The next few days much of the material is NOT in your text. So, you need to take good notes, pay careful attention in class and possibly check out some of the information linked below to keep up on the material. Important ideas are: Evolution, Leonardo DaVinci, Galileo (The Starry Messenger and Conversation Regarding the Two World Systems), Bishop Ussher (Timeline), Carl Linne or Linnaeus (Binomial Nomenclature), Count Buffon (Garden of the King), the British scientists: James Hutton (Uniformitarianism), William Smith (“The Map that Changed the World”), and Charles Lyell (“Principles of Geology”), and Charles Darwin. Darwin, like numerous others, was thinking about how Evolution might work – he described the system that is now accepted as the most basic idea in biology, what is called “Natural Selection.” is a page about Darwin is a general page about Natural Selection and Evolution is a page that includes comments about evolution from scientific organizations, some religious groups, and Courts of Law in the USA Interestingly enough, a new film by Ben Stein “Expelled” claims that some scientists who objected to certain parts of Darwin’s theories (they didn’t object to the ancient age of the Earth or the idea that species evolved) were expelled from universities for their beliefs – in other words, the film is claiming that the universities were trying to protect Darwin’s ideas by keeping people from studying or contradicting it. That would be a very serious charge, if it were true. Here are a link to the film website and a link to a series of websites that criticize the film.

George Leclerc, Count Buffon and the Garden of the King in Paris

Mary Wollstonecraft 1767 – 1797, William Godwin 1756 – 1836, Mary W.G. Shelley

Josiah Wedgewood

Hence without parent by spontaneous birth Rise the first specks of animated earth; From Nature's womb the plant or insect swims, And buds or breathes, with microscopic limbs. ORGANIC LIFE beneath the shoreless waves Was born and nurs'd in Ocean's pearly caves First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass, Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass; These, as successive generations bloom, New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume; Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, And breathing realms of fin, and feet, and wing. Erasmus Darwin

Changes in Thinking s Erasmus’ Coat of Arms 1802 Malthus (“On Population”) 1831 Mary Shelley – “Frankenstein” 1842 Robert Chambers – “Vestiges of Natural History” 1859 Charles Darwin “Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”

Captain Robert Fitzroy (about 1830) and Charles Darwin (about 1839) At the time the HMS Beagle’s sailed, Fitzroy was 25 and had already spent several years as second in command of a naval vessel in remote areas. Darwin was 21. Fitzroy knew that the voyage he was about to take was going to be extremely stressful and that he would be completely isolated because of his position as Captain. He intentionally picked Darwin to accompany him because Darwin was a gentleman, and had been a Theology major at Cambridge. He was a suitable companion.

Fitzroy “Storm” barometer (ca 1860)

Admiral Robert Fitzroy 1806 – 1865 (portrait ca 1860)

HMS Beagle – the ship in which Charles Darwin sailed around the world

The main thesis of Darwin’s argument: 1.Individuals vary. 2.There is a constant struggle for survival because more offspring are produced than can survive. 3.In struggling to survive, the variations between individuals give some an advantage – this has been called “survival of the fittest.” 4.Obviously, the survivors are the individuals who will reproduce and pass their characteristics down to the future.

How many descendants (25 years per generation): 2 parents, if those 2 parents have 4 kids = population is 4 2 couples have 4 kids each couple = after 100 years, population doubles each generation after 200 years after 300 years 16,000 32,000 64, ,000 after 400 years 256,000 ½ million 1 million 2 million after 500 years 4 m 8 m 16m 32 m after 600 years 64 m 128 m 256 m 512 m after only 700 years 1 billion 2 billion 4 billion 8 billion after only 800 years … Just for fun, try carrying this out a few more generations… So, this simple calculation makes it plain that even with a fairly small family size of only four children, one couple could easily populate the entire USA in less than 700 years. Of course, a couple could have far more than four children. Even as recently as 200 years ago, the average family size in many parts of Europe was twice as large. In say, 6000 years if only four children survive from each set of parents, one couple could easily produce a population of many quadrillions of quadrillions of quadrillions of descendants. So, that didn’t happen. Most of the descendants died before they were able to reproduce.

Thomas Huxley 1859 When Huxley read Darwin’s theory, his reaction was: "How extremely stupid not to have thought of that!“ In June, 1860 the British Association for the Advancement of Science met at Oxford in the newly built Oxford University Museum. One of the sessions began with a two hour talk from an American, William Draper, on the possible effects of Darwin’s ideas on society. A huge crowd had squeezed into the auditorium, not to hear Draper, but to hear Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, an extreme political and religious conservative who hated Darwin’s theory, debate Thomas Huxley, then the leading biologist in Britain – Huxley was such a strong supporter of Darwin that he became known as ‘Darwin’s Bulldog.’ The Bishop was known to be a skilled speaker, and at the end of his talk, he asked Huxley directly if it was through his grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed descent from an ape? Darwin’s enemies cheered loudly while Darwin’s supporters sat stunned at the deadly insult. Huxley answered: "If the question is put to me, 'Would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather, or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means and influence, and yet who employs these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion' - I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape.“ Darwin’s supporters erupted in wild cheers and the Bishop’s crowd sat stunned by the insult to the Bishop. This was the beginning of a conflict between science and religion that has continued down to the present moment.

Darwin’s grave in Westminster Abbey, London

Herbert Spencer “Survival of the fittest” General von Bernhard – his 1910 book “Germany and the Next War” included chapters entitled “The Right to Make War”, “The Duty to Make War” and “World Power or Downfall”

Marx, Mussolini and Hitler

Francis Galton

This is a portion of a handwritten note from Francis Galton discussing the qualifications and process for issuing permissions to reproduce to superior young men of from 23 to 30 years of age. (from the collection of the University of London)

What’s Important to Educated People in the World Today? Google Search 4/3/2008: “Darwin” 33,800,000 hits “Evolution” 166,000,000 hits “Natural Selection” 17,600, 000 hits “Tuskegee Experiment” 81,000 hits “Britney Spears” 99,800,000 hits “Homer Simpson” 5,100,000“