WorldWide Telescope Ambassadors. — Citizen Science Central. The preservation of favoured traces. We often think of scientific ideas, such as Darwin's theory of evolution, as fixed notions that are accepted as finished.
In fact, Darwin's On the Origin of Species evolved over the course of several editions he wrote, edited, and updated during his lifetime. The first English edition was approximately 150,000 words and the sixth is a much larger 190,000 words. In the changes are refinements and shifts in ideas — whether increasing the weight of a statement, adding details, or even a change in the idea itself. The second edition, for instance, adds a notable “by the Creator” to the closing paragraph, giving greater attribution to a higher power. In another 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.
Bird Identification Skills, Birding Basics, Bird I, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. With more than 800 species of birds in the U.S. and Canada, it’s easy for a beginning bird watcher to feel overwhelmed by possibilities.
Field guides seem crammed with similar-looking birds arranged in seemingly haphazard order. We can help you figure out where to begin. First off: where not to start.