Darwin at AMNH

After Sunday's race I walked a mile south on Central Park West and took in the special Darwin exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. It was geared to the general public, not to science professionals, and I did not learn much that I did not already know, but seeing actual artifacts from Darwin's work, specimens, journal entries, pages from the first printing of Origin of Species and the like, gave me a new glimpse into his greatness. I also saw video clips of contemporary biologists telling how evolution informs their daily work. One commented that evolution is the "glue" that binds together what would otherwise be a collection of disjointed facts - almost exactly what I write in my letter to parents at the beginning of the school year, "Evolution is the unifying concept that binds the above topics into a coherent whole." Here in New York I never had trouble with parents over my teaching of evolution; the experience of teachers in other parts of the country is far different. It was instructive to me that Darwin had his theory thought out but kept it under wraps for twenty years until he was about to be scooped by another naturalist, for fear of the firestorm it would ignite in the society of his time (150 years ago). Sure enough, he was vilified by the religious community and others, but it did not take long for his theory to conquer the scientific world, because it was and still is the only scientific explanation of the data it addresses.
The exhibit closes in two weeks. Too bad. I know of a few highly placed people in our community who can benefit from it.