Michael D. Barton

03-Dec-1831: Darwin’s first night aboard HMS Beagle Darwin records his experimentations with a hammock.

03-Dec: On this day in 1831, Charles Darwin spent his first night aboard HMS Beagle as she lay at anchor in Barnet Pool, Plymouth. More here…
friendsofdarwin.com/articles/dar...
#HistSci

BBC Radio 4 - Rare Earth, The Evolution of Evolution What would Darwin and the other great naturalists think of our world today?

The latest episode of Rare Earth is about Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and evolution. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

"So that I have 6 weeks more to enjoy geologizing over these curious mountains"
Charles Darwin in a letter dated to April 18, 1835, over his field-trip in the Chilean Andes ⛰️
www.researchgate.net/publication/...

That's better...

Can anyone recommend a good and reliable text on mineral classification from Mohs to the present day?

#philsky #philsci

Volume 10 (yes 10!!!) of our book series “Emergence of Natural History” @degruyterbrill.bsky.social @dgb-history.bsky.social is out #OpenAccess : @dvantrijp.bsky.social ‘s fascinating history of #fish studies / #Ichthyology
Congratulations, Didi!
#HistNatHist #HistSTM
brill.com/display/titl...

New and recent Darwin and evolution books With the holidays now on us, here are a few gift-giving ideas for those Darwin, evolution, and history of science lovers in your life: Darwin’s Savages: Science, Race and the Conquest of Pata…

New and recent Darwin and evolution books ~ thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com/2025/11/28/n...

#HPS #histsci

Charles Darwin’s address book link in post

darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialInt...
#Darwin’sAddressBook has been digitized. Nice notations & media included in this & other interesting aspects of the life & work of #CharlesDarwin from #darwinonline.org

The world of natural history #museums is a surprisingly strange one. What goes on behind the scenes? Why do they mostly display the same things? Where did they get all their stuff? How do they help save the world? Have a watch of my talk about my book, #NaturesMemory here!👇

Love how rough-skinned newts blend into the fallen fall foliage so well. Daughter spotted this one when she was crouched down collecting worm poop. Yes, worm poop! 🪱 💩

One of the incredible treasures we saw last week at the @nhm-london.bsky.social were some of Charles Darwin's actual pigeons - ones that factored into his formulation of Natural Selection, published in Origin of Species 166 years ago today. @tetrameryx.bsky.social

Last year's design was a real hit, too!

Send season’s greetings to your friends and family with Charles Darwin and his mischievous Christmas birds 🪿🎄

We have 14 different humanist designs available to buy. All proceeds go to fund our work for a kinder, more rational society. 👇

See reply below for the link to the recording #histsci

Science and Religion from the Ground Up

Oh my! I still, years later, absolutely love the act of transcribing a letter and get a little thrill out of deciphering difficult words. That said, any more recent letters that have been found and added to the project are relatively short. There's a couple from Switzerland coming my way soon...

Cover of the Penguin Classics edition of Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle"

The foreword by Janet Browne and Michael Neve made a strong impression on me.

In the mail today: a copy of Gillen D'Arcy Wood's "The Wake of HMS Challenger" (@princetonupress.bsky.social, 2025) that I won for attending a webinar from the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science, which is now on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT4c...

#OnThisDay in 1859, Charles Darwin's landmark book 'On the Origin of Species' was first published. The work is one of the foundations of evolutionary biology, and one of the most important scientific works of the 19th century. #HistoryOfScience

📖 Exciting reading for today, the anniversary of the publication of On The Origin Of Species:

The Darwin Online project has just released Darwin's address book, filled with unique insights not found anywhere else. It has been transcribed and is now readable at the link below!

buff.ly/uqYc9IL

For this 166th anniv. of the publication of On the Origin of Species (1859), what was the 1st book you read about Charles Darwin? Mine: Charles Darwin: The Making of a Scientist by Roy A. Gallant (1972), c. 1995, when reading books abt dinosaurs (thanks, Jurassic Park) led me to books abt evolution.

Me holding a book open to the front page of Origin of Species

Me holding a book open to the front page of Species Plantarum.

I got to hold first edition Linnaeus and first edition Darwin today, nbd.

(Both jewels of the @mobotgarden.bsky.social library.)

Darwin’s publisher, John Murray, was usually quite generous about paying for maps, plates, and in-text images for D’s books, and D attended closely to his illustrations, so it’s surprising that the Origin featured only 1, a diagrammatic model of change through time.

🌱🐋🧪 #histSTM #evobio 🐡

‘Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.’ Charles Darwin Naturalist and humanist

Some of the most important words ever written: 'Endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.' – Charles Darwin, 'On the Origin of Species'. It was published #OnThisDay 1859.

A colour photograph of the title page of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. The top right corner of the page has been torn out, and underneath is handwritten from the author 1860

#OTD in 1859 'On the Origin of Species' was published. We have a few different editions in the library @thembauk.bsky.social but we are privileged to be custodians of an early edition gifted to (a mystery) someone by Charles #Darwin himself

📖BS.15/D

On the Origin of Species: landmark work published #OTD 1859 by Charles Darwin, influential English naturalist, geologist and pioneer of evolutionary theory.
Portrait 1830’s by George Richmond
Bodleian Library @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
@tomgauld.bsky.social | @newscientist.com

An important anniversary in the history of science. The 24th of November is a very significant date in the history of science. On this date an event took place that would contribute to a major change in the way humanity viewed the world and its plac…

On 24 November 1639 the British astronomers Jeremiah Horrocks and William Crabtree became the first observers to record a transit of Venus. #histsci
thonyc.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/a...

Charles Darwin's Publisher Didn't Believe in Evolution, but Sold His Revolutionary Book Anyway The famed naturalist and conservative stalwart John Murray III formed an unlikely alliance in popularizing a radical idea

Darwin's groundbreaking On the Origin of Species appeared #OTD in 1859 -- even though Darwin's publisher, John Murray, didn't accept evolution. A while back I wrote about their turbulent relationship, for @smithsonianmag.bsky.social: www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu... #science #history #histsci

Book review: ‘On the Origin of Species’ by Charles Darwin (1st ed., 1859) …or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

24-Nov: On this day in 1859 was published Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species‘. As revolutionary science books go, it’s a damn fine read. Here’s my retrospective review: friendsofdarwin.com/reviews/book... #histsci

I can’t quite believe it’s been 16 years since we celebrated Origin’s 150th anniversary (and Darwin’s 200th birthday). One of these days I’ll make time to write about how my perspective has evolved since then (ba dum tsk), particularly around colonialism and the “great man of science” model.

BREAKING:

Sen. Elissa Slotkin says police responded to her home tonight in response to a bomb threat. Slotkin wasn't at home at the time.

This is two days after Trump said Slotkin and other Democrats committed "seditious conspiracy, punishable by death."

The story of the captives transported on the HMS Beagle with Darwin | Aeon Videos An animated interpretation of the story of the Indigenous people kidnapped from Tierra del Fuego and brought to England in 1830

This short from the Swiss animator Georges Schwizgebel titled ‘Darwin’s Notebook’ envisions the encounter of Charles Darwin with three Indigenous people on the Beagle, who were travelling back to their homelands in Terra del Fuego after being kidnapped to England in 1830