Many people think that mathematics is a human invention. To this way of thinking, mathematics is like a language: it may describe real things in the world, but it doesn't "exist" outside the minds of the people who use it.
Mathematics
Nov 22, 2021
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A Madagascan hawkmoth, whose existence was predicted by Darwin and Wallace, has now been recognized as a new species.
Plants & Animals
Oct 05, 2021
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5330
Charles Darwin was obsessed with domestic pigeons. He thought they held the secrets of selection in their beaks. Free from the bonds of natural selection, the 350-plus breeds of domestic pigeons have beaks of all shapes and ...
Evolution
Sep 21, 2021
0
517
For the first time, milkweed butterflies have been sighted feeding on live caterpillars—their own species' young. Researchers suggest they do this to increase their supply of mating pheromones.
Plants & Animals
Sep 09, 2021
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784
Five months into the pandemic, things were getting desperate for Robin Betancourt, The tourists he depended upon as a boat captain were unable to visit the Galapagos Islands, whose isolation—1,000 kilometers (600 miles) ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 24, 2021
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260
Darwin's finches on the Galápagos Islands are once again providing insights into the theory of evolution, with two Flinders University studies investigating their dealings with a parasitic fly.
Plants & Animals
Aug 10, 2021
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591
Meerkats love hard-boiled eggs.
Plants & Animals
Jul 16, 2021
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Wander around a desert most anywhere in the world, and eventually you'll notice dark-stained rocks, especially where the sun shines most brightly and water trickles down or dew gathers. In some spots, if you're lucky, you ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 02, 2021
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409
Charles Darwin was a careful scientist. In the middle of the 19th century, while he was collecting evidence for his theory that species evolve by natural selection, he noticed it didn't explain the fancy tails of male peacocks, ...
Evolution
Jun 18, 2021
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11
As part of a wide-ranging conservation effort, a group of Oakland University researchers has been mapping the DNA of Amazon parrot species from the Caribbean.
Ecology
Jun 17, 2021
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Charles Robert Darwin FRS (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist[I] who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection. The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and much of the general public in his lifetime, while his theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s, and now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory. In modified form, Darwin’s scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.
At Edinburgh University Darwin neglected medical studies to investigate marine invertebrates, then the University of Cambridge encouraged a passion for natural science. His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell’s uniformitarian ideas, and publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author. Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin investigated the transmutation of species and conceived his theory of natural selection in 1838. Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work had priority. He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay which described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of both of their theories.
His 1859 book On the Origin of Species established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. He examined 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 was published in a series of books, and in his final book, he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.
In recognition of Darwin’s pre-eminence, he was one of only five 19th-century UK non-royal personages to be honoured by a state funeral, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.
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