Oh man, Charlie Darwin was just so awesome
02 May 2010
Everybody knows that Charles Darwin was a great man, coming up as he did with the theory of evolution by natural selection*. And lots of people know that as well as his giant intellect he was also a lovely, lovely man. People who know a little more about him are also aware that he was meticulous in his experiments, published a huge number of works and wrote many thousands of letters. But lost amongst all this is the fact that the great naturalist was simply awesome. How to define awesome.
When studying worms at his home in Kent he noticed, along with his son Horace, that the creatures didn’t react to shouting, or notes played on a whistle, or notes played on a bassoon. This is quite interesting as a fact in its own right but upon re-reading that sentence you might notice something brilliant going on. And that is that Charles and Horace, at some point in the nineteenth century, were standing over a lowly earthworm blasting a bassoon in its face. You can imagine the old man going red in his cheeks with playing and then setting the instrument aside to makes notes on the creature’s reaction which, frankly, must have been absolute bewilderment.
‘Hold him down, Horace, don’t let him wriggle away.’
‘Got him, dad.’
‘Got him?’
‘Yup.’
PARP!
More than this he and Horace conducted several experiments in the middle of the night on the lawns of Down House whereby they would shine lamps on the worms to observe their reactions. They’d also blow cigar smoke over them. That means that at some point Horace would have been safely tucked up in bed only to be awoken by his father gently stirring him saying, ‘Get up, son, it’s midnight; time to continue our experimentations on the worms.’
Imagine the hassle of being a worm at Down House. As they peeked over the blades of grass they’d have seen the famous botanist emerge from his house and feel the fear of god through their bodies. Out he comes, magnifying glass in one hand, cigar in the other, a serious countenance on his face that means business. Oh the horror!
But why don’t scientists do these barking experiments anymore? As exciting as the Large Hadron Collider is, it doesn’t hold a candle to cutting out little triangles of paper and laying them near worms to see if they’ll build little doors for their burrows with them.
Darwin was a popular naturalist during his time. I loved the BBC’s Planet Earth with their ultramotion cameras that could film leopards from two miles away, but wouldn’t it have been better if the whole series had been David Attenborough sneaking up behind animals and bellowing an oboe at them?
In truth Darwin loved the worms, just as he loved the finches and the pigeons and the orchids and, of course, his barnacles. And the worms loved him back. We know this. They still come from miles around to visit their old friend. Most species of British earthworms live in the vicinity of Down House, hoping to see their great hero and it’s not hard to wonder why, for where else can a worm be treated to a free suntan, fine cigars and classical music concerts put on just for them? See? Awesome.
* Alfred Russell Wallace was a co-discoverer; both of them coming on the idea on their own. But ARW was also pretty awesome because as well as discovering natural selection he also discovered the greenhouse effect without which we wouldn’t know about climate change. Pretty good.
PS Darwin's Island by Steve Jones is an excellent book. Read it!
2 comments
Written by Angela on 09 June 2010 at 14:27:00
You've sold me the book Rhys. In fact I also too think you're pretty awesome. I will buy this book. Ang x
Written by Rhys on 06 July 2010 at 15:33:00
Hi, I only just saw this comment. Glad you bought the book - and thanks for your your kind words! Rhys