Happy birthday, Mr Darwin

Even though I am, by degree, a physical scientist, I can’t help but be fascinated by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The more I think about it, the more I am amazed by it – how it all just makes sense and, as my boyfriend put it, how incredibly simple it is. The idea that all species are related to one another is just so… elegant. Having been born and raised a Roman Catholic, I had never though of the idea that humans could have evolved from other animals – after all, I had believed that God created Adam from soil and later Eve from Adam’s rib. How grateful I will remain to my parents for not sending me to a faith secondary school and for helping me to develop a curiosity for science that is not clouded by religion. Anyway, I will stop wittering on.

As I am sure you are aware, 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his awe-inspiring, revolutionary book, On the Origin of the Species. In honour of this, the Natural History Museum in London has been running an exhibition, Darwin, since November 2008. (It closes on 19th April 2009.) As it was half term this week, I decided to treat myself and go to it. It contained some incredible artifacts, for example Darwin’s beetle collections and his notebooks. It was a very thoughtfully created exhibition, which appealed to pretty much anyone with an interest in science that was at least 8 years old. Unfortunately, because the exhibition catered for the masses, I found that I didn’t really learn much from it – however, as I did mention, the artifacts were brilliant. It depends on what you want from an exhibition. I’d certainly take a group of more able Year 8 and/or 9 pupils, but not a group of A-Level biologists. It’s worth visiting if you’re in London, but don’t make a special trip. (Word of warning though – you MUST book tickets in advance as they’ll be sold out on the day.)

On a similar Darwinian theme, I was gobsmacked by the programme the BBC showed a few weeks ago called Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life as part of its Darwin Season. Maybe it’s BBC’s production skills, maybe it’s Sir David Attenborough’s wonderful way of explaining things. That programme was incredible.