Charles+Darwin

=Introduction= “At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the savage races throughout the world,” (Brainy Quotes). Charles Robert Darwin was an extraordinary man who was well known for his work, and unforgettable beard. Darwin developed theories that are proven to be true to this very day, and some that are still in debate today. He was a versatile man; he did not study only one form of science, as he is known for. His theories created much controversy then, as they still do now. As a result, Darwin is one person that science cannot forget.



=Personal Background= Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, and lived in England his whole life; dying at the age of 73 on April 19, 1882 (Biography). Darwin grew up in an anti-slavery household, which at that time was odd for a wealthy family. His mother died when he was eight years old, and as a result he was raised by his sisters. Being raised by his sisters resulted in him being dressed up as a little girl. As Darwin grew older, he became seen as a country Englishman. Later on for his career, his father wanted him to be a surgeon, but seeing a surgery being performed made him sick to his stomach (Milner). Darwin was considered a family man with a wife and ten children ("Darwin’s Conundrum"). His wife, Emma was very religious, which later on caused some bumps in the road (Milner). As for his children, only seven lived actual lives (Graham). Two of his children died from grim diseases and the third died before the age of one. Annie, one of Darwin’s beloved daughters, died of tuberculosis in 1851 (Milner). Seven years later in 1858, he lost a son to scarlet fever (Graham). However, since he was independently wealthy, he was able to support his ginormous family, but it was hard being with them at times because he had bad heath ("Darwin’s Conundrum" and "Mr. Darwin’s"). With Darwin’s grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin being a well-respected theorist, he may have helped guide Darwin into becoming who he was (Graham). Professionally, Darwin became a trained naturalist, a theorist, a dissector, an experimentalist- which also included experimenting in the garden and in the kitchen-, an author, and a researcher in Natural History (Cerveny, Quammen, and "Darwin’s Conundrum"). He was also an under graduate at Cambridge, a landowner, an agnostic, and became referred to as an “encyclopedia of facts” all before the ending age of 73 (Quammen and "Darwin’s Conundrum"). Darwin also had expertise in all areas of natural science. One area that he became interested in was dispersion (Cerveny). The adventure that started his life as who he is known for was voyaging on the HMS Beagle (Quammen). The voyage lasted for five years from 1831 to 1836 ("Darwin’s Conundrum"). His findings during the HMS Beagle voyage helped him create his first published writings as an author (Graham). After returning to Falmouth in 1836, he would never leave England again; only moving to the city of Down with his wife and his first two children ("Mr. Darwin’s" and "Darwin’s Conundrum"). With the voyage of the HMS Beagle, he slowly began to create his theory which became his life’s work (Quammen). =Personality Traits= Darwin had almost no limits when it came to his personal and work related traits. When it came to his personal traits, Darwin surprisingly had some that were polar opposites. While he was somewhat antisocial, he was also found to be companionable by many (Milner and "Darwin’s Conundrum"). He was a family man- which is pretty obvious because he had ten children-, but on top of that, he treasured his solitude ("Darwin’s Conundrum"). Like some people, he was introverted, but he was considered to be very humorous as well (Graham and Milner). For a man who mainly hid his emotions, he was described as being sensitive (Milner). When it came to- possibly- negative traits, Darwin tended to be private, recluse, and timid (Quammen and "Mr. Darwin’s"). Assuming when it came to only his family, Darwin was a kind, gentle, affectionate man (Milner and Quammen). Although the following can be debatable, he was an optimistic and happy man throughout his life ("Darwin’s Conundrum"). Consistent to his personal traits, Darwin’s work traits had some positive and negative qualities. His road to creating his theories began with curiosity, which turned into an obsession to get answers (Cerveny and Milner). Darwin is known for being a percipient scientist and eloquent, so it was no shock that he was a perfectionist when it came to his work (Darwin’s Conundrum and Mr. Darwin’s). He was very fastidious and meticulous, which resulted in restless explaining ("Mr. Darwin’s" and Quammen). Since he was a keen observer, he wrote his work in a methodical and lucid way ("Darwin’s Conundrum", Quammen, and "Mr. Darwin’s"). Darwin’s writings proved to be persuasive, but his dilatoriness and procrastination put him in a bad spot ("Darwin’s Conundrum" and "Mr. Darwin’s"). He was forced to publish his work earlier than he wanted, so he became unsure and uneasy, feeling that it was not ready (Graham). As a result, he became hesitant, anxious, and sometimes even reluctant to publish his work (Graham and "Mr. Darwin’s"). Soon, he began to be afraid and overwhelmed, with the thought of his theory not being accepted, or thought to be ludicrous (Cerveny and "Mr. Darwin's"). Although, his work proved to be influential once it was published and read (Quammen). =Obstacles= Charles Darwin had many obstacles that went from internal challenges all the way to competition in making his work seem to be the first of its kind. Before he started on the theory of evolution he dissected barnacles. Although, the problem with that was that the barnacles took eight years to grow. The barnacles helped him define the theory of variation, although he was struggling to comprehend it ("Mr. Darwin’s"). Other than the helpings of evolution, he studied other sciences. During his voyage he studied the weather and why it is the way it is. Darwin had to deal with lighting that could cause fires on boats and with being in South America during El Nino. When he got back to London he had to prove the dust theory correct after Ehrenburg put him to doubt (Cerveny). While it came to writing his book on evolution, he found that writing was tedious and difficult ("Darwin’s Conundrum"). He had to make the theory of evolution persuasive, and manage to answer preemptively all the objections. Another struggle was keeping his originality because he knew he would be compared to others with similar topics, and face future criticism ("Mr. Darwin’s"). It was also hard for him to write because his style of research was losing popularity ("Darwin’s Conundrum"). When writing about evolution Darwin heard of a younger man named Alfred R. Wallace. Darwin saw him as a possible but unlikely competitor, so he did not worry about him. After a while Wallace began looking for answers on how species arise ("Mr. Darwin’s"). Soon enough Darwin found out that Wallace created the idea of evolution by natural selection at same time as himself (Quammen). It was now time to publish his work so that people would not assume he stole other’s ideas, although he felt that the theory of evolution was not ready to go public (Graham and Darwin’s Conundrum). Wallace produced an abstract, and Darwin found himself acing toward publication ("Darwin’s Conundrum"). He feared that when he published the article people would assume he copied Wallace so as a result, he published the works together and share credit with Wallace ("Mr. Darwin’s" and "Quammen"). Away from the tasks of writing and publishing his work, he had problems with the church and personal obstacles. As a child Darwin had transient mental stresses, and as an adult he developed a psychosomatic illness, altered sensations, cardiac palpitations, headaches, and trembling (Milner). Also, after voyaging on the HMS Beagle he generated Chagas’ disease, which let him work for only two to three hours a day (Milner). However, the theory challenged religious beliefs and the church did not approve of his ideas (Quammen and Milner). The Christians strongly believed that the creation of every species was made by God ("Darwin’s Conundrum"). They disagreed with his beliefs mainly because they wanted God to have at least some pull on evolution (Graham). As a result, the connection between his person life and the church was that he was delaying his work so that he would not go against his wife’s beliefs (Quammen). He was also working while trying to make sure that his children did not die (Graham). =Historical Significance= Charles Darwin is not truly known for studying many sciences, but he did and made important discoveries because of them (Milner). Darwin studied biogeography, embryology, paleontology, morphology, and tetralogy (“Darwin’s Conundrum” and Quammen).He conducted 1,000s of experiments; which included dissecting barnacles (Milner and “Darwin’s Conundrum”).When he visited the Galapagos Islands, he noted the differences in the finches, tortoises, and mockingbirds (Quammen).Breading pigeons was another experiment that he did to bring out traits in the birds. Darwin also observed orchids, poultry, and children to see their traits come out, and how the children displayed their feelings (“Darwin’s Conundrum”). Darwin wrote seventeen books, in which some became very popular (Milner). The handful that became popular was: //The Origin of// Species, //The Voyage of the Beagle The Descent of Man//, and //The Expression// //of the Emotions in Man and Animals// (Quammen and “Darwin’s Conundrum”). He also wrote 100 scientific papers, and because of his writings, he was inducted into the Linnean Society (Milner and “Darwin’s Conundrum”).

Charles studied weather and changed views with his works. Darwin helped understand El Nino-Southern oscillation and helped see connections between La Nina and El Nino. He discovered and identified fulgurites on the Western Hemisphere, and proved dust found on ships near South America comes from Africa (Cerveny). Alterations to views of nature, man, experience, and philosophy were created from his work. Influence on science, religion, philosophy, societal values, and literature came easily with his writings. People believed in his ideas so much that Darwinism was created based on his ideas. His work created so much controversy that some are still debated today (Graham). However, his books explain in detail why his theory of evolution works, and it is still looked to today and still remains valuable to biology (Graham and “Darwin’s Conundrum”). Darwin also helped further the facts of already stated ideals, and also created his own. He noticed that there were variations in domestic species, like he noticed for the Galapagos animals. One ideal that he stated was that nature is governed by fixed laws that cannot be undone. Evolutionary psychology was another ideal in which he believed brains could evolve (“Darwin’s Conundrum”). His creation of the concept of natural selection led to the concept of evolution by natural selection (Graham and Quammen). Sexual selection was also created with the idea that animals are picky with who they mate with (“Darwin’s Conundrum”). Darwin pointed out homologous structures and vestigial structures saying that certain anatomical parts were there but unneeded, and some are similar in animals, but with different functions in each animal. He stated that an overabundance in a species would lead to competition for almost all the basic needs and kill most of them off in the process. Isolation and adaptation were also ideals Darwin created that helped support the theory of evolution (Quammen). Although this is commonly mistaken, Darwin merely suggested the idea of human evolution (“Darwin’s Conundrum”). =References= //Bio.com//. A&E Networks Television. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

"Charles Darwin Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore. Web. 6 Feb. 2015.

Cerveny, S, Randall.."Charles Darwin's Meteorological Observations aboard the H.M.S. Beagle." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 9(2005):1295. eLibrary. Web. 16 Oct. 2014. SE#3

Graham, Peter W.. "Darwin's Origin Transforms Culture." World & I 14. (1999):18. eLibrary. Web. 02 Oct. 2014. SE#2

Milner, Richard. "Darwin's Shrink." Natural History 9(2005):42. eLibrary. Web. 17 Sep. 2014. SE#1

Quammen, David. "Darwin's Big Idea." National Geographic. 01 Nov. 2004: 3. eLibrary. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. SE#5

Quammen, David. "Darwin's Conundrum." Harper's. 01 Dec. 2006: 87. eLibrary. Web. 11 Dec. 2014. SE#6

Quammen, David. "Mr. Darwin's Abominable Volume." Virginia Quarterly Review 2(2006):4. eLibrary. Web. 16 Oct. 2014. SE#4