On April 1 a sand-sculpture competition was held at Tottori Dunes in Japan. The theme was “Great Britain.” Among the amazing artworks was one of Darwin and Newton by Karen Fralich of Canada (photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe):
Chuck looks a little “off” in a way I can’t quite discern, but it’s impressive nonetheless. Go here to see many more photos.
Quiz: in what other way was Darwin involved with sand?
h/t for photos: Matthew Cobb
Do you mean his daily walk on Down’s “Sand Path”?
It was actually call “The Sandwalk,” and I’ve traversed it many times. You can see pictures here. And of course that’s where Larry Moran got the title of his website.
At least I was along the right lines Jerry; I have also walked the path – it is a magical experience each and every time. I don’t think it was ever called “Sandwalk”, “Sand walk” nor “Sand-walk” by CD himself. Nora Barlow, Francis Darwin and other biographers/editors refer to it thus.
I take the liberty of appending my calling card
http://unbound.co.uk/books/the-dissent-of-man/
I recant: there is one mention by CD of the “sand-walk”, not in his “autobiography”, but in a letter,
Darwin to Darwin, W. E. 9 May [1861]
“Tim has been staying here: he is a helpless fellow, he let the Pony loose in the Westerham Rd. & the pony came home across country in gallant style, jumping everything & cleared the Hurdles & Hedge into the sand-walk.”
http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-3145
I think it’s that Chuck always looks abstracted, inward or slightly sad.
He never appears that “forward looking” or resolute.
That has a hint Jean Luc Picard with a big beard.
He’s missing the prominent brow ridge.
He’s evolved?
Considering the nature of his internal problems … that’s less than surprising. Or perhaps he was just thinking of something interesting when posing for the multi-second-long exposures in 1860s photographs.
To me … that design of Darwin and Newton looks like it’s off the back of a Bank-of-England note. I don’t have any BoE notes in my pocket to check though, just BoScotland and Clydesdale.
Quiz: in what other way was Darwin involved with sand?
Ah, The Sandwalk.
I was going to suggest the question referred to the substance that filled many of his critic’s heads…
He probably got some in his boots in the Galapagos.
I find it very impressive that people can do this because it would seem to take a lot of time and patients to accomplish such a task.
“Patients?”
For cheap labour.
To mis-quote Dr Beanstalk-Giant, “I’ll grind your bones to make my sculptural sand!”
Sorry I mean “patience.”
The iconic image of old Darwin is en face. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him 3/4 like this, and I don’t actually recall any full profile pictures of him.
Perhaps that’s what’s ‘off’.
See comment above about one of the Bank of England notes.
I think his beard is somewhat longer than usual images show, but moreover it’s more squared-off, and that is probably for structural reasons (for the sculpture).
PS, how to they do this? For instance, what keeps his nose from falling off? Do they add anything to the sand?
PPS (sorry) That is probably exactly what Newton is wondering!
lol
I would appreciate your thoughts on this likeness please. Is it poor / reasonable / good, etc? It is a 17cm 1.5kg bust in Jesmonite. Any other comments?
http://jfderry.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/photo-17-07-2012-15-44-45.jpg?w=306&h=408
Thank you.
I think it’s recognizable as CD. At least, I think if I saw it without any cues / pre-commentary, I’d take it as Darwin.
That is encouraging thank you.
The Jesus’n’Mo Artist will be flattered that you’ve sculpted one of his minor recurring characters (Moses) along with one of his three main characters (the Barmaid).
Have you told him yet, or are you planning to send it to him in a box, with some random wires and an alarm clock?
Did Darwin imitate Moses? Or did Moses imitate Darwin (via ‘the Artist’)?
“In what other way was Darwin involved with sand?”
Is it where his detractors keep their heads?
+1!
“Chuck looks a little “off”. . .”
Maybe because he looks like Moses, which was my immediate thought when I looked at the picture.
The enlarged brow is missing. His face had deep lines radiating from the edges ofhis nose (at ~ 40 degrees.)
The beard is too long, too wide, and not scraggly at the bottom.
Sand walk.
This is somewhat down the road (i.e., a few hours) from where I used to live!
On an (un?)related note, it seems a Nature paper is reporting the discovery of a transitional fossil between “lizards and moder-day snakes”. http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/article3682986.ece?homepage=true
Reading … following up an incidental lead, and finding amusement in being asked for £12 to finish reading a letter about the financial problems of Open Access publishing for the independent or un-granted researcher.
Returning to topic … the snake-lizard paper isn’t in this week’s number.
Last week’s … includes the summary
Which implies that “the land of the free” imposes limits on freedom of association for research assistants? Sounds odd ; and worrying. But moving on …
Ah, found it. In “Advanced Online Publication,” not in the normal line of publication.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature11227.html
Abstracting the abstract :
Still, another transitional fossil has split “God” into two sub-Gods, wedged deeper in the cracks of evolutionary history.
I hope I’ve got my HTML right ; but without a ‘Preview’ option … unless … that problem worked around.
Glad to see the Longrich et al. Coniophis paper mentioned here… The newly described fossils are limited in quality and quantity, but distinctly lizardy; the analysis and supp info is excellent (though you can still tell that supp files in Nature aren’t proofread), and I get a lot of cites in it.
I could add some criticisms, but this probably isn’t the place.
I don’t know: both the article and my Nature email subscription list it in the July 26 issue.
It was listed under “Advanced Online Publication” on my (no-longer) subscribed edition.
I see the “Sandwalk” comments above.
I raise you Darwin’s classical descriptions of fulgarites (lightning-strike fused-sand glass structures) from the pampas of Argentina, during one of his onshore jaunts.
Next arenaceous association of CD?
There’s even a comic by Jay Hosler:
http://www.jayhosler.com/Sandwalk.html