Evolution writ large

Abstract

Darwin, a major new exhibition on evolution's founder, opened at the American Museum of Natural History last month, and marks a celebration of the Victorian scientist's work amidst a climate of scepticism amongst some sectors of the US. Nigel Williams reports. Darwin, a major new exhibition on evolution's founder, opened at the American Museum of Natural History last month, and marks a celebration of the Victorian scientist's work amidst a climate of scepticism amongst some sectors of the US. Nigel Williams reports. New York is presently home to a major exhibition celebrating Darwin and evolution that shines above the scepticism pervading the country's fundamental Christians who prefer to believe more biblical accounts of the emergence of organisms. It is just to counter such beliefs that the American Museum of Natural History has sought to stage the most in-depth ever Darwin exhibition in collaboration with the Museum of Science, Boston; the Field Museum, Chicago; the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto and the Natural History Museum, London. The exhibition will tour the American museums when it closes in New York next spring, before heading finally to the UK in time for the bicentenary of Darwin's birth in 2009. The exhibition is remarkable for its mix of Darwin memorabilia, key fossils that were crucial to Darwin's work and live animals that Darwin encountered on his travels that also bolstered his thinking. A live display of orchids also highlights a key role these remarkable plant species made in Darwin's evolutionary ideas. “Our visitors are invited to retrace Darwin's footsteps, to see what he saw… and to follow his paths to discovery,” said Ellen Futter, president of the museum. The exhibition includes some of Darwin's own papers, samples he collected, his magnifying glass, as well as fossils, two Galapagos tortoises, and a recreation of his study at Down House in England. In all, the exhibition features the broadest and most complete collection ever assembled of material related to Darwin and his studies. “Darwin offers visitors an engaging and enlightening exploration of the extraordinary life and mind of Charles Darwin whose curiosity, observations, and discoveries nearly 150 years ago forever changed the perception of the origin and nature of our species, as well as the myriad other species on this planet, and launched modern biological science,” the organisers say. Alongside the exhibition, a 40-minute IMAX film follows an expedition to the Galapagos Islands, narrated by the actor Kenneth Branagh. The film aims to highlight the significant contribution that the appreciation and understanding of these extraordinary islands made to the theory of evolution. The exhibition, three years in planning, appears at a time when evolutionary theory is again the subject of debate. While the exhibition has received strong backing from scientists and many of New York's influential intellectual elite, organisers have had to battle with a broader conservatism. Last month in Kansas, the state board of education voted to adopt standards for schools that say the theory is flawed. On the other side, voters in Pennsylvania ousted every member of a local school board who supported the inclusion of the concept of intelligent design in the curriculum, replacing them with members who opposed the mandate. Opponents of evolution have also latched onto the recent film, March of the Penguins, an extraordinary natural history film about the rigors of life for the Antarctic emperor penguins, which has been championed by the Christian right as evidence of intelligent design. The film has proved enormously popular in the US and is set for similar success in Europe this winter. But the French makers claim no higher motive for the film than to show the extraordinary life cycle of these birds and, in Europe, little is expected to be read into the film other than that. The anti-evolution current in the US was initially a problem for the New York exhibition organisers as corporate sponsors shied away. But the scale and eventual support for such an in-depth celebratory exhibition marks a triumph for the organisers. Niles Eldridge, the exhibition's curator, confirmed that the exhibition was intended to redress the balance in the battle between scientists and creationist Christians being fought across the country. “This is for the schoolchildren of America,” he said. is the evidence of evolution.”Darwin. American Museum of Natural History, New York, until May 29, 2006.