Re: 2009- some other anniversaries and asides

[DaveM]

Edit:
This page formed by splitting from the  "2009- What a year of celebrations!" page --to allow for digression ! M

How remiss of me not to mention the following connected anniveraries 

This year is also the 200th (yes David, this number is also correct  ) anniversary (on 12th February) of the the birth of Charles Darwin. And, later in the year (November), the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work:

'On the origin of species by means of natural selection'

Perhaps one of the most important scientific theories of Victorian era - and all based on sound scientific principals and observation of the natural world. No doubt there will be plenty of tv and radio coverage of these anniversaries and of the adventures he undertook in gathering the information.

"There is grandeur in this view of life... from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." Charles Darwin

See the following link for more info:

www.darwin200.org

doubtless there are countless other web sites also......

[David Shaw]

Edit by M....This remark made with reference to a post in another thread about the 200th Anniversary of the Caledonian Horticultural Society .....

So the Caley was founded in the year that Charles Darwin was born. That makes it sound even more impressive.

[Maggi Young]

It seems The Royal National Rose Society, founded in 1876, is the oldest specialist plant society in the world ........  fancy that...

[Gerry Webster]

It seems The Royal National Rose Society, founded in 1876, is the oldest specialist plant society in the world ........  fancy that...

The Wakefield & North of England Tulip Society was founded in 1836. For a long time it was obligatory to exhibit the cut flowers in old beer bottles though  I don't know whether this is still the case.

Edit : apparently it still is

[Mick McLoughlin]

Not heard of that one Gerry and living in the area as well.
Website here http://www.tulipsociety.co.uk/ will keep an eye out for updates. In case they need help emptying beer bottles!!!!!!

[Gerry Webster]

Not heard of that one Gerry and living in the area as well.

I was born & brought up 3 miles from Wakefield but only discovered its existence many years after leaving the area. I guess it recruits by word of mouth.

[Maggi Young]

It seems The Royal National Rose Society, founded in 1876, is the oldest specialist plant society in the world ........  fancy that...

The Wakefield & North of England Tulip Society was founded in 1836. For a long time it was obligatory to exhibit the cut flowers in old beer bottles though  I don't know whether this is still the case.

Edit : apparently it still is

Err, ummmm, do you think we ought to break the news to the Rose Society? 

[Anthony Darby]

Going back to Darwin - he was really a plant scientist; at least that's is what he specialised in. Roy Sexton is giving a talk to the Stirling branch of the Scottish Wildlife Trust on Monday 9th Feb about Darwin and orchids.

[Anthony Darby]

2009 is the 100th anniversary of the first bird to be ringed in Britain. It was a lapwing and the place was Aberdeen.

[Gerry Webster]

Going back to Darwin - he was really a plant scientist; at least that's is what he specialised in. Roy Sexton is giving a talk to the Stirling branch of the Scottish Wildlife Trust on Monday 9th Feb about Darwin and orchids.

Hmmm - he misunderstood Goethe's Metamorphosis of the Plants (along with other German ideas on morphology).
However, he did know a lot about barnacles!

[Anthony Darby]

I think Goethe's work is interesting but just a short essay on homology. It was just the musings of a poet and philosopher (used then to describe a person who studies science, but now used to describe someone who can talk endlessly about a subject about which he knows nothing). I think Darwin mentions him briefly in 'The Origin'. I don't think Goethe meant anything evolutionary in his work. His ideas were just inspired observations on plant development. I think Darwin probably took the subject much further, and while he did write several books on barnacles early on, he wrote 7 books on plants.

Is the Tolson Memorial Museum, Ravensknowle Park still going strong? I just about lived in the place from 1962-3.

[David Nicholson]

Yes!  to the second paragraph. Didn't profess to understand the first

[Anthony Darby]

Thanks David. I got my first stick insects from the museum when I was about 7. The standard laboratory one (Carausius morosus), which they fed on ivy.

[Gerry Webster]

I think Goethe's work is interesting but just a short essay on homology. It was just the musings of a poet and philosopher (used then to describe a person who studies science, but now used to describe someone who can talk endlessly about a subject about which he knows nothing). I think Darwin mentions him briefly in 'The Origin'. I don't think Goethe meant anything evolutionary in his work. His ideas were just inspired observations on plant development. I think Darwin probably took the subject much further, and while he did write several books on barnacles early on, he wrote 7 books on plants.

Sorry Anthony, as the jamboree gets  under way & the Darwin industry swings into action I couldn't resist having a little poke at the man himself. Although  I don't think  this forum is  the place for an extended discussion on the topic, which is probably of little interest to most forumists, I think a brief response is in order.  Yes, Goethe's essay is a short piece on serial homology (morphological correspondence) with no evolutionary content whatsoever. Darwin misunderstood the concept by  interpreting it in terms of descent. However, the evolutionary concept of homology adds nothing significant to the pre-evolutionary concept of morphological correspondence. There are some contemporary developmental biologists who are attempting to recover the original concept in terms of  a theory of transformations. You might find it interesting (or irritating) to look at How The Leopard Changed Its Spots by Brian Goodwin (1994) though it is not free from philosophical errors. Not all critics of Darwinism are Creationists or proponents of Intelligent Design.

[Anthony Darby]

Scientific theories progress when more knowledge is applied. Gaps in knowledge and understanding are filled in, but just because gaps exist doesn't mean the filling is missing or the connection wrong?

Interesting that you should mention the 'Leopard' book? I know of it, but am not sure if it answers the question? Perhaps I should read it? Know anyone who might have a spare copy?