చార్లెస్ డార్విన్ జీవిత చరిత్ర
Charles Robert Darwin, FRS FRGS FLS
FZS(12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist and
biologist,best known for his contributions to the science of evolution.His
proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common
ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered a foundational concept in
science.Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in
his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, overcoming scientific rejection of
earlier concepts of transmutation of species.
By the 1870s, the scientific community
and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact.
Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences,
explaining the diversity of life.Darwin's work established evolutionary descent
with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in
nature.His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his
final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of Worms
(1881), he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.
His Early Life
Charles Darwin was born on 12 February
1809 at the Mount House, Shrewsbury. His father was a doctor. His mother died
when he was 8 years old. Charles had one brother and four sisters.
Up to the age of 8 Charles was taught by
an older sister. He then began school. From his earliest years Charles Darwin
was interested in natural history. However he was a poor scholar.
He went to Edinburgh University to study
medicine but he left after 2 years. His father decided he should be a clergyman
so Charles Darwin then went to Cambridge University.
Charles Darwin left Cambridge University
in 1831. The same year he signed up to sail, without pay, as a naturalist on a
ship called the Beagle. Its captain was Robert Fitzroy and it sailed on 27
December 1831.
In February 1832 the Beagle reached
Brazil. They stayed in Brazil until July 1832 then sailed to Montevideo. Darwin
spent three years in different parts of South America collecting specimens.
Then in September 1835 the Beagle sailed to the Galapagos Islands.
Charles Darwin was surprised to learn
the local people could tell by looking at a tortoise which island it came from.
Darwin also studied finches. Each island had a different species of finch.
Later Darwin came to the conclusion that all were descended from a single
species of finch. On each island the finches had diverged and become slightly
different.
In December 1835 Charles Darwin visited
New Zealand and Tahiti. In January 1836 he reached Australia. The beagle then
sailed to Mauritius and South Africa before sailing north into the Atlantic.
Finally the Beagle arrived at Falmouth on 2 October 1836 and two days later
Darwin arrived in Shrewsbury.
Charles Darwin then wrote several books
about his voyage. The first was Journal of Researches, which was an account of
his voyage. He also wrote coral reefs, which was published in 1842, Volcanic
Islands (1844), and Geographical Observations on South America (1846). Darwin
gained a reputation as a brilliant geologist.
Meanwhile Charles Darwin was influenced
by a geologist called Charles Lyell. In 1830 he published a book called
Principles of Geology. In it Lyell proposed a theory called uniformitarianism.
He believed that rocks and the landscape were formed over vast periods of time
by very slow processes. However Lyell did not believe that one species of
animal could change into another.
His Theory
Charles Darwin disagreed. By 1836 he
believed that species of animals could change. In July 1837 Darwin began to
write notes about his theory. He called his notes The Transmutation of Species.
In October 1838 Darwin thought of a way
in which one species could change into another. He noticed that individual
members of a species vary. Furthermore all animals are competing with each
other to survive. If the environment changed in some way, say if a new, faster
predator appeared then any herbivores that could run slightly faster then other
members of its species would be more likely to survive and reproduce. Any
herbivores that ran slightly slower than most would be more likely to be eaten.
Slowly a new, faster herbivore would evolve. This was later called the survival
of the fittest.
For years Charles Darwin studied nature
looking for evidence to support his theory. For much of that time he suffered
from ill health.
Then in 1858 Charles Darwin received a
letter from Alfred Russel Wallace. It turned out that Wallace had independently
devised a theory of evolution by natural selection.
Therefore Wallace's work and Darwin's
theory were both presented to a scientific society called the Linnaean Society
on 1 July 1858. The two men's work was also published in the society's journal.
Darwin was now galvanized into
publishing his theory. So his monumental work The Origin of Species was
published on 24 November 1859. It proved to be a bestseller. However Darwin's
book also caused some controversy.
Published Books
In 1860 T. H. Huxley (a supporter of
Darwin) had a public debate with Darwin's opponent Bishop Wilberforce (known as
'Soapy Sam'). The bishop was defeated and gradually the theory of evolution was
accepted by most people.
Charles Darwin published 10 more books
after 1859. Six were about botany, one was about earthworms. Only three were
about evolution. One of these was The variation of Animals and Plants under
Domestication (1868). He also published The Descent of Man in 1871. In it he
explained his ideas about the evolution of man. In 1872 Darwin published The
Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.
Darwin's last book was on earthworms and
it was published in October 1881 shortly before he died. Charles Darwin died of
a heart attack on 19 April 1882. He was 73.
Family
11 November 1838 Charles Darwin proposed
to his cousin Emma Wedgwood. They married on 29 January 1839. As well as
getting married Darwin was becoming more and more famous as a scientist. On 24
January 1839 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.Darwin's first son
was born on 27 December 1839. Altogether he had 10 children.
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