Clouds
Did you know that Jean-Baptiste Lamarck [Complete works][Short bio], a pioneer (though now much reviled*) evolutionist, also pioneered the concept of classifying clouds? Well, his classification never become popular though and the scheme in present usage (i.e. cirrus, cumulus,etc) was developed independently and almost simultaneously by Luke Howard [Luke Howard: The Man Who Named The Clouds(Keith Heidorn)]
- Check out the Met Office website for a fascinating description (with lots of photographs) of the modern cloud classification scheme.
- The US Post Service Cloudscape stamps
* = "Lamarck is the only major figure in the history of biology whose name has become, to all intents and purposes, a term of abuse" - C.H.Waddington in "The evolution of an evolutionist" (1975, p.38). This unfortunate status being in no small part due to the association with the infamous Trofim Denisovich Lysenko.
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posted @ 11:02 AM
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2 Comments:
Remember Audrey Tautou in 'Dirty Pretty Things'? She acted in another film - 'Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain'. In Montmartre, there's a street named for Lamarck and a metro station as well, where scenes for this film were shot. :-)
Yup, I've seen Amélie and in fact that is how I know of the divine existence of Audrey Tautou. Its interesting that you point out Lamarck's role in Amélie Poulain's fabulous destiny. Are you sure there wasnt a cafe or a box of matchsticks or even a pair of slippers in the movie that was named after Darwin? ;)
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