This one goes out to all the folks in the New York area, or anyone who will be visiting within the next six months. As reported over on LiveScience:

Darwin on Display: Museum to Showcase Evolution Amid Controversy

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In 1837, Charles Darwin sketched a stick-figure tree in a page of Notebook B, one of many private notebooks in which he worked out the details of a new theory he was developing. The tree had spindly branches and a single root labeled with the number "1."

Scrawled at the top of the page, in Darwin's cursive handwriting, are the words "I think."

Notebook B will be one of many items on display in "Darwin," a new exhibit opening on Nov. 19 at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York.

"Darwin" will be the most comprehensive exhibit ever mounted on the British naturalist, whose ideas transformed biology and sparked a religious debate that is playing out in courtrooms, statehouses and school board meetings across the United States.

This is a fantastic opportunity to touch history, and see how the events and ideas of the past have had such an impact on modern times. As ABC News says:

That five-year voyage [on the HMS Beagle] would change the course of Darwin's life and ours. It was on that trip that Darwin collected the specimens and took the notes that were the underpinnings of his theory of evolution by natural selection, the foundation of modern biology.

With all the brainless hullabaloo surrounding the latest swelling of the creationists' "Intelligent Design" movement, it's nice to remember that many years ago an observant man made a few clever connections between disparate phenomena, and helped to build a solid base for every biological science since. We know it gives us chills (good ones) thinking about the multitude of accomplishments that were achieved by expanding and developing Darwin's hypotheses — just like it gives us chills (not-so-good ones) to think about the troglodytes who are trying to turn back the clock and erase all we've learned to curry favor with a bunch of deluded nutjobs and/or their imaginary friend. From LiveScience:

The exhibit opens at a time when the country is once again embroiled in a debate over evolution and its place in public education.

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With "Darwin," the American Museum of Natural History is coming down squarely on the side of science and evolution. The exhibit presents ID not as the scientific theory that it claims to be, but as just another form of creationism.

Bravo, AMNH! We feel that all schools should be encouraged to send their students off to the "Darwin" exhibit on field trips, so they can get an education on how much the world owes to Darwin and the countless scientists who took his ideas and ran with them.

The exhibit will be running in New York through May 29th, and then sets off on tour through Boston, Chicago, Toronto, London and elsewhere. Check the American Museum of Natural History's website for more details. We'll guarantee you we'll be checking out the exhibit ourselves, and we'll report anything of interest.

I used to intern at the AMNH. Two years ago, I worked in the exhibition dept, watching everything being built. I did survey studies to find out how much the public knew about Darwin. Not much, apparently. The new exhibit is wonderful.

Well, the fact that about half of Americans don't "believe" in evolution is a pretty big clue to the rest of us that those people know next to nothing about what evolution really is. You seem to have experienced that first hand, which must have been pretty disheartening.

We haven't made the trip to see the exhibit yet — damned Northeast weather — but we absolutely will see it before it's gone.