OPINION NATURE|Vol 462|24/31 December 2009 CORRESPONDENCE Goodbye to Darwin from a contemporary with vision One night some 40 years ago, I was working late and alone in the library at the Marine Biology Laboratory at Woods Hole (in those days, the library never really closed), searching for something in the 1882 volume of Archiv für Protistenkunde. As I opened it, out fell a folded page from the magazine The Nation (still publishing today), dated 27 April 1882. The page, headed ‘Charles Darwin’, was his obituary. As far as I know, it has not been reprinted or indexed in, for example, the Darwin archive at http:// darwin-online.org.uk. There is no indication of the author’s identity, although it would be gratifying if it were his supporter and friend, the American botanist Asa Gray. I was impressed by the prescient observations on Darwin. For example, the final paragraph points out “There can be little doubt that Mr. Darwin’s name will go down in history as that of the greatest scientific inquirer and the most pregnant scientific thinker that has lived since Newton. Since the beginnings of modern learning, probably no single idea has wrought upon the minds of men with such rich and manifold results as the idea of ‘natural selection’; and it is evident that what we have already seen is but an earnest of vastly more that is to come.” Richard Kool School of Environment and Sustainability, Royal Roads University, Victoria, British Columbia V9B 5Y2, Canada e-mail: rick.kool@royalroads.ca Global Darwin: long kept under wraps in Pakistan Marwa Elshakry’s Opinion article (Nature 461, 1200–1201; 2009, and see go.nature.com/97zlyr) makes no mention of the conflict of Darwin’s ideas with 984 popular religious beliefs in some conservative societies across the eastern world. There, the writings and thoughts of intellectuals, however influential, are no match for traditional religion. For example, in Pakistan it was not until 2002 that a chapter on evolution was included for the first time in a school textbook, as a result of the federal government’s educational reforms. The earlier decades of attempts to suppress scientific ideas were certainly not “enchanting”. Elshakry makes reference to Muhammad Iqbal, the Muslim thinker and reformer from early last century. Although Iqbal sought to challenge the traditional interpretation of religious beliefs and to understand religious principles in light of modern scientific thought, he avoided any direct mention of evolution or natural selection in his Urdu and Farsi writings. This was not because he was unaware of Darwin’s works, but probably because he realized his audience was not yet ready to appreciate the significance of these ideas. Given their background of widespread illiteracy and poverty, deep-rooted social and religious conservatism, and colonial rule, religion was these people’s last hope — and it was not the time to take that hope away. Saheeb Ahmed Kayani National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad-44000, Pakistan e-mail: saheebk@ceme.nust.edu.pk Global Darwin: ideas blurred in early eastern translations The early diffusion of Darwin’s ideas into China resulted in multiple interpretations, imperfect translations and unsatisfactory terminology, as James Pusey notes in his Opinion article (Nature 462, 162–163; 2009). However, he inadvertently implies that it was the Chinese scholar Yan Fu who translated ‘evolution’ as jinhualun, which means ‘theory of progressive change’. In fact, the word jinhualun originated in Japan in the 1870s, gaining popularity in China only after appearing in Ma Junwu’s later translation of Darwin’s The Origin of Species. Instead, Yan Fu coined the term tianyanlun. The Chinese words tian and yan are layered in meaning, with tian translatable as ‘heaven’ and yan as ‘development’ or ‘performance’, among other concepts. But most would agree that tian corresponds nicely to the English word ‘nature’, whereas yan in this context denotes ‘evolution’. So, ‘the theory of natural evolution’ was Yan’s preferred translation — a much more agreeable term, whether or not its alternative meanings are included. David Flannery Department of International Studies, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia e-mail: david.flannery@students. mq.edu.au Readers may comment on the Global Darwin series at go.nature.com/97zlyr. Don’t forget the artists when studying perception of art Martin Kemp in Books & Arts (Nature 461, 882–883; 2009) suggests using functional neuroimaging to study the viewing and reception of artworks. But such direct measures of brain activity allow only for correlations between brain responses and the task of the viewer. Clinical neuropsychologists have already studied the consequences of brain damage on cognition more directly. Insight into neurocognitive factors underlying art-making has come from, for instance, the effects of dementia on the abstract expressionist William de Kooning (1904–97) and of stroke on the German artists Lovis Corinth © 2009 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved (1858–1925) and Otto Dix (1891–1969). Some milder conditions can even enhance productivity and creativity. For example, the metaphysical art of Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) may have been inspired by migraine or epilepsy. Kemp focuses entirely on the beholder, as though — to paraphrase the French philosopher Roland Barthes (Aspen 5–6; 1967) — the birth of the viewer must be at the cost of the death of the artist. However, art historians and neuroscientists also need to take into account the maker and the making of artworks — a collaboration that is successfully being developed in the Swiss Artists-in-Labs programme (www.artistsinlabs. ch/english/index.htm). Olaf Blanke, Luca Forcucci, Sebastian Dieguez Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 19, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland e-mail: olaf.blanke@epfl.ch How much are we willing to pay for a fossil? The outrage expressed by Elwyn Simons and others over the sale of a 47-million-year-old fossil for an enormous sum (Nature 460, 456; 2009) may not be altogether justified. A fossil’s intrinsic value relates to its preservation, rarity, scientific interest and completeness. Arguably, this may be reflected as a commercial value to museums or private collectors. The price a fossil is likely to fetch is of considerable interest to modern Chinese farmers, for example, as it was to their European predecessors around Bolca in the Italian Alps and Messel in Germany. Their excavations are often crude and can damage the fossil, but they still expect payment from interested professionals. Worldwide closure of the OPINION NATURE|Vol 462|24/31 December 2009 “Kepler claimed that the star followed by the Magi was the equivalent of the stella nova of 1604–05.”Martin Kemp, page 987 A toast to Mendeleev, who merits more than periodic honour market would have the unwanted effect of causing illegal trafficking. Regulations regarding fossil finds are necessary. In Italy, these are very strict: like archaeological objects, fossils belong to the state and cannot be sold. However, their monetary value is decided by professionals appointed by an archaeological board; a small percentage of the sum is then divided between the discoverer and the owner of the land where the fossil was found. This law has proved efficient in protecting our natural and cultural heritage. Elisabetta Cioppi, Stefano Dominici Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze, Sezione di Geologia e Paleontologia, Via La Pira 4, 50121 Firenze, Italy e-mail: elisabetta.cioppi@unifi.it ‘Snow joke as festive season gives rise to a blizzard of fake flakes Parts of the world are once again knee-deep in images of snow crystals for the Christmas and New Year festivities. Unfortunately, the grand diversity of naturally occurring snow crystals is commonly corrupted by incorrect ‘designer’ versions — as illustrated by the faux octagonal snowflakes depicted in a Nature online subscription advertisement and, ironically, captioned “...for anyone who loves science”. The snowflake’s natural sixfold symmetry stems from the water molecules’ hexagonal crystal lattice, held together by a hydrogen-bonding network and the structural form of lowest energy under the ambient cold conditions. This hexagonal shape has been known since at least 400 years ago, when the astronomer Johannes Kepler published a treatise on the subject On the Six-cornered Snowflake (De nive sexangula Tampach; 1611), as a new-year’s gift to his patron — modern editions are still available. Beautiful photographs abound, including those taken by Vermont farmer Wilson A. Bentley starting in 1885 (W. A. Bentley & J. Humphreys Snow Crystals McGraw-Hill; 1931), or see www. snowcrystals.com. Why then do many artists invent their own physically unrealistic snow crystals? We who enjoy both science and captivating design should aim to melt away all four-, five- or eightcornered snow crystals from cards, children’s books and advertisements, by enlightening those who unwittingly generate and distribute them. Let’s welcome this as an opportunity to share a discussion about the true beauty of science over a mug of hot punch. Thomas Koop Department of Chemistry, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany e-mail: thomas.koop@uni-bielefeld.de Rewilding can cause rather than solve ecological problems Prehistoric-restoration schemes such as those described in your News Feature (Nature 462, 30–32; 2009) are highly unusual. Introducing a mix of native and exotic ungulates into former agricultural land could constitute a risky conservation strategy. Reintroduction of native species to portions of their former range from which they were extirpated is a well-established conservation tool. But there are no scientific grounds for introducing animals such as elephants, camels, cheetahs and lions into novel environments. Numerous scientifically driven concerns bear on these maverick programmes, including adverse effects of alien species on the ecosystems they are meant to foster; importation of diseases that may leap to native species; escapes that lead to hybridization; and predators jumping fences to endanger livestock. There are sociopolitical concerns too, such as plundering wildlife from countries and ecosystems where they are naturally found in order to stock game parks, and persuading a conservation-weary public to accept large charismatic exotics as substitutes for contemporary native species and ecosystems. We therefore advocate a moratorium on importing non- indigenous megafauna into ecosystems. Ill-considered, poorly documented introductions cannot be trusted to turn back the ecological and evolutionary clocks on anthropogenic change. Tim Caro Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA e-mail: tmcaro@ucdavis.edu Paul Sherman Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA © 2009 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved Before the year is out, let’s raise a glass to the great Russian chemist Dmitrii Mendeleev, to celebrate the 140th anniversary of his periodic table of the elements. Russia has commemorated this, and the 175th anniversary of Mendeleev’s birth, with a postage stamp (pictured) and a two-rouble silver coin. Mendeleev’s outstanding achievement was to organize all the chemical knowledge of the day into a single table and to predict the existence of new elements such as scandium, gallium and germanium. His periodic table, published in 1869, contained empty spaces to accommodate these as-yet undiscovered chemical elements. Mendeleev’s periodic law and periodic table of the elements were welcomed by the world’s scientific community, and yet he received scant recognition for his work during his lifetime. He was never awarded a Nobel prize, for example. And the third Tsar Alexander is said to have blocked Mendeleev’s election as a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, although he was allowed to continue as a corresponding member. However, Mendeleev has been recognized more recently. This year, the American Chemical Society celebrated his periodic table during its national chemistry week, with the theme ‘Chemistry — it’s elemental’. In keeping with terms such as Newtonian mechanics, Darwinian theory, Mendelian genetics and Watson–Crick hydrogen bonding, should the world not honour Mendeleev by referring to his achievement as the ‘Mendeleev periodic table of the elements’? Renad I. Zhdanov Functional Genomics and Lipidomics Lab, Institute of General Pathology and Pathophysiology, 8 Baltiiskaya Street, Moscow 125315, Russia e-mail: zrenad@gmail.com 985
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