{"id":138,"date":"2007-01-19T06:53:17","date_gmt":"2007-01-19T10:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=138"},"modified":"2008-08-05T11:39:50","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T15:39:50","slug":"darwin-and-sexual-jokes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=138","title":{"rendered":"Darwin and sexual jokes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Darwin day<\/a> is coming up next month. And serving as a precursor of sorts, a rare orchid Darwin had connections to is blooming and on display here in Florida. Darwin had made a prediction about long moth tongues that was proven true after his death: the Predicted Moth<\/a>. The orchid is at Selby Gardens<\/a> and the story is in the Herald Tribune<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SARASOTA — As a seductress, it’s the plant world’s equal to Marilyn Monroe or Angelina Jolie.<\/p>\n

But the Comet Orchid, now blooming at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, is loyal to only one. And her pollinator must be well-endowed to drink her nectar.<\/p>\n

When Charles Darwin discovered this orchid, found only on the west coast of Madagascar, he predicted one day entomologists would find a moth with an 18-inch-long tongue.<\/p>\n

The prediction was the stuff of sexual jokes, and Darwin got the reputation for being daft.<\/p>\n

Darwin was proved correct about 40 years after he died, when a Madagascar moth was discovered with just such a tongue. Its Latin name means the predicted moth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Darwin day is coming up next month. And serving as a precursor of sorts, a rare orchid Darwin had connections to is blooming and on display here in Florida. Darwin had made a prediction about long moth tongues that was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-2e","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1494,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1494","url_meta":{"origin":138,"position":0},"title":"Darwin Day","author":"Jonathan Smith","date":"February 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I had written a Op Ed for one of the Florida Newspapers entitled \"Do We Need Darwin\" which they agreed to publish. However on Thursday last I recievd a e-mail from them stating that they wanted\u00c2\u00a0sole rights to the article and I was not allowed to republish all, or any\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":833,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=833","url_meta":{"origin":138,"position":1},"title":"New Scientists’ top 10 evolution stories","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"New Scientist published a list of the magazine's top 10 stories about evolution. How trees changed the world Reclaiming the peppered moth for science Uncovering the evolution of the bacterial flagellum Evolution: What missing link? Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions Rewriting Darwin: The new non-genetic inheritance The Ordivician: Life's second\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":900,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=900","url_meta":{"origin":138,"position":2},"title":"Happy Birthday, Mr. Darwin","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"-- The Miami Herald says happy birthday to Charles Darwin: Biologists know that Darwin is still relevant. His theories regarding natural selection have been proved right in experiments and by scientists all over the world. For example, he couldn't figure out why male peacocks had such extravagant tail feathers, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":147,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=147","url_meta":{"origin":138,"position":3},"title":"Darwin Day","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Darwin Day is coming up. You can check out the list for possible events near you. Several churches appear to be participating the Evolution Sunday project. There's quite a celebration planned at Flamingo Gardens for anyone who's interested. Come join us in celebrating the birthday of Charles Darwin and his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":259,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=259","url_meta":{"origin":138,"position":4},"title":"UF professor hits the road with Darwin","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A University of Florida professor has been honored with the title \"visiting scholar\" and will be touring campuses giving lectures about Darwin. The talks will apparently be open to the public. A University of Florida professor is preparing to become a \"road warrior,\" heading across the U.S. to preach the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":579,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=579","url_meta":{"origin":138,"position":5},"title":"Scientist “expelled” for giving speech about evolution … on Darwin Day?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure why it took this long to see news on the subject. Maybe I just happened to miss it when it happened, or the folks responsible were good at keeping it under wraps. But, apparently, back in February a scientist was set to give a speech about evolution,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 21 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 21 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=579#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}