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Charles Darwin
- Charles Darwin was a naturalist and geologist who proposed that all species of life have evolved over time. The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and the general public. Darwin’s scientific discovery remains the foundation of biology. Darwin is yet another great thinker of his time and his theories are still studied and discussed today.
==
Charles Robert Darwin,
FRS
(12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English
naturalist
.
[I]
He established that all
species
of life have descended over time from
common ancestors
,
[1]
and proposed the
scientific theory
that this
branching pattern
of
evolution
resulted from a process that he called
natural selection
, in which the
struggle for existence
has a similar effect to the
artificial selection
involved in
selective breeding
.
[2]
Darwin published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book
On the Origin of Species
, overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of
transmutation of species
.
[3]
[4]
By the 1870s the
scientific community
and much of the general public had accepted
evolution as a fact
. However, many favoured
competing explanations
and it was not until the emergence of the
modern evolutionary synthesis
from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution.
[5]
[6]
In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the
life sciences
, explaining the
diversity of life
.
[7]
[8]
Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his
medical education
at the
University of Edinburgh
; instead, he helped to investigate
marine invertebrates
. Studies at the University of Cambridge encouraged his passion for
natural science
.
[9]
His
five-year voyage
on
HMS
Beagle
established him as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported
Charles Lyell
's
uniformitarian
ideas, and publication of his
journal of the voyage
made him famous as a popular author.
[10]
Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and
fossils
he collected on the voyage, Darwin began detailed investigations and in 1838 conceived his theory of natural selection.
[11]
Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work had priority.
[12]
He was writing up his theory in 1858 when
Alfred Russel Wallace
sent him an essay which described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of
both of their theories
.
[13]
Darwin's work established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature.
[5]
In 1871 he examined
human evolution
and
sexual selection
in
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
, followed by
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
. His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final book, he examined
earthworms
and their effect on soil.
[14]
In recognition of Darwin's pre-eminence as a scientist, he was honoured with a
state funeral
and buried in
Westminster Abbey
, close to
John Herschel
and
Isaac Newton
.
[15]
Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history.
[16]
[17]
Life
Childhood and education
Charles Robert Darwin was born in
Shrewsbury
, Shropshire, England on 12 February 1809 at his family home,
the Mount
, He was the fifth of six children of wealthy society doctor and financier
Robert Darwin
, and
Susannah Darwin
(
née
Wedgwood). He was the grandson of
Erasmus Darwin
on his father's side, and of
Josiah Wedgwood
on his mother's side.
Both families were largely
Unitarian
, though the Wedgwoods were adopting
Anglicanism
. Robert Darwin, himself quietly a
freethinker
, had baby Charles
baptised
in November 1809 in the Anglican
St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury
, but Charles and his siblings attended the Unitarian chapel with their mother.
The eight-year-old Charles already had a taste for natural history and collecting when he joined the day school run by its preacher in 1817. That July, his mother died. From September 1818 he joined his older brother
Erasmus
attending the nearby Anglican
Shrewsbury School
as a
boarder
.
[19]
Darwin spent the summer of 1825 as an apprentice doctor, helping his father treat the poor of Shropshire, before going to the
University of Edinburgh Medical School
with his brother Erasmus in October 1825. He found lectures dull and surgery distressing, so neglected his studies. He learned
taxidermy
from
John Edmonstone
, a freed black slave who had accompanied
Charles Waterton
in the South American
rainforest
, and often sat with this "very pleasant and intelligent man".
[20]
In Darwin's second year he joined the
Plinian Society
, a student
natural history
group whose debates strayed into
radical
materialism
. He assisted
Robert Edmond Grant
's investigations of the anatomy and life cycle of
marine invertebrates
in the
Firth of Forth
, and on 27 March 1827 presented at the Plinian his own discovery that black spores found in
oyster
shells were the eggs of a skate
leech
. One day, Grant praised
Lamarck's
evolutionary ideas
. Darwin was astonished, but had recently read the similar ideas of his grandfather Erasmus and remained indifferent.
[21]
Darwin was rather bored by
Robert Jameson
's natural history course which covered geology including the debate between
Neptunism
and
Plutonism
. He learned
classification
of plants, and assisted with work on the collections of the
University Museum
, one of the largest museums in Europe at the time.
[22]
This neglect of medical studies annoyed his father, who shrewdly sent him to
Christ's College, Cambridge
, for a
Bachelor of Arts
degree as the first step towards becoming an Anglican
parson
. As Darwin was unqualified for the
Tripos
, he joined the
ordinary
degree course in January 1828.
[23]
He preferred
riding
and
shooting
to studying. His cousin
William Darwin Fox
introduced him to the popular craze for
beetle
collecting which Darwin pursued zealously, getting some of his finds published in
Stevens'
Illustrations of British entomology
. He became a close friend and follower of botany professor
John Stevens Henslow
and met other leading naturalists who saw scientific work as religious
natural theology
, becoming known to these
dons
as "the man who walks with Henslow". When his own exams drew near, Darwin focused on his studies and was delighted by the language and logic of
William Paley
's
Evidences of Christianity
.
[24]
In his final examination in January 1831 Darwin did well, coming tenth out of 178 candidates for the
ordinary
degree.
[25]
Darwin had to stay at Cambridge until June. He studied Paley's
Natural Theology
which made an
argument for divine design in nature
, explaining
adaptation
as God acting through laws of nature.
[26]
He read
John Herschel
's new book which described the highest aim of
natural philosophy
as understanding such laws through
inductive reasoning
based on observation, and
Alexander von Humboldt
's
Personal Narrative
of scientific travels. Inspired with "a burning zeal" to contribute, Darwin planned to visit
Tenerife
with some classmates after graduation to study natural history in the tropics. In preparation, he joined
Adam Sedgwick
's geology course, then went with him in the summer for a fortnight to map strata in
Wales
.
[27]
After a week with student friends at
Barmouth
, he returned home to find a letter from Henslow proposing Darwin as a suitable (if unfinished) gentleman naturalist for a self-funded place with captain
Robert FitzRoy
, more as a companion than a mere collector, on
HMS
Beagle
which was to leave in four weeks on an expedition to chart the coastline of South America.
[28]
His father objected to the planned two-year voyage, regarding it as a waste of time, but was persuaded by his brother-in-law,
Josiah Wedgwood
, to agree to his son's participation.
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