Primordial Soup

Galápagos, Ecuador

It’s International Darwin Day, a day to celebrate Charles Darwin’s life and work. There is no better place to honour his contribution to humanity than at the Charles Darwin Research Centre on the Galápagos Islands.

When Darwin visited Galápagos in 1835, he noted that the archipelago’s creatures differed from island to island; each perfectly adapted to their individual environment. These adaptations led Darwin to ponder the origin of the islands’ inhabitants, and all of earth’s species by extension.

Darwin consolidated his observations made on the Galápagos into his famous book On the Origin of Species, drastically and controversially altering the scientific view on the origins of life.

Darwin’s proposition that all species of life descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental concept in science.  The “theory” of evolution is conceptual, to the same degree that the germ theory of disease and the theory of gravity are.

---

Darwin Day is “an inspiration to people throughout the globe to reflect and act on the principles of intellectual bravery, perpetual curiosity, scientific thinking, and hunger for truth”. 

– Darwin Day Website

---

---

In addition to being Darwin Day, February 12^th also happens to be my eldest son’s birthday.  Adam lives by Darwin’s mantra.  He is a man of intellectual bravery, perpetual curiosity, and scientific thinking.

Thanks to Darwin’s research conducted on the Galapagos, and the work of gifted evolutionary biologists since, Adam and the rest of the scientific world have come to understand that Adam’s biblical namesake never existed.

---

Happy Birthday Adam!

---

Now here is a curious thought.  Adam is fortunate that his mom and I were not rigidly following scientific principals when we named him after a mythical first being.  If we had been, our first-born son’s name might have been …

… Primordial Soup.

---

---