Science and Technology
13.3.2014.
Presentation
Charles Darwin – Report
- Biography
Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist and geologist, born on the 12 of February
1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and was best known for his Theory of evolution. He worked
on this theory for 20 years. He established that all species of life have descended over time
from common ancestors, and that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process
that he called natural selection.
He was the grandson of the scientist Erasmus Darwin. His mother died when he was eight
years old, and he was brought up by his sister. He was sent to Christ's College in Edinburgh to
study medicine, which he hated, and a final attempt at educating him was made by sending
him to Cambridge, to study theology (1827). During that period he loved to collect plants,
insects, and geological specimens. John Stevens Henslow, his botany professor who
encouraged him in his scientific research was the one who secured a place for Darwin as a
naturalist on the surveying expedition of HMS Beagle to Patagonia (1831-1836). On
December 27, 1831, the HMS Beagle launched its voyage around the world with Darwin.
Throughout the trip, Darwin collected a variety of natural specimens, including birds, plants
and fossils. Through hands-on research and experimentation, he had the unique opportunity to
closely observe principles of botany, geology and zoology. The Pacific Islands and Galapagos
Archipelago were of particular interest to Darwin, as was South America. On the voyage,
Darwin read Lyell's 'Principles of Geology' which suggested that the fossils found in rocks
were actually evidence of animals that had lived many thousands or millions of years ago. He
became friends with Sir Charles Lyell, became secretary of the Geological Society (18381841), and in 1839 married his cousin Emma Wedgwood (1808-1896).
He devoted himself to science, in spite of continuous ill-health; He had suffered
from Chagas's disease, which he had contracted from an insect bite while in South America.
At Down House he devoted himself to the great work of his life—the problem of the origin of
species. In 1842 and 1844 he wrote short notes and conclusions which embodied the principle
of natural selection, the essence of Darwinian Theory. However, he delayed publication of
his hypothesis.
However, in 1858 Alfred Russel Wallace sent him a memoir of the Malay Archipelago,
which, to Darwin's surprise, contained in essence the main idea of his own theory of natural
selection.
Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, in 1859. Even
though the whole of Europe was deeply interested in it, it immediately began to be criticized
because it contrasted the implications of the Book of Genesis, or the Bible.
Other Darwin's significant works were: The Fertilisation of Orchids (1862), The Variation of
Plants and Animals under Domestication (1867), and The Descent of Man, which provoked
controversy by saying that the human race derived from a hairy animal belonging to the great
anthropoid group, such as the orang-utan, chimpanzee, and gorilla. In his 1871 work Selection
in Relation to Sex he also developed his important supplementary theory of sexual selection.
Later works include The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), Insectivorous
Plants (1875), The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilisation in the Vegetable
Kingdom (1876), Different Forms of Flowers in Plants of the Same Species (1877), and The
Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881).
- Darwin's Theory of Evolution
The theory of evolution is one of the great intellectual revolutions of human history,
drastically changing our perception of the world and of our place in it. Charles Darwin put
forth a coherent theory of evolution and amassed a great body of evidence in support of this
theory. In Darwin's time, most scientists fully believed that each organism and each
adaptation was the work of the creator. Linneaus established the system of biological
classification that we use today, and did so in the spirit of cataloguing God's creations. In
other words, all of the similarities and dissimilarities among groups of organisms that are the
result of the branching process creating the great tree of life.
Darwin was influenced by observations made during his youthful voyage as naturalist on the
survey ship Beagle. Especially important was his 5 weeks long visit to the Galápagos
Islands in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. It was there that he made the observations that
eventually led him to comprehend what causes plants and animals to evolve, but he apparently
did not clearly formulate his views on this until 1837. At the time he left the Galápagos
Islands, he apparently still believed in a traditional Biblical creation of all life forms.The
Galápagos Islands have species found in no other part of the world, though similar ones exist
on the west coast of South America. Darwin was struck by the fact that the birds were
slightly different from one island to another. He realized that the key to why this difference
existed was connected with the fact that the various species live in different kinds of
environments.He also observed a whole array of unique finches, the famous "Darwin's
finches," that exhibited slight differences from island to island. In addition, they all appeared
to resemble, but differ from, the common finch on the mainland of Ecuador, 600 miles to the
east. Patterns in the distribution and similarity of organisms had an important influence of
Darwin's thinking.
Darwin’s theory of evolution entails the following fundamental ideas. The first three ideas
were already under discussion among earlier and contemporaneous naturalists working on the
“species problem” as Darwin began his research. Darwin’s original contributions were the
mechanism of natural selection and copious amounts of evidence for evolutionary change
from many sources. He also provided thoughtful explanations of the consequences of
evolution for our understanding of the history of life and modern biological diversity.
1. Species (populations of interbreeding organisms) change over time and space. The
representatives of species living today differ from those that lived in the recent
past, and populations in different geographic regions today differ slightly in form
or behavior. These differences extend into the fossil record, which provides ample
support for this claim.
2. All organisms share common ancestors with other organisms. Over time,
populations may divide into different species, which share a common ancestral
population. Far enough back in time, any pair of organisms shares a common
ancestor. For example, humans shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees
about eight million years ago, with whales about 60 million years ago, and with
kangaroos over 100 million years ago. Shared ancestry explains the similarities of
organisms that are classified together: their similarities reflect the inheritance of
traits from a common ancestor.
3. Evolutionary change is gradual and slow in Darwin’s view. This claim was
supported by the long episodes of gradual change in organisms in the fossil record
and the fact that no naturalist had observed the sudden appearance of a new
species in Darwin’s time.
From one generation to the next, the struggle for resources (what Darwin called the “struggle
for existence”) will favour individuals with some variations over others and thereby change
the frequency of traits within the population. This process is natural selection. The traits that
confer an advantage to those individuals who leave more offspring are called adaptations.
Darwin’s process of natural selection has four components.
1. Variation. Organisms (within populations) exhibit individual variation in appearance
and behavior. These variations may involve body size, hair color, facial markings,
voice properties, or number of offspring. On the other hand, some traits show little to
no variation among individuals—for example, number of eyes in vertebrates.
2. Inheritance. Some traits are consistently passed on from parent to offspring. Such
traits are heritable, whereas other traits are strongly influenced by environmental
conditions and show weak heritability.
3. High rate of population growth. Most populations have more offspring each year than
local resources can support leading to a struggle for resources. Each generation
experiences substantial mortality.
4. Differential survival and reproduction. Individuals possessing traits well suited for the
struggle for local resources will contribute more offspring to the next generation.
- Contributions
Many people consider him even the most important person in our history. He made the
foundations of a theory how human kind evolved and survival of the fittest. Although he was
controversial for many religious institutions and their followers, his theories remained almost
unchanged from the 19th century until now. He gave many answers on questions about
existence of all living things, from a bacteria to a human being.
He also contributed to secularisation, the separation of religious institution's from state
institutions, that had a lot of influence on them and the even law itself.
Darwin was the first one who introduced biological evolution trough biological selection. He
excluded God from human evolution and claimed that humans most probably evolved from
primates but it's interesting that he never actually claimed that God doesn't exist.
At that time there was a general theory that claimed that species are exactly how God created
them and that no matter how the environment changes they stay the same; that was also
known as essentialism. Through his theory of evolution Darwin drifted away from
essentialism, but besides that, Darwin presented a completely new view of revolutionary
thinking called population thinking.
That way of thinking emphasizes the uniqueness of every individual and he supported that
with evidence, facts and descriptions, so many scientists believe that this was Darwin’s main
contribution to science.
His theory of evolutionary adaptation through natural selection is central to modern
evolutionary theory and it is today the unifying concept of life sciences. Because of his
theories he was often exposed to criticism, even now 150 years later many try to reduce his
significance but fail. He is definitely one of the most influential and most important scientists
in the world history.
Some people blame Charles Darwin’s theories for the ills of capitalism. A few of the first
people to embrace natural selection applied it immediately to economy and society, thus
giving birth to social Darwinism. Adherents of social Darwinism believe that a person’s
economic success or failure is akin to an animal’s struggle for survival in the jungle. Social
Darwinists discourage government assistance and charitable activities that help the poor
because they believe the human species will grow stronger if society just allowed poor
people—or the “unfit”—to die off. Notorious social Darwinists include the two wealthiest
men of their time, Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller. Though Darwin himself admitted
to not having an adequate understanding of politics and economy, his theories undoubtedly
affected the growth and greed of capitalism during the early 20th century. Because of this,
most people assume that natural selection wasn’t well-received by those who opposed
capitalism. Surprisingly, the opposite is quite true. Charles Darwin actually had a huge
positive influence on the opposite end of the spectrum. While social Darwinists saw Darwin’s
theories as a way to justify greed and oppression, Karl Marx viewed them as an allegory for
class struggles. The German philosopher saw Darwin’s Origin of Species as the biological
basis of socialism. He stated that the struggle and survival of organisms affirmed the existence
of class struggles that he observed to happen in the society.
- Darwin and Mendel
The nature of heredity: If natural selection was to work and have lasting effects, then the gains
had to be conserved and passed on from one generation to the next. Darwin didn't have good
ideas on this subject, but he got hold of the wrong end of the stick. When two organisms mate,
then there are basically two possible outcomes. Their differences can as it were blend in the
next generation or separate. Human skin color is a good example. Darwin of course knew
about the two possibilities but he assumed that the blending option is the norm and the
separate option needs special explanation.
As we all know today, unknown to Darwin, Gregor Mendel was working away developing
the mechanism of heredity that was needed by the theory of the Origin. Mendel
experimenting on pea plants was showing that the basic mechanism of heredity is
nonblending, and that in fact a process like natural selection that picks out good new
variations can be fully effective as a means of evolutionary change. Mendel provided the
variations passed on from one generation to the next that are the basis for what today we
know as “Mendel’s laws.” The trouble is that, as we also all know today, Darwin never read
Mendel and so his problem went unsolved.
Neo-Darwinian theory: Neo-Darwinism is the 'modern synthesis' of Darwinian evolution
through natural selection with Mendelian genetics, the latter being a set of evidences that
evolution involves the transmission of characteristics from parent to child through the
mechanism of genetic transfer, rather than the 'blending process' of pre-Mendelian
evolutionary science.
- Influence on the Modern thought
Contributions that Darwin made to the field of evolutionary biology - the nonconstancy of
species, or the modern conception of evolution itself. The second is the notion of branching
evolution, implying the common descent of all species of living things.
Darwin introduced historicity into science. Evolutionary biology, in contrast with physics and
chemistry, is a historical science—the evolutionist attempts to explain events and processes
that have already taken place.
- Interesting facts about Darwin
Darwin Ate The Animals He Encountered:
Darwin had a strange stomach for weird food. During his time in Cambridge, Darwin
belonged to a culinary group called the Glutton Club whose members would meet each week
to try various “exotic” dishes previously unknown to the human palate. To the Glutton Club,
“exotic” isn’t just anything that isn’t crumpets and tea. The group is known to casually chow
down meats of various wild birds like hawks and bitterns.
In Galapagos, Darwin rode tortoises and drank fluid from their bladders, which he described
as “quite limpid and [having] only a very slightly bitter taste.”
Darwin And the Water Therapy:
Dr. Gully subjected the naturalist to various strange procedures, which included
heating him up with a “spirit lamp” until he perspired and then immediately rubbing him
violently with towels soaked with cold water. He was also given cold foot baths and had to
wear a wet compress on his stomach all day.
Darwin Was Neurotic:
While Darwin suffered from many physical illnesses, some biographers of the late
scientist were more intrigued by his state of mind. The man who exhibited incomparable
brilliance during his lifetime would soon be revealed in his letters to his friends that
he suffered from obsessive thoughts which, in his own words, were “of horrid spectacle.”
Ascension Island:
In the south of the Atlantic 200 years ago, there was a tiny, isolated volcanic isle 1,600
kilometres (994 mi) off the coast of Africa called Ascension Island. The Beagle passed by
Ascension Island, where the sight of the apocalyptic island of bright red volcanic cones and
black lava inspired the inquisitive Darwin. Shortly after Darwin returned to England, he and
his close friend John Hooker created a simple plan to convert the dry and lifeless island into a
“Little England.” With the help of the British Royal Navy, the two arranged for different
species of plants from all over the world to be planted on the island, beginning on 1850 and
continuing every year thereafter.