One Hundred and Fifty years ago today, July 1, 1858, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace read their papers (Darwin first!) describing the Theory of Evolution--the modern world was born.
One hundred years ago today, (in Pacific Northwest time) a mysterious gigantic explosion rocked Siberia, the Tunguska event; estimated to be 1000 times as strong as the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima.Happy cataclysmic July! May yours be less interesting.
1 comment:
Excuse my ignorance; Darwin and Wallace did not read the papers themselves. They were read by others; Darwin whipped up a paper of his ideas of the last gazillion years after receiving Wallace's finished paper in the mail.
Darwin, as far as I can tell, was a thoroughly decent man who actually thought up survival of the fittest prior to Wallace, but he and his friend Lytell conspired to rob Wallace, according to standard scientific traditions, of first place by this bit of subterfuge. Deep sigh.
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