REVIEW

Evolution from Darwin to DNA on Show in Brazil

Mick Wycoff

Published online: 19 June 2008# Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008

Thanks to the work of its famous modernist architects,Brazil may have more than its share of famous museumbuildings; but until last year, the history of scienceexhibitions was close to nil. So, the resoundingly enthusi-astic response to Darwin in Saõ Paulo last May came as asurprise. The show, originating in 2005 at the AmericanMuseum of Natural History in New York City (AMNH),ran for just 10 weeks at Museu de Arte de São Paulo(MASP), where it drew crowds surpassed only by longer-running shows in past years devoted to Picasso andMichelangelo. Translated into Portuguese and retooled withspecific reference to Darwin’s visit to Brazil early in thevoyage of the Beagle, the exhibition recently closed in Riode Janiero and travels next to the capital city of Brasilia.Future venues will cover most of the important cities inBrazil, including Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre.

“Darwin was the first scientific exhibition of that sizeand quality that was ever done in the 500-year history ofBrazil,” reports Ben Sangari, whose educational InstitutoSangari is responsible for bringing both Darwin and theGenomics Revolution to Brazil (see preceding article). Thepublic response—over 200,000 visitors to MASP—provesto Sangari that people of all backgrounds are interested inscience. And if Darwin was not enough, Sangari proved hispoint again at yet another iconic Saõ Paulo museum whenhe and his team of designers and researchers opened theGenomic Revolution (A Revolução Genômica) on February29, 2008 in the Pavilion Armando de Arruda Pereira

located in the popular Saõ Paulo Ibirapuera Park. Theiconic building is a concrete showplace designed by OscarNiemayer, happily treated to a badly needed facelift for theGenomic Revolution. The show remains open until July 13before traveling to other museums in Brazil. Attendance inSaõ Paulo is predicted to top 500,000.

Anyone familiar with these two outstanding exhibitionsfrom their first run at the AMNH or subsequent appear-ances in the US and Toronto will recognize the substance ofeach now, but important additions enhance both shows forBrazilian audiences. Genomics retains all its fun andinformative interactives while cutting down on the lengthyEnglish text and adding a living biodiversity segment.Darwin keeps the detailed historical perspective that offersan overview of the great naturalist’s life while it zeroes inon the Beagle trip for evidence of the three major clues thatbrought him to evolution: (1) replacement of extinctorganisms by modern representatives, as seen in examplesof fossil and living armadillos (Fig. 1); (2) replacement ofspecies by relatives that Darwin saw while he traveledsouth down the continent, as in the example of the greaterand lesser rheas (Fig. 2); and (3) especially the differencebetween closely related species on islands in the Galapagosand other archipelagos, for example in mockingbirds andtortoises (Fig. 3).

What is new in Sangari’s version of Darwin jumps out atonce: the powerful impact Brazil’s tropical landscape hadon a young Englishman who had long dreamed of seeingthe rainforest first-hand. Darwin’s famous quote, “The mindis a chaos of delight,” (Fig. 4) conveys the lad’s wide-eyedresponse to his first glimpses of the then-intact Atlanticrainforests of Bahia, the Beagle’s first landfall in Brazil.This Portuguese language version of the exhibition includesan enlarged 19th Century engraving of the kind of junglesetting Darwin would have seen, comments about his

Evo Edu Outreach (2008) 1:329–335DOI 10.1007/s12052-008-0064-5

M. Wycoff (*)433 East Saddle River Road,Ridgewood, NJ 07450, USAe-mail: meldredge@earthlink.net

reaction to the colonial Portuguese (rather critical), and anenlarged series of captivating sketches by ship’s artistConrad Martens of scenes from the interior with lankygauchos astride their bony mounts, reminding us thatDarwin himself spent much of his South American journeyon horseback exploring on land. But the most powerfuladdition is more social than scientific. There is a riveting—if somewhat disturbing—brief slide show illustrating thepractice of slavery in Brazil during the 1830’s when Darwinvisited. More pictures and quotes from Darwin tell the storyof his angry scorn for a plantation owner’s insistence thathis slaves were happy in their captivity.

In preparing a Portuguese language version of Genomics,the exhibitors were faced with text already too long and toocomplex for their target demographic—high school students.A direct translation would have made the reading some30% longer. The solution was to pare down the text andexpand the show. Since Brazil is biodiversity incarnate,and since its many urban kids know little of the livingriches of their homeland, why not show them a sliver oftheir native wilds to mirror the wonders DNA haswrought? More walk-in terrarium than zoo, the rain-forest exhibit is laid along the museum’s high glasswall of windows overlooking the public park outside. A

Fig. 2 The triple helix structureof DNA stands as a dominatingimage of the Genomic Revolu-tion exhibition. Credit: Hill &Knowlton

Fig. 1 Saõ Paulo students stopto consider some implications ofDarwin’s ideas about evolution.Credit: Hill & Knowlton

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wide wood-planked gangway traverses a landscape ofnative tropical trees, shrubs, vines, and flowering plants.Roomy glass cases display a wide array of native speciesincluding bright toco toucans (Fig. 5), a young nativealligator called jacaré (Fig. 6), an aquarium full ofAmazonian fish, another of swimming turtles (Fig. 7),and a green iguana.

From this world of light and active life, the visitor movesinto a darkened room lined with lit-up glass cases filledwith glassy eyed taxidermied specimens of birds, monkeys,and other small mammals and a fierce-looking jaguar—most of them endangered or nearly extinct (Fig. 8). It is thehard part of the lesson of why we should care aboutconserving biodiversity (Fig. 9).

The transition from the macrocosm into the microcosmof DNA is cleverly finessed with a passage through a room-sized model of a cell complete with organelles where theDNA is housed (Figs. 10, 11, 12). Visitors exit into a large,dark, and coolly lit space filled with glowing pillars oflight, here an enormous model of a fly that can be visiblymade to mutate by playing with an interactive panel; there,a flat-screen video game that lets you find how muchgenetic code you share with a banana (25%!). Backlitpanels highlight the great mixture of human gene pools thatmakes up the Brazilian population, and this Brazilianversion of the exhibition adds sections on the importanceof plant genetics in the nation, including biofuels andengineered crops. All told, the show comes off strongerand more vibrant than ever with the addition of the largercontext—the unique living world that Darwin called “atangled web,”—the biodiversity at the very heart ofBrazil.

Fig. 4 During overland travel inBrazil, Darwin observed thatsmaller modern armadillosappeared much like giant fossilrelatives. Credit: Hill &Knowlton

Fig. 3 As Darwin traveled south in Brazil, he found the greater rheareplaced by the smaller but closely related lesser Rhea. Credit: AlanDraeger, AMNH

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Fig. 6 Common but not com-monly seen in town: the Ge-nomic Revolution exhibitiongives the students of Saõ Pauloa rare look at life outside the cityof 10 million people. TurtleCredit: Alan Draeger, AMNH

Fig. 5 A sliver of Brazilianrainforest reveals why weshould care about conservingbiodiversity and connects it tothe minute world of DNA.Credit: Hill & Knowlton

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Fig. 9 Brazil declared the jaguar (Panthera onca) an endangeredspecies in 2006 due to human encroachment and loss of habitat.Credit: Hill & Knowlton

Fig. 8 Common but not commonly seen in town: the GenomicRevolution exhibition gives the students of Saõ Paulo a rare look atlife outside the city of 10 million people. Jacaré Credit: Hill &Knowlton

Fig. 7 Common but notcommonly seen in town: theGenomic Revolution exhibitiongives the students of Saõ Pauloa rare look at life outside the cityof 10 million people. Tocotoucan Credit: Hill & Knowlton

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Fig. 10 single caption: A walk-through model of a cell givesvisitors a look at the organelle,storehouse of DNA. Credit: Hill& Knowlton

Fig. 11 single caption: A walk-through model of a cell givesvisitors a look at the organelle,storehouse of DNA. Credit: Hill& Knowlton

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Fig. 12 When Darwin saw theBrazilian Atlantic rainforest forthe first time, he wrote back tohis family, “the mind is a chaosof delight”

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