Charles Darwin? Who's that?!
By: Ashleigh & Ashley
About Charles Darwin Himself
- Birthplace and date: February 12,1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
- College education: Darwin himself initially planned to follow a medical career and studied at Edinburgh University but later switched to divinity at Cambridge. In 1831, he joined a five year scientific expedition on the survey ship HMS Beagle.
- Some character traits: 5ft 11 1/2 inches tall, 148 pounds. He had piercing blue-gray eyes, thick curly sideburns and dark brown hair.
- Socioeconomic class: Upper income.
The Origin Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
Published: 1859 20 years after he had first began to write the book.
Darwin turned wholeheartedly to the problem of evolution. Ever since his Beagle trip he had been convinced that the difference between what naturalists called 'varieties' and what they called 'species' was much less significant than previously thought. If pigeon breeders could create varieties as different as pouters, runts, and fantails, what would prevent nature from doing the same? And, given millions of years, wasn't it possible that a pigeon could be turned into something so radically different we would no longer be willing to call it a pigeon–or even a bird?Darwin's contribution to Biological Science:
Darwin's theories and writings, combined with Gregor Mendel's genetics (the "modern synthesis), form the basics of all modern biology.
Adult Career Beginning to End Summarized:
Following a lifetime of devout research, Charles Darwin died at his family home, Down House, in London, on April 19,1882, and was buried at Westminster Abbey.