The Bauer Confidential

I’m not very good at keeping this webpage updated.  This stems from many things, but mostly it is allocating time to write.  I like writing, I really do.  I struggle with it.  I was listening to a podcast, and the writer that was being interviewed put writers into two camps he called Mozart and Beethoven.  Mozart was a genius who thought in music.  He thought about it and constantly edited everything in his head.  By the time he got writing it down, it was basically a masterpiece.  Beethoven on the other hand, had to write everything down first, and his masterpieces came from constantly rewriting, editing, etc.   My writing style is more like the latter, with constant rewriting, revising, editing, etc.  The difference, my finished product takes more time per word written than the average writer, and it is never masterful.  This style may seem a bit tedious, but I find it enjoyable because unlike my occupation as a researcher, I see my final product (or the intermediate steps toward the final product) immediately.  I have to get over the first major hurdle (kind of like the activation energy for all of you chemistry geeks out there), which is I have to start writing.  Once I have a topic and I start, I can go on for hours and not notice.

_______

Now I got that out, let’s move on to a different topic: Nov 12.  It was Lincoln’s birthday, but it was also the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s Birthday, and the 150th anniversary of his publication “On the Origin of Species.”  As a scientist, and even more so as a molecular biologist, you would think that I’ve read this opus.  I have not, I am ashamed to admit.  I tried once when I was younger because I was told by a science professor how good of a writer Darwin was.  I didn’t make it too far before I put the book down and didn’t pick it up again.  Now that I am older and slightly wiser, and because I now have a much greater understanding of the evolutionary principle, I was going to go back and read it, but I discovered the “On the Origin of Species” audio book read by the famous evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.  Dawkins has a kind of monotone british accent that if I didn’t listen to it while actively doing something, might put me under.  Don’t listen to this while driving unless suicide by falling asleep at the wheel is your goal.

I just finished listening to the book a few days ago, and I am completely amazed by just how good of a scientist Darwin was.  He tackles issues like the difference between species, variations of the same species, etc. Remember, this book was published in 1859, thus no knowledge of the genetics of inheritance, and the definition of what a species was or variations in the same species, etc.. were hotly debated.  He had a great grasp of the nuances of what current naturalist thought.  Of course, he devotes a lot of time discussing the evidence he collected that his theory is based on, but he also devotes a good amount of time discussing the questions his theory proposes, and arguments against his theory (in which molecular biology has addressed a vast majority).  His intelligence and thought process are all right there, and I’m left very impressed.

Darwin made a very insightful hypothesis, and even he understood that his theory wasn’t complete, there where few exceptions, and his theory would become more complete and modify over time as various parts are tested and information about inheritance is discovered.  I find it ironic that his theory of evolution has experience dessent with modification, but the basic backbone is still there today.

I should actually read it, because while I’m running around the lab or in the gym I get distracted and I’m sure I missed some interesting parts, so after I finish my current book maybe I’ll try tackling “On the Origin of Species” again.

On a final note, for anyone whose feels the urge to start posting comments in an effort to debate his theory…STOP.  This post is not meant to begin a debate about evolution. I just wanted to point out that no matter what you think, Darwin was a damn fine scientist.