British comedian Bill Bailey did a documentary for the BBC about Alfred Russel Wallace, in two episodes:
Peter Raby, who wrote a biography of Wallace, wrote a review for the Journal of Victorian Culture Online, here.
Online first from Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences:
John van Wyhe
Abstract For decades historians of science and science writers in general have maintained that Charles Darwin was not the ‘naturalist’ or ‘official naturalist’ during the 1831–1836 surveying voyage of HMS Beagle but instead Captain Robert FitzRoy’s ‘companion’, ‘gentleman companion’ or ‘dining companion’. That is, Darwin was primarily the captain’s social companion and only secondarily and unofficially naturalist. Instead, it is usually maintained, the ship’s surgeon Robert McCormick was the official naturalist because this was the default or official practice at the time. Although these views have been repeated in countless accounts of Darwin’s life, this essay aims to show that they are incorrect.
On Darwin and evolution:
io9: The inspiration behind Darwin’s evolutionary theory, seen from space
Popperfont: How are we ever going to evolve if you people keep pushing us back into the ocean?
Editorial: Evolution: Education and Outreach goes open access!
Genetics: Charles Darwin’s Mitochondria
SAGE Open: Desmond and Moore’s Darwin’s Sacred Cause: A Misreading of the Historical Record
The Friends of Charles Darwin: Darwin and Wallace: the lost photograph
Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub: Darwin’s death, April 19, 1882
The Friends of Charles Darwin: 19th April, 1882: the death of a hero
Darwin and Gender: The Blog: Reviewing Uncle Charles’s new book
Sandwalk: Darwin Doubters Want to Have their Cake and Eat it too
Why Evolution Is True: The death of Annie Darwin
JournalStar.com: Cliff swallows offer Darwinian lesson in evolution
CultureLab: Timing was everything when Darwin’s bombshell exploded (review of Peter Bowler’s Darwin Deleted)
Publishers Weekly: Darwin Deleted: Imagining a World without Darwin (book review)
Literary Review: The Evolution of a Theory (review of Peter Bowler’s Darwin Deleted)
Until Darwin: Science & the Origins of Race: Note: Louis Agassiz “Against the Transmutation Theory” from Methods of Study in Natural History (1886)
From the Hands of Quacks: “Nothing to be Done:” Letter from Charles Darwin to Syms Covington, 1859
Science Observed: Darwinism Today – (not) a theory of everything
Sedges Have Edges: Darwin’s monsters
On Alfred Russel Wallace:
NPR: He Helped Discover Evolution, And Then Became Extinct
Communicate Science: Alfred Russel Wallace: Back in the picture
Nature Plus (NHM): A Conference about Wallace and his Collections
Library Art and Archives blog (Kew): The self-taught naturalist – Alfred Russel Wallace and Kew
“History” from intelligent design creationists:
Evolution News and Views: What Would a World Without Darwin Look Like? (review of Peter Bowler’s Darwin Deleted)
Evolution News and Views: More on Darwin Deleted: What Is Bowler’s Beef?
Evolution News and Views: Intelligent Design 101: Louis Agassiz, the First Thorn in Darwin’s Side
Evolution News and Views: On Alfred Russel Wallace, NPR Gets It Right, Sort Of…
Evolution News and Views: Did I Too Conveniently Omit Mention of Alfred Russel’s Wallace Interest in Spiritualism?
In a previous post today, I shared a new book that is described as instilling in the reader a “childlike sense of wonder” about dinosaurs. While My Beloved Brontosaurus is for older readers, there is a new series of children’s books about those ancient creatures. Written by Daniel Loxton (Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be) and illustrated by Loxton and W.W. Smith, the Tales of Prehistoric Life series is sure to delight young dinosaur fans and, a more hopeful goal, to create new ones. The first in the series, Ankylosaur Attack (Tonawanda, NY: Kids Can Press, 2011, 32 pp.), follows an Ankylosaurus (the iconic “armored” dinosaur of North America) one morning as he searches for food in his habitat, experiences a grumpy older individual of his own species, watches pterosaurs in the sky, and defends himself – with a little help – against a fierce Tyrannosaurus rex.
The narrative is simple, yet through it comes out a lot of what it must have been like to live millions of years ago. On the final page, Loxton gives extra information about the dinosaur species highlighted in the story. Subtle but right there at the beginning just might be the most important sentence in the book: “It was a morning long, long ago – millions of years before humans walked the Earth.” The illustrations in the book are beautiful, looking almost like photographs. Of course, they are not, since Loxton tells us this story is happening long before humans appeared on Earth. They are digital illustrations superimposed on landscape photography.
Photo-realistic images perhaps serve to reinforce to readers that these animals did in fact exist and live on our planet. They are not fictional and simply an artist’s imagination, although some guess work has to be made to flesh out dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs were real, and the illustrations show kids what paleontologists thought they looked like and how they behaved. Loxton had expert advice from paleontologists Kenneth Carpenter and Donald Prothero, so the information is accurate and up-to-date.
The second in the Tales of Prehistoric Life series was just published. Pterosaur Trouble (Tonawanda, NY: Kids Can Press, 2013, 32 pp.) likewise follows an individual animal.
This time, it is not a dinosaur, but another critter from the Mesozoic Era, Quetzalcoatlus. This is another “day in the life” story, also featuring Triceratops and a pack of Saurornitholestes hell bent on having some pterosaur meat for breakfast.
Loxton got paleontologist Darren Naish, an authority on pterosaur fossils, to provide advice for Pterosaur Trouble. And the book includes the same, if not better, digital illustrations as Ankylosaur Attack. I certainly hope Loxton and his publisher continue this series. I came to be interested in Darwin, evolution, and the history of science through a love of paleontology (sparked by Jurassic Park). Keeping my young son engaged in thinking about the history of life on earth not only occurs through visiting museums, providing him with scientifically-accurate dinosaur toys, and watching a variety of science programming online, but through reading books. And anyone familiar with children’s books about dinosaurs knows, some shine and others lack with regard to keeping up to date with dinosaur paleontology. The Tales of Prehistoric Life series shines brightly. All images, except the one below, are from Kids Can Press website.
Yesterday, March 30, was the publication date for the paperback edition of Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick’s acclaimed graphic novel about the life and science of theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, simply titled Feynman. Ottaviani has written other graphic novel about scientists (such as Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology and T-Minus: The Race to the Moon). His latest profiles the lives of three women who changed the way the public viewed scientists, and opened windows into the lives of our closest relatives.
Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas, by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by Maris Wicks (New York: First Second, 2013), 144 pp.
This is the true story of three scientists who risked their lives for research that forever changed the way we think of primates… including ourselves. Jane Goodall discovered chimpanzees using tools – a trait once thought to be unique to humans – and is now one of the world’s foremost animal rights advocates. Dian Fossey fiercely protected the mountain gorillas she studied, bringing the plight of these gentle apes to public view. Birute Galdikas moved to the Indonesian jungle to observe the elusive animal native people called “wild person in the woods.” She stayed to rehabilitate orphaned orangutans and revolutionize rainforest conservancy.
Recruited by the great anthropologist Louis Leakey, these remarkable women are responsible for some of the biggest advances in both primatology and our understanding of what it means to be human. Written by Jim Ottaviani, with art by rising comics star Maris Wicks, Primates is an inviting, immersive, and often funny look at the lives of three of the most important scientists of the twentieth century.
Primates will be published in June, but you can get a sneak peek from the publisher’s blog, here, and an exclusive excerpt from Boing Boing, here.
Two and a half years ago I posted a review of a new book – his first – from science blogger Brian Switek (Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature). While his blog Laelaps has moved around a bit (now at National Geographic), he’s still my go to source for analysis for new studies in paleontology. I am happy to share that Brian has published a second book:
My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs, by Brian Switek (New York: Scientific American, 2013), 272 pp.
Dinosaurs, with their awe-inspiring size, terrifying claws and teeth, and otherworldly abilities, occupy a sacred place in our childhoods. They loom over museum halls, thunder through movies, and are a fundamental part of our collective imagination. In My Beloved Brontosaurus, the dinosaur fanatic Brian Switek enriches the childlike sense of wonder these amazing creatures instill in us. Investigating the latest discoveries in paleontology, he breathes new life into old bones.
Switek reunites us with these mysterious creatures as he visits desolate excavation sites and hallowed museum vaults, exploring everything from the sex life of Apatosaurus and T. rex’s feather-laden body to just why dinosaurs vanished. (And of course, on his journey, he celebrates the book’s titular hero, “Brontosaurus”—who suffered a second extinction when we learned he never existed at all—as a symbol of scientific progress.)
With infectious enthusiasm, Switek questions what we’ve long held to be true about these beasts, weaving in stories from his obsession with dinosaurs, which started when he was just knee-high to a Stegosaurus. Endearing, surprising, and essential to our understanding of our own evolution and our place on Earth, My Beloved Brontosaurus is a book that dinosaur fans and anyone interested in scientific progress will cherish for years to come.
Read can read some reviews from Chad Orzel and scicurious, read pieces by Brian about the book at Slate and io9, read chapter 7 “Birds with Feathers” in a free excerpt from the NCSE, or listen to Brian read an excerpt:
Brian will be at Powell’s City of Books in Portland, OR on May 22, 7:30pm (info). I look forward to attending his book talk with my son, who, like Brian and myself, loves dinosaurs.
From the National Center for Science Education:
