Check out this drawing, on the back of a page from the original manuscript of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The sheet will go on public display Monday as part of "A Voyage Round the World," a new exhibit at Cambridge University Library that will explore Darwin's experiences on the Beagle. (The library is reported to have another 23 sheets from the manuscript, and it's believed there are about 10 more out there.)
But there seems to be a bit of confusion over who drew the picture and whether the drawing, which library staff is said to be calling the "Battle of Vegetables," has been on display before. According to the Telegraph:

It is not known which of Darwin's 10 children drew the picture but it is thought the child would have been between eight and 10 years old.

A spokesman at Cambridge University said it was believed that this is the very first time the drawing had been put on display to the public.

Contrary to the stereotype of the dispassionate scientist, however, Darwin was a man to whom family and friends mattered profoundly, and many poignant objects in the exhibition remind us of his humanity. On the back of a rare manuscript page of the Origin, we find a drawing, "The Battle of the Fruit and Vegetable Soldiers," by Darwin's young son Francis.

There are just thirty or so of these original sheets in existence and the vast majority have a child's drawing on the back. It's quite amazing to think these priceless historical exhibits have only survived because of a child's drawings on the back. It demonstrates the importance of his family and brings it home that he surrounded himself with family, and friends, as he worked.

"Beautiful Science: Ideas that Changes the World," a new permanent exhibit at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, will open on November 1. The exhibit of books, manuscripts, illustrations, and scientific instruments will be divided into four galleries assembled by theme—astronomy, natural history, medicine, and light—and will showcase some of science's greatest achievements from such famous figures as Ptolemy, Copernicus, Newton, and Einstein. The focus of the Dibner Hall of the History of Science will be on the changing role of science over time and its influence on culture (the exhibit displays 250 copies of On the Origin of Species, for example, to convey the influence of Darwin's famous book), and it will highlight many of the discoveries that broadened our imaginations (such as those that caused us to rethink Earth's place in the heavens or how to understand the evolution of species). According to senior curator Daniel Lewis, the goal is to get people to think about "the beauty of science in an historical context—the elegant breakthroughs, the remarkable discoveries, and the amazing people and stories behind them." —Michele Calandra

Scientific exhibits using real human bodies as models have met with criticism before—in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, for example—but there's a different note in the reaction to the Body Worlds exhibit set to open June 13 in Edmonton, Alberta. Unlike the archbishop of Cincinnati, who nixed plans of Catholic schools in his diocese to see a similar exhibit, Edmonton's Archbishop Richard Smith has struck a somewhat more conciliatory note. While Smith stressed that these bodies "are not just an object to be gawked at as an object of curiosity, but to be honored," his archdiocese isn't telling parishioners not to visit the exhibit, and students in local Catholic schools may even see it on a field trip—provided they receive parental permission. —Dan Messier

"Darwin: The Evolution Revolution," an exhibit that originated at the American Museum of Natural History, found itself in some trouble when it arrived at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, where it opened last week. Turns out the museum's regular sponsors, which include both companies and private patrons, were worried about attaching their names to what they saw as a controversial show, reports the Toronto Star. That's when The United Church Observer magazine (which operates independently from the church) decided to offer up a donation of 40,000 dollars, its largest donation ever. The magazine will co-sponsor the exhibit with the Humanist Association of Canada, which donated 50,000 dollars. "We were dismayed to learn that the exhibit had been unable to secure corporate sponsorship in Toronto or in any of the other North American cities where it has been mounted. Our support is modest but symbolic. If a small church-based operation such as The Observer doesn't fear a backlash from those who oppose Darwin's theory of evolution, then secular corporate entities with much greater resources shouldn't fear it either," David Wilson, the magazine's editor and publisher, said in a press release.
"There is nothing in the exhibit that threatens or diminishes religion or people of faith in any way. If anything, it shines light on the inherent beauty and wonder of a creation that is constantly and eternally evolving," he added. "The Darwin exhibit deserves support, and we're not afraid to say so." —Heather Wax

Canadian journalist and art critic Robert Fulford has reviewed "Darwin: The Evolution Revolution," an exhibit that originated at the American Museum of Natural History and opened over the weekend at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Primarily, Fulford takes issue with the overly long wall text, specifically a sentence that calls Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection a "single, simple scientific explanation for the diversity of life on earth."
"Simple? Did they say simple?" he writes in the National Post. "It's possible that you can make it sound simple by glib summary. But its implications are the reverse of simple. They demand a leap of the imagination most of the world has always found extremely difficult. ... In the 1860s, when the world was first compelled to deal with him, his theory was terrifying, world-shaking, religion-threatening. It still raises furious controversy."
While he's somewhat taken with the life-size reproduction of the deck of Darwin's boat, the HMS Beagle, he's dismayed by an exhibit he feels "limps through its subject, barely hinting at the great audacity of Darwin's thinking. The exhibition provides great piles of data about Darwin and Darwinism but at no point demands thought or response from those who view it." Overall, he concludes, "the curators appear to believe that in 2008 evolution and everything connected with it have congealed into received wisdom, needing only to be articulated once more, in the style that museums have been using for at least half a century. Perhaps out of a belief that we couldn't deal with anything stronger, the exhibition gives us a cozy and harmless version of a painful, challenging idea that transformed science and the world." —Heather Wax

Scientists, theologians, and ethicists met last night to discuss the controversy surrounding the use of human cadavers in "Bodies: The Exhibition," currently at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Science Center. The debate focused on whether the exhibit's use of unidentified bodies from China was a dishonor to the dead or a useful educational tool. The 90-minute discussion was aired live on Pittsburgh's WQED TV station and can now be viewed online. —Dan Messier

Schools affiliated with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati have canceled their plans to offer field trips to "Bodies . . . The Exhibition" after the archbishop raised concerns about the exhibit in a memo to school administrators. In the memo, Archbishop of Cincinnati Daniel Pilarczyk wrote, "It seems to me that the use of human bodies in this way fails to respect the persons involved. Therefore, I do not believe that this exhibit is an appropriate destination for field trips by our Catholic schools." The exhibition uses the preserved remains of once-living people to offer visitors a realistic view of how the human body works. Protesters, however, continue to express concern over the manner in which the bodies were obtained. —Dan Messier

Several letters, as well as part of the fossil collection, of James Woodrow (President Woodrow Wilson's uncle) are now on display as part of the "Natural Curiosity" exhibit at the McKissick Museum in South Carolina. Woodrow, a scientist and theologian, was dismissed from the faculty of the Columbia Theological Seminary in 1884 because of his support and teaching of evolution, and his efforts to make peace between religion and science. —Heather Wax