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Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was a British scientist who laid the foundation of modern evolutionary theory with his concept of the development of all forms of life through the slow-working process of natural selection. His work was of major influence on the life and earth sciences and on modern thought in general.
Darwin was born in 1809 in Shrewsbury, a small market town in Shropshire, England. His wealthy physician father was the son of Erasmus Darwin who had written Laws of Organic Life. His mother was the daughter of artisan Josiah Wedgwood of dinnerware fame. Though she died when he was eight, Darwin enjoyed a happy and secure childhood loved and encouraged by four adoring sisters, an older brother named Erasmus, a team of faithful servants, and numerous Darwin and Wedgwood relatives.
Even as a youngster Charles collected specimens from nature and conducted chemical experiments. When he reached the age of 16, his father sent him to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine, a concept for which he had no enthusiasm. Consequently his father sent him to Cambridge University to study divinity. There Darwin met botanist John Stevens Henslow, whose passion for science rubbed off on Darwin. This prompted him to work more intensely on his study of specimens. Abandoning the idea of study for a career in the Church, he left Cambridge at age 22 and immediately joined a scientific group that was on a walking tour of North Wales in order to learn how to conduct geological field work.
Shortly after the tour concluded Darwin received a life-changing offer. In 1831, the British Admiralty invited him to sail as an unpaid naturalist aboard HMS Beagle, which was bound for South America and the Pacific Islands on a scientific expedition. Darwin’s job as naturalist aboard the Beagle gave him the opportunity to observe the various geological formations found on different continents and islands along the way, as well as a huge variety of fossils and living organisms. In...