Darwin Day: A Reason to Hope

Today is a very exciting day. Obviously, the Potomac Primaries in DC, Virginia, and Maryland (my home state) are poised to have a major influence on the race for the Democratic presidential nomination race. I attended a rally yesterday at the 1st Mariner Arena in downtown Baltimore, where Barack Obama got a huge crowd of supporters “fired up.” This morning, I was the third in line to vote when my polling place opened at 7:00 AM. Obama’s got momentum, and we’ll add to it in a significant way today. But politics isn’t the only thing newsworthy this February 12.

It’s also Darwin Day. If Charles Darwin were still alive, today he’d celebrate his 199th birthday. Scientists and free thinkers around the world today should take a moment to reflect on what an awesome contribution Darwin made to our understanding of life. As the author of Survival Machine, which is more or less a blog about cultural and biological evolution, I really like the idea of celebrating Darwin Day - would anyone like to go out for a drink with me tonight in honor of the late great naturalist? We wouldn’t be the only ones celebrating. Even an event in space today seems a fitting tribute, insofar as it’s another milestone in the advancement of human science culture:

The European Space Agency’s $2 billion Columbus lab was successfully attached to the International Space Station yesterday by crew members of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. This morning, crew members hooked up all the power, fluid, and data lines that link Columbus to the ISS. This thing has been virtually waiting on the launchpad for sixteen years.

The European Space Agency waited years to see Columbus fly. The lab was supposed to go up in 1992 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the sailing of Christopher Columbus, but space station and then shuttle problems delayed everything.

I’m glad this sort of thing still happens, albeit slowly. It would really be a sad story if humanity had reached the moon, and then gave up and succumbed to a new Dark Ages mentality. To some extent, we’re still in danger of that happening, but at least on this Darwin Day we can indulge in a little bit of hope.