Darwin on Pumpkins, Photos of Pumpkins, I Love Pumpkins.... (A random post all about pumpkins)

Since August we've been excited for a day like today--bright but chilly (and yes, the sky really is that bright--no editing here!) and perfect for visiting this family-owned pumpkin patch about 30 miles from home. And I thought the outing would be enough to make Evelyn tired and ready for a good nap....but she's still whining in there....

We'll be in Florida over Halloween, so I'm getting all the pumpkin goodness in that I can. (But yes, FLORIDA. A VACATION. Wooohooo!)

We attempted our own pumpkin patch this year, and yielded one perfectly round and adorable pumpkin. I thought we'd have many more, since we had quite a few blossoms, and then a little over a month ago I discovered that our dogs had been eating the green baby pumpkins. Grrr....

Here's what Darwin has to say about growing pumpkins, which I find interesting:

It is not the strongest pumpkin grower that survives, not the most intelligent, but the grower most responsive to change.--- Charles Darwin, Theory of Pumpkin Evolution

Evolution in the Thrift Store

What? Evolution in the thrift store? YES~ I found this amazing book on my and Evelyn's trip to the thrift store this morning. It's called Creature by Andrew Zuckerman - a large book of 150 stunning photographs of animals. Says the introduction by Graham Nash:

...The astounding complexity of the creatures shown here makes one truly appreciate the beauty of the ongoing process of life: of evolution, and, more specifically, of adaptation. Every single being in this book started life as a single-celled animal, only to evolve into what we see here. Each has become unique, and its originality demands attention.

To hone in on this originality, the photographer omitted any background, anything that would draw the eye away from the animal. Says Zuckerberg in the epilogue:

The resulting portraits explore not just the forms, textures, and movements of creatures, but more importantly, their characters. These images are an attempt to reveal an underlying consciousness that all living things share.

This book holds both beauty and education--two things I love to surround Evelyn with. Oh, and the price? $3.99. Although I don't know how anyone would ever want to give this book away, I am glad it is now in my hands.

can't get this pic to rotate correctly, sorry for straining your neck

Mrs. Charles Darwin?

NPR.org provides an interactive article with a cartoon drawing of Emma Darwin, evolutionist Charles Darwin's wife. You can click on her body parts, and a box with two pictures--one of the chimp skeletal part and one of the human skeletal part--with accompanying dialogue, will appear. You get an overall idea of how our body parts evolved into the upright-walking form we are today. For example, human teeth are remarkably smaller than chimp teeth, and that's because as our ancestors started to make tools to cook food, they slowly no longer needed large molars to grind "hard seeds and grassy vegetation."

Overall, it's an interesting, highly informative piece. But I have one gripe:

Although Emma Darwin was most likely referred to as Mrs. Charles Darwin during her time, haven't we evolved since then? Today she would be Ms. Emma Darwin (or even Ms. Emma . . . and whatever her maiden name was). I think readers could have just as easily guessed who NPR was talking about if the article had been, "Ms. Emma Darwin's Advice For Walking Upright." Also, if we're going to click on her body parts, shouldn't we know just a smidgen (ha, funny word) more about her--like that she enjoyed outdoor sports (and was especially good at archery), was a pianist, and birthed 10 children?

I know the article is about Darwin's evolutionary theory, but NPR could have easily fit those few facts about Emma into one sentence without taking anything away from the main piece. In fact, all the inclusion would have done would be to enlighten readers a bit about Ms. Darwin.

I am sure plenty of people would roll their eyes at me (stop being a nit-picky feminist!), but I'm just saying . . . Although social evolution happens in a second compared to physical evolution (and with different processes), why not recognize both? Just because Emma's society saw her as belonging to her husband (hence the "Mrs. Charles Darwin") doesn't mean we have to. Especially since her husband's work no doubt helped break some of that (often faith-based) ownership.

Humans Are More Fishy Than You Might Think

I was browsing NPR.org this morning and came upon an interesting article: "The Human Edge: Finding Our Inner Fish." It turns out that, in addition to apes, fish played a vital role in the evolution of us humans as well. This isn't new news, but it ceases to fascinate me.

In 2004, Dr. Neil Shubin found the fossilized remains of a fish in the Canadian Arctic. According to the article,

Shubin says his find, which he named Tiktaalik, represents an important evolutionary step, because it has the structures that will ultimately become parts of our human bodies. Shoulders, elbows, legs, a neck, a wrist — they're all there in Tiktaalik.

I did a little more searching on Tiktaalik, and I discovered that the fossil is 375 million years old. Whoa! As stated on the University of Chicago's pages dedicated to Tiktaalik, the fossil also has ear notches and ribs. Further,

Tiktaalik looks like a cross between the primitive fish it lived amongst and the first four-legged animals [tetrapods, which we descended from] . . . the existence of tetrapod features on a fish like Tiktaalik is important because it marks the earliest appearance of these novel features in the fossil record.

This kind of stuff makes me want to be a scientist.