Author: Luigi Guarino

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Blogging the big birthday: Chickens of the world

I’d like to think Darwin might have had this poster, or something like it, in mind as he wrote the following words in the Domestication. But then he would have acknowledged it. He was meticulous about that.

As some naturalists may not be familiar with the chief breeds of the fowl, it will be advisable to give a condensed description of them. From what I have read and seen of specimens brought from several quarters of the world, I believe that most of the chief kinds have been imported into England, but many sub-breeds are probably still here unknown. The following discussion on the origin of the various breeds and on their characteristic differences does not pretend to completeness, but may be of some interest to the naturalist. The classification of the breeds cannot, as far as I can see, be made natural. They differ from each other in different degrees, and do not afford characters in subordination to each other, by which they can be ranked in group under group. They seem all to have diverged by independent and different roads from a single type.

chickens

The poultry of the world. Portraits of all known valuable breeds of fowl. Fifty-two types of identified chickens. Chromolithograph by L. Prang & Co., Boston, ca. 1868. From the Performing Arts Poster Collection at the U.S. Library of Congress. [PD] This picture is in the public domain. Downloaded from flickr.

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Blogging the big birthday: Darwin the seed networker

Sure: “The Voyage of the Beagle,” “The Origin of the Species,” “The Descent of Man.” But also thousands of letters. Darwin corresponded widely, asking for information and opinions, checking facts. He was very scrupulous in giving credit, just look at the footnotes in his books. But actually the flow was not one-way. Yes, Darwin was a phenomenal networker. He would probably have had a blog.

His passion for networking extended to seed. He carried on a correspondence for some years with a Mr James Torbitt, a spirit merchant of Belfast. Torbitt had the idea that potato late blight might be overcome by using true seed. He wrote a treatise explaining how, and sent it to Members of Parliament and prominent landowners. With each pamphlet was a packet of 9,000 potato seeds. And he put an ad in The Times:

EXTINCTION OF POTATO DISEASE, with doubled or trebled crops – Modus operandi – Grow from seed. Exposure of plants to full force of infection. Destruction of those which succumb. Propagation of the by the sett. (In all places some plants will repel the attack of the parasite: in some, all). Seed supplied Address Robertson, Brooman and Co.; 150 Fleet Street, London. Or James Torbitt, Belfast, Ireland.

Torbitt asked Darwin for advice. Was he doing the right thing? Darwin assured him that he was.

Torbitt’s project illustrated in practice the idea of selection, which was a controversial issue among naturalists from the time of the publication of On the origin of species in 1859, and of the advantages of cross-breeding, hence Darwin’s … interest.

He allowed his name to be used in connection with the initiative, and pledged financial support: “between March 1878 and May 1881, through Darwin’s initiative, Torbitt received £410 from Darwin’s friends and relatives.”

Research on true potato seed continues. Darwin would have approved. And maybe even sent some money.

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Blogging the big birthday: Darwin’s last hurrah

Jacob van Etten’s contribution to the birthday celebrations…

“Darwin must die,” writes Carl Safina on the occasion of the man’s 200th birthday. Darwin shouldn’t take it personally. Safina means to say that Darwinism stands in the way of fully appreciating the value of modern biology.

“Darwinism” implies an ideology adhering to one man’s dictates, like Marxism. Charles Darwin didn’t invent a belief system. He had an idea, not an ideology. Our understanding of how life works since Darwin won’t swim in the public pool of ideas until we kill the cult of Darwinism.

I agree. And there is more.

Darwin’s biographer, Janet Browne, illuminates another aspect of Darwinian science. ((Janet Browne. 2002. Charles Darwin. The Power of Place. pp. 11-12.)) Darwin collected much of his data by writing letters, many letters. He requested information from all kinds of people, fellow naturalists, but also farmers, breeders, civil servants and army officers. Some 14,000 of the letters Darwin wrote or received have been stored in libraries, and many more may have been lost. What Browne describes is something that verges on systematic exploitation.

The flow of information [Darwin] initiated was almost always one-way. Darwin regarded his correspondence primarily as a supply system, designed to answer his own wants. There was no doubt the legitimacy of this one-way arrangement. After all, he occupied an assured place in the intellectual elite, at the heart of an expanding scientific and social meritocracy that in turn lay at the hub of one of the most powerful and systematically organised empires known to history.

Darwin’s 200th birthday is a good occasion not only to do away with Darwin, but also with the whole idea of Big Man science. So, kill Darwin, and Vavilov, too. Make science a collaborative, reciprocal learning effort. Welcome Science 2.0. Each farm is an evolutionary biology lab. Everybody is a scientist.

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Carciofo alla Etrusca?

Last Sunday’s outing to Cerveteri and its Etruscan necropolis included a visit to the town’s small museum. Where we saw the following terracotta figurine:
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The piece wasn’t labeled, and I had to take the photograph at a weird angle through glass, so the quality is not great. But that looks like an artichoke to me, or maybe a cardoon. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find much on the internet about the Etruscans and the artichoke, but they definitely had it. And it is still a big crop in the region. But I’m just not entirely certain. What do you think?