Another in the ongoing project to archive posts from an old blog – this one from february 2009. Not in the television programme — well, I don’t know, I haven’t seen it yet due to pesky tennis fans capturing the remote control — but in the Simon Mayo interview (page […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. There are those who declare Darwin’s literary brilliance, and those who proudly announce that The Origin is beyond their wit and attention […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. It’s getting late in the book, and for a while now Darwin has not so much been explaining and testing his theories, […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. Two pages into chapter thirteen we get a fantastic image of Darwin pottering in his conservatory, dipping his duck in various fish […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. Oh dear, the topic seems to have taken a distinct veer into creationism, around here, and I fear that will not change […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. The creationist site that I briefly reviewed yesterday repeated the claim that the fossil record does not support descent with modification, and […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. Chapter ten is supposed to be a response to the objection that if evolution were true, one ought surely to be able […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. In chapter nine, Darwin takes a long look at hybrids. And I mean a long look: he can really go off on […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. In chapter eight, Darwin looks at instincts. Instincts are subject to the same processes of variation and heredity as everything else in […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. In chapter seven, Darwin responds to some more objections to his theory of natural selection. One such objection is that “many characters […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. Chapter six is where Darwin humbly acknowledges that his work is not entirely watertight, explains some of the problems that have been […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. What’s all this backlash nonsense about? We’re getting essays telling us to forget about Darwin (ironic coming from Steve Jones, who has […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. It has been noted enough times now that Darwin knew nothing of genetics, and I already described Darwin’s bizarre Lamarckian hypothesis for […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. I’ve not been up to writing anything new and insightful today. I’ve not been feeling so good or thinking so efficiently, after […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. Chapter four is supposed to be the big reveal of natural selection, the solution to one of nature’s greatest problem. Trouble is, […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. In addition to The Origin, over the past few months I have been slowly working through an anthology of Darwin’s letters, which […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. Chapter 3 is the struggle for existence. If The Origin had been written a hundred and twenty years later than it was, […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. Chapter 2 is “variation in nature”. You can’t solve a problem without first defining terms, so if the problem is the origin […]
This post is part of a series on The Origin Of Species. It was originally posted on the old blog in feb 2009, during the Darwin 200 celebrations. In Chapter one of the Origin, Darwin discusses inheritance and variation. It’s an interesting choice for a starting point, because as everyone […]
This is an archival repost from the old blog. Like many science bloggers, it is my intention to blog about evolution and/or Darwin every day this month. One thing that I will be blogging is The Origin Of Species. It will hard work: fifteen chapters of Victorian prose to get […]