Back in 2007 my family and I had the good fortune to visit the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria during its exhibition of artifacts from the Titanic. The exhibit was, without fear of hyperbole, extraordinary. Through the masterful curatorial skills with which the exhibition was planned, designed, and presented, the entire historic portrait of the Titanic, including the events of the voyage, sinking, and aftermath, was brought into clear focus for myself, my wife, and our then seven-year-old daughter. Although each of us had not only considerably different levels of interest in the subject, not to mention widely differing amounts of previous knowledge about it, we all came away from it with a better understanding of what had occurred, why, and its historical importance. Due to its multi-layered and highly effective style of presentation, memories of this marvelous exhibition were brought quickly to mind during my recent reading of John van Wyhe’s The Darwin Experience: The Story of the Man and His Theory of Evolution. Read the rest of this entry »