Voyage of Darwin’s Beagle (2012)
Voyage of Darwin’s Beagle
2012Beagle: In Darwin’s Wake is a commemoration of 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s book “On The Origin of Species”. Almost 180 years after Charles Darwin’s journey circumnavigating the world, a crew of authors, artists, and scientists follow in his footsteps. Journalist and presenter Lex Runderkamp, biologists Dirk Draulans and Sarah Darwin (who is the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin), the artist Anthony Smith and the writer Redmond O’Hanlon are accompanied by a number of invited guests whose backgrounds are compatible with the theme of each of the 8 episodes. The series was initiated by the Dutch-Flemish state broadcaster VPRO. The crews 8 month long voyage on board of the clipper Stad Amsterdam began from the English port of Plymouth on September 1, 2009 and traced the route of the HMS Beagle’s 5 year voyage (1831-1836).
Seasons & Episode
The first episode visits Tenerife of Canary Islands and Cape Verde while crossing the Atlantic ocean to Salvador da Bahia in South America. The narration is interlaced with quotes read from Darwin’s The Beagle Diary.
When Darwin set foot in Rio de Janerio he witnessed the brutality of slavery. Brazil is a melting pot of genetic diversity. All fossil and genetic evidence points that Africa is the home continent where modern Humans originated about 200 thousand years ago. As Humans spread and colonized new continents genetic diversity eroded gradually proportional to the distance away from Africa. Loss of genetic diversity was because of joint effects of two well understood genetic phenomena known as population bottleneck and founding events.
Darwin had some damning statements about Fuegans contrasting with his contemporary co-discoverer of the theory of evolution Alfred Russel Wallace who had a huge respect to people he met both in the Amazons and Malay Archipelago. Meeting with savage Fuegans made Darwin thought that Humans are no different from other animals whose actions are constrained by nature.
The crew of Stad Amsterdam visits a few of the remaining glaciers on the southern tip of South America and reflects on the geology of Andes mountain range. Reduction in mass balance of glaciers is a worrying trend reported by glaciologists. The episode also covers problems associated with salmon farms in Chili.
The Galapagos islands has been a pivotal single location where everything came together in Darwin’s mind. The geology of the archipelago and almost every species (Tortoises, iguanas, finches) he observed on each island showed significant variation.
Beagle: In Darwin’s Wake is a commemoration of 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s book “On The Origin of Species”. Almost 180 years after Charles Darwin’s journey circumnavigating the world, a crew of authors, artists, and scientists follow in his footsteps. Journalist and presenter Lex Runderkamp, biologists Dirk Draulans and Sarah Darwin (who is the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin), the artist Anthony Smith and the writer Redmond O’Hanlon are accompanied by a number of invited guests whose backgrounds are compatible with the theme of each of the 8 episodes. The series was initiated by the Dutch-Flemish state broadcaster VPRO. The crews 8 month long voyage on board of the clipper Stad Amsterdam began from the English port of Plymouth on September 1, 2009 and traced the route of the HMS Beagle’s 5 year voyage (1831-1836).