Great Engineers & Scientists

Two-thousand nine celebrates both the two-hundredth anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth - February twelfth - as well as the one-hundred-fiftieth publication anniversary of his masterpiece, whose full title is "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life" - November twenty-fourth.

The perceptual shock-waves Darwin's master-work produced, with his new way of explaining how all life on planet earth came to be, are still being felt, especially here in the United States. To this day, his theories remain more controversial here than they do in Japan, Europe, and even China.

DARWIN'S EARLY LIFE

Charles Robert Darwin was born February 12^th, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England, the fifth child of six, into a wealthy family. His father, a medical doctor whose practice focused on the well-to-do, subscribed to the 17^th century English "freethinker" philosophy, while his mother was influenced by the Anglican religion.

<-- Charles Robert Darwin, age 51, the year he published "On the Origin of Species". All photos courtesy Wikipedia.

At the age of eight, already interested in nature and collecting natural specimens, he attended a school ran by an Anglican preacher. A year later, following the death of his mother, he moved to the Anglican Shrewsbury religious boarding school.

Later, in his nineteenth year, Darwin befriended and began to follow the thinking of botany professor John Stevens Henslow. Henslow and his peers saw their work as "natural theology", or as a way of connecting everyday physical experience with their religious understanding of the world.

When he turned twenty-two, Darwin joined a 5-year scientific expedition aboard the survey ship HMS Beagle. Upon his return to England in 1836, he set about solving the mysteries of the observations he had made aboard the Beagle.

TRAGEDY DRIVES DARWIN TO WRITE "ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES"?

In 1851, Anne Elizabeth Darwin, beloved second-born child of Charles and Emma Darwin, died as a result of a wasting disease, possibly tuberculosis. Wasting diseases were a common cause of premature death in 1800's England.

Annie's death, and Darwin's earlier experience with his own illness, made him think about the possibility that her illness was hereditary, and had come from the fact that he and his wife shared close family connections. This feeling, that inbreeding was a possibility for Annie's death, may have been a driving force for Darwin as he conducted his research and writing.

<-- "Annie" Darwin.

RESPONSE TO PUBLICATION

On the Origin of Species provoked international interest upon publication, but with less controversy than its predecessor, "Vestiges of Creation" by Darwin's Scottish contemporary, Robert Chambers.

A year prior to publication, and after learning that another naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, had developed similar ideas, Darwin collaborated with Wallace to make a joint announcement of their discovery in 1858.

Although he was unable to personally take part in public debates on the theories contained in On the Origin of Species, Darwin closely followed written criticism, and wrote to colleagues world-wide in response.

Harvard botanist Asa Gray, a trained medical doctor and from Sauquoit, New York, assisted Darwin in development of his theories through a trans-atlantic letter-writing relationship.

When Darwin was ready, Gray then went on to help with U.S. publication of On the Origin of Species. Asa Gray coordinated with his English counterpart, and was a champion of Darwin's ideas against fierce opposition from prominent American scientists of the day, including anatomist and geologist Louis Agassiz.

Part 2 will focus on the impact of Darwin's work on education in the New York State education system.

- Larry Kelley

Resources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/darwin/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_origin_of_species

http://www.cbc.ca/radioshows/THE_SUNDAY_EDITION/20090208.shtml