The Red Notebook

I just heard about this website on the BBC’s Material World podcast:

http://www.periodicvideos.com/

See also: The Darwinian Revolution

One of my favourite TV presenters in my youth was James Burke. His wonderful series Connections did much to cultivate my interest in the history of science.

This morning, I came across a large collection of James Burke videos on YouTube. I have just spent 45 minutes enjoying episode 8 (Fit to Rule) of his 1985 series The Day the Universe Changed, which was all about the Darwinian Revolution and the subsequent hijacking of Darwinian theory by both Left and Right. The episode has been split into five parts, as follows:

• Part 1: Linnaeus, the Romantic Movement, Buffon, The Great Chain of Being.
• Part 2: Willam Smith, Cuvier, catastrophism, Hutton, gradualism, Lyell.
• Part 3: Wallace, Darwin, archaeopterix, Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria, Wagner, Haekel.
• Part 4: Haekel, Himmler, Hitler, Sumner, Social Darwinism, Marx, Ulyanov (Lenin).
• Part 5: Conclusion: how 1980′s political ideologies in both East and West were inspired by Darwin.

Those were the days: when television treated you like grown-ups and assumed that you still wanted to learn stuff. Come back James Burke!

I’m rapidly coming round to the conclusion that there aren’t enough dinosaurs in this blog. Dinosaurs are what bring the punters in, it’s a well-known fact. Especially dancing ones.

So, without further ado, I give you a nice little video mashup created by someone calling themself alargedog (if that is indeed their real name) of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band’s rather wonderful (if scientifically inaccurate) Smithsonian Institute Blues:

To paraphrase Antennae Jimmy Semens from said Magic Band, this is the song that’s going to make The Red Notebook fat.

Darwinian sexual selection is alive and kicking in the European countryside. German film-maker Tomer Eshed has been nominated for an award for his short film Our Wonderful Nature about the water shrew, which contains some amazing, never-before-seen, slow-motion footage:

(Hat-tip to Fudebakublog.)

CAM3 Media have kindly sent me a copy of their new DVD, The Young Charles Darwin. You can read my review here. I enjoyed it very much. You can order a copy via CAM3 Media’s website. They have also posted the following short appetiser on YouTube:

OK, so this amateur video footage isn’t exactly Planet Earth quality, but what an absolutely amazing sequence of events. I guarantee your jaw will drop:

(via BBC News)

I’m sure this one must have done the rounds before, but I don’t remember seeing it, so what the heckerly-weckerly:

(More evolution-themed Simpsons nuggets here.)

Some recent videos and podcast episodes I’ve enjoyed:

• New Scientist Podcast: Interview with Edward O. Wilson part 1 / 2
  Celebrated biologist and author E. O. Wilson discusses his efforts to persuade the American evangelical community to join with scientists in preserving the world’s biodiversity.
• Tech Nation Podcast: Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with David Quammen
  about his new book The Reluctant Mr. Darwin. Quammen explains why Darwin kept his theory of evolution under wraps for twenty years, and how he came to publish it in such a hurry.
• Royal Society Podcast: Bill Bryson: A short history of nearly everything
  A 2005 lecture by popular author Bill Bryson.
• Royal Society Podcast: Why creationism is wrong and evolution is right (iPod and iTunes only)
  Steve Jones is as entertaining as ever, but I had hoped for something a bit more hard-hitting.
• BBC Radio 4 In Our Time: Alexander von Humboldt (Real Player™ eugh!)
  The remarkable career of the Prussian naturalist who inspired Darwin.
• YouTube Video: Richard Dawkins on Stephen Colbert
  Clip from some American comedy TV programme. Quite funny. Watch it before the copyright people take it down. [Thanks to Adam Turinas, FCD, for the tip-off.]