Latin: communis descensus
Charles Darwin’s voyage on The Beagle allowed the scientists to collect samples and engage in field study that would lead the naturalist to produce his Evolutionary Theory. By March 1837, after returning to England from his voyage the previous year, Darwin used his Red Notebook to suggest "one species does change into another." Yet, the Red Notebook further details a troubling find from specimen collection: “Unpacked specimen, Galapogos 75, and unable to insert into developing system.” His July 1937 “B” notebook includes sketches of the branching of a single evolutionary tree, noting that is “It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another." Yet, the last entry of that July also suggests a theory of specimen #75: “I conclude a clinamen—the unpredictable swerve of atoms that in this case suggests possible extra-terrestrial or at least ahistorical interventions.” While Darwin never made this finding public, his notebook fell into the hands of film director Stanley Kubrick, who staged the moon landing for NASA as backup footage in case the real landing failed or proved un-filmable using directions, his Red diary indicates, dictated from “the mind of Darwin’s Specimen #75, who shares with me the deepest secrets.”
– BY DAVIS SCHNEIDERMAN