Darwin gets his hair cut

I just came across two delightful animations about Charles Darwin made by London schoolchildren. I’m sure they must have done the rounds in the science blogosphere before, but I somehow missed them.

The films describe two fictitious conversations between Charles Darwin and the real-life London Soho barber William Willis, with whom Darwin really did converse on the subject of dog-breeding. Although the conversations are fictitious, the events described in them are pretty accurate.

The conversations, as you will see, take place immediately before two key events in Darwin’s life:

Charles Darwin: A Genius in the Heart of London:

Part 1: Saved by a Soho Barber