Book of the Month is a feature that the University of Glasgow Library has been running for over a decade now. The format is simple, a single book is selected from their collections, written up and accompanied by pictures, maps and photographs scanned from the books. With over a 100 books to select from, it's hard to know where to start, but anywhere is good because they're all lovely. Still, here are a few,
Charles Darwin's The Expression of the emotions in man and animals,
a beautiful 15th century illuminated copy of Livy's Roman history,
Treatises on Engines and Weapons,
Valentines and Dabbities,
The Birds of Australia,
Facts and Observations on the Sanitary State of Glasgow,
Ibn Jazla's The arrangement of bodies for treatment and finally,
The Curious Case of Mary Toft,
MetaFilter superstar.
posted by Kattullus
on Nov 18, 2009 -
6 comments
Former child actor
Kirk Cameron and his friend Ray (
The Banana Guy) Comfort
[previously] seek to distribute the "
correct" (aka
altered) version of Charles Darwin's
Origin of Species to 50,000 students at the nation's top 50 universities as the book is soon to celebrate its 150
th anniversary. Their version includes a 50-page introduction which "...gives the history of evolution, a timeline of Darwin's life, Adolph Hitler's undeniable connection with the theory, Darwin's racism, his disdain for women, and Darwin's thoughts on the existence of God..." Cameron's promotional video for the project: '
Origin Into Schools.' A video response: "
Origin of Stupidity."
[more inside]
posted by ericb
on Sep 24, 2009 -
281 comments
2009 marks not only the 150
th anniversary of the publication of
Charles Darwin's
On The Origin of Species* but the 200
th anniversary of his birth as well. To celebrate,
BBC Radio 4 presents a special series of Melvyn Bragg's
In Our Time exploring Darwin's life and work:
Episode 1 explores Darwin's unhappy childhood, his time at Cambridge University and his failure to become a priest,
episode 2 focuses on Darwin's round the world voyage on the Beagle and the objects and the ideas he bought back,
episode 3 looks at the publication of Darwin's masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, and the controversy it stirred, and
episode 4 is set in Down House where Darwin lived out the final years of his life and which became both family home and experiment lab.
[more inside]
posted by Alvy Ampersand
on Jan 8, 2009 -
14 comments
Charlie Darwin joins the fray. Yes,
The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits is there.
posted by jfuller
on Oct 18, 2006 -
19 comments
In 1875,
Josiah Mason gave a gift to establish a college which was called the Mason Science College (now a part of the
University of Birmingham). Within the terms of the gift to the institutuion, one of the stipulations was that
classics not be taught. Of course at such an institution, the
Founder Day's address was logically given by
Thomas Henry Huxley on the place of Science in Education. Huxley preached the virtues of science and derisively dismissed all value in studying classics, and he wondered whether any rational person would choose to study classics over science. His conclusion was that the only people who would choose a study of classics are those like "that Levite of culture"
Matthew Arnold. Arnold took the
opportunity to respond to his friend. In his reply, Arnold acknowledged that nobody would expect him to engage Huxley in a debate about science, and though he wouldn't presume to take on Huxley in such a debate, he did want to mention something that struck him as he thumbed through
a book of Huxley's
friend. Arnold noted that he was struck by the idea that "our ancestor was a hairy quadruped furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in his habits." Arnold acknowledged that he isn't a scientist and therefore doesn't dispute such a claim, but he did want to point out that even if that were true, with regards to this good fellow, there must have been a necessity in him that inclined him to Greek. And would always incline him to Greek. After all, we got there, didn't we?
posted by dios
on May 26, 2006 -
27 comments
Intelligent Evolution ...Today we live in a less barbaric age,[than the age of Copernicus and Bruno] but an otherwise comparable disjunction between science and religion, the one born of Darwinism, still roils the public mind. Why does such intense and pervasive resistance to evolution continue 150 years after the publication of The Origin of Species, and in the teeth of the overwhelming accumulated evidence favoring it? The answer is simply that the Darwinian revolution, even more than the Copernican revolution, challenges the prehistoric and still-regnant self-image of humanity. Evolution by natural selection, to be as concise as possible, has changed everything...
posted by Postroad
on Nov 12, 2005 -
75 comments
Creationists argue that the complexity of the
human eye could not have arrisen by random Darwinian natural selection, since it "must be perfect to work at all". The
Nilsson and Pelger computer experiment refutes this with a method of awesome beauty, showing that a human-quality eye is not just possible under Darwinian evolution, but nigh-inevitable. This is from
Do Good By Stealth, chapter 3 of
River Out of Eden, which is maybe the greatest thing I've ever read.
posted by Pretty_Generic
on Dec 10, 2004 -
67 comments
Happy Darwin Day! Darwin Day is February 12th, the date of birth of Charles Darwin in the year 1809, at Shrewsbury, England. On this date, and throughout the month, people from all over the world are honoring the life, work and influence of Charles Darwin with events and activities which celebrate humanity and the science in our lives.
While you're celebrating you may want to see who has won
awards in his name or perhaps
buy a sticker or see if there's a darwinday event
near you
posted by bitdamaged
on Feb 12, 2003 -
15 comments
