April 18 - Commemorations in Science

Posted on April 18, 2021

Key Points

This is an update of my post published on April 18, 2010

April 18, 1857 – Clarence Darrow born in Ohio, U.S.

Clarence Darrow was a lawyer, not a scientist, and his most famous case was defending a teacher, not a scientist.

So why is this a commemoration in science?

Well, Darrow was the lawyer who defended John Scopes in the famous “Monkey Trial” over the teaching of evolution in public high schools. A Tennessee law called the Butler Act was passed in 1925. This statute made it unlawful to teach any ideas about the origin of humanity other than “the Biblical account.”

And “the Biblical account” basically meant one particular interpretation of one particular translation of some very ancient writings – an interpretation adopted by only some of the practitioners of one particular sect of one particular religion!

Public schools are actually a part of the government – even in Tennessee. And the U.S. Constitution clearly states that, in this nation, there can be “no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In other words, the government and its institutions cannot favor one religion over another, or religion in general over lack of religion.

Mandating that public schools teach the beliefs of one particular version of Christianity as fact waaaayyyy breaks that rule.

Immediately some people began to plan to intentionally break the law to make sure that there would be a trial in which the law could be declared unconstitutional. A biology teacher named John Scopes was just doing his job when he taught evolution from the textbook that the state had mandated that he use, but he agreed to be a part of this test case, even though it would mean that he would be arrested. (He was never actually taken into custody, and the bail was paid by the owner of a newspaper.)

I read that a lot of people in the nation listened to the trial
on the radio, a lot read newspaper reports about the
trial (although I think that journalism was pretty un-trust-
worthy at that tie), and a lot of people actually went to Dayton,
Tennessee, where the trial was held!

Apparently so many people went to Dayton, there was a carnival
vibe to the town. There were even sideshows for visitors!

Clarence Darrow defended Scopes on several grounds. He lost the case but was able to win lots of points with large sections of the public, who listened to the trial on the radio and read reports about the trial in newspapers. When the case was appealed, the “guilty” verdict was set aside.

For older students, there is lots of information on the trial on this website.

Another article discusses the play and later movie inspired by the trial, Inherit the Wind. (The play and movie are very much *not* accurate portrayals of the trial, and were never intended to be. They are fiction that was inspired by the actual trial.)

If you want to know more about human evolution (part of what seemed to be on trial during the Scopes trial), check out these videos.

April 18, 1872 – Bernard O. Dodge born in Wisconsin, U.S.

Dodge was a botanist who pioneered research on heredity in fungi. He was the first to study sexual reproduction of common bread mold, Neurospora.

Hopefully, you are asking – wait, how DOES bread mold reproduce?
This diagram shows the structures of “eating” (absorbing nutrients)
and reproducing (making offspring, as in more bread mold).

April 18, 1955 – Albert Einstein dies in New Jersey, U.S.

Einstein was the German-born physicist who came up with some of the most important theories of the 20th Century, including the theory of relativity. For more on Einstein, check out this March posting.