Heads up: ABC1 Sunday 8th Nov 7:30pm - Darwins Brave New World

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Looks like a very good series.

http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sh...FRUwpAodWmwuOg

Featuring a superb cast and commentators including David Suzuki, Richard Dawkins, Jared Diamond and Iain McCalman, this is the story of how four young voyagers changed our world – forever. The epic adventures of Charles Darwin, Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Russel Wallace would revolutionise science, turn society on its head and give birth to an extraordinary theory.

Charles Darwin's experiences in the Southern Hemisphere, and particularly in Australasia, convinced him that everything he'd been told about life on earth might not be true. On his return to England, his incendiary idea – evolution by means of natural selection – grew into an obsession.

In this brilliant dramatised series we meet the man, his family, and the colleagues who supported him through years of illness, isolation, agonizing self-doubt and religious crisis. We gain a glimpse into the courage and tenacity it took to change the way we understand our world and our place in it.

A Screen Australia National Documentary Program. A ScreenWorld and Ferns Productions production. Produced in association with the New South Wales Film and Television Office and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation with the assistance of the Canadian Television Fund and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Made in association with History Television (UK) and ZDF in co-operation with ARTE. An Australia–Canada Co-production.


Ep 1: Origins (1831-1844), Sunday 8 November 2009 at 7:30pm on ABC1

Twenty-one year-old Charles Darwin convinces his father to allow him a gap year before settling down – it turns into a miraculous five-year voyage of discovery across the Southern Hemisphere which transforms him and gives birth to a revolutionary scientific theory.

Ep 2: Evolutions (1844-1857), Sunday 15 November 2009 at 7:30pm on ABC1

Desperately accumulating evidence to support his theory of evolution, Charles Darwin finds support from two men who have also voyaged to the Southern Hemisphere: Joseph Hooker and Thomas Huxley. He will need them, as he is devastated by his daughter's death and the arrival of a letter that threatens to destroy everything.

Ep 3: Publish and Be Damned (1857-1864), Sunday 22 November 2009 at 7:30pm on ABC1

Charles Darwin is devastated when he receives a letter outlining an almost identical evolutionary theory to his own; he now has no choice but to publish his masterwork, On the Origin of Species.

[Esseth (Alan)]

Cool i've set it to record.

[Ric]

I saw the promo for that Chris.

Definitely looks like a good series to watch.

Cheers

[renormalised (Carl)]

Yes, looks like a great bit of TV.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

7:30 tonight remember....

[Esseth (Alan)]

Originally Posted by Omaroo

7:30 tonight remember....

haha what would i do without IQ i don't need to remember anything the magic box does it for me

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by Esseth

haha what would i do without IQ i don't need to remember anything the magic box does it for me

Then make sure you remember to push the green button too!

[Esseth (Alan)]

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Then make sure you remember to push the green button too!

haha crap, good idea.... i guess i do have to remember some things still

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Well that was rather well done. Looking forward to the next two.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Lack of response suggests that people are just plain not interested in one of the greatest scientists to live, or consider the subject too contentious for some silly reason. What is it everyone? The guy changed the world...

[iceman (Mike)]

I missed it - i'll look for a replay on ABC2. Looks like a great series.

[FredSnerd (Claude)]

Chris

My wife and I enjoyed this first episode a great deal and are looking forward to next weeks episode. He certainly made one of the greatest impacts on science ever.

Mike, it is well worth catching up with next week if you can.

regards

Claude

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Lack of response suggests that people are just plain not interested in one of the greatest scientists to live, or consider the subject too contentious for some silly reason. What is it everyone? The guy changed the world...

Lack of response happens to lots of people's posts Chris...
Informative and entertaining as well. Dispelled some myths that Darwin was the only one of his time who held these ideas or that the Galagapos Islands was some sort of ephiphany moment for him. Look forward to seeing the rest of the series.

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

Haven't seen it yet, but it is on the PVR.

I am currently about 75% of the way through an (illustrated) reprint of the first edition which also contains extracts from his Beagle book, personal letters and a number of other sources (about 600 LARGE pages). I am amazed at some of his theories and the clarity of his thought processes, however, to say the man was "verbose" would be an understatement and the style takes a little to get used to. It is incredible to think that he speculated on inheritence when the technology to discover it was more than a century away. It is also interesting that the Galapagos Islands only occupy a relatively small part of his book. I think had he not published when he did, several other scientists were on the verge of the same discovery and he litteraly made it "by that much".

Of all the scientific books to read this year, this would have to be one of the best choices...I started reading it in about April, but can only digest a couple of chapters at a time and have read three or four other books in parallel. When I was watching an earlier show on Darwin, it was interesting to watch and be able to recount Darwin himself talking about the same thing in the book.

[Ric]

I watched it last night Chris, a very fascinating series and well made.

I like the way it cuts to the commentary with the current scientists and professors. It's interesting to hear their point of view.

[matt]

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Lack of response suggests that people are just plain not interested in one of the greatest scientists to live, or consider the subject too contentious for some silly reason. What is it everyone? The guy changed the world...

Hold your horses! This is the first chance I've had to log in since last night.

I thought it was very good. I knew a little about his life and travels, but was still pleasantly surprised at how much time he spent in New Zealand and Australia, and the South Pacific generally, and how central these regions were to his work.

As the show pointed out, everyone makes this big deal about the Galapagos Islands, which in the end were not some kind of Eureka moment.

Very interesting stuff

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Lack of response suggests that people are just plain not interested in one of the greatest scientists to live, or consider the subject too contentious for some silly reason. What is it everyone? The guy changed the world...

{emphasis added}

Too Contentious ?
Hmmm!
However do you mean .....

... did you see the other side of the story last week?
Amazing animals that challenge Evolution?

Oh, but that could head off down the nasty "R" word track.
And could lead to another locked thread?

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by Allan_L

... did you see the other side of the story last week?
Amazing animals that challenge Evolution?

There is no reason to introduce the "R" word whatsoever - it is irrelevant to the post.

[avandonk]

I really liked the first episode as it showed Darwin's journey from the start. The portrayal of the scientific establishment as a minor wing of the C of E was spot on.

Darwin was contemplating potentially dangerous ideas. These ideas were only dangerous as they did not suit those in power.

What could be more perfect for budding despots than that a higher power ordained everyone's and everything's place in the world. This then justifies all the horrors of nineteenth century England.

As for amazing animals that challenge Evolution. My bet is that the people making these claims barely understand the basic premises of Evolution let alone how science works.

If they could disprove Evolution by scientifically sound means a Nobel Prize would be a certainty.

Bert

[Enchilada]

Originally Posted by matt

I thought it was very good. I knew a little about his life and travels, but was still pleasantly surprised at how much time he spent in New Zealand and Australia, and the South Pacific generally, and how central these regions were to his work.

You can read the actual text on Australia in the book "The Voyage of the Beagle" at Literature.org

http://www.literature.org/authors/da...hapter-19.html

As to the amount of time he spent in Australia, 12th January to 14th March 1836. He stayed merely eighteen days here in Sydney, before leaving for cooler Hobart on the 30th January.

As for the summing up of the voyage, I have always loved the following quote, where the number one "spectacles" has nothing to do with the biological, paleontological or evolution; but an astronomical objects! ;

I.e. In the seventh last paragraph of the book, (http://www.literature.org/authors/da...hapter-21.html) he says in Chapter 21;

"Among the other most remarkable spectacles which we have beheld, may be ranked, the Southern Cross, the cloud[s] of Magellan, and the other constellations of the southern hemisphere — the water-spout — the glacier leading its blue stream of ice, over-hanging the sea in a bold precipice — a lagoon-island raised by the reef-building corals — an active volcano — and the overwhelming effects of a violent earthquake. These latter phenomena, perhaps, possess for me a peculiar interest, from their intimate connection with the geological structure of the world. The earthquake, however, must be to every one a most impressive event: the earth, considered from our earliest childhood as the type of solidity, has oscillated like a thin crust beneath our feet; and in seeing the laboured works of man in a moment overthrown, we feel the insignificance of his boasted power."

Cool, eh?