How a sociologist channels his inner Darwin

I last visited the American Museum of National History about 20 years ago. I went to see a Darwin exhibit that had just opened. An image used on the museum merch stuck with me:

Tree of Life: the first-known sketch by Charles Darwin of an evolutionary tree describing the relationships among groups of organisms

This image, plastered on t-shirts, coffee mugs, and posters, is a rendering of a famous drawing Darwin made in 1837 after returning from his trip to the Galapagos Islands on the H.M.S. Beagle. According to the Museum of Natural History:

“This drawing, with the most ancient forms at the bottom and their descendants branching off irregularly along the trunk, reveals that Darwin understood all plants and animals are related. Above his tree Darwin wrote firmly, ‘I think.’”

The image then and now symbolized a heroic (and admittedly naive) image of scientific progress and human excellence. I imagine this solitary, socially awkward human being, armed with curiosity and a collection of observations, stumbling and groping about, looking for an explanation, and eventually conjuring up one of the most consequential ideas in human history. I think…

It’s naive because modern science generally works within a communal, collaborative framework. The solitary genius is a bit of a…