Happy Birthday Charles - February 12, 2008
Today is the 199-th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birthday. Unfortunately some people still think Darwin’s ideas aren’t good enough to be taught in schools. Or maybe they’re too good.
In Florida they are about to vote on school education standards that declare evolution a “fundamental concept underlying all of biology” and one that is “supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence”. If accepted this will be the first time schools have been required to mention evolution, according to local papers (eg Bradenton Herald).
At a meeting on Monday discussing the standards one opponent likened Darwin to Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Mao Tse-tung, and another claimed because of evolution he had evidence an orange was “the first cousin to somebody’s pet cat” (Florida’s St Petersburg Times).
As the Orlando Sentinal notes:
Evolution has been a cornerstone of biology for more than 100 years, but don’t try to tell that to many of the thousands of people who posted comments on Florida's Department of Education Web site. “The last time I went to the zoo, the monkeys weren't evolving into man,” read one comment.
Darwin Day links for people who do understand science are below the fold.
Start with the semi-official Darwin Day website, and its list of celebrations.
Complete works of Darwin online.
Wired is playing Photoshop tennis with a picture of Charlie. You can see the art evolve over on the Flickr site.
Over at the Guardian there’s a whole series of articles, blog posts and podcasts about ‘Darwin’s Bicentenary’ (only off by a year, not bad for the Guardian) and the fact that “150 years ago, Charles Darwin unveiled his theory of natural selection”. This includes Nature’s Adam Rutherford boldly declaring, “From an intellectual point of view, the Origin is the most significant work of the millennium, and the most important work of non-fiction ever.”
Darwin’s enduring legacy, a recent Nature article on Darwin.
Nature Network has a great piece on Darwin’s London.
Darwin in comic book form: Darwin Saves the World (hat tip Pod Black).
The Scientific blogging website has also unearthed a wealth of Darwin Day links.
Comments
You're welcome. :)
Posted by: Podblack | February 13, 2008 02:23 AM
The UK Research Councils are also launching a website devoted to Darwin, though it's not completed yet. An announcement and a link are on the RCUK website:
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/news/080212.htm
Posted by: Frank Norman | February 13, 2008 09:18 AM