Chuck D (aka Charles Darwin) was a spectacular fellow

.....The Origin of Species was published nearly 150 years ago, and so, soon, a celebration of that event will begin. Naturally, the anti-science crowd—including our own Trustee Tom Fuentes—will piss and moan in private and, sometimes, in public.
.....Let 'em. Chuck was a spectacular fellow, a hero to those who will use their goddam minds, not shut 'em off and roll their eyes in mindless ecstasy.
.....In yesterday’s New York Times (Darwinmania!), evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson asks, Does Charles Darwin deserve all of the glory that is about to be bestowed upon him?
.....Her answer: “Yes.”

.....…Does he deserve all this? He wasn’t, after all, the first person to suggest that evolution happens…. Natural selection is what we normally think of as Darwin’s big idea. Yet he wasn’t the first to discover that, either….
.....…[The “Origin of Species”] changed everything. Before the “Origin,” the diversity of life could only be catalogued and described; afterwards, it could be explained and understood. Before the “Origin,” species were generally seen as fixed entities, the special creations of a deity; afterwards, they became connected together on a great family tree that stretches back, across billions of years, to the dawn of life. Perhaps most importantly, the “Origin” changed our view of ourselves. It made us as much a part of nature as hummingbirds and bumblebees (or humble-bees, as Darwin called them); we, too, acquired a family tree with a host of remarkable and distinguished ancestors.
.....The reason the “Origin” was so powerful, compelling and persuasive, the reason Darwin succeeded while his predecessors failed, is that in it he does not just describe how evolution by natural selection works. He presents an enormous body of evidence culled from every field of biology then known….
.....At the same time, he uses every form of evidence at his disposal: he observes, argues, compares, infers and describes the results of experiments he has read about, or in many cases, personally conducted. … In short, he tests his reasoning over and over again.
.....… The “Origin” does not just expound natural selection. It contains a wealth of additional ideas and hypotheses, some of which Darwin went on to elaborate in other books….
.....This is not to say that the “Origin” is flawless, or that Darwin was right in every respect. … Yet his knowledge of the natural world is so immense, and the scrutiny to which he subjects his ideas is so thorough and scrupulous, that the “Origin” presents a grand new vision of the world. A vision that, as far as possible given the knowledge available at the time, he worked out in every detail. A vision that changed the world forever.
.....Let’s party!