September 16, 2009

Evolution Evolves

Photo courtesy Ben Fry, The Preservation of Favoured Traces

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Thanks to SEED for shining the light on this gigacool visualization showing evolution evolve.

That is, for illuminating the exploration of scientific thought as expressed in the many edits and revisions of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

First published in 1859, Darwin’s Origin has since become the unifying concept of the life sciences.

Ben Fry, director of Seed Visualization and the Phyllotaxis Lab, has released this new tool, The Preservation of Favoured Traces, allowing us to watch the book evolve through six editions as Darwin reconsidered his arguments and responded to criticisms… including from his ultra pious wife, Emma, who may have been the reason he delayed publishing for 21 years.

Launch Fry’s visualization to see how scientific theories are not static truths but living ideas likewise perpetually evolving under the selection pressures of new evidence.

Suggestion: run the visualization in the Fast mode… 150 years on and we’ve got about a tenth the attention span of Darwin’s orchid-gazing times.
 

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Take the next step: Help us fight for the truth.

Investigative journalism, like the story you just read, takes time to do. Months of research. Weeks of writing, editing, and fact checking—and putting together the photography, art, video, and audio that tell the stories in a new way, illuminating new perspectives and voices

We can afford to take that time because we don’t report to an oligarch or corporation with a special agenda. We report to you, and for you. That’s why we unabashedly pursue the truth and relentlessly shine a light into the darkness.

In this month’s Summer Membership Drive, we’ve got to raise $200,000 to support more crucial investigations. This is a pivotal moment in our nation, with democracy on the line, and we can only do this work because readers like you step up. Every donation, of any amount, makes a difference here. We cannot do this work without you.

So, we’re asking: Will you support independent journalism that demands those in power answer for their actions?

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