Today, 150 years ago, the first edition of Darwin's Origin of Species was published in London. I actually just learned that today -- while there was a lot of noise about the 200th anniversary of his birth last February, I didn't hear much about this ahead of time, so no, I didn't schedule a party like I did for Darwin's/Lincoln's birthday. Not that this seems to be the most opportune time for a party, given the oddly large number of people who attended the last one who now are otherwise occupied being new parents...So I guess everyone's responsible for their own entertainment on this one.
But I'll leave you with some interesting links at least.
- Tired of the Origin's Victorian English? Read in in another language! Esperanto German French Spanish
- How about the Origin as a graphic novel?
- "Almost Like a Whale"/"Darwin's Ghost" This book, written by noted science popularizer Steve Jones, is an attempt to follow the structure of Darwin's Origin, but making adjustments to incorporate modern knowledge. While I'm a fan of the history of science and the value of primary sources, I understand that a lot of the difficulty in reading Darwin (besides his verbose Victorianisms) is that biology was a very different field in Darwin's day, both in terminology and outlook. Jones ably deals with this.
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