Especial Darwin 200/150

Comienzan las conmemoraciones, reflexiones y festejos (Happy birthday Charly!).

A continuación algunos enlaces para empezar a palpitar el Año Darwiniano:

The Year of Darwin, Science

Excerpt: Science is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and the 200th anniversary of the author's birth with a variety of news features, scientific reviews and other special content, all collected here.

• Source: The Year of Darwin, Science

Darwin 200: The other strand, Nature

Editor's Note: This article discusses cultural evolution, and how genes are not sufficient to understand how humanity evolved.
Excerpt: Barely a decade after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, he and his long-time correspondent Alfred Russel Wallace were engaged in a fierce debate. Darwin said that natural selection had shaped the human species just like any other. But Wallace disagreed, arguing that selection alone could not account for the exceptional capabilities of the human mind. "How could natural selection, or survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence, at all favour the development of mental powers so entirely removed from the material necessities of savage men?"

• Source: Darwin 200: The other strand, Erika Check Hayden, DOI: 10.1038/457776a, Nature 457, 776-779, 2009/02/11

Humanity and evolution, Nature

Excerpt: Although history is not made entirely, or even mostly, by prominent men and women, two great exceptions to that rule were born exactly 200 years ago today, on 12 February 1809: Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln.
See Also: Darwin 200 online collection.

• Source: Humanity and evolution, Editorial, DOI: 10.1038/457763a, Nature 457, 763-764, 2009/02/12

Big Year For Darwin, But What Would He Make Of The Climate Change Ahead?, ScienceDaily

Excerpts: Charles Darwin may have been born 200 years ago come Feb. 12, but his theory of evolution remains an everyday touchstone for modern biologists. And while the Origin of Species author might not have known the term "global warming," he wouldn't have been surprised that the environment is changing. He would, however, be astonished by the speed at which it's happening today, researchers believe. "Every species is under temporary permanence," says (...). Darwin would have predicted changes in species' habits and even changes in the environment, but the planet's facing changes that are both drastic and unpredictable. (...)

• Source: Big Year For Darwin, But What Would He Make Of The Climate Change Ahead?, ScienceDaily & Rutgers University, 2009/02/10
• Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in

Darwin 200, Nature

Excerpt: The 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Robert Darwin falls on 12 February 2009. Darwin was arguably the most influential scientist of modern times. No single researcher has since matched his collective impact on the natural and social sciences; on politics, religions, and philosophy; on art and cultural relations, and in ways that the man himself would never have imagined.

• Source: Darwin 200, Nature

Humilde aparición de una simple idea

Wallace y Darwin (En su juventud)

Hace 150 años, la idea mas poderosa de la Biología era presentada en sociedad. Charles Lyell y Joseph Hooker son los encargados de comunicarla, en representación de Charles Darwin y Arthur Wallace. Una idea pensada independientemente por dos personas trabajando en distintos hemisferios. Una idea madurada y completada durante 20 años y que sin embargo uno de sus autores cree apresurado comunicarla. Con la Teoría de la Evolución por Selección Natural el cambio cobra una conotación positiva intolerable para los fijistas platónicos. La variación no solo es regla sino que es motor de la vida. Todos los organismos que pueblan y poblaron el planeta se hermanan por ascendencia común mientras que la Humanidad recibe su segunda herida narcisista al ser corrido del centro de la Creación. Todo por una simple idea.

El recibimiento de esta comunicación fue, en el mejor de los casos, tibio.

Faltaba todavía un año para la Publicación de El Origen de las Especies". Pero la semilla estaba echada.

A 150 años de este suceso no hemos comprendido todavía la idea acabada. Incluso hay países embarcados en esfuerzos legislativos para asegurar que nunca se entienda.
Es entendible. La idea le dice al Dueño que, en realidad, es Hermano y que la uniformidad es pobreza y extingue, que sin variantes, sin pluralidad no hay evolución y que no es necesario un Dios para que la naturaleza se desarrolle y vibre frente a nuestros ojos . Peligrosísima idea.

Darwin y Wallace (De grandes)

Pueden encontrar una nota en el diario Crítica al respecto en el siguiente link:


http://groups.google.com/group/azar-y-necesidad/files?hl=es