‘Top Tory’s Hookers, Drugs and Bondage Orgies!’ Reads the headline of one Sunday newspaper. Well in my five years sharing a cabin with Captain FitzRoy, a thorough-paced Tory, I saw no signs of such behaviour. Tories appear to have evolved into a far racier breed, I find.
I had assumed that with this modern society being so dependent on the work of scientists, that the newspapers would ring with their achievements. I was delighted to see The Observer (which was in print when I was alive for the first time) and fell on it with a glad cry.
Science is first mentioned on page 4, in a story where ‘science’ is asked to rule the extent to which illegal drugs cause harm. Science could provide data on the extent of harm caused by drugs, but it is for politicians need to make like pikaia and grow some backbone. Tinctures of laudanum and cannabis were legal when I lived in Down House, and Emma would often administer it both to our own brood and to the sick of the village. That would make her the village’s ‘Main Woman’. Queen Victoria used tincture of cannabis, which I can only imagine made her more easily amused.
Science is next mentioned on page 12, with a story about a mother and baby infected with something called a ‘superbug’, although I cannot see what is super about a bacterium that has evolved immunity to most of the treatments we have against it. Given that pencillin was not used clinically until 1942, this I think shows that evolution does need not millennia to show its effects, especially when a population is subject to selective pressures. If I may use a phrase I overheard used by a seaman on HMS Beagle, creationists, ‘may take that and shove it up, mate! Sideways.’
The Observer’s science editor has had a busy few days: he writes on Page 16 of the cures offered by the extraordinarily venomous cone snail, and again on page 27 on the need for the world to embrace genetically modified plants.
Not as much as I would have expected, given the importance of science…hold on. Another supplement falls from the pages. The Guardian Science Course…part 2. Life and Genetics. Page 8, Evolution and Darwin. Excuse me while I put the Sunday beef in and sit down to read about myself.
So much to catch up on, I shall be spending the day going through the Sundays. Who will win the premiership? What of Hillary going negative in the US Elections? America was a beacon of progress in my day, which is why I sent copies of The Origin to Gray and Agassiz at Harvard. And I am flattered to find that in 1912 President Theodore Roosevelt referred in a speech to ‘the great Darwin’, and later wrote of his education: ‘Thank Heaven, I sat at the feet of Darwin and Huxley…’ (Huxley would be blown up like a peacock had he read that!)
All the candidates who today aspire to lead that great nation will be convinced of the benefits of science and the truth of evolution I am sure.
First, though I am not worthy by far to correct the writing of such a person as yourself, I think you meant “this I think shows that evolution does not need millennia to show its effects.”
Second, might I recommend the New York Times coverage of a new exhibition in New York all about your botanical work.
Indeed, thank you. In the excitement of seeing myself featured in the newspapers I forgot my not. Which is is what we will have to say when Myosotis sp. become extinct.
Welcome to the blogosphere, Mr Darwin. I trust that you will continue to write posts in future that meet the fascinating and, dare I say it, entertaining, standard of the first two.
Why thank you Maxine. I have to say that in such eminent company I am rather nervous because my science is rather rusty, and hope that my fellow Nature bloggers not be too red in tooth and claw.
I am sure they will treat you with the respect you deserve, Mr D, which is considerable. Not least because the promulgation of your ideas was so closely associated with the launch of our august organ in 1869 by your very own bulldog and his esteemed associates.
PS because of your advanced age and the fact that you died before it was discovered, and because Nature Network has no spell-checker, we shall forgive you not only your mis-placed “not” but also your spelling of “penicillin” ;-)
Maxine and Charles: Oh bravo! This sort of exchange is why I read blogs.
Charles: Some of us remember that science is more a process than a body of knowledge, and judging from your first two posts, you’re still sharp as a tack. So, not to worry, you will catch up eventually. To this end, and in light of currency inflation since your time, perhaps Nature will be kind enough to provide for you an online subscription to their journals: maybe Maxine can help with that? Nature Reviews journals are especially useful, as are the biology foci and reports.
Maxine: I did not know that Huxley launched Nature. What a guy. Can you help Charles out with a Nature subscription?
Certainly, Karen, as we owe a considerable debt to Mr Darwin for both our early success and our longevity, as can be read at History of Nature, a relatively well-kept secret in the tangled bank of the website of the modern journal, sadly, as there is no link to this treasure from the home page of the journal.
I have a slight suspicion that Mr Darwin may already have full access to Nature and its modern friends and relations on what is nowadays called nature.com, but if not, he has only to ask.
I have nothing to add, I’m just chuckling at the thought of Maxine’s August organ.
Mr Grant! Your ancestor Dr Robert Grant of Edinburgh University had remarks of a far less risque nature struck from the record of that University’s Plinian Society in 1827. I started this post with hookers (and what it wrong that a peer of the realm should associate with descendants of that noble botanist?), drugs and bondage (that human condition) not to excite such ribaldry, sir.
Erratums: ‘what it wrong’ should read ‘what is wrong’. Or that eagle-eyed editrix Maxine will be on my case. And I thought John Murray was particular.
My apologies Mr Darwin.
Descended from a long line of wild Celts, civilization sometimes does not rest easily on my shoulders. There is also this matter of being surrounded by deportees, convicts and spiders . It takes its toll.
I do beg your indulgence.
My allusion in my use of the phrase “august organ” was to a publication of which you will be sadly unaware, Mr Darwin, that of Private Eye, who made an early use of the term. (However, Dr Grant, I suspect that this fresh-faced tabloid sheet is not unknown to you.)
PS to Dr Grant, in my editrix mode (I like it!): that is, of course, an august organ not an August organ – the adjective refers to sagacity not to seasons ;-)
Deportees, convicts and spiders? Next time I am in Basingstoke I will be sure to call on you.