Science is fluid. Like everything else it progresses and evolves. Even Darwin’s On the Origin of Species transformed over the course of several editions.
For example, “the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ — usually considered central to the theory and often attributed to Darwin — instead came from British philosopher Herbert Spencer, and didn’t appear until the fifth edition of the text.”
Ben Fry, director of Seed Visualization, a design laboratory focused on understanding complex data, has created a guide to show “the unfolding and clarification of Darwin’s ideas as he sought to further develop his theory during his lifetime.” On top of being interesting, it’s also really cool to look at.
(Note: it may take a moment. As Ben states, “Darwin waited twenty years before writing his book. You can wait a minute for it to download.” More on the project here.)
