Darwin's Birthday Bash!

We're back from vacation (Vermont, snow, fun) and gearing up for the Year of Darwin. Ooooh, the possibilities.

First up, announcing our Darwin Birthday Bash for Kids, Adults, Families and Friends!
Sunday, February 15, 2009, 2 to 5 pm
Charlie's Playhouse studio in Pawtucket, RI.

We'll have live music (fiddlers), fun evolution games, door prizes, demonstrations of how we make our Giant Timelines, a champagne/sparkling cider toast, tasty food and yes, a cake with 200 candles. Best of all, we hear that Darwin himself and Capt. FitzRoy are planning to come, fresh off the Beagle, to talk about their adventures and debate the origins of life. Should be a fun and festive afternoon for kids and adults!

If you live in the area and are interested in coming, please contact me, Kate, at kmiller@charliesplayhouse.com.

Invite is coming soon...

Count 'em: three new kids books about Darwin!

2009, the big Darwin Year, just keeps getting better. So far we have worldwide celebrations, a major motion picture and now three new books for kids about Darwin to be released quite soon:

One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin Kathryn Lasky, illus. by Matthew Trueman. Candlewick. Ages 7–12. Release date January 13, 2009.

The True Adventures of Charley Darwin Carolyn Meyer. Harcourt. Ages 12-up. Release January 2009.

Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith Deborah Heiligman. Holt. Ages 12–up. Release date December 23, 2008.

I've pre-ordered the whole lot on Amazon and can't wait to take a look. I'll let you all know how we like them when they arrive. Until then, Publishers' Weekly reviews all three here (scroll down a bit for the Darwin section).

BONC #3: Devil Frog!

How big can frogs get? You've seen those cute little green guys that hop around,right? Maybe you've also seen some big toads or bullfrogs, who usually look really serious and croak a lot. And maybe you've even seen the biggest frog alive, the Goliath Frog that lives in southern Africa and can grow to be up to a foot long from nose to rear.

Well, get ready for something even bigger, people. A recently dug-up fossil in Madagascar reveals a frog nearly a foot and a half long from nose to rear! It would have been about as long as your family cat and way fatter, weirder and uglier.

It is named -- believe it or not -- Beelzebufo*, which means Devil Frog. Agghh! Watch out for the Devil Frog! Thankfully it lived 65-70 million years ago, so the family cat, along with the rest of us, is safe.

You can read more about Devil Froggie here, or check out the original scientific report of it here.

*Maybe it's pronouced bee-zul-BOO-fo. Or maybe bay-EL-zeh-boo-fo. Personally I like that first way. It's funnier.

Mind-blowing crabs

Let's do an experiment. First, we'll take your basic group of crabs crawling around in the sea. Next we'll find an isolated island in the South Pacific with a variety of ecosystems. Finally, we'll sprinkle our crabs around the island and let them survive and reproduce in their new environments. After say, a few million years, voila! We'll have a mind-blowing variety of crabs.

Nobody started this experiment on the island of Espiritu Santo several million years ago, but they may as well have. A 2006 biodiversity expedition found about 10,000 species new to science, including this astonishing parade of well-dressed crabs. I have fallen instantly in love with these little guys.

To read more about the crabs, the island and the expedition, go here.

An all-around great day

Last Saturday I filled my car with Giant Timelines, Creature Cards and high hopes. I was on my way to Harvard to hear Dale McGowan speak (this year's Harvard Humanist of the Year), attend his parenting seminar and maybe sell some Charlie's Playhouse stuff.

It turns out that humanists LOVE Darwin and evolution and also -- hey guess what -- their kids! This is all good for Charlie's Playhouse and the future or our dear country. In the end I made some great contacts, learned a bunch about sane parenting, moved some product, and ended the day sharing a couple of beers with Dale, his wife Rebecca, Greg Epstein (Harvard's Humanist Chaplain), and various other delightful people.

Thanks to all for a terrific day.

BONC #2: The bat with some answers

Barnyard of Old New Critters (BONC) #2

Ok, kids, tell me what you know about bats. Yes, they're mammals, good. No, they aren't really vampires. Yes, they fly really well. And how do they fly so well? Yes, they have superfantastic EARS!

Ah, the bat's ear. Let's try a simple experiment. You'll need a friend for this. First, close your eyes and sing any song out loud. After a little while, your friend can put his or her hand up a few inches away from your mouth. Can you hear the difference between when the hand is there and when it's not? You just "saw" your friend's hand using only your ears!

That's how bats do it. They squeak with their mouths and then listen with their huge ears to "see" things and avoid crashing into them as they fly. Their ears have a bunch of complicated and special bones that let them do this.

So here's the question. Which came first in bats: being able to fly, or being able to "see" with their ears? Bats started out as land creatures that evolved over millions of years to be able to fly. But when did those special ears come, before or after they could fly? Scientists have been fistfighting over this question for years.

Well, a this newly discovered fossil of a bat that lived 52 million years ago has the answer. This critter had the wings and muscles of a flying creature, but the legs and shape of a land animal. It's called Onychonycteris (I don't know how to say it either), and it's one of the very first bats ever.

And - aha! - Onychonycteris did NOT have those special ear bones. So the answer is: first bats evolved flight, and then they evolved the ability to "see" with their ears.

So here's my next question. If they could fly before they could "see," weren't they crashing into things all the time? Maybe Onychonycteris had really good eyesight instead (they can't tell about its eyes from the fossil.) Or maybe it was just really clumsy. Maybe other animals had to watch out for crazy Onychonycterises always bashing into them. Duck!

Finally! Darwin's life in movie form

Hooray, they're actually doing it -- they're making a big fancy movie about Darwin's life!

It's scheduled to be released sometime in 2009 to coincide with Darwin's birthday year, and stars Paul Bettany as Darwin and Jennifer Connolly as his wife/cousin/true love/deeply religious nuisance. You might remember this couple from "A Beautiful Mind," where they met on set and later married. Ah, Hollywood gossip, the best kind.

It's a UK production. I only hope it will come across the pond and be shown widely here. Or maybe the US distribution companies will shy away, just like the toy companies. Well, the distribution and box office of this movie will be interesting to follow, anyway. Must start reading Variety....

And here's my one gripe. The movie focuses on Darwin's ideas about God and how they affected his family relationships. This is terrific, deep, character-driven territory. But I wish it were instead about the voyage of the Beagle. That story also covers terrific, deep, character-driven territory AND it has raucous adventure, vast natural landscapes, boistrous sailors and soldiers, a fiery ship's captain, visits with native Queens, three people who had been kidnapped from Tierra del Fuego and were "civilized" in England, and oh man, so much more. What a story.

Darwin-a-gogo in 2009

2009 is a big year for we fans of Charles Darwin. It's the 200th anniversary of his birth (Feb. 12th) and 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species."

Darwin Day celebrations and are being planned all over the world. I am drawn to the fiesty, festive ones, like these two:

Evolutionpalooza! is a grand birthday party for Darwin at the San Francisco Public Library on Feb. 2nd. It promises games, food, speakers, a scholarship award and a possible appearance by Darwin himself. This event wins for the most evolved graphic:








The Darwin's 200th Birthday Celebration at the UCSD Faculty Club on Feb. 12th includes this fabulous dinner menu: "Evolution wine, primordial ooze soup, finch with Barbara McClintock's jumping gene corn stuffing, Mendel's peas and lava pie for dessert." After dinner is a concert by The Galapagos Mountain Boys, who will serenade guests with some country pickin' about evolution.

Wish I had a travel budget.