Brief biography of charles darwin
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The man who struggled with his own ideas
Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection made us rethink our place in the world. The idea that humans shared a common ancestor with apes was a utmaning to the foundations of western civilisation.
Darwin kept silent for 20 years before going public and was only half joking when he described writing his book 'On the Origin of Species' as 'like confessing a murder'. This is the story of one man’s struggle with the most radical idea of all time.
12 Feb 1809
Born into a free-thinking family
Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, the fifth of six children of wealthy and well-connected parents.
The ung Charles had a quietly Christian upbringing, but his family life was one of openness to new ideas. His grandfathers had both been important figures of the Enlightenment: Josiah Wedgewood, person som äger eller driver industrier and anti-slavery campaigner, and Erasmus Darwin, a doctor whose book ‘
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Biography
Perhaps no one has influenced our knowledge of the natural world as much as English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882). His theory of evolution by natural urval, now the unifying theory of the life sciences, explained where all of the astonishingly diverse kinds of living things came from and how they became exquisitely adapted to their particular environments. His theory reconciled a host of diverse kinds of evidence such as the progressive fossil record, geographical distribution of species, recapitulative appearances in embryology, homologous structures, vestigial organs and nesting taxonomic relationships. No other explanation before or since has made sense of these facts. • 12 February 1809 Charles Darwin is born at The Mount, Shrewsbury, the fifth child of Robert Waring Darwin, physician, and Susannah Wedgwood. 1817 Darwin's mother dies; his 3 older sisters take on maternal responsibilities. Darwin starts at Unitarian day school. 1818-25 Darwin attends Shrewsbury School as a boarder. He hates the school, describing it as "narrow and classical". 1825 Darwin is removed from school, being deemed unsuccessful, and spends the summer accompanying his father on his doctor's rounds. That autumn, he is sent to Edinburgh University, with his brother Erasmus, to study medicine. 1826 Darwin joins the Plinian Society in Edinburgh. It is around this time that Darwin meets his most influential mentor at Edinburgh, Robert Grant. 1827 Abhorred by medicine, Darwin leaves Edinburgh without taking a degree. Darwin's father, anxious that he does not become idle, insists that Darwin take up clerical st
In further works Darwin demonstrated that the difference between humans and other animals is one of degree not kind. In geology, palaeontology, zoology, ecology, taxonomy, botany, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, literature and theology Darwin's writings produced profound reactions, ma