Scientists' Inspirations As They Tell It
Darwin wasn't all ships, and biology, and empirical notes on science, he also appreciated the arts, especially music, at least he did before he wrote: "the musical department of my brain atrophied". J.F. Derry wrote in the science history journal Endeavor, how Darwin's wife Emma influenced the famous scientist, in "Bravo Emma! Music in the life and work of Charles Darwin" 1. Apparently Mrs. Darwin played the piano nightly, recitals that Mr. Darwin enjoyed while "lying quietly on the sofa". But her musical influence went beyond that. The article describes how the music perhaps even helped mold Darwin's take on evolution. Darwin wrote in one letter about "The Descent of Man".
"I conclude that musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex."
And As the Wives Tell It
However some might tell the story of who influenced who in the Darwin family differently. Britain appointed Scottish poet, playwright, and creative director of Manchester Metropolitan University's writing school, Carol Ann Duffy, poet laureate last Friday. Duffy wrote in her collection, "The World's Wife", about women's roles and contributions to famous men. Duffy humorously chronicles, "the rage of women disappointed, discarded or overlooked by men", as the New York Times puts it, men such as Quasimodo and Rip Van Winkle. She characterizes the wives of real men too. Her poem "Darwin's Wife" (via NYT) goes like this:
7 April 1852
Went to the Zoo
I said to him -- Something
about that chimpanzee over
there
reminds me of you
Duffy holds the post that for the 341 previous years the job had been held by men, men such as Geoffrey Chaucer, Lord Alfred Tennyson, William Wordsworth and Ted Hughes.
1Endeavor, March, 2009: doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2009.01.005
