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| 14th | Top English people |
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| 7th | Top people on stamps of the United Kingdom |
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| 5th | Top English writers |
| Charles Darwin | |
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 Charles Robert Darwin, aged 45 in 1854, by then working towards publication of On the Origin of Species.
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| Born | 12 February 1809 Mount House, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England |
| Died | 19 April 1882 (aged 73) Down House, Downe, Kent, England |
| Residence | England |
| Citizenship | British |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | English |
| Fields | Naturalist |
| Institutions | Geological Society of London |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh University of Cambridge |
| Academic advisors | John Stevens Henslow Adam Sedgwick |
| Known for | The Voyage of the Beagle On The Origin of Species Natural selection |
| Influences | Alexander von Humboldt John Herschel Charles Lyell |
| Influenced | Joseph Dalton Hooker Thomas Henry Huxley George John Romanes Ernst Haeckel Ernst Mayr Julian Huxley |
| Notable awards | Royal Medal (1853) Wollaston Medal (1859) Copley Medal (1864) |
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.In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed.^"In October, 1838, that is fifteen months after I had begun my systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOURABLE VARIATIONS WOULD TEND TO BE PRESERVED, AND UNFAVORABLE ONES TO BE DESTROYED. The result of this would be the formation of a new species.
URBANOWICZ ON DARWIN/September 1996 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.csuchico.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^Not only did Darwin receive "support" or inspiration from Malthus' ideas on the struggle amongst populations, and Lyell's ideas on gradual development in geology, but the authority of the Christian Bible itself was being challenged by independent biblical scholars.
URBANOWICZ ON DARWIN/September 1996 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.csuchico.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^In the review of Quetelet, he found, among other things, a forceful statement of Malthus's quantitative claim--that population would grow geometrically and food supplies only arithmetically, thus guaranteeing an intense struggle for existence.
URBANOWICZ ON DARWIN/September 1996 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.csuchico.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
.The result of this would be the formation of new species.^This would result in the formation of new species.
Charles Darwin - Paleontology Wiki 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC paleontology.wikia.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]Charles Darwin - Hwiki 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC hwiki.fzk.de [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^The result of this would be the formation of new species.
Charles Darwin Quotes - Dictionary of Science Quotations and Scientist Quotes 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.todayinsci.com [Source type: Original source]Charles Darwin, "Autobiography," 1902 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.stephenjaygould.org [Source type: Original source]Charles Darwin's autobiography 19 January 2010 8:49 UTC www.victorianweb.org [Source type: Original source]Autobiography Of Charles Darwin, The 19 January 2010 8:49 UTC www.slideshare.net [Source type: Original source]
^The result would be the formation of new species.
Charles Darwin 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.woodenhorsebooks.com [Source type: Original source]
.Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which to work...^Here then I had at last got a theory by which to work; but I was so anxious to avoid prejudice, that I determined not for some time to write even the briefest sketch of it.
Charles Darwin, "Autobiography," 1902 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.stephenjaygould.org [Source type: Original source]Charles Darwin's autobiography 19 January 2010 8:49 UTC www.victorianweb.org [Source type: Original source]Autobiography Of Charles Darwin, The 19 January 2010 8:49 UTC www.slideshare.net [Source type: Original source]
^Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which to work; but I was so anxious to avoid prejudice, that I determined not for some time to write even the briefest sketch of it.
Charles Darwin Quotes - Dictionary of Science Quotations and Scientist Quotes 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.todayinsci.com [Source type: Original source]
^I had at last got a theory by which to work.
Charles Darwin -- The Origins of Doubt 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.godweb.org [Source type: Original source]
[77]
.As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected.^Variation after 1859: Natural Selection .
URBANOWICZ ON DARWIN/September 1996 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.csuchico.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^In effect, nature selects the individuals with the best combinations of traits for survival.
Charles Robert Darwin�s Accomplishments 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.fjcollazo.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^He who believes in the struggle for existence and in the principle of natural selection, will acknowledge that every organic being is constantly endeavouring to increase in numbers; and that if any one being varies ever so little, either in habits or structure, and thus gains an advantage over some other inhabitant of the same country, it will seize on the place of that inhabitant, however different that may be from its own place [ STRESS added] .
URBANOWICZ ON DARWIN/September 1996 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.csuchico.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
.From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.^From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.
Charles Darwin Quotes - Dictionary of Science Quotations and Scientist Quotes 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.todayinsci.com [Source type: Original source]Charles Darwin - Paleontology Wiki 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC paleontology.wikia.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]Charles Darwin - Hwiki 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC hwiki.fzk.de [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^This brings me to my New Theory, which in truth is a slight variation of Charles Darwin s Old Theory, the world-famous principle of natural selection.
Charles Darwin 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.wikihobo.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^The solution, as I believe, is that the modified offspring of all dominant and increasing forms tend to become adapted to many and highly diversified places in the economy of nature.
Charles Darwin, "Autobiography," 1902 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.stephenjaygould.org [Source type: Original source]Charles Darwin's autobiography 19 January 2010 8:49 UTC www.victorianweb.org [Source type: Original source]Autobiography Of Charles Darwin, The 19 January 2010 8:49 UTC www.slideshare.net [Source type: Original source]
[113]
.There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.^"There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed laws [ sic .
URBANOWICZ ON DARWIN/September 1996 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.csuchico.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^Gould in his quote, which continues as follows] Whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.'"
URBANOWICZ ON DARWIN/September 1996 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.csuchico.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^There is a [simple] grandeur in this view of life with its several powers of growth, reproduction and of sensation, having been originally breathed into matter under a few forms, perhaps into only one, and that whilst this planet has gone cycling onwards according to the fixed laws of gravity and whilst land and water have gone on replacing each other--from so simple an origin, through the selection of infinitesimal varieties, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been evolved [ STRESS added].
URBANOWICZ ON DARWIN/September 1996 10 February 2010 13:13 UTC www.csuchico.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
[114]
 Darwin and his eldest son William Erasmus Darwin in 1842.
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Darwin's Children
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| William Erasmus Darwin | (27 December 1839–1914) |
| Anne Elizabeth Darwin | (2 March 1841–23 April 1851) |
| Mary Eleanor Darwin | (23 September 1842–16 October 1842) |
| Henrietta Emma "Etty" Darwin | (25 September 1843–1929) |
| George Howard Darwin | (9 July 1845–7 December 1912) |
| Elizabeth "Bessy" Darwin | (8 July 1847–1926) |
| Francis Darwin | (16 August 1848–19 September 1925) |
| Leonard Darwin | (15 January 1850–26 March 1943) |
| Horace Darwin | (13 May 1851–29 September 1928) |
| Charles Waring Darwin | (6 December 1856–28 June 1858) |
"Darwin, Charles Robert". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
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Contents |
Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882)[1] was an English naturalist.[2] He is famous for his work on the theory of evolution. His book On the Origin of Species (1859) did two things. First, it provided a great deal of evidence that evolution has taken place. Second, it proposed a theory to explain how evolution works. That theory is natural selection.[3] Evolution by natural selection is the key to understanding biology, and the diversity of life on Earth.
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Darwin spent five years on board a Royal Navy exploring ship, the HMS Beagle. He was the guest naturalist, which meant that he was responsible for making collections and notes about the animals, plants, and the geology of the countries they visited. The ship's crew made charts of all the coastal areas, which could be used by the navy wherever it went in the world. At the time, Britain had by far the largest navy in the world, and an empire which was global.
Darwin collected everywhere the ship weighed anchor. He found huge fossils of recently extinct mammals, experienced an earthquake in Chile, and noticed the land had been raised. He knew of raised beaches elsewhere, high in the Andes, with fossil seashells and trees which had once grown on a sandy beach. Obviously the earth was constantly changing, with land rising in some places, and sinking in others. He collected birds and insects, and sent shipments back to Cambridge for experts to identify.
Darwin was the first dedicated naturalist to visit the Galapagos Islands, off the west coast of Ecuador. He noticed that some of the birds were like mockingbirds on the mainland, but different enough to be placed in separate species. He began to wonder how so many new species came to be on these islands.
When Charles got back to England, he edited a series of scientific reviews of the Voyage, and he wrote a personal journal which we know as the Voyage of the Beagle. It is one of the great natural history travel diaries.[4]
While on H.M.S. Beagle, and later back home in London, Darwin had come across the ideas of the Rev. T.R. Malthus. Malthus had realised that, although humans could double their population every 25 years, it did not happen in practice. He thought the reason was that a struggle for existence (or resources) limited their numbers. If numbers increased, then famine, wars and diseases caused more deaths. Darwin, who knew that all living things could, in principle, increase their numbers, began to think about why some survived, while others did not.[5]p264-268 His answer took years to develop.
The theory of evolution says that all living things on Earth, including plants, animals and microbes, come from a common ancestor by slowly changing throughout the generations. Darwin suggested that the way living things changed over time is through natural selection. This is the better survival and reproduction of those that best fit their environment. Fitting into the place where you live is called adapting. Those who fit best into the place where they live, the best adapted, have the best chance to survive and breed. Those who are less well-adapted tend not to survive. If they do not survive well enough to raise young, this means they do not pass on their genes. In this way, the species gradually changes.
The first chapter of the Origin deals with domesticated animals, such as cattle and dogs. Darwin reminded readers of the huge changes mankind had made in its domestic animals, which were once wild species. The changes were brought about by selective breeding – choosing animals with desirable characters to breed from. This had been done generation after generation, until our modern breeds were produced. Perhaps what man had done deliberately, might happen in nature, where some would leave more offspring than others.
Darwin noticed that although young plants or animals are very similar to their parents, no two are exactly the same and there is always a range of shape, size, colour, and so on. Some of these differences the plant or animal may have got from their own ancestors, but some are new and caused by mutations. When such differences made an organism more able to live in the wild, it would have a better chance to survive, and would pass on its genes to its offspring, and they to their offspring. Any difference that would cause the plant or animal to have less of a chance to live would be less likely to be passed on, and would eventually die out altogether. In this way groups of similar plants or animals (called species) slowly change in shape and form so that they can live more successfully and have more offspring who will survive them. So, natural selection had similarities to selective breeding, except that it would happen by itself, over a much longer time.
He first started thinking about this in 1838, but it took a full twenty years before his ideas became public. By 1844 he was able to write a draft of the main ideas in his notebook. Historians think that he did not talk about his theory because he was afraid of public criticism.[6] He knew his theory, which did not discuss religion, raised questions about the literal truth of the Book of Genesis. Whatever the reason, he did not publish his theory in a book until 1859. In 1858 he heard that another biologist, Alfred Russel Wallace, had the same ideas about natural selection. Darwin and Wallace's ideas were first published in the Journal of the Linnaean Society in London, 1858. Then, Darwin published his book the next year. The name of the book was On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. This is usually called The Origin of Species.[7][8]
Darwin wrote a number of other books, most of which are also very important.
rue:Чарлз Дарвін
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