Various: Darwin, Book Club

Darwin and Lamarck

Darwin and Lamarck were nearly contemporary.. Both had ideas about the overarching structure of all life. Lamarck thought life changed by conscious changes passed on to children whereas Darwin thought that gradual evolution led to increasing chances of survival with the survivors outbreeding the less suited .The difference is clearer by an example. Lamarck thought that a giraffe had a long neck through preceding generations trying to reach higher with that passed on to their children. Darwin thought that giraffes that fortunately had long necks could reach higher, feed better and outbreed those that couldn’t.

We now know that evolution by natural selection, the Darwinian view, is correct and a huge mass of data supports its truth. In contrast Lamarck was wrong and that acquired characteristics cannot be inherited. This contest was decided in the 19^th century with in fact the main opposition to Darwin coming from creationists.

There was to be a curious repeat of the 19^th century controversy in the 20^th century. For some reason Lamarck was held to be in line with Marxist-Leninist philosophy and Soviet scientists were instructed to adhere to its teaching. Much fruitless effort was expended trying to show the effect of acquired characteristics. This was unsuccessful and the futility of trying to use political thinking to influence scientific truth was shown ( Trump could draw a lesson from this ). Darwinian ‘s evolution by natural selection has been stunningly successful in explaining much.

Ironically Lamarck’s ideas recently seem to apply in some small and limited circumstances. The study of DNA, the molecule which lays down life’s recipe, has shown that it can be modified. This area is very much the subject of ongoing work and we can expect developments.

Village Book Club

One of the few organisations I still attend is our village book club. I feel a certain responsibility as I’m almost the only villager left as a member and I nominally organise it. I say nominally as a member collects and returns our book to the local library. We take our books mainly from the reading group sets provided by Staffordshire County Library. Occasionally, perhaps twice a year, we decide on a book outside the sets and rely on every member to procure a copy.

We occasionally arrange events outside the normal monthly meetings. The latest was to attend the film about Freddy Mercury at Tamworth open air pop up cinema.

Our latest meeting was absolutely extraordinary. Over the years we have come to know quite a bit about the personal life of members. Quite a bit of the interest in the club has come from hearing about the latest events. We were both pleased and rather sad that a stalwart member has taken a job in, and is moving to Paris. We were able to toast her success and wish her well.

Less good news came from two others. One is splitting from her husband after thirty five years. Another after just becoming a grandmother which she was thrilled about finds that baby’s father is leaving her daughter. Newly retired and a divorcee herself she was settling down to enjoy her lively hobbies and interests and now she is faced with helping her daughter over the shock of the separation. Naturally both were eager to talk about their troubles so there wasn’t much book discussion. Hopefully this discussion was therapeutic.

In the midst of all this I was reluctant to share the surprise news that our elder daughter is to marry again( her second marriage ) next year.

Still the next meeting saw a former member re-join. She had left to look after grandchildren while her daughter was treated for cancer. She was also able to say her daughter’s treatment had been successful and , as she put it “I’ve got my life back”