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Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, and biologist. He is known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection. Wallace did extensive fieldwork, identified the faunal divide called the Wallace Line, and was considered the 19th century's leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species, leading some to call him the father of biogeography, or more specifically of zoogeography. An account of his adventures in Southeast Asia, titled The Malay Archipelago, was published in 1869. He worked on warning coloration in animals, and on reinforcement, a way that natural selection could contribute to speciation by encouraging barriers against hybridisation. He was also a social activist, critical of the social and economic system of 19th-century Britain. He was one of the first prominent scientists to raise concerns over the environmental impact of human activity. (Full article...)

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Skull in Ye Olde White Harte

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... that after a lifetime of feeling undervalued, Nergisî gained the appreciation of the Ottoman sultan and was sent to the front as a chronicler, only to fall from his horse and die on his way?
... that a Washington state radio station turned to "professional bikini watchers"—military recruiters—to report on crowds at local beaches?
... that Ephraim E. Lisitzky wrote an epic poem in Hebrew based on Native American legends?
... that the Paul Delvaux Museum exhibits not only Paul Delvaux's paintings, but also a collection of model trains?
... that Chinese physician Gao Ruona's son, son-in-law, and student all served as editors at the Song government's Bureau for Editing Medical Texts?
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In the news

Michael Smith

Michael Smith (pictured) wins the PDC World Darts Championship.
Croatia adopts the euro and joins the Schengen Area.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI dies at the age of 95.
Brazilian footballer Pelé dies at the age of 82.
A winter storm causes record-breaking low temperatures and leaves more than 100 people dead across North America.

On this day

January 8

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

1198 – Lotario dei Conti was elected as Pope Innocent III; he later worked to restore papal power in Rome.
1889 – American statistician Herman Hollerith received a patent for his electromechanical tabulating machine for punched-card data.
1936 – Reza Shah issued the Kashf-e hijab decree, ordering Iranian police to remove hijabs from any women in public.
1991 – Jeremy Wade Delle killed himself in his high-school class in Richardson, Texas, an event that inspired the Pearl Jam song "Jeremy".

Athelm (d. 926)
Fanny Bullock Workman (b. 1859)
David Bowie (b. 1947)

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Today's featured picture

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light-years away from Earth. The combined action of the light from the massive star ionizing and compressing the rim of the cloud, and the wind from the young stars shifting gas from the center outward led to very high compression in the nebula. This pressure has triggered the current generation of protostars. This photograph of the Elephant's Trunk Nebula was taken with a 127 mm (5.0 in) refracting telescope.

Photograph credit: Chuck Ayoub

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