FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT……

 

As I contemplated the subject of the Spring 2007 article, it occurred to me that February 12 was Charles Darwin’s 198th birthday so it seemed appropriate to write about him in a column that could probably best be defined as a wandering potpourri or Susan’s ramblings. When Darwin was fifty years old, he published On the Origin of Species, and the view of how to explain biological diversity was forever changed. The impact of his ideas is as relevant today as it was almost 150 years ago. In fact, from the time of the publication of Origin to the Scopes trial in 1925 until today, there have been many organized groups who continue to dismiss the validity of Darwin’s many contributions to science, and evolutionary theory, in particular. It is interesting to contemplate why that criticism still rings so loudly, given that biologists have been convinced of the validity of his ideas for more than a century. Doubting evolution seems to be a peculiarly American phenomenon among so-called “industrialized” countries.  In a survey of individuals in thirty-two European countries and Japan, (New Scientist, August 2006), only the United States and Turkey had less than 50% acceptance of the theory of evolution among adults.  Interestingly, you may have noticed that February 11 was designated “Evolution Sunday,” an event to recognize Darwin’s great idea, and endorsed by hundreds of clergy who spoke of it not as a threat but as an important intellectual development.

 

Many of you are aware of the Darwin Day Celebration web site (www.darwinday.org), which bills itself as an “International Recognition of Science and Humanity.” The site itself has well-written and thoughtful articles, and several well-known scientists and authors, including Richard Dawkins, Eugenie Scott, and E.O. Wilson, serve on the Darwin Day advisory board. If you have never accessed this site, you may find it to be a wonderful repository of both historical summaries and current commentaries. It has been very useful to me, as I have prepared for a campus-wide panel discussion sponsored by Phi Kappa Phi Honor society at Oklahoma City University. I hope you find it interesting and useful as well.  There is a wealth of information from which to draw.

 

Most of you are likely aware that Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the exact same date (February 12, 1809), but I have always found that fact fascinating. In Robert Stephens’s article on the Darwin Day site discussing these two men and their legacies, he refers to Lincoln as the “great emancipator of the slaves in America” and Darwin as the “great emancipator of the human mind.”  The juxtaposition of the importance of both of these individuals appeals to my educational background in the liberal arts tradition.  Both men changed the intellectual discourse of their time in such a way that the influence of their ideas is still a significant force in the world today.

 

Great scientists from Stephen J. Gould to E.O. Wilson have written about Darwin’s contributions to evolutionary thought. He laid the foundation for biology as we practice it today. When I was a graduate student, both at OSU and OU, a party was organized every year to celebrate Darwin’s birthday. Students and faculty alike would drive either to Norman or Stillwater to attend this party. It was the Oklahoma plant taxonomy social event of the year.  It is hard to overstate Darwin’s influence on the thinking of most biologists, which, in part, explains why so many books have been written about him and why, 198 years after his birth, individuals still have celebrations to honor his life and his contributions.

 

Over the past few years, David Quammen has become one of my favorite scientific writers. His formal training is in literature, but he switched the focus of his career, and in my view, has developed a reputation as one of the most significant natural history authors of our time. Relative to my ramblings about Darwin, I first became enthralled with Quammen’s writing upon publication of Song of the Dodo. At my very insistent urging, I have actually managed to get several people, including a religion professor, to read this 700-page book.  It chronicles the development of the idea of natural selection by both Darwin and Wallace, and in fact, is one of the few widely known books that actually acknowledges Wallace for his very significant contributions to the understanding of biogeographical patterns in speciation events. If you have not read this book, and are at all interested in biodiversity and evolutionary biology, I highly recommend it. Quammen focuses on islands as models, interviews many of the important scientists, who have contributed to the body of literature on island biogeography, and makes the case that islands are evolutionary microcosms from which we can learn much about extinction, evolution, and the importance of biodiversity.

 

What is not so well known by the public at large, is the extent of Darwin’s work beyond the theory of natural selection.  At the end of 2006, David Quammen published an engaging biography entitled The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, in which he portrays Darwin as a “biologist who wrote books.”  This is an under-recognized but accurate description of Darwin, who seemingly loved to conduct experiments. He ultimately wrote about barnacles, beetles, earthworms, pollination of orchids, phototropisms, and a variety of other phenomena. It turns out that writing about natural selection conflicted him and was not easy for him because it put science and religion into direct conflict, something with which he grappled throughout his life.  It is hard for me to imagine how difficult it must have been to write On the Origin of Species, in light of the climate of Darwin’s day. It is even harder to imagine now, what the path of the discipline of biology might have taken without the contributions of Charles Darwin. His voyage on the Beagle changed his life personally, and the view of the biological world forever.

 

Susan C. Barber, OAS President

sbarber@okcu.edu

 

Post Script: E.O. Wilson recently published, with commentary, From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books (Voyage of the Beagle, On the Origin of Species, The Descent of Man, and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals). It seems like a timely publication as we look toward the 200th celebration of Darwin’s birthday.