Krulwich on Quammin on Darwin

[urbpan]

I just listened to the podcast of "Hmmmm..." the horribly named but otherwise pretty good science feature from NPR. In it I learned that David Quammen (my favorite science journalist) is writing a book about Darwin. I'm not sure if I should be excited about this or disappointed. I think Quammen's best writing is travel and experience based--the stuff he writes based on written research can be kind of dull. But anyway, the reason I bring it up is this quote, describing what the pre-Darwin theory of why living things live where they are (why there are only kangaroos in Australia for example):

"God created every species individually, and put them down wherever they are. I call that 'Special Creation, plus Special Delivery.'"

Cross-posted.

Comments

[droserary.livejournal.com]

I love David Quammen. And you're right. The parts of Song of the Dodo in which he goes on an on about Darwin are the most boring. And he openly admits he's no expert on Darwin. This is one of his books I'll plan to skip, unless I'm really bored.