Genesis vs. The Origin — are you kidding me?
Check out this nonsense from an article in The Toronto Star, which for some reason decides to pit the Bible against The Origin of Species as works of literature. You can spot the difference in the quality of the writing from the very first lines of the respective books. The first line of Genesis – “In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth” – is simply the best sentence ever composed: strong, active, concise, clear, complete and yet turgid with hidden depths. Though not a single word is out of the ordinary, each word rad

Please send me a “special edition” copy of the Origin.
If you managed to get an extra copy of the “special edition” of the Origin that was handed out on US and Canadian campuses, I would appreciate receiving one! WANT: Please send me a “special edition” copy of the Origin. is a post from Genomicron.

Darwin caricatures.
Darwin’s views are often misrepresented to the point of caricature, as we all know, but there have also been plenty of examples of literal caricature of Darwin in the popular media. I recently gave some talks about evolutionary imagery, which included popular press cartoons from the 1800s that had a common theme of caricaturing Darwin as a chimp or having non-human apes exhibiting human characteristics and behaviour. This seems like as good a day as any (the 150th anniversary of the Origin, and all) to post my collection for your enjoyment.

Happy birthday, Origin!
Today’s the day! 150 years ago, Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. If you haven’t read it yet in all that time, what’s your excuse?

Microbial Art — now with user generated content!
If you have been enjoying Microbial Art, I suggest that you sign up for the feed because it is now set up to showcase artwork contributed by users. Microbial Art — now with user generated content! is a post from Genomicron.