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Almost everybody, regardless of what side they favor in the culture wars, knows that Charles Darwin was the first scientist to come up with the theory of evolution. At least, they think they do. In fact, lots of people had the general idea long before Darwin, including his own grandfather. We remember Darwin not because he was first, but because he made the strongest case, thanks in large part to that most basic of hobbies, stamp collecting.

While Eureka: Discovering Your Inner Scientist has been sighted in the wild, the official release date isnt until next week. So, if youre still waiting, heres a final video to help pass the time and this ones for the biologists, turning Ernest Rutherfords famous taxonomy of science around to make it a compliment to stamp collectors.

As usual, this was shot in the Union College digital studio, with the assistance of Khaleef Knowles. I edited it together, using as many of my own photos as I could, which is why you get several shots of SteelyKid with domestic animals, and a bunch of her toys. The approximate text is appended below, though as usual I ad-libbed a few changes.

I toyed with the idea of a fourth video, to pick up a chapter from the Telling section of the book, too, but its not really possible without getting into image rights issues that Id rather not have to bother with. These have been fun to make, but Im not going to launch a regular video series to compete with Veritasium and Minute Physics and the rest any time soon its a ton of work. I have the utmost admiration for the folks who do this on a regular basis.

I hope these are enjoyable and informative, and give you a sense of what the book is like. If youd like to read more stuff like these, well, the book is available, or will be shortly. If youd like to hear it live, drop me a line; Im happy to go places and give talks.

Collecting the Origin

Charles Darwin is easily one of the most recognizable and iconic scientists in history. To combatants in the culture wars, he appears as either a sort of scientific saint, or the embodiment of evil. And everybody on both sides knows that hes the guy who invented the idea of evolution when he published On the Origin of Species in 1859.

Only, hes not. The idea that living things evolve pre-dates Darwin, by a mile. His own grandfather wrote poetry promoting evolution in the 1790s, and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck had published a complete theory of evolution around the time Charles was born. Darwin wasnt even the first evolutionist to hit the best-seller listsa sensational pro-evolution book, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, was a runaway hit in the 1840s.

So why does everyone remember Darwin as the father of evolution, while the others are mostly forgotten? The answer is surprisingly ordinary: it all comes down to stamp collecting.

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Eureka: Collecting the Origin [Uncertain Principles]