HAPPY DARWIN DAY!

My counter has reached zero....and that means it's time to party, to celebrate the birth of the young man (shown in this portrait with his sister) on the right!

Charles Darwin's 200th birthday is indeed time for celebration. Darwin's contributions to the biological sciences are arguably the most significant, in that without evolution, much of biology would be fragmented into different camps of data-gatherers, with no explanatory framework to unite all the stamp-collecting. But, thanks to TENS (the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection), we can bring the disparate observations together into a single web of great power. Dobzhansky's famous quote says it all.



So, let me take this moment to remind folk of their opportunities today. This evening, as previously mentioned, I'll be attending an evening event sponsored by New Covenant Community Church and the local chapter of Reasons To Believe. As I said to one of my fellow Darwinians, this is my cross to bear. For those not interested in the speculations of creationists, or who don't feel an obligation to attend such, let me commend the following events in and around Fresno:

Darwin Birthday Celebration and Reception

Feb 12th, 2009, 4:00 PM
Downing Planetarium and Museum

Darwin Day Dinner (lecture, "Darwin's Finches")

Feb 12th, 2009, 7:00 PM
Carrow's Restaurant
4280 N. Blackstone (major cross streets: Blackstone and Ashlan)


Darwin's Ideas and the Societal Impact of Evolutionary Biology

Feb 13th, 2009, 3:00 PM
Science II Building, Room 109

There may be more events emerging this month as well, and I'll try to post them as I find info about them. If you don't live in the Fresno area, but you'd be interested in finding a Darwin Day event, have I got a web site for you! Check out Darwin Day Celebration. It has a searchable database of events, and as of this post the list is 371 events in 31 countries. Pretty wild!
HAPPY DARWIN DAY!

DARWIN DAY, JUST WEEKS AWAY

DARWIN DAY, JUST WEEKS AWAY
In fact, just three weeks away. And already I have intimations that I will be a busy little bee. I don't want to toot my own horn too much, but I seem to be in demand locally as a commentator on the upcoming festivities. More on that later, when I have firmed up the details.

On the evening of the day in question, I'm aware that a local house of worship (New Covenant Community Church)* will be sponsoring an event with the Fresno chapter of Reasons To Believe, the 'old-Earth' creationist outfit founded by Hugh Ross that is greatly enamored of 'fine-tuning' arguments in astronomy and occasionally ventures opinions about biological evolution. Short take: Ross and company, like most creationists, don't think Darwinian evolution is sufficient to account for life's diversity, but they don't spend time railing against it as the 'root of all evil' like a Ken Ham seems prone to do.

Anyway, RTB house philosopher Ken Samples will be in attendance with a presentation entitled "Darwin's Doubt", which...but I will let their publicity speak for itself:


I think we can see where this is going. 'Darwinian naturalism' is not exactly a household phrase, but I think the phrase is essentially a gloss for 'Darwin's theory makes supernatural explanations for biological diversity superfluous'.....which is, of course, true as far as 'special creation' is concerned, and nothing especially concerning to me. Darwin's theory does not necessarily render supernatural explanations for the universe and its properties superfluous, of course, but that is the very definition of an irrelevant criticism. Darwin's theory is not a theory about the universe and its properties, after all. One might as well complain that how an elephant's tusk grows fails to explain the arrangement of piano keys.

What arguments might Samples employ? I'll hazard a guess or two: perhaps he will pish-posh the efficacy of natural selection by using probability arguments against abiogenesis (which is not, strictly speaking, a problem for Darwinian evolution). Along the way, he may trot out the 'Cambrian Explosion', the role of cosmic (and galactic, and local system) 'fine-tuning' for life, and the supposed insufficiency of chance processes to generate information. All pretty standard for this crowd. There is also a chance that he will focus on Darwin's uncertainty on all things theistic for much of his life, which is irrelevant to the question of whether natural selection causes evolution but always seems to be one of those things that people want to know. Or (and this intrigues me) he may want to latch onto this jewel, crafted by Alvin Plantinga.

Well, who knows what we'll hear? I'd like to keep an open mind, but I just got that latest issue of Time, and....owch!

A RED-LETTER DAY, LITERALLY

Can a letter change your life? Sure it can! On this date in 1831, a recent graduate of Christ's College, Cambridge (Bachelor of Arts, Theology) returned home from several weeks of 'geologizing' in Wales with the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, only to find letters from one George Peacock and another of his former teachers, the Reverend John Henslow.

Charlie Darwin had been invited to serve as the ship's naturalist aboard H.M.S. Beagle, and, not incidentally, to as a consequence commit to being a class-appropriate companion for the vessel's brilliant but high-strung Captain, Robert Fitzroy, the grandson of a duke.This was thought wise, as the previous Captain, one Pringle Stokes, had committed suicide during the Beagle's previous voyage to South America.

Such facts, and the general hazards of travel at this period did not faze Darwin, who immediately accepted only to find to his chagrin that both his father and his sisters were vehemently opposed: it was, they thought, not only fraught with danger but another excuse for Charlie to not grow up and accept the responsibilities of the country parsonage for which his status-conscious father had groomed him. Fortunately, Charlie's uncle (Josiah Wedgwood, of pottery fame) had a little clout with Darwin, Senior and intervened successfully on his nephew's behalf! Who could guess that this chain of letters would lead Darwin down the difficult path of uncomfortable discovery, toward (in Tennyson's phrase) to 'nature red in tooth and claw' ?

INDEPENDENCE MONTH

July 4th is, of course, Independence Day in the United States---but, to my way of thinking, all of July should be Independence Month for all biologists, everywhere.

Why? Because, sometime in mid-July, 1837 (the exact date is uncertain), Charles Darwin began Notebook D, sometimes called 'The Red Notebook.' While other notebooks contain his thoughts on common descent, a pattern he inferred from the geology and biogeography observed in his travels, it is Notebook D that contains the first statements of natural selection. By positing a natural cause for the diversity of life, Darwin eliminated teleology, and transformed much of what used to be called 'natural theology' (Paley's expression) into an independent science. Bravo, Charlie!

Darwin knew the import of what he was proposing. Very early in the 'Red Notebook', on pg. 26, he "exults: "Mine is a bold theory, which attempts to explain, or asserts to be explicable every instinct in animals." (quoted in Darwin: Discovering The Tree of Life, by Niles Eldredge, W.W. Norton, New York, 2005.)

Indeed! Happy Independence Month, Biologists!

(A detailed treatment of the notebooks, for specialists, can be found here.)

DARWIN, BIOGEOGRAPHY...AND PEPPERS

My friend Madhu Khatti graciously allowed me to to audit his biogeography course a few months back. On his blog, he asks a wonderfully disarming question about peppers in this enjoyable essay. It reminds me of two things: that my alma mater (CSU Fresno) has a world-class expert on the genetics of Capsicum, and that, more than 150 years ago, Darwin began his long and meaningful correspondence with American botanist (and evangelical Christian) Asa Gray.

In a letter of July 8th, Gray had praised Darwin for experiments, published in the Gardener's Chronicle, that demonstrated the possibility that seeds might be carried some distance in salt water, yet still be able to germinate: a seminal (sorry) moment in the history of biogeography.

Then, on today's date (July 21st), some 152 years ago, Darwin replied with these details: "...Some of my immersed seeds have come up after 82 & 85 days immersion, viz Radishes Beet, Atriplex, Capsicum, Oats, Cucurbita, Rhubarb, Lettuce, Carrotts, Celery, & Onions."

I think that, in appreciation of Dr. Katti and Charles Darwin, that I will eat a pepper today!

NAPOLEON'S GHOST

On today's date, in 1836, a not-entirely callow youth named Charles Robert Darwin wrote a letter to his mentor, the Reverend Professor John Stevens Henslow. At the time, Darwin and the rest of the crew of H.M.S. Beagle were provisioning at St. Helena, well known as the place of Napoleon Bonaparte's final (1815-1821) incarceration.

With apologies to Edward Bulwer-Lytton, it really was (ahem) 'a dark and stormy night' when Darwin was composing the letter, whose main purpose was to entreat Henslow (and, perhaps, his colleague Adam Sedwick) to sponsor him for membership in the Geological Society. But, alone in that fantastic setting, Darwin also felt free to indulge his imagination:

"I am at present living in a small house (amongst the clouds) in the centre of the Isld. & within stone's throw of Napoleon's tomb. It is blowing a gale of wind, with heavy rain, & wretchedly cold: if Napoleon's ghost haunts his dreary place of confinement, this would be a most excellent night for such wandering Spirits . . . . . . ."

b

At the time, just a few months from his expected return from a five-year voyage around the world, Darwin might well have felt like a wandering spirit himself! And, speaking of spirits, the Friends of Charles Darwin are trying to rouse a spirit of appreciation for all things Darwinian: remember, only 584 days to go until Charles Darwin's 200th birthday (12th February, 2009)!