Charles Darwin (1809-1882: England)
A British naturalist, Charles Darwin became famous for his theories of evolution and natural selection. His revolutionary book, The Origin of Species, had a profound effect on 19th-and 20th-century thought, challenging the ways human beings regarded their essential nature, as well as their beliefs in human creation as described in the Bible.
Darwin in many ways led a conventional upper-class life; he was the son of a prosperous industrialist, he married, had 10 children, and lived as a country gentleman with an independent income. He delayed the publication of his theories regarding evolution for many years, apparently struggling with their heretical nature and the inevitable controversy their publication would create.
His ideas on evolution became established rather early in his life. He attended Edinburgh University, where he became familiar with many radical scientific ideas, then he changed schools, returning to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1828. Three years later he left England to sail on a voyage on the HMS Beagle that lasted five years and circumnavigated the world. As a naturalist on the voyage, Darwin was able to study all manner of animal species and lands: he saw creatures of the sea that were relatively unknown, rare fossils, coral reefs, and rainforests. The trip changed the direction of his life.
All that he saw led Darwin to believe that life on earth developed over millions of years from a few common ancestors. Further, he theorized that competition among species would weed out the unfit. He produced a draft of his ideas in 1842, but did not publish The Origin of Species until 1859. The book did generate controversy, but not the full condemnation of society Darwin had apparently feared.
Darwin published a variety of theories during the rest of his life, writing about such topics as the evolution of civilizations and human morality, the fertilization of orchids, the expression of emotions in man and animals, and the action of worms on vegetable mold. He identified himself as an agnostic, but was buried in Westminster Abbey as an honored scientist.
The Origin of Species, Excerpt from Chapter XV, “Recapitulation and Conclusion,” Charles Darwin
© 2003-2006 Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
HMS Beagle in Sydney Harbour
Photo: From an 1841 watercolor by Owen Stanley. Copyright © 2002, the University of South Carolina. The C. Warren Irvin, Jr., Collection of Charles Darwin, University of South Carolina.
The 235-ton HMS Beagle was launched at the Royal Dockyard, Woolwich on May 11, 1820. She measured just 90 feet 4 inches in length, with a breadth of 24 feet 6 inches. Captain Robert Fitzroy was an expert meteorologist who later established the Meteorological Office. In 1870, the ship was sold for salvage.
"Where Darwin went with the Beagle"
Map: the Beagle's voyage, 1831-36
From Fitzroy, Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836.
London: Henry Colburn, 1839. Vol. II appendix. Copyright © 2002, the University of South Carolina. The C. Warren Irvin, Jr., Collection of Charles Darwin, University of South Carolina.
The initial plan had been for a two-year voyage round the world, but Fitzroy's scrupulous survey of the complex South American coastline extended the expedition over nearly five years.
John Thomas Scopes (1900-1970)
Photo: IRC. (2005). Retrieved May 18, 2006, from unitedstreaming.
Scopes was the science teacher in the public school system in Dayton, Tennessee, who was arrested and tried in July 1925 for breaking the state law against teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. The court case became a much publicized media event, drawing hundreds of reporters to the small town to hear Bryan and Darrow argue the clash between science and religion. Scopes, clearly guilty of breaking the law, was convicted and fined $100, although in the eyes of many, the trial verdict convicted the law itself as absurd. On appeal, the decision was reversed by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Man is But a Worm
Cartoon: IRC. (2005). Retrieved May 18, 2006, from unitedstreaming.
The central part of the cartoon satirizes Darwin’s theory. Evolution proceeds counterclockwise from the upper left corner and man evolves from a worm into an English dandy. Darwin’s ideas produced much heated public debate when they were publicized.
“Some Notion, However Imperfect…”
From Chet Raymo's Weekly Science Musings
© 2005 Chet Raymo
“Not long ago, on a walk through southern England, I visited Down House, sixteen miles south of London, for forty years the family home of Charles and Emma Darwin. Here Darwin lived and worked, in the midst of large and happy family, in relative seclusion from the hustle and bustle of scientific London. His home, garden, greenhouse, dovecote, and the land around were his laboratory, and here he assiduously gathered evidence to buttress the one great idea that had taken root in his mind during his early round-the-world voyage on H.M.S. Beagle: the transmutation of organisms by natural selection….”
The Origin of Species
Video: 51 minutes
Discovery Channel School (1994). Retrieved May 18, 2006, from unitedstreaming
The program examines evolutionary theory from its beginnings with Jean Baptiste Lamarck, the famous Scopes Monkey trial, and how political leaders such as Adolf Hitler have twisted Darwinian theory and used it for their own purposes.
Life Science: Evolution
Video: 21minutes
Discovery Channel School (2002). Retrieved May 18, 2006, from unitedstreaming
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is the unifying concept in biology. Although some disagree with the theory, pesticide-resistant insects, modern elephants, Darwin’s Galápagos finches, and adaptive virus strains prove that natural selection is happening all the time.
