NSF's "The Evolution of Evolution"

The National Science Foundation has announced the opening ot their Evolution of Evolution site. According to the press release,

Going wide and deep, Evolution of Evolution: 150 Years of Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” provides a uniquely sweeping, at-a-glance explanation of how “Origin” cut an intellectual swath through anthropology, biology, the geosciences, polar sciences and even astronomy, and why it likely will continue to serve as the organizing framework for the sciences into perpetuity.

I’ve not yet gone through the site exhaustively, but I see a number of interesting parts. For example, there’s an interview with Ron Numbers on the impact and interaction of the theory of evolution with astronomy, a nice touch that reminds us that Numbers is an historian of science, not merely of creationism. And it was nice to see David DeVorkin give a shout out in his interview to George Darwin, Charles’ son, who wielded a significant influence on the conception of stellar dynamics in the late 19th and early 20th century. There were more Darwins than just Charles.

I have two minor objections. First, I’m afraid that the ‘silent movie’ conceit in the video interviews might get a little old after the fourth or fifth iteration. And second, the titles/links to video and audio interviews are in ant print, and the whole site seems to be in Flash format, making the text non-magnifiable. Ctrl+ fails. Us old folks will have some trouble with that.

Nevertheless, I recommend it heartily.