From the 1831 voyage to the Galapagos Islands to the 2005 Shelby County School Board meeting where a member proposed slapping stickers on science books reading, “Evolution is only a theory,” Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection has been controversial for three centuries. To honor Darwin Day, here’s a list of the top three things every monkey should know about the man behind the beard.
1) He wanted to be a doctor like his dad, but surgery grossed him out, and he abandoned his medical studies for taxidermy.
2) His ship was named the Beagle not the Regal Beagle, which was the name of a bar in the 1970s sitcom Three’s Company, a show which blew pretty big holes in some of Darwin’s theories.
3) On Sunday, the Memphis Freethought Alliance is sponsoring a lecture on Darwin’s legacy by University of Memphis biology professor Anna Bess Sorin.
Darwin Day Lecture, 1-3 p.m., Sunday, February 5th, Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, free
