
Darwin's Children Drew All Over the “On The Origin of Species” Manuscript - wallflower
http://theappendix.net/blog/2014/2/darwins-children-drew-vegetable-battles-on-the-origin-of-species
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jgrahamc
If you visit Darwin's home in the UK you'll also see that he had a slide made
that fits on the staircase so his kids could slide down it. And there's a
section about the effect the death of his daughter had on him. Clearly, a guy
who loved his kids.

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err4nt
Say what you want about Darwin's ideas and how they have been used and abused
by others, but everything I hear about this guy endears me to him.

I'd like to think if I were in alive his time and lived in his neighbourhood
that he's the kind of man who could tell a fantastic story, dazzle you with
his knowledge and various ideas, but above all be humble enough to treat you
with the same respect.

I wish I could say the same for scientists today, so many I've run into are so
focused on their own area of research that they have lost the ability to
relate that learning and wonder they see to anybody who isn't just like
themselves.

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sputknick
The "news" takeaway from this is for those of us who are fathers to young
children, we can still involve our children in our work, be actively involved
in their lives, and still be incredibly successful. I know I'm guilty of
sometimes thinking my kids "get in the way" of my career. This is an excellent
post for setting us straight, thank you for this. I need to be reminded of
this once in a while!

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lutusp
My ideal, beautiful children have never interfered with my work in the
slightest, and my ravishing wife has never complained that (as was alleged
about Richard Feynman) I never annoyed her by being lost in thoughts about
Calculus. My children turned out perfectly, and my wife always looks like
Ellen Page on her best day ([http://www.nerdacy.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/10/ellen_page...](http://www.nerdacy.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/10/ellen_page-wide.jpg)).

The reason? I never married. I never had children. Life is complicated enough
without looking for trouble.

~~~
sentenza
Do you also play computer games on easy mode?

But joking aside, I personally must say that the chaos that having children
brought to my life is a positive aspect of the whole experience. It keeps me
from becoming complacent and has forced me to develop some intrisical
organizational habits and discipline.

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lutusp
> Do you also play computer games on easy mode?

:) Computer games are no problem -- they never say, "What have you done for me
lately?" Win or lose, you can walk away.

I emphasize I'm not pretending that my choices are suitable for anyone else.
To each his/her own.

~~~
nfoz
> :) Computer games are no problem -- they never say, "What have you done for
> me lately?" Win or lose, you can walk away.

You've never played an MMO...

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lutusp
> You've never played an MMO...

It's true, I confess it. :)

My favorite South Park episode is the one where the boys spend their time
immersed in World of Warcraft -- [http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-
episodes/s10e08-make-lo...](http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-
episodes/s10e08-make-love-not-warcraft)

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ethana
To be honest, those drawings are pretty good and very creative.

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shubhamjain
Can anyone help me understand why the writings of great authors, theorists of
past are barely legible. More examples like, War and Peace[1], or Lord of the
Rings[2]. I can barely comprehend a word, let alone the whole text.

[1]:[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Tolstoy_-...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Tolstoy_-
_War_and_Peace_-_ninth_draft.jpg)

[2]:[http://biblioklept.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/tolkien-
manus...](http://biblioklept.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/tolkien-
manuscript.jpg)

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tinco
I think it's because they write mostly for themselves and mostly as fast as
they were thinking of things. It's better to have to interpret something for
your publicist, then to lose a thought you had while focusing on writing.

There's some notable exceptions by the way, you can't have a post on academic
handwriting without mentioning Dijkstra:

[http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd13xx/EWD1300.PDF](http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd13xx/EWD1300.PDF)

Funny, I hadn't recently read the article I linked before posting it, and in
the first paragraph he actually explains why he writes so prettily. Although
the context is programming notation:

"[..] the underlying idea of which is that, even if you have only 60 readers,
it pays to spend an hour if by doing so you can save your average reader a
minute."

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gus_massa
Is there any hint that the children understood part of the topics or the
drawings are totally unrelated? (I prefer to use "hint" instead of "proof",
because it's easy to cherrypick some drawings and find whatever meaning you
want.)

I have a daughter and when she asks what I'm working in, I try to explain it.
(Usually Maths or Physic. Apparently, I always start the explanation with
"It's complicated. ..." because she mocks me.)

For example, I think that the topic of artificial selection is easy enough to
explain to a child, and it's not difficult to make a drawing about it.

~~~
analog31
I find, if I can't explain the nitty gritty details, I can still talk about
why the work is interesting to myself and to other people, what it's like to
work on it, and why it's fun!

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erichurkman
I wonder if carrot horses and blueberry camels are more ecologically friendly
than their contemporary counterparts. They are most certainly more delicious.

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madaxe_again
25th April, 1840, Emma Darwin's diary - "Babbage".

Charles Babbage. Neat.

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smoyer
I noticed that too ... perhaps Darwin and Babbage were going to collaborate on
a book (tentatively titled "Computation of the Species by Natural Selection")
which dealt with the probability of traits being passed on?

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awda
Ah, and here I thought the title was linkbait for
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin%27s_Children](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin%27s_Children)
.

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nicky0
"Much flatulence. Had an egg & toast this morning."

~~~
jtheory
That caught my eye as well! No mention in the article, but on the scribbled
out page of Emma Darwin's diary, she's describing how she's been ill, and what
she's been eating (interestingly, I suspect she was trying to see if what she
ate helped/harmed how she felt).

Starting on Sunday, it says:

Sick from half-past 12 to 5. 9 or 10 __ ___ copiously ___ ...

Took only ____ 2 raw eggs ...

Eliza __.. afternoon

slept tolerably but much flatulence.

had an egg + toast this morning.

feels [sic?] pretty well.

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diydsp
Famous Fact: the second half of the title of the famous book is:

"or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life."

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thegreategatsby
isnt it great: interested browsers can also check out the Darwin Manuscripts
Project, a collaborative initiative based at the American Museum of Natural
History.

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monsterix
"Origin of species, daddy? Oh, oh look at how my king eggplant slashed those
horrible red carrots out of the land daddy!"

This was the best news of the day. :)

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petepete
* aubergine

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err4nt
technically they are called aubergines and eggplants, but saying 'aubergine'
gives blanks stares anywhere I've been in North America. As a designer I love
fancying up eggplant dishes on restaurant menus with 'aubergine' in the name
if they'll let me, and then still include the word 'eggplant' in the
description of the dish for those who aren't aware of the meaning.

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petepete
Yes, I was merely pointing out that Darwin's children (being British) would
not have called it an 'Egg Plant'.

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jmnicolas
I hope he flogged these little creationists bastards ! ;-)

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jmnicolas
At least 2 creationists under-appreciate my attempt at humor :-)

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scott_s
You're relatively new, so you may not know yet that HN generally doesn't like
comments that are just jokes. The moderation system exists to promote the
signal over the noise, and one-liners are mostly noise.

~~~
jmnicolas
Why so serious ? <insert Joker pic here>

OK I will learn my lesson and try to remain on topic. Thanks for the pointer.

