It is Charles Darwin's birthday. Darwin was recently my pick as the Greatest Briton , and the scientific revolution the man founded becomes more important by the day. In this letter to the Times (via Andrew Sullivan ), a group of extremely eminent scientists declare that February 12 should be declared a public holiday in his honour. I can only agree, although I suspect it will not happen.

Personally, as an Australian I take quite a bit of pride that we have an important city named after Darwin. I cannot think of any other city in the world named after a scientist.