Daily Recap: Fri, 2/13

Friday the 13th...yikes.

The final day of Darwin Week brings us two true/false statements:

1. Humans are not evolving.
2. Before he died, Darwin recanted his theory and said that he was wrong.

As usual, I'll discuss these in later posts. Follow the links to see the discussions from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.

Investigating Technologies:
Still working on intervals 2 and 3. We should be ready to finish up interval 4 next week and move on to the last rotation of this suite.

Anatomy and Physiology:
Today was the heart anatomy lab. The primary focus of this lab was the dissection of a sheep heart. It was a lot of fun, and a great warm-up for Valentine's Day tomorrow!

Biology:
We began our evolution unit with an overview of what we'll cover during the next few weeks. We also discussed some of the controversy about the theory of evolution. Students were asked to fill out notecards with the following:
1. What do you KNOW about evolution?
2. What do you THINK about evolution?
3. What QUESTIONS do you have about evolution?

Have a great Valentine's Day tomorrow, and enjoy the three day weekend. We'll see you back in class on Tuesday.

Did Darwin rush it?

Yesterday's true/false statement:
"One of the biggest mistakes Darwin made was that he rushed and published his theory too quickly."

I didn't get the chance to address this last night, so I'll try to hit it quickly this morning.

Darwin began forming his ideas about evolution during his time aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831-1836. However, it was in the years after he got home that he really was able to piece all of the clues together to form his theory. If there was an "aha" moment for him, it probably came in 1838 after he read An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus.

So by the late 1830's, Darwin's basic ideas were set. But instead of rushing to publish them, he actually sat on them for 2 decades. He did this for a couple of reasons. First, he knew the cultural and religious implications of what he was saying. His wife Emma, who was a devout evangelical Christian, openly worried to him that she would not be able to spend eternity with him in heaven because of his work. At one point he told a friend that talking about his theory felt like confessing to murder.

Additionally, though, Darwin wanted to make sure he was right. For over 20 years he continued conducting experiments and gathering data to support his ideas. All the while, he kept a rough draft of his theory on the shelf in his study, instructing his wife to make sure it got published if he were to die.

Darwin first shared his theory with the public in 1858. Even then, he felt rushed into it. That year he got a letter from another biologist named Alfred Wallace. In this letter, Wallace shared a theory of evolution that was almost identical to Darwin's. Suddenly Darwin risked getting scooped on his life's work. So Darwin had his theory presented that year to scientists, and the next year published his seminal work On the Origin of Species (which he still considered to be simply a "rough sketch" of his ideas) to share his theory with the broader public.

So the statement above is obviously false. Darwin waited 20 years to publish his theory, and even then would have probably waited longer had he not been forced to come forward.

Maddow on Darwin Day

Last night, the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC featured a piece about Darwin Day and the creation/evolution controversy that continues to play itself out in the US. As usual, Kansas was featured as a good example of "what not to do". This piece also featured one of my favorite authors, Edward Larson. Enjoy:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Daily Recap: Thursday, 2/12

Happy Darwin Day!
And Happy Birthday Michael!

Today's true/false statement:
"One of Darwin's biggest mistakes was that he published his theory too quickly."

Follow these links to view the question from Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.

Investigating Technologies:
We continued working on intervals 2 and 3. We will move to interval 4 and wrap up this rotation next week.

Anatomy and Physiology:
We read an article from Scientific American dealing with human evolution and why our bodies tend to fall apart as we age. The assignment for this article was to complete a "Say Something" personal-response worksheet.

Biology:
1. We took the summative exam for our genetics units.
2. The latest Bio-Bulletin is now available.
3. We will start our evolution unit tomorrow.

You know it's a big day when...