Charles Darwin eureka Moments

Galapagos Islands

Galapagos finches, one of Darwin's ship research subjects

Darwin Discovers Natural Selection in the Galapagos

Much can be read into the full title of Charles Darwin's great work, which is 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'. It is effectively one long argument in support of his theory as to how and why species come about, resulting a huge leap in our understanding of the natural world and our role in it.

The Galapagos Islands are inextricably linked to Charles Darwin. If you go on a Galapagos liveaboard you will learn a great deal about Darwin's studies here. There is a Charles Darwin research centre in Santa Cruz and his musings on tortoises, finches, marine iguanas and more are quoted everywhere. Had he been trained in scuba, he would undoubtedly have marvelled just as much at the amazing abundance and variety of sea-life that can be witnessed when diving Galapagos!

Charles Darwin in 1855, aged 46Undoubtedly his travels contributed greatly to his work, but it is easy to overstate the role played by 'The Voyage of the Beagle'. While this may have been instrumental in broadening Darwin's mind and ways of thinking, there was no 'Eureka' moment as he stood on the rocky shores of the Galapagos Islands. We may love the thought of the young Darwin staring at some finch samples on board the Beagle and banging his desk with glee as everything fell into place in his mind.

However the truth is that it took Darwin many more years, deeper study and less glamorous scientific endeavour for his great work to become crystallised into the contents of 'On the Origin of Species'. A humble chalk bank in Kent, England near his home played a role as vital, if not considerably more so, than any of the stops on his exciting voyage on HMS Beagle.

"It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, gloved with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us."

In so writing he was unleashing a new view of nature. One is of which man was not made "in the image and likeness of God", but was simply part of the great tree of life. A father of 10 children, 7 of whom survived to adulthood, Darwin saw his human family as part of the mammal family and as an intrinsic part of the living world, and not apart from it. This conclusion was only arrived at following years of painstaking study and inner conflict, and was kept in a private notebook not to be shared with the wider world until the publication of his great work.

Source: www.dive-the-world.com

Privately printed Extracts from letters addressed to Professor Henslow
Book (Privately printed)

Herbert Spencer first used the phrase – after re

by TheSchittygrubben

Herbert Spencer first used the phrase – after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species – in his Principles of Biology (1864), in which he drew parallels between his own economic theories and Darwin's biological ones, writing, "This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection', or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.

Herbert Spencer is smiling

by Repentful

British philosopher and sociologist, Herbert Spencer was a major figure in the intellectual life of the Victorian era. He was one of the principal proponents of evolutionary theory in the mid nineteenth century, and his reputation at the time rivaled that of Charles Darwin. Spencer was initially best known for developing and applying evolutionary theory to philosophy, psychology and the study of society -- what he called his "synthetic philosophy" (see his A System of Synthetic Philosophy, 1862-93). Today, however, he is usually remembered in philosophical circles for his political thought, primarily for his defense of natural rights and for criticisms of utilitarian positivism, and his views have been invoked by 'libertarian' thinkers such as Robert Nozick

Charles Darwin and the secrets of the Galapagos Islands  — ABC Online
The Galapagos Islands are famous for their abundance of wildlife, which inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Robyn Williams retraces Darwin's footsteps and discovers that not all that much has changed off the coast of Ecuador.

Extracts from Letters addressed to Professor Henslow by C. Darwin, Esq. read at a meeting of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 16 November, 1835 / A reprint of the original pamphlet dated Cambridge, Dec. 1, 1835
Book (Caqmbridge, UK: Privately Printed)
[Extracts from letters addressed to Professor Henslow by C. Darwin, Esq: Read at a meeting of the Cambridge Philosophical Society on the 16th of November 1835
Book (Cambridge Philosophical Society)

FAQ

nikkiii
Charles Darwin......?

I have to do a paper for my science class on charles darwin. it has to be in "news paper clipping of that time" form. meaning i have to write about something significant he did like i was a journalist from that time. but i cant really find anything clear enough for me to write 3 pages about. yeah, it's gotta be 3 pages long.

any ideas?
it'd be much appreciated.

Really??? Darwin is credited with Evolution, Evolution has redefined science. His discoveries with Finches that he compiled when he got back from his trip on the HMS Beagle is a good place to start, or maybe his Eureka moment when he was reading Malthus and was able to put together evolution into a coherent idea. Those are two of literally tons of things that would work. 3 pages is an easy assignment!

Laura G
Grammar - is an abstract concept 'personified IN' or 'personified BY' a person?

I'm writing an article where I'm saying that the quote "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" could easily be personified by Charles Darwin. 'Personified by' sounds ok to me, but is 'personified in' the technically correct phrase? Basically, I'm trying to concisely say that Charles Darwin's life is a good example of that quote, as there was no "Eureka!" moment but a long slog of research (several decades, in fact!) to come up with his theory of evolution. I'd really like to know how I can tell when to use 'personified by' or 'personified in' (so that I can get it right in…

This may be easier to understand if you first express the sentiment in the active voice:

-- Charles Darwin personifies this quote.

Changing to passive voice yields the structure in question:

-- This quote is personified by Charles Darwin.

In the passive voice, the element that was the subject in the active voice commonly becomes the object of the preposition "by".

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