Charles Darwin was a British scientist who laid the foundation of modern evolutionary theory with his concept of the development of all forms of life through the slow-working process of natural selection. His work was of major influence on the life and earth sciences and on modern thought in general. Darwin was born in 1809 in Shrewsbury, a small market town in Shropshire, England. His wealthy physician father was the son of Erasmus Darwin who had written Laws of Organic Life. His mother was the daughter of artisan Josiah Wedgwood of dinnerware fame. Though she died when he was eight, Darwin enjoyed a happy and secure childhood loved and encouraged by four adoring sisters, an older brother named Erasmus, a team of faithful servants, and numerous Darwin and Wedgwood relatives. Even as a youngster Charles collected specimens from nature and conducted chemical experiments. When he reached the age of 16, his father sent him to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine, a concept for which he had no enthusiasm. Consequently his father sent him to Cambridge University to study divinity. There Darwin met botanist John Stevens Henslow, whose passion for science rubbed off on Darwin. This prompted him to work more intensely on his study of specimens. Abandoning the idea of study for a career in the Church, he left Cambridge at age 22 and immediately joined a scientific group that was on a walking tour of North Wales in order to learn how to conduct geological field work. Shortly after the tour concluded Darwin received a life-changing offer. In 1831, the British Admiralty invited him to sail as an unpaid naturalist aboard HMS Beagle, which was bound for South America and the Pacific Islands on a scientific expedition. Darwin’s job a... ... middle of paper ... ... idea placed Europeans at the head of a hierarchy of racial types. Like most of his contemporaries, Darwin was convinced that the Europeans were conquering the world not just because they had superior technology but because they were brighter than the other races. He commented at length on the various factors that seemed to drive the lower races into a decline towards extinction when confronted by white colonists. Despite healthful habits, Darwin was ill much of his adult life, plagued by insomnia and stomach ailments. His supporters tended to glamorize his condition as the price one pays for such stressfull intellectual activity, while the Church blamed his problems on a guilty conscience and denounced him from pulpits throughout England for his beliefs. Darwin died at his home in Kent in 1882 and was buried with respect beside England's heroes at Westminster Abbey.
Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist who was born in Shrewsbury, England on February 12, 1809. He was the second youngest of six children. Before Charles Darwin, there were many scientists throughout his family. His father, Dr. Robert Darwin, was a medical doctor, and his grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, was a well-known botanist. Darwin’s mother, Susannah Darwin, died when he was only eight years old. Darwin was a child that came from wealth and privilege and who loved to explore nature. In October 1825 at age sixteen, Darwin enrolled at Edinburgh University with his brother Erasmus. Two years later, Charles became a student at Christ’s College in Cambridge. His father wanted him to become a medical doctor, as he was, but since the sight of blood made Darwin nauseous, he refused. His father also proposed that he become a priest, but since Charles was far more interested in natural history, he had other ideas in mind (Dao, 2009)
Charles Darwin was an English biologist who, along with a few others, developed a biological concept that has been vulgarized and attacked from the moment his major work, The Origin of Species, was published in 1859. An accurate and brief picture of his contribution to biology is probably his own: Evolution is transmission with adaptation. Darwin saw in his epochal trip aboard the ship The Beagle in the 1830s what many others had seen but did not draw the proper conclusions. In the Galapagos Islands, off South America, Darwin noted that very large tortoises differed slightly from one island to the next. He noted also that finches also differed from one geographical location to the next. Some had shorter beaks, useful for cracking seeds. Some had long, sharp beaks, useful for prying insects out of their hiding places. Some had long tail feathers, others short ones.
Charles Darwin was born in 1809 in England, he studied medicine at Edinburgh and ministry at Cambridge. He later became interested in natural history . From 1831 to 1836 he went on a cruise around the world; this sparked an int...
The source of much controversy in Darwin’s faith arises in his account of his upbringing. Charles Darwin was born February 12th, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England to Robert and Susannah Darwin. His parents were not particularly devout in their religious practices as he grew up, but they trained him in other ways for his future career. His father was a doctor, and would take young Darwin out to patient visits with him and explain the causes of the ailments and their treatments. From his father, Darwin saw how observations could lead to a theory (Darwin, p. 37).
...s respected by many, but known by few in his lifetime. His theory has had broad influence on many faucets of education and fields of study. Charles Darwin was most well-known for his Theory on Natural Selection; however he produced numerous important works during his lifetime. Charles was a rich socialite, scientist, and family man. Charles Robert Darwin will never be forgotten and will continue to be taught in educational institutions for years to come.
Mr. Darwin grew up in a fairly wealthy family who loved nature, so as a child, it was customary for him to be involved in the great outdoors and all that it exhibits. It came to no surprise that when Darwin was given the option to sail to the Galapagos Island he took it on, wanting to do some research on the animals that
Charles Darwin is a revolutionary naturalist, his theories and discoveries of nature continue to stand two centuries later. Even as a young child, Darwin conveyed his interests in nature and later in his career, furthered his passion as a naturalist spending his earlier years gathering bulky counts of data. While studying at Cambridge University, he accepted the request to work as a naturalist on the scientific ship HMS Beagle collecting biological and geological data. On this excursion, he visited places such as the Galapagos Islands, Australia, and other South American islands to record and collect data. The data and fossils collected confirmed that complex plant life had evolved from a basis plant life. Until 1859, when he published On the
Charles Darwin was a man of science. He had a true passion for all things involving both plants and animals. Darwin made many contributions to the field of science, but his main contribution that he is most well-known for involves his theories of evolution, or more specifically, how species tend to change over long periods of time through a process called natural selection. Natural selection is defined by Darwin as the “preservation of favorable variations and the rejections of injurious variations“ (Jacobus 900). Even though many of his theories have now been embraced by the scientific community as natural laws in motion, much controversy remains over whether or not his ideas should be perceived as true scientific law. Despite the discoveries of overwhelming amounts of evidence, many people still believe that evolution is exactly what Darwin called it—a theory, and nothing more.
...n a subject which the public had relatively no knowledge of. He described the way in which an individual of a species reproduced and genetically passed on variations. The species that adapted through variation was the one who survived. This is where the phrase “survival of the fittest” came from. As pointed out, Charles Darwin was a man ahead of his time, and his work laid the structural basis for how we now look at evolution. On the last page of Origin of the Species, Darwin summarizes his findings, “as Natural Selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection”.
Evolution is the reason for many different species and their existence. Evolution proves that there is much more to the world than the human can see. Charles Darwin had looked into the eye of the storm, and found something revolutionary. His research has changed and reshaped science in it’s own very existence; changing how scientists see their works. Charles created a new way of thinking, and proven that there is always an alternate reason why something is the way it is, and how it became that way, not to mention he constructed against religion that proves itself to be wrong. Everything has a reason, and evolution has made that reason clear to us, through Darwin’s works.”Charles Darwin is best known for his work as a naturalist, developing a theory of evolution to explain biological change.”
Charles Darwin was one of the most influential people in history. He probably never imagined that his theory of evolution and natural selection would become one of the most important scientific theories in the history of the world. He probably never imagined that it would cause so much controversy over the way human beings came into existence either.
Charles Robert Darwin was a man of many hats. He was a friend, colleague, son, father, husband; but above all, he was a naturalist. Through his dedication and perseverance did he manage to, in less than a generation, establish the theory of evolution as a fact in peoples' minds. In fact, "[t]oday it is almost impossible for us to return, even momentarily, to the pre-Darwinian atmosphere and attitude" (West 323). Darwin formed the basis of his theory during the voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle, on which vessel he was posted as it travelled around the globe. During that five-year span, this young man saw foliage, creatures, cultures that he had never known first-hand before. He was exposed to environments that not many of his contemporaries saw and lived the life that few did.
Charles Darwin was a scientist from the United Kingdom who was a naturalist and geologist in the early 1800s. Although, he is best known for his role in the evolution theory. Darwin decided to take part in a five-year voyage in 1831, called the Beagle, to make naval charts of South America. At the beginning of the expedition Darwin was just a young graduate, at the age of twenty-two, with only eagerness to be able to be a part of the opportunity. He had no high expectations to find the rare discoveries that he had found during his time on land on the far off continent. By the end of the excursion, Darwin had made a name for himself as a geologist and fossil collector after his journal was published, later titled The Voyage of the Beagle. His writing got him a lot of attention from multiple scientists around the world.
Darwin’s observations from the islands made him want to come up with some explanation to why this occurred. He began to do research of each the species that had lived on these islands and observe all of the characteristics that had. He noticed that the islands h...
Charles Darwin was a naturalist born on the 12th of February 1809 in England. Darwin grew up loving nature and went to Edinburgh University. On the trip around the world Darwin collected natural samples including birds, plants and fossils. Darwin found a particular interest in the Pacific islands and South America. When he arrived back in England he wrote up his findings as part of the Captain narrative. Darwin started working on his own theory after coming back from the trip. He observed that species had same characteristics all over the world this lead him to believe that species slowly evolved from their ancestors. In 1859 Charles Darwin published his work in his book On the Origin of Species.