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Darwin's Private Papers Get Released To The Internet

Posted by Zonk on from the uncle-charles-is-one-of-my-heroes dept.

bibekpaudel writes "ScienceDaily reports that a wealth of papers belonging to Charles Darwin have been published on the internet, some for the first time. Some 20,000 items and 90,000 images were posted today to http://darwin-online.org.uk/. The new site is the largest collection of Darwin's work in history, according to organizers from Cambridge University Library 'This release makes his private papers, mountains of notes, experiments, and research behind his world-changing publications available to the world for free,' said John van Wyhe, director of the project. The collection includes thousands of notes and drafts of his scientific writings, notes from the voyage of the Beagle when he began to formulate his controversial theory of evolution, and his first recorded doubts about the permanence of species."

10 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. Survival by wombatmobile · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."

    --Charles Darwin

    1. Re:Survival by hansraj · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. Quite often I am amazed at how much misunderstanding there is about Darwin's theory. The part about who survives is pretty much tautological: "Whoever survives, survives", and hence not the interesting part. The interesting part is how big changes in species (even birth of completely new species) can be seen as aggregation of minor changes that increase the odds of one's survival, and the changes themselves do not always necessarily reflect our notion of "stronger" or "better".

      It is a pity really that many people have fallen in the social interpretation of Darwin's theory and more than once we have seen ugly consequences of that.

    2. Re:Survival by mikelu · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The evolutionary tautology is more, "Organisms that survive long enough to reproduce, reproduce."

      The only question was how organisms transferred traits to their offspring, and this has since been answered to the professed satisfaction of even the creationists. Genetic passage of traits is indisputable, and evolution is a straightforward corollary.

    3. Re:Survival by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That completely depends on which Creationist you're talking to, and with the leaders and thinkers of the ID movement, it often depends on the audience they're talking to.

      Some Creationists still pretty much deny anything but some sort of weak microevolution, insisting that species (or "kinds", a favorite term because it's so weakly defined) are the direct creation of God. Others are willing to accept a certain amount of macro-evolution, often simply by enlarging "kinds" into a nebulous grouping that can be as big as "birds" and "fish", but always with humans being completely separate from any other group, regardless of any genetic, developmental and morphological relationship that you can point out.

      The one key thing that seems to unite virtually all Creationists is a rejection of humans as being a product of any evolutionary process. It seems to boil down, for them, to denial of the "specialness" of humans, and in their minds to be descended from an ape-like animal is an affront to their religious and moral beliefs.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  2. Controversial? by KDan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...when he began to formulate his controversial theory of evolution...

    Maybe it was controversial back then, but it sure as heck isn't now (not in civilised parts of the world, anyway). Should have phrased that "his then-controversial theory" - might have been a less controversial turn of phrase!

    Daniel

    --
    Carpe Diem
    1. Re:Controversial? by FurtiveGlancer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Does civility advocate|excuse dismissing opposing|differing opinions as meritless simply due to an innate sense of superiority? I've always believed that truly civilized indivduals have learned to disagree without being disagreeable. The quote was from John van Wyhe, director of the project. I'd think his opinion would hold some value in this dicussion. We seem to have a difference of opinion over controversy; how odd.

      --
      Invenio via vel creo
  3. I can't say this enough.... by zappepcs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    THIS is what the Internet is about. This is why information wants to be free.

    Just 100 years ago, maybe less, you would have had to be someone very special to see this much information from one scientist, and most probably have to be vested in whatever answers or information can be gleaned from it.

    Now, however, the Internet allows us ALL to enjoy the privilege of reading his works, notes, and seeing his drawings... for free, at will, at home.

    If knowledge is power, this is some really powerful stuff. Forget listening to anyone tell you what he said, just look it up in HIS notes. I wonder how many college papers were written about Darwin and the fallout from this information to date? Wonder what future papers will look like?

    The Internet, for all its down sides, is a great thing....

    --
    Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
  4. Controversial? sad... by interactive_civilian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    when he began to formulate his controversial theory of evolution It really seems sad to me that it is still considered "controversial".

    The theory of evolution through natural selection, while it has been modified to more accuracy through advances in genetics and our understanding of environmental science and ecology, is one of the best supported theories that science has to offer about how ANYTHING works. It's up there with things like "Ohm's Law" (E=IR), Newton's Laws of Gravity and/or Einstein's Theories of Relativity, the kinetic theory of gases, etc.

    People don't question the scientific understanding about what makes our computers, mobile phones, PDAs, microwaves, etc. work, yet they still have issues with evolution, despite the fact that it is all based on EXACTLY THE SAME scientific method (in a nutshell, "observe - question - hypothesize - test - analyze - repeat") as the those things. It really boggles the mind.

    I'm not saying the theory of evolution should not be questioned. ALL SCIENCE should be questioned, periodically even, but it should be questioned scientifically (i.e. does my hypothesis fit the data better, and can I devise a test to show this?) But, is it really so hard to accept the idea that we may not be "God's gift to the universe" and are only as important as we make ourselves to be, rather than relying on some higher power, some creator to make us the most important thing around? Honestly, and I grew up with religion, it is a concept that I can no longer understand (and I doubt I ever understood it in the first place)...

    What is it? Fear that there may be nothing but what we leave behind after we die? Fear that if we are the product of an unimaginable amount of interactions over a difficult to imagine number of years and nothing more than that? Is it hubris? Fear that we may share the same ancestors as gorillas and orangutans?

    Why is the theory of evolution still a controversy? As far as science goes, there is no other hypothesis that even comes close to explaining biology as well. How can so many people (and, honestly, mainly in the United States) still reject at most and at least question based on unscientific ideas -- i.e. not based on the scientific method -- the theory of evolution?

    I have no problems with the idea of questioning the theory of evolution, if you can do it on scientific grounds. But doing otherwise is the same (to me) as questioning gravity, electronics, chemistry, etc. If one can accept those things, then why is evolution so hard to accept?

    --
    "Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
    1. Re:Controversial? sad... by SpinyNorman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's worse than that - evolution isn't just up there with things like Ohm's law and the law of gravity... it ceased being a theory/law altogether when DNA was discovered thereby making Darwin's hypothesized inheritable traits a reality.

      Given the now known existence of DNA & mechanisms of genetic variation, the tautology "the fittest survive" points out that evolution HAS to occur.

      variation + the fittest survive + hereditory traits => successive generations become fitter

      How could they possibly NOT become fitter (evolve)?!!

      Speciation is similarly unavoidable. Population genetic drift comes about by interbreeding, so lack of interbreeding will lead to diverging sub-population genetics, and there is nothing to stop this proceeding past the no-turning-back (speciation!) point of no longer being able to interbreed.

      Some of the reasons why some people find it hard to accept are :

      - It's personal - it clashes with their religious beliefs

      - It's personal - it clashes with their egotistical belief of being special, not an animal

      - Evolution of large animal species happens to slowly to observe, and most people are not familiar with other forms of evolution (e.g bacterial, or genetic design) that do happen observably quickly

      - It's taught horribly in schools. When you are taught properly about population speration and genetic drift, environmental change and punctuated equilibrium, speciation as evolution past the point of inability to interbreed, it makes sense. If you instead believe evolution happens to individuals vs populations, or that all genetic changes are claimed to be incrementally beneficial (vs punctuated equilibrium, or even Lamarkian drivel like giraffe's necks getting longer because of their stretching for leaves, then you will be very confused!

  5. Theory of Evolution vs ID by mlwmohawk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm pretty disgusted with Ben Stein. I used to see him as an example of an intelligent conservative, and yet now, he blows all his credibility.

    The problem with evolution is that it requires an amount of critical thinking to understand, and while subtle, the nuances are easily exploited by the cynical against the theory itself.

    The "Ben Steins" of the world mystify me. I can't believe someone is so evil to purposefully make an argument they know to be false against science. I can't also believe that he is so stupid as to believe ID.

    And yes, ID supporters, ID is stupid. It isn't science. It is religion, and "god did it" is not a valid scientific theory. ID is to biological science what "circle squaring" is to mathematics.

    Evolution is a proven fact. Organisms change with their environment. This is irrefutable. The "Theory" of evolution is the hows, whys, and over all path that organism A has taken to become what it is.

    In science, we seek to understand the hows, whys, and path better.