I love me some Lincoln. And Darwin’s work was one of the first strong scientific ideas that really made me start thinking critically about my beliefs. So it’s weird that I almost made it through this whole day, the bicentennial of both of their births, without acknowledging it. (In fact I probably would have if I wasn’t reading my friends’ blog and suddenly realized the dozens of articles about Lincoln and Darwin I’d read today were not an odd coincidence.)

I’m not a huge celebrator of birthdays, but Darwin certainly demands a bit of recognition for the massive game-changing effect he had on modern science, and since we’re already at it we might as well toss a bit Lincoln’s way.