Prof Alice Roberts - Chaos of Delight

To celebrate Prof Alice Roberts' RI Christmas Lectures in 2018, we dug into the archives.
On the 28th February 1832, as he voyaged on the Beagle, Charles Darwin wrote in his diary of the experience of being in a Brazilian rainforest. He wrote, "The delight one experiences in such times bewilders the mind, if the eye attempts to follow the flight of a gaudy butter-fly, it is arrested by some strange tree or fruit; if watching an insect one forgets it in the stranger flower it is crawling over, if turning to admire the splendour of the scenery, the individual character of the foreground fixes the attention. The mind is a chaos of delight, out of which a world of future and more quiet pleasure will arise".
To us, it is one of Darwin's most beautiful passages and when interviewing over 150 people for The Incomplete Map of the Cosmic Genome, we asked most of our guests when they had experienced such a 'Chaos of Delight'. Here is Professor Fay Dowker talking about her experiences.
Most of these mini-episodes have previously only been available to Cosmic Genome subscribers, some have never ever been seen before, but now we are releasing them here on Cosmic Shambles. Enjoy.
To more videos, podcasts and live events for curious people check out
cosmicshambles....
To find out more about how to support the Cosmic Shambles Network and help us keep making great content, click here:
/ bookshambles

[@NeonsStyleHD]

One of the other things Darwin did while in Brazil was go hunting indigenous people. He thought it was good sport, according to his book The Voyage of HMS Beagle. Not really the nice old fellow we imagined him to be.

[@cosmicshambles]

To say he 'hunted' them is a little disingenuous. To say however that some of his writings and such were rather problematic by today's evolved standards is certainly accurate, but it's also worth pointing out he was very much anti-slavery which was rare at the time.

[@NeonsStyleHD]

@@cosmicshambles I don't think so. He did do that. I understand British attitudes were quite different to today, however I see no reason to shy from the truth.

[@cosmicshambles]

@@NeonsStyleHD Not attempting to shy from the truth at all, just trying to add some context.

[@NeonsStyleHD]

@@cosmicshambles I understand the context. :) It was a very different time, and thank god we don't think that way any more. Still, a very great man!

[@NeonsStyleHD]

@Hal Landy Agree on points 1 and 2 though I think its pretty clear what our descendants will critcise us for.