Out of Darwin's shadow
NUS brings to light works of the other Great Naturalist
Victoria Vaughan Straits Times 9 Oct 10;
HANDWRITTEN notebooks and publications from famed naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace will be made available to the public on a new website at no charge.
Wallace independently formulated the theory of evolution at about the same time as Charles Darwin.
Science historian John van Wyhe, of the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS), is amassing the work of Darwin's lesser-known contemporary with the help of an anonymous grant of $388,000 from an American donor.
Wallace is particularly relevant to Singapore.
He used the island city as his base during the eight years he spent in South-east Asia, studying its unique natural life. The pioneer naturalist, who was in the region between 1854 and 1862, spent some time in the Bukit Timah forest.
Dr van Wyhe said Wallace enthusiastically collected beetles 'while trying to avoid tigers growling in the forest, which were eating about a person a day during that time'.
Wallace's work, which is displayed at London's Natural History Museum, is largely inaccessible to students, scientists and the public elsewhere. Dr van Wyhe hopes to change that by putting it online.
When carrying out a study, academics must cite original work in footnotes, and the website aims to be the definitive and reliable source of Wallace's work.
Professor Peter Ng, director of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR), said: 'It's not easy to trace a particular document. To do that now, I have to get the British Museum to search for it.
'And if it's a historical document, I have to go to London myself. If all his works go online, it will be a tremendous boost for the study of science and history in Singapore.'
Prof Ng plans to house a permanent Wallace exhibition at Singapore's new Natural History Museum to be built in 2014. He is trying to raise $9 million for the new museum, which will be built at the NUS campus. It will replace the current cramped environs of the RMBR.
Wallace collected about 125,000 specimens from South-east Asia. The collection can be invaluable to climate change scientists, who can compare them to specimens of the same species today.
The work will be put online next year, and the website will be completed by 2013, on the 100th anniversary of the naturalist's death.
Fittingly, the anniversary will be observed in Singapore with an exhibition at the Science Centre. An international conference will also be hosted here.
However, Wallace's legacy is still a matter of debate.
Dr van Wyhe, who has studied Darwin for 10 years, said Wallace wrote an essay on the theory of evolution and sent it to Darwin.
The latter had come up with the theory 20 years earlier but had not published it then.
'Darwin discovered his theory of evolution in a dingy room in London after his travels in the Galapagos,' Dr van Wyhe said.
'Wallace was still in the jungle sweating in a malarial fever on the island of Ternate in the Molucca Isles near New Guinea when he made his discovery.'
In the end, the works of both men were published at the same time in 1858.
The reason Darwin got more attention, said Dr van Wyhe, was that he came up with the idea first. He also spent time lobbying the scientific community until the theory was widely accepted.
Dr van Wyhe authored a similar project on Darwin called Darwin Online in 2006.
The idea was sparked by an Internet search that revealed 'utter chaos and completely unreliable data' online.
Related links
Darwin online
