Happy Birthday to Darwin

Thanks to the ``intelligent design'' movement, Charles Darwin's birthday is evolving into everything from a badminton party to church sermons this weekend.

Defenders of Darwin's theory of natural selection are planning hundreds of events around the world Sunday, the 197th anniversary of his birth, saying recent challenges to the teaching of evolution have re-emphasized the need to promote his work.

``The people who believe in evolution ... really just sort of need to stand up and be counted,'' said Richard Leventhal, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. ``Evolution is the model that drives science. It's time to recognize that.''

The museum's celebration will include birthday cake, a little badminton (reportedly a favorite game of Darwin's) and a reading of his ``The Origin of the Species'' by Penn junior Bill Wames, who volunteered to dress up as the 19th-century naturalist.

I'm guessing the Philadelphia party got snowed out; the snow is still coming down here, with some pretty sharp gusts.

At the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, philosophy students will get a jump-start on Darwin Day on campus Friday by singing Darwin carols they composed.

"Darwin Carols"! -- will have to look them up sometime. From the Guardian.

UPDATE: Thanks to Justin Kalef, here are some Darwin Carols composed by the philosophy students at the University of Victoria.

The HMS Beagle (to the tune of "O Come All Ye Faithful") - by Justin Kalef

The HMS Beagle's Captain, Robert Fitzroy,
Invited Charles Darwin on board his ship.
Learned companion, specimen collector;
The HMS Beagle,
The HMS Beagle,
The HMS Beagle,
Had Darwin on board.

The Beagle left England
Late in cold December,
But made South America by February's end.
There Darwin found the bones of megatheria;
The HMS Beagle,
The HMS Beagle,
The HMS Beagle,
Had Darwin on board.

That five year voyage,
The second of the Beagle,
Led Darwin to see the flaws in Paley's approach.
Evolution! That was the solution;
The HMS Beagle,
The HMS Beagle,
The HMS Beagle,
Had Darwin on board.

Thomas Henry Huxley (to the tune of "Good King Wenceslas") - by Justin Kalef

Thomas Henry Huxley stood
Secure in his defiance
Before the British Association
For the Advancement of Science.
Origins . . . was in his hand,
In his mind was knowledge
As he spoke on Darwin's views
At that Oxford college.

"Every living thing is linked,
From man to protozoon"
[A claim of Darwin's that had made
A foe of Richard Owen.]
"Every feature we have found
In our constitution
Shows that we evolved with apes,
Through simple evolution".

Samuel Wilberfore spoke next,
And his tone was caustic
As he spoke to Huxley -- the
Original agnostic.
Owen's homework could be heard
In the bishop's lecture.
"Huxley will be brought to shame"
--Such was his conjecture.

"You and Darwin, sir," he said,
"Make yourselves too clever:
Pigeons were pigeons yesterday,
And have been forever.
Darwin's theory holds no truth,
Nary a scintilla.
And surely, you would never claim
Descent from a gorilla?"

Proudly sat the bishop then,
Thinking he was winning;
But he raised his eyes to see
Huxley standing, grinning.
"I can see less shame", he said,
"In being reminded
Of my kinship with the apes,
Than with the closed-minded".

Twelve Stages of Evolution (to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas") - by Justin Kalef

In the Archaean Eon there first came to be... prokaryotic cells.

In the Proterozoic Eon there first came to be... eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.

In the Ediacaran Period there first came to be... marine arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.

In the Cambrian Period there first came to be... brachiopods, marine arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.

In the Ordovician Period there first came to be... land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells."

In the Devonian Period there first came to be . . . spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.

In the Carboniferous Period there first came to be . . . reptiles, trees, and insects, spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.

In the Triassic Period there first came to be . . . bipedal dinosaurs, reptiles, trees, and insects, spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.

In the Jurassic Period there first came to be . . . conifers and mammals, bipedal dinosaurs, reptiles, trees, and insects, spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.

In the Eocene Epoch there first came to be . . . horses and whales, conifers and mammals, bipedal dinosaurs, reptiles, trees, and insects, spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.

In the Miocene Epoch there first came to be . . . hawks and higher primates, horses and whales, conifers and mammals, bipedal dinosaurs, reptiles, trees, and insects, spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.

In the Pleistocene Epoch there first came to be . . . bisons and humans, hawks and higher primates, horses and whales, conifers and mammals, bipedal dinosaurs, reptiles, trees, and insects, spiders, mites and sharks, land plants and fish! Brachiopods, arthropods, eukaryotes and prokaryotic cells.


Natural Selection (to the tune of "Away in a Manger") - by Justin Kalef

Natural selection,
No maker required;
The little life forms
Passed on traits they'd acquired.

Darwin showed us how animals,
Fungi and plants,
Arose from nature's laws --
Not from God, nor from chance.

Medieval theologians
(And later ones too)
Assumed some interpretation
Of the Bible was true.

But though Hume and Spinoza
And others did scoff,
The truth was undiscovered
By any philosophe.

The great innovations
Of Buffon and Lamarck,
While worthy of note,
Still were shots in the dark.

But then came Charles Darwin
Who clearly explained
That we don't need final causes --
As we've since ascertained.


DNA (to the tune of "The First Noel") -- by Justin Kalef

In 1859, Charles Darwin made clear
How strong traits survive while the weak disappear.
But a mystery remained: do these strong traits combine
Or compete with each other in the family line?
DNA, DNA, DNA, DNA
Spells out our lives with G, T, C, and A!

In 1866, Gregor Mendel worked through
Some tests on mixed plants, and found the latter was true.
But a mystery remained: by what physical mode
Are these characteristics passed onward in code?
DNA, DNA, DNA, DNA
Spells out our lives with G, T, C, and A!

In 1869, in a small Petri dish,
DNA was extracted from the sperm cells of fish.
But a mystery remained: did the laws of Mendel
Apply to the offspring of fauna as well?
DNA, DNA, DNA, DNA
Spells out our lives with G, T, C, and A!

In 1902, Walter Sutton disclosed
That our chromosomes act as Mendel had supposed.
But a mystery remained: had we warrant to say
That our chromosomes are fashioned of DNA?
DNA, DNA, DNA, DNA
Spells out our lives with G, T, C, and A!

In 1944, Oswald Avery displayed
DNA to be that of which chromosomes are made.
But a mystery remained: DNA is a tape
Where our traits are encoded -- but what is its shape?
DNA, DNA, DNA, DNA
Spells out our lives with G, T, C, and A!

Then in 1953, with metal and wire,
Crick and Watson built a model of this cellular spire.
Now the matter was explained: this twisted ladder of ours
Has sugar-phosphates as edges and bases as bars.
DNA, DNA, DNA, DNA
Spells out our lives with G, T, C, and A!

Charles Robert Darwin (to the tune of "Frosty the Snowman")

Charles Robert Darwin
Was a very special man.
His Origin of Species helped
Us learn how life began.

Natural selection
Is what it's all about.
As the strongest of the bunch survive
The weaker ones die out.

There must have been some wisdom
In that old top hat he wore.
He helped us understand the world
Much better than before.

Charles Robert Darwin
We're forever in his debt
If it's survival of the fittest
Then his theory's the strongest yet.

Evolution evolution
Look at us evolve.
Evolution evolution
The problem of life is solved.

O Isles of the Galapagos (to the tune of "O Little Town of Bethlehem")

O isles of the Galapagos
Where giant tortoise roam.
Off of the shore of Ecuador,
Your peaceful ocean home.
Aboard the good ship Beagle
Charles Darwin came to see
The wonder of the birds above,
and fish beneath the sea.

Iguanas, finches and tortoise
Charles Darwin did observe.
Varieties of new species
On those isles were preserved.
And through his vast collections
Charles Darwin was inspired,
To thus begin the Origin:
A theory had transpired.

Survival of the fittest tells
How weak fall to the strong.
Some scientists, though, did insist
That Darwin was quite wrong.
But they could never win, now
The theory had been cast.
The weak had failed, Darwin prevailed,
Evolution at last.

Posted by David on February 12, 2006 1:22 PM