Calendar Corner (1): Daffodils for St David's Day

Above: Daffodils at Middleton, The National Botanic Garden of Wales
Below: The Alfred Wallace Garden, Middleton

1 March is St David's Day here in Wales. The National Botanic Garden celebrated with daffodils, national costumes - and a live Service of Sunday Worship on BBC Radio 4. The theme was 'Journey into Seeing: Observing Lent through the Senses'. The preacher was Dr Anne Richards and Cor Caerfyrddin provided the music.

The Wallace Garden has always intrigued me. It looks a bit bare at this time of year, but I chose this photograph because, unlike my summer views with lots of flower and foliage, you can see the intertwining structure of the double helix DNA path.

• Previous posting on poets, Padel and Cluysenaar, with science-orientated collections.
• A poem in DNA?
  

Poetry Matters (3): Darwin: science 'versus' poetry

I have been planning for some days to write about Darwin and the developing debate along the lines of the intrinsic weightings of science as opposed to poetry. Thankfully I have been pipped to the post by Professor David Morley of the University of Warwick.

There has been much talk about the 250th anniversary of the publication of The Origins of the Species, but far less media coverage (or so it seems to me) concerning the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, 12 February 2009. The latter event has not been completely overshadowed, however: Americans at the University of Arizona marked the scientist's birthday with ... poetry.

Britain also had his celebrations: Ruth Padel, great great granddaughter of Charles Darwin, was taking part in a poetry and science event at Somerset House on 9 February. Her latest book, Darwin: a Life in Poems has just been published. I am grateful to my friend, Mary, for pointing out that Melvyn Bragg has been doing a major radio series on Darwin (In our Time, BBC Radio 4): take a look at the website.

• God and Evolution by R.J. Berry (a scientist's view from a Christian persepctive)
• Prince Charles on Darwin Trail (Galapagos)
  
• Blog for Darwin (site of the forthcoming Blog Carnival)
• Darwin 2009, Cambridge
• BBC Darwin Season
• Mathematical Poetry ... 7 steps forward
• Horniman Museum Photography Competition (Darwin related)
• British Science Association Events 2009: in many regions of Britain
• Mslexia 2009 Poetry Competition. Judge: Ruth Padel