Essay, Research Paper: Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin Like many students, Charles Darwin was only intrested in topics that was intresting tohim and although his father was a doctor, Darwin was very unintrested in medicine and he alsocouldnt stand the sight of surgery. He did eventually get a degree in Theology from CambridgeUniversity, Although Theology was a minor intrest to him. What Darwin really liked to do wasclimb over hills, observe plants and animals, collecting new specimens, studying their structures,and categorizing his findings. In 1831, when Darwin was 22 years old, the British government sent her Majesty's shipThe Beagle on a 5 year expedition that would take them along the coastline of South Americaand then onward around the world. During the trip the Beagle would carry along a naturalist toobserve and collect Geological and Biological specimens. Thanks to a recomendation from oneof Darwins old college professors, he was offered the position aboard the Beagle. The Beagle sailed to South America, making many stops along the coast. Here Darwinobserved the plants and animals of the tropics and was stunned by the diversity of speciescompared with Europe. The most significant stop the Beagle made was the Galapagos Islandsoff the northwestern coast of South America. It was here that Darwin found huge populations ofTortoises; and he found out that diffrent islands were home to diffrent types of tortoises. Hefound that islands without tortoises, pricky pear cactus plants grew with their fruits spread all overthe ground. And on Islands that had lots of tortoises, the prickly pears grew really thick, tall,bearing the fruit high above the tortoises reach. He wondered if the differences in the two plantswere from being isolated from one another on seperate islands.
























In 1836, Darwin returned to England after his 5 year expedition. He became establishedas one of the best naturalists of his time. But Darwin sought to prove his idea of evolution withsimple examples. Darwin maintained that seperate species evolve as a result of NaturalSelection, or survival of the fittest. Darwin never said that human beings evolved from apes. Hesaid that all life began with molecules acting on each other. So from the first single celledorganism all life came. One single organism, by many diffrent molecules could make manydiffrent species of animals. It was in this way that he stated Ape and Man are similar by eachhaving similar life beginning. Darwin's theories caused people to begin to question where they actually came from. Hisresponse was the book on the origin of species. In his book he addressed the concerns of thepeople. He said " It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants ofmany kinds, with birds singing in the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with wormscrawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms have allbeen produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the highes sense, being growthwith reproduction; Inheritance and Variability; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a struglefor life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of charector andextinction of less-improved forms. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers,having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one, and that, whilst this planet has gonecycling on according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms mostbeauthiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."