Sunday, November 08, 2009

Kevin Padian's "10 Myths About Darwin"

Two open access articles from the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) on Charles Darwin to celebrate the 150th anniversary this month of the publication of On the Origin of Species.

Ten Myths About Charles Darwin," by Kevin Padian appeared in the October issue of BioScience.

Padian explores some common inaccuracies and untruths about Darwin and his life's work, painting in the process a clear portrait of the man and his struggles to develop a theory to explain the diversity of nature.

The Darwinian Revelation: Tracing the Origin and Evolution of an Idea by James T. Costa was published in the November issue of BioScience.

Costa draws on Darwin's letters and notebooks and other sources to trace the origins of Darwin's key insights, which came to him over many years. Costa suggests that biology teachers can use Darwin's reasoning as a superb example of creative scientific thinking.