February 12th, 2009
by
Ide Cyan
February 12, 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, and this year will also mark the 150th anniversary (on November 24) of the publication of On the Origin of Species, one of the landmarks in the history of science. Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection has been enriched since then by multiple discoveries (like DNA!), through modern evolutionary synthesis, and ongoing research done by scientists in many fields, and a wealth of genetic evidence, offering further complementary explanations where Darwin (and Wallace, and their predecessors and contemporaries) could not, and improving humanity’s understanding of life’s processes. The often-tested theory of evolution has not been infirmed, though it has been misrepresented, misconstrued and misused, and is still under political attack from obscurantist factions.
Natalie Angier writes:
Evolution by natural selection, which also goes by the name of Darwinian evolution or Darwinism (darwinism on “casual Fridays”), explains life on Earth in its outrageous entirety, all the 30 million or 100 million species here today — many that have yet to be counted and classified, let alone inspire the next blockbuster tie-in — and all the many hundreds of millions of creatures that have arisen and vanished in the several billion years since life first appeared. For many biologists, evolution is part of the definition of life. “What is life?” one researcher put it. “That which eats, that which breeds, that which is squishy, and that which evolves.”
Evolution by natural selection is a powerful, living idea. Richard Dawkins, borrowing from feminist terminology to describe its philosophical importance, called it “the ultimate scientific consciousness-raiser”.
So here’s a day to celebrate the “science” part of science-fiction. Let’s give it a little love.
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Ide Cyan at
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