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Social Studies and ELA Frontier Project

Frontier - Charles Darwin

Information about Charles Darwin

His most famous work, On the Origin of Species, explains the theory of evolution by natural selection, providing numerous supporting examples. In 1825, aged 16, Charles became a medical student at the University of Edinburgh. In his second year at Edinburgh, Charles became interested in zoology, and he collected and dissected marine creatures. Early in 1828, just before his twentieth birthday, Charles Darwin enrolled at the University of Cambridge to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1871 Darwin’s The Descent of Man presented evidence that humans are animals.
Source: https://www.famousscientists.org/charles-darwin/

The theory of evolution by natural selection was first put forward by Darwin in On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, and his theory is still generally accepted as the best available explanation of the way life on this planet developed. It was while they were surveying the Galapagos Islands that Darwin made many observations which eventually led to his theory of evolution by natural selection.
Source: https://leakeyfoundation.org/the-importance-of-charles-darwin-2/

English naturalist whose scientific theory of evolution by natural selection became the foundation of modern evolutionary studies. The grandson of Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and biology at Cambridge. He was recommended as a naturalist on HMS Beagle, which was bound on a long scientific survey expedition to South America and the South Seas (1831–36). His zoological and geological discoveries on the voyage resulted in numerous important publications and formed the basis of his theories of evolution. Seeing competition between individuals of a single species, he recognized that within a local population the individual bird, for example, with the sharper beak might have a better chance to survive and reproduce and that if such traits were passed on to new generations, they would be predominant in future populations. He saw this natural selection as the mechanism by which advantageous variations were passed on to later generations and less advantageous traits gradually disappeared.He worked on his theory for more than 20 years before publishing it in his famous On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859). The book was immediately in great demand, and Darwin’s intensely controversial theory was accepted quickly in most scientific circles; most opposition came from religious leaders. Though Darwin’s ideas were modified by later developments in genetics and molecular biology, his work remains central to modern evolutionary theory. His many other important works included Variation in Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868) and The Descent of Man… (1871)
Source: https://www.britannica.com/summary/Charles-Darwin