Darwin on a Disk By L. R. SHANNON Charles Darwin was one of the most influential scientifi

    FROM:  New York Times, Science Section, Tuesday, Nov. 9th, 1992


                            Darwin on a Disk

                            By L. R. SHANNON

Charles Darwin was one of the most influential scientific thinkers of
all time, and his life and work still repay study.  Now several of his
key writings have been brought together in a remarkable CD-ROM.

Darwin, Multimedia CD-ROM for Macs and PC's, from Lightbinders of San
Francisco, contains the complete texts and the original illustrations of
the final editions of "The Voyage of the Beagle," "The Origin of
Species" and "The Descent of Man."  There are also the 1859 manuscript
on the theory of evolution by Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, a table
of significant events in Darwin's life, study guides, maps, about 650
color and black-and-white images, natural sound recordings from Cornell
University's Laboratory of Ornithology, a 1,000-item bibliography and
more.

The indexing and retrieval software for Darwin is Discpassage, included
on the disk, which is becoming a sort of standard for CD-ROM
applications.  The menu bar across the top of the screen has four main
headings: search, browse, contents and database. Search and browse have
four submenus, word, author, subject and title, doing essentially the
same things.  The difference is that in the search mode you type in the
words and can limit the search (asking only for works that include both
Darwin and Wallace, for instance) while in the browse mode ready-made
lists are provided.  Contents lists the writings contained on the disk
and the database, in this case, appears to do nothing at all.

The goal of Darwin is to contain all the publications and writings of
the scientist.  With the vast storage capabilities of CD-ROM, that goal
seems attainable. To further that end, readers are invited to
participate in future editions.  Peter Goldie, a biologist and the
president of Lightbinders, writes in the disk's introduction:

"Our goal in future releases of this disk is to have pictures of every
important scene, sound, specimen or activity which Darwin discusses. If
you have pictures (still or animated), sounds, or special material which
you think would enhance this CD-ROM, please let us know. Students in
particular are encouraged to help with the project, either as
individuals or as part of organized studies in the natural sciences."

     P.C. requirements: DOS 3.1 or later, CD-ROM drive with appropriate
software, Microsoft CD-ROM extensions 2.0 or later, 640 kilobytes of RAM
with 500 kilobytes available, VGA or Super VGA, audio capability if you
want to hear the sounds and, not strictly necessary but very desirable,
a hard drive and 450 kilobytes of available space.  Macintosh
requirements: Mac Plus or later with a CD-ROM drive and software, System
6.0.5  or later, two megabytes of RAM (two and a half megabytes for
System 7), 32-bit Quickdraw, 350 kilobytes of available space on,
preferably, a hard drive.

     Darwin is $99.95. The address for information and orders is
Lightbinders, 2325 Third Street, Suite 320, San Francisco, Calif.,
94107; the phone number is (800) 432-3766 or, (415) 621-5746.