Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin, FRS (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) is an English naturalist.

He establishes that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and proposes the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution results from a process that he calls natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.

Darwin publishes 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 much of the general public has accepted evolution as a fact.

However, many favor competing explanations and it is not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus develops in which natural selection is the basic mechanism of evolution.

In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

Darwin's early interest in nature leads him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helps to investigate marine invertebrates.

Studies at the University of Cambridge encourage his passion for natural science.

His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle establishes him as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories support Charles Lyell's uniformitarian ideas, and publication of his journal of the voyage makes him famous as a popular author.

Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he had collected on the voyage, Darwin begins detailed investigations and in 1838 conceives his theory of natural selection.

Although he discusses his ideas with several naturalists, he needs time for extensive research and his geological work has priority.

He is writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sends him an essay that describes the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of both of their theories.

Darwin's work establishes evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature.

In 1871, he examines human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

His research on plants is published in a series of books, and in his final book, he examines earthworms and their effect on soil.

In recognition of Darwin's preeminence as a scientist, he is honored with a state funeral and buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.

Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history.

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