Episode 4: Charles Darwin and The Pancake

What do Charles Darwin and a Pancake have in common?? Not the start of a bad joke but today in fact is what they share. Today is both the celebration of the father of modern Biology and of the humble pancake;

-          Tuesday 12^th February 13

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) – ‘Shrove’ means being forgiven for wrongdoings and traditionally people would go to Church to confess their sins before Lent which starts the next day (Ash Wednesday). As Lent is a religious fasting period all luxury foods such as Eggs, Milk and sugar are to be abstained from and pancakes are the perfect way to use them up!

In France and USA they call it Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) which you would think has nothing to do with anything except eating which they’re both great at. Actually though it is the pre-reformation term used for the day in which all the yummy fatty foods are eaten up before lent.

For a personal touch, this is my pancake, which is in fact a pancake-imposter known as a Crêpe, if we’re using the correct nomenclature. As you can see, I like the ‘roll it up, slice it up, eat it up’ procedure.

Shrove Tuesday can fall anywhere between 3^rd Feb-9^th March as it falls exactly 47 days before Easter Sunday and Easter is calculated upon the cycles of the moon. This year it has a happy coincidence of falling on Darwin Day! So we can all celebrate being geeks and getting fat!

Darwin Day – ‘is a global celebration of science and humanity’. It promotes a deeper sense of respect and appreciation of all life and to promote a common bond among all peoples on earth.

Specifically, it celebrates the life and achievements of Charles Darwin, possibly the only naturalist, in my eyes, to be as impressive as David Attenborough in describing scientific concepts to the world. He wrote ‘On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’ in 1859 with over 20 years of documented research.

Even though he gave rise to understanding the importance of genetics in natural selection he chose to marry his first cousin, nonetheless his lifetime contribution to science is unrivalled. One could write multiple theses on Charles Darwin so read more about him and his day here; http://darwinday.org/about/ and spend just a few moments today whilst enjoying your pancakes appreciating the beginning of understanding life.

Finally,

You’re wondering why my ‘episodes’ (sounds like I’m mentally unsound...) went 1, 2, 3a then 4... where’s 3b??  Coming up!