It's sometimes difficult to imagine how the planet we call home, with its megalopolis cities and serene farmlands, was once dominated by dinosaurs as big as buses and five-story buildings. But recent research has helped deepen ...
Evolution
Mar 20, 2023
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5
The official body charged with virus classification has released four new principles that bring order to the viral world. This provides a unified framework that will enable all viruses to be classified, something vitally ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 13, 2023
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119
If you've ever compared a frozen pizza to the photo on the box, you know the feeling of being duped by appetizing looks.
Plants & Animals
Feb 2, 2023
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86
Mountaineers who venture high into the Colorado Rockies have likely spotted medium-sized, brown-and-pink birds rummaging around on snow patches for insects and seeds. These high-elevation specialists are rosy finches, a type ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 27, 2023
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166
One-hundred fifty years ago, Charles Darwin speculated that life likely originated in a warm little pond. There, Darwin supposed, chemical reactions and the odd lightning strike might have led to chains of amino acids that, ...
Evolution
Dec 21, 2022
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476
Glaciers have been present somewhere on Earth for at least 60 million years, a period stretching back almost to the time of the dinosaurs. That's the key finding of our new research, which pushes the date when the planet ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 16, 2022
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9
Charles Darwin believed evolution created "endless forms most beautiful." It's a nice sentiment but it doesn't explain why evolution keeps making crabs.
Evolution
Dec 6, 2022
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261
There are 8 billion of us now. The UN says when the population peaks around the year 2100, there'll be 11 billion human souls. Our population growth is colliding with the natural world on a greater scale than ever, and we're ...
Astrobiology
Dec 1, 2022
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64
Biologist Eduardo Sampaio researched octopuses off Cape Verde. He participated in a Citizen Science-led expedition that retraced the journey of Charles Darwin.
Plants & Animals
Nov 18, 2022
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58
November 15, 2022, marks a milestone for our species, as the global population hits 8 billion. Just 70 years ago, within a human lifetime, there were only 2.5 billion of us. In AD1, fewer than one-third of a billion. So ...
Evolution
Nov 16, 2022
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1
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.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
