Blogging the Origin

Epilogue

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:30:00 -0500

After careful reflection, I'd say it is worth reading The Origin of Species. Biology doesn't erase it's past, as I thought. It just forgets to cite it.

The Origin is biology's hub -- all the routes that the science has taken since seem to pass through it. This, I think, is partly because Darwin had such a complete vision of the living world, and partly because his ignorance of some areas was so great that he had to hedge his bets, and mention everything in just in case.

The book is so rich that I could have written about entirely different subjects in each post.

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Chapter 14: Recapitulation and Conclusion

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:30:00 -0500

So, what is there left to say? Not much. As its title suggests, the fourteenth and final chapter of the origin, 'Recapitulation and Conclusion', mostly restates things that Darwin has already said, often several times.

This relentless piling, sorting and re-arranging of evidence can make Darwin seem a little OCD, like an intellectual version of Wall-E. But he also knows that beneath all the case studies, there's a logical core to evolution by natural selection, even if he can't put it in an equation. Darwin brackets this chapter by showing that, if you accept the most basic evidence the living world puts before your eyes, evolution follows as surely as a lever moves a stone.

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Chapter 13: Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:55:00 -0500

From the first dawn of life, all organic beings are found to resemble each other in descending degrees, so that they can be classed in groups under groups.

Isn't that a good sentence? It's the first of this chapter. There's music in the way the Biblical ring of "From the first dawn of life", falls towards the swallowed repetition of "groups under groups", which itself mirrors and explains the descending degrees of resemblance that gives the sentence its scientific filling.

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Chapter 12: Geographical Distribution, continued

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:05:08 -0500

Back when I started this, I remarked that one of the reasons I hadn't read the Origin was that I couldn't imagine it being essential to a grasp of contemporary science. Regarding evolution, I think you could still make a case for this. But in other ways, that statement shows that you really shouldn't opine on topics you know nothing about.

Specifically, I'm talking about ecology (by which, just to be clear, I mean the study of the interactions of living things with each other and their environment, rather than 'nature' or 'environmentalism'). It's been said that all European philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. Well, all ecology is a series of footnotes to Darwin.

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Chapter 11: Geographical Distribution

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:09:35 -0500

When the Origin was published, the idea that species were not fixed entities had been in the air for some time, thanks to Lamarck, Robert Chambers, anonymous author of the best-selling Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, and Darwin's own grandfather, Erasmus.

But unlike those men, Darwin put all the different pieces together into a coherent whole. How was that? Chapter 11 of the Origin, 'Geographical distribution', gives some hints.

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Chapter 10: On the geological succession of organic beings

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:15:21 -0500

We left Darwin in a troubled frame of mind. The fossil record seemed to offer little support to his theory (then again, it offered little support to any other theory). By the time we reach the end of chapter 10, 'On the geological succession of organic beings', he's feeling far more chipper:

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Chapter 9: On the Imperfection of the Geological Record

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:30:00 -0500

Thomas Kuhn -- the one philosopher of science that even ignorami like me have heard of -- said that during periods of 'normal science', researchers only take on problems that they know they can solve. 'Paradigm' is an overused word, but it's a measure of the paradigm-shifting nature of the Origin that in much of it, such as in chapter 9 'On the imperfection of the geological record', Darwin flies blind.

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Chapter 8: Hybridism

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:45:00 -0500

George Bernard Shaw, according to a comment left on a previous post, thought that many people gave up on reading the Origin because, convinced of Darwin's argument, they wearied of him making his points over and over again.

But I disagree. It's not seeing Darwin restate his case that's tiring. It's seeing him return, like a dog to its vomit, to questions that he admitted in chapters one and two couldn't be answered.

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Chapter 7: Instinct

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:30:00 -0500

Science is fun. Now, I know that someone telling you a thing is fun is usually a guarantee that it isn't. And I know that people who tell you science is fun usually do so in strained and pleading tones, and expect you to believe them because they have spiky hair and can play the harmonica. But it's true.

To see what I mean, read chapter 6 of the Origin, 'Instinct'. Despite, or because of, having its share of 'are you sure about that?' moments, it's a delight, because it shows Darwin doing the most fun thing in science: mucking about with reality, sometimes called experimentation.

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Chapter 6: Difficulties with Theory

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:40:00 -0500

Up until now, our route into the theory of evolution by natural selection has been all downhill. One thing has led effortlessly to another, with Darwin giving the occasional nudge to steer things in the right direction. Not any more. If it's human interest you're after -- doubt, sweat, anxiety -- then chapter 6 of the Origin, 'Difficulties on Theory', is the one you've been waiting for.

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Chapter 5: Laws of Variation

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:00:41 -0500

To a man with a hammer, said Mark Twain, everything looks like a nail. The better your hammer, I would add, the more nail-like everything looks.

In natural selection, Darwin had crafted one of the best hammers of all time. And in chapter 5 of the origin, 'Laws of Variation', you can hear him umming and aahing about various alternative mechanisms of evolutionary change before deciding that, actually, you know what this needs...hold 'er steady...Thwack!

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Chapter 4: Natural Selection

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:50:00 -0500

Mathematicians and physicists speak of a result 'falling out of the equations', implying that if you set things up properly, the rest takes care of itself. Chapter 4 of the Origin, 'Natural Selection', is where evolution falls out of the machinery that Darwin has spent the three previous chapters assembling.

And I hate to say it, but it's a bit of an anticlimax.

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Chapter 3: Struggle for Existence

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:55:00 -0500

If, so far, you've been finding Mr Darwin's book tough going (it's OK, there's no shame in admitting it), here's what you should do: skip all that flannel about variation, and start here. This is where it gets serious.

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Chapter 2: Variation Under Nature

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:12:28 -0500

Here's a project for a playful biology grad student with some time on his or her hands. Take chapter 2 of the Origin of Species, 'Variation Under Nature', and modernize the language. Toss in a few figures and some contemporary citations. Give the result a title like 'A routemap for biodiversity research 200 years after Darwin', put your name on it and submit to Trends in Ecology and Evolution. I'm not promising anything, but you might get lucky.

Blogging the Origin

Epilogue

Chapter 14: Recapitulation and Conclusion

Chapter 13: Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs

Chapter 12: Geographical Distribution, continued

Chapter 11: Geographical Distribution

Chapter 10: On the geological succession of organic beings

Chapter 9: On the Imperfection of the Geological Record

Chapter 8: Hybridism

Chapter 7: Instinct

Chapter 6: Difficulties with Theory

Chapter 5: Laws of Variation

Chapter 4: Natural Selection

Chapter 3: Struggle for Existence

Chapter 2: Variation Under Nature

Chapter 1: Variation Under Domestication