This week marks 150 years since the publication of Charles Darwin’s book The Origin of Species, one of the most important and influential books in the scientific literature. This anniversary feels like an appropriate time to start this blog. A while ago I used an application on the social networking site Facebook to select the five scientists that I admired the most. My selections were Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould. I explained my choices by noting that each of these scientists had challenged conventional ways of thinking. Galileo challenged a widely held belief that the Earth was at the centre of the solar system and that the Sun and other planets revolved around it. Einstein’s theory of general relativity changed the face of the science of physics. Although Darwin was certainly not the first to propose that species had descended, via a process of modification, from other species, he was the first to suggest a plausible mechanism for this modification – Natural Selection – thereby giving the proposal credibility.[1] [2] Richard Dawkins and the late Stephen Jay Gould are two high profile proponents of Darwinian evolutionary theory, each of whom has suggested a different way of looking at the process of evolution. In recent times, the public profile of Richard Dawkins has no doubt increased considerably as a result of his part in a movement that has actively challenged the basis of religious beliefs. My intention with this blog is certainly not to present original contributions of the same standard as these scientists. It would be wishful thinking on my part to expect to hold my own in the presence of such intellects. What I do intend this blog to be is a place to present ideas/thoughts that will perhaps get the people that care to read it thinking (one can hope, can’t he?), and maybe even challenge the odd previously held belief in the process. Where appropriate, I will endeavour to present some interesting scientific ideas minus the jargon. I intend to approach this blog the same way I would an essay or other piece of scientific writing at university. That is, I intend to simply draw conclusions from the evidence, remaining as value-free as is possible, and cite the ideas of others appropriately.
[1] It is worth noting here as an aside that a contemporary of Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, independently arrived at the mechanism of Natural Selection. When I state that Darwin was the first to suggest a plausible mechanism for evolution, I mean that he was the first to publish his ideas. Darwin introduced The Origin of Species as an abstract (summary) of a promised larger volume which he never got around to writing.
[2]The 'conventional' way of thinking prior to 1859 (in the West) was that the Bible was a literal history of Earth. The events of the first chapters of the book of Genesis had been dated to around 4000BC, and consequently the Earth believed to be less than 6000 years old.
