John Lynch (a simple prop) has a piece in the current newsletter of the History of Science Society about how historians of science can, and should, be engaged in the debate over creationism/intelligent design. Read “Some Thoughts on Historians and Contemporary Anti-evolutionism” here.

Darwin's Greenhouse, Down House

On Darwin's Sandwalk, Down House

Down House

As I am sure you can tell, I had the opportunity to visit Darwin’s home and laboratory for forty years, Down House, while I was in London. See more pictures here. The weather was to be rainy that day, but luckily the clouds broke and sunshine spilled forth. Did I enjoy the visit? What do you think?

Thomas Huxley, “Darwin’s Bulldog,” statue at NHM, London, originally uploaded by darwinsbulldog.

More photos from my visit to the Natural History Museum in London last week can be viewed here. A separate set for the Wallace Collection.

Go on over to the Charlie’s Playhouse blog to learn about their new project to gather kids’ video responses to the question, “What is evolution?”

100_3724, originally uploaded by darwinsbulldog.

I finally saw Creation, on Wednesday evening in London. I really enjoyed the flick, and certain aspects stuck out to me as great. Other parts did not, but I am going to sit on it a while before writing a full review. I want to wait until I can see it again, probably at home in December. But I urge you, don’t wait for my thoughts, go see it yourself when you are able.

The current Isis (Vol. 10, No.3, September 2009) has a focus section on Darwin:

Focus: Darwin as a Cultural Icon

Introduction
James A. Secord

Looking at Darwin: Portraits and the Making of an Icon
Janet Browne

“You Are Here”: Missing Links, Chains of Being, and the Language of Cartoons
Constance Areson Clark

Singing His Praises: Darwin and His Theory in Song and Musical Production
Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis

Darwin and Wallace at the (old) Linnean Society

A very cool scuplture of Linneaus by Anthony Smith (who did the young Darwin statue in Cambridge):

Carl Linnaeus by Anthony Smith

In July of 2009, I posted about a forthcoming Australian Darwin film based on historian Iain McCalman’s recently published book Darwin’s Armada: Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution:

Award-winning cultural historian Iain McCalman tells the stories of Charles Darwin and his most vocal supporters and colleagues: Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley, and Alfred Wallace. Beginning with the somber morning of April 26, 1882—the day of Darwin’s funeral—Darwin’s Armada steps back in time and recounts the lives and scientific discoveries of each of these explorers. The four amateur naturalists voyaged separately from Britain to the southern hemisphere in search of adventure and scientific fame. From Darwin’s inaugural trip on the Beagle in 1835 through Wallace’s exploits in the Amazon and, later, Malaysia in the 1840s and 1850s, each man independently made discoveries that led him to embrace Darwin’s groundbreaking theory of evolution. This book reveals the untold story of Darwin’s greatest supporters who, during his life, campaigned passionately in the war of ideas over evolution and who lived on to extend and advance the scope of his work.

McCalman also coedited a volume of papers, In the Wake of the Beagle: Science in the Southern Oceans from the Age of Darwin, based on a conference by the same name held at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney in March 2009:

Strange as it may seem, the long wake of the tiny HMS Beagle stretches from the nineteenth century into the future of our globe. Charles Darwin spent only three months in Australia, but Australasia and the Pacific contributed to his evolutionary thinking in a variety of ways. One hundred and fifty years after the publication of On the Origin of Species the internationally acclaimed authors of In the Wake of the Beagle provide new insights into the world of collecting, surveying and cross-cultural exchange in the antipodes in the age of Darwin. They explore the groundbreaking work of Darwin and his contemporaries Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Wallace, examine the complex trading relationships of the region’s daring voyagers, and take a very modern look at today’s cutting-edge scientific research, at a time when global warming has raised the stakes to an unprecedented level.

The film, Darwin’s Brave New World, is described as:

A 3 x 1hour drama-documentary TV series about how the Southern Hemisphere gave birth to the most controversial idea in science: evolution by means of natural selection. Interweaving dramatic reconstruction with documentary actuality and moving between the 19th century and the 21st, this series is the story of how Charles Darwin’s ‘dangerous idea’ developed during his epic voyage through South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands and how that idea forever transformed society and science. A series to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’.

The film premieres at the University of British Columbia later this month, and airs on Australia’s ABC1 November 8th (ep. 1: Origins), 15th (ep. 2: Evolutions), and 22nd (ep. 3: Publish and Be Damned). An extended trailer:

Notice in the trailer a few historians or philosophers of science (Jim Moore, Michael Ruse, and Janet Browne), Richard Dawkins, and David Suzuki.

The Dispersal of Darwin recently passed 50,000 views since I moved the blog from Blogger to WordPress in January 2009. Cool.

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