's 3 billion base pairs.
Comparisons with the human genome may uncover evidence of interbreeding between Neanderthals and humans, the genomes of which overlap by more than 99%. They certainly had enough time for fraternization -- Homo…
gregladen | February 3, 2009Two or three items of interest that are scheduled and that you may want to know about.
In order:
1) This evening, at 8:00 Eastern Time (US), the embargo lifts on an amazing new find. Tune in to your favorite science blog to read all about it. It is very cool if you are into science.
2) Friday, at an as yet undisclosed time, will be the unveiling of a new Internetial (pronounced: Internet-shul) project that many of you may find interesting. Watch for announcements here and on Almost Diamonds and TUIBG.
3) Friday evening, as I've indicated before, I'll do a live radio interview with Q.…
gregladen | January 13, 2009A new blog called Blogging the Origin launched Monday. It's a Seedmagazine.com-sponsored blog, written by London-based freelance science writer John Whitfield, who has the particular qualification--for this project, at least--of having never read Darwin's The Origin of Species. As he now begins to read it for the first time, he will cover each of the 15 chapters (including the introduction) in detail, sharing his thoughts and soliciting those of readers. By the time Darwin Day rolls around on February 12, John hopes to be an Origins expert. Follow his progress here.
gregladen | January 11, 2009And Public School Administrators, too.
There is a message being sent out, by the Discovery Institute (a non profit creationist 'think' tank) encouraging creationist students and teachers to "Suit Up, Sign Up, Show UP, Act Up and Start Up" (whatever that all means) on February 12, which of course, is Charles Darwin's 200th birthday.
As my friend and colleague Mike Haubrich says, "Fight for your right to be ignorant!"
The Discovery Institute is, obnoxiously, calling Darwin's Birthday "Academic Freedom Day," and encouraging a general uprising in life science classes throughout the country.…