A lot can happen in 200 years
Posted on February 6, 2009 - Filed Under Uncategorized
Apparently, 2009 is the 200th anniversary of several notable peoples’ births. All of the following links will pop up a new window from which you can listen to the NPR coverage of the person listed:
- Felix Mendelssohn, the famous German composer
- Edgar Allan Poe, the horror author
- Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the U.S.
- Charles Darwin, the ‘father’ of the theory of evolution
There are probably many more. And yes, I know each year is the 200th anniversary of someone’s birthday. But I am especially happy given the Darwin celebrations which will be happening all over the nation and world this year. In fact, 2009 has been declared a ‘year of science‘ by the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science. Anyway, it was this article in the Wall Street Journal which made me think about writing this post. Whether you know a lot about him, whether you care or not, these books sound like they are worth at least considering. I would love to read all of them, given how much I allow Darwinian theory to shape my thinking on things, but somehow I really doubt I’ll make it past the one for 8 year-olds.
One more thing: Regular readers will notice we have not had a whole lot to say about the election of Barack Obama. I like to think it has something to do with our not being ’sore-winners’ so to speak. But, having written this post about science, I just cannot resist throwing something in here. Thank goodness we finally have someone leading this country who is not 1. stubbornly resistant to anything that does not fall within the boundaries of his particular tightly framed and dogmatic worldview and 2. is dedicated to the idea of doing what works. I say all of this because one very salient impression Obama has made on me is the set of appointments he has made to the head positions of scientific institutions within our government. Take a look at this article from the American Association for the Advancement of Science for a list (which may be a bit dated) of these appointments. I wonder what Darwin would think of our country having to endure 8 years of mind-numbing mind-numbness and how relieved he would be that things have seemingly changed.
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