Download Who Was Charles Darwin?

Who was Charles Darwin?
Charles Darwin, a naturalist, is widely considered as one of
the greatest and most revolutionizing scientists in history. In many
of the pictures published of him, he probably had a bald head, a
huge bushy beard, a bit of a funny nose and he probably looked a
bit miserable. But he wasn’t always like that! He had an amazing
life; he travelled the world, saw volcanoes explode and
earthquakes, rode on the back of giant tortoises, and went hunting
for ostriches. After many years of researching life as it was on earth
and as it lived in the past, he formulated the theory of evolution
and shared his ideas with the world and changed the way humans
viewed themselves and the world around them through his
amazing ideas on evolution and natural selection.
Pre-Darwin, it was thought that each species of life on earth came individually and
that none had ever changed its form. He confuted this notion and demonstrated from his
research that evolution is the law of nature and all living things on earth have descended
from common ancestors who lived millions of years ago. He proved that animals and plants
have evolved in an orderly manner and keep on evolving even today.
Charles Darwin Facts:
Charles Darwin was born in England on the 12th of February 1809, he died on the 19th of
April 1882.
He is most famous for his work on natural selection, the idea that all species of life have
evolved over time from common ancestors. This process involves favorable traits becoming
more common in successive generations of living things while at the same time
unfavorable traits become less common.
Not only did Darwin develop the idea of natural selection, he also presented compelling
evidence from his detailed research which included a five year voyage on the HMS Beagle.
On this voyage, Darwin visited ecologically diverse regions such as Brazil, Chile, Australia,
the Falkland Islands and the Galapagos Islands.
His 1859 book ‘On the Origin of Species’, detailed much of his research on natural
selection, it contained a large amount of evidence to back up his ideas and became a
landmark work in the field of evolutionary biology.
Darwin’s ideas created a lot of discussion regarding the impact on various scientific,
religious and philosophical viewpoints. Although most of those in educated society
accepted the theory of evolution, many still challenge its existence despite the wealth of
evidence supporting it.
Although in later life Darwin suffered from a range of illnesses, he continued with his
research and undertook new experiments to help support his ideas while at the same time
forming new ones in other fields.