18 On April 9, 1982, Darwin died at Da Vinci Palace at the age of 73 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Chinese name
Charles Robert Darwin
Foreign name
Charles Robert Darwin
nationality
Britain, England
birthplace
Preston
date of birth
1809 (already years old) February 12
quick
navigate by water/air
The main works and letters on the influence of evolutionary views on family science
Chronology of major events
Charles robert darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England.
18 17 His mother died.
Darwin
18 17 ~ 1825 studied at Shrewsbury private high school.
1825 ~ 1827 studied medicine at the university of Edinburgh, Scotland.
1828 ~ 183 1 studying theology at Cambridge university, England.
183 1 year ~ 1836, I traveled around the world with the battleship beagle.
1837, he began to write the first note on species evolution.
1838 reading thomas malthus's "population theory".
1In June of 839, she married Emma Wedgwood.1In February of 839, her son William was born. In the first stage of serious illness, she compiled a five-volume masterpiece Fauna during the voyage of Beagle1June 839 to1June 843.
1842 moved to Davenport Building on the outskirts of London.
From 1842 to 1846, he wrote a three-volume Geology during the voyage of Beagle.
1844 wrote an unpublished paper on evolution.
From 1846 to 1855, he studied and wrote articles about barnacles.
My father died on 1848, and his health was poor for a long time.
185 1 year, my daughter Anne passed away.
From 65438 to 0855, he began to write the main works of evolution.
1858, Linna Society in London read Darwin's and Wallace's papers on evolution, and the youngest son died.
The Origin of Species was published in 1859.
1860 The annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held a big debate on evolution at Oxford University.
The disease continued from 1863 to 1865.
Variation of Livestock and Cultivated Plants was published in 1868.
Starting from 19, five books on plants were published in 1970s.
187 1 human origin and sexual selection was published.
1872 published "Emotional Expression of People and Animals".
The book Power of Plants published by 1880 summarizes the experiment of phototropism of plants.
Published works on earthworms in 188 1.
1On April 9th, 882, Darwin died in Davenport and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Genius born
Charles robert darwin was born in England on February 65438, 0809. Darwin's grandfather predicted the theory of evolution, but because of his reputation, he never made his beliefs public. His grandfather and father are both local doctors, and the family hopes that he will inherit his ancestral business in the future. [ 1]
The way of learning
1825 16 years old, his father sent him to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine.
Darwin
Because Darwin had no intention of studying medicine, after he entered the Agricultural College, he still often went to the wild to collect animal and plant specimens and became interested in natural history. His father thinks he is "idle" and "idle". In a rage, 1828 sent him to Cambridge University to study theology, hoping that he would become an "outstanding priest" in the future, so that he could continue his interest in natural history without shaming his family. However, Darwin became more and more interested in natural history, and he completely gave up the study of theology. During his stay in Cambridge, Darwin met J. Henslow, a famous botanist at that time, and Sidgwick, a famous geologist, and received scientific training in botany and geological research. [2]
marry
Darwin was also cautious about marriage. He took a piece of paper and drew a line in the middle. One side of the line says the benefits of marriage, and the other side says the benefits of being single. Darwin lamented that it was too lonely not to get married, and then wrote three "marriages" in a row-after proof, one must get married.
Darwin and his children
Darwin was obviously a gentle man who liked to chat with women. He just wants to find a traditional wife and mother. It's not that he has no other choice. My friend's three daughters, all very knowledgeable and smart, can argue with him about philosophy and science and be tolerant of him. He found his cousin Emma Wedgwood, who he had known since childhood. Emma is one year older than Darwin, and her father is Darwin's mother's brother. Emma agreed to Darwin's proposal-this man who loves to listen to women's nagging, and girls seem to regard him as the ideal husband material. Although Emma is worried that she will break up with her husband forever after her death, she will go to heaven, and her husband who does not worship God does not know where to go. She just asked Darwin to keep an open mind about faith. Two and a half months later, they got married.
The death of his daughter Anne did not destroy Darwin's marriage. In Emma's time, the death of her daughter Anne could easily be seen as punishment for her "immoral" behavior, such as marrying a man who didn't believe in God. But Emma never thought so. Both of them love Annie deeply. Seeing Anne stop breathing, Darwin himself fell ill in bed. He told Emma that we should cherish each other more. Emma replied: You must remember that you will always be my most precious wealth. Every Sunday, he goes to church with Emma and the children. The wife took the children to church, but Darwin walked alone in the town.
Emma may not agree with the view of natural selection (rather than God's creation) in the Origin of Species, and may not even be interested. But because of this, Emma was able to make the first reaction to the manuscript of the Origin of Species on behalf of religious people who had no scientific education at that time. Emma carefully read the manuscript, corrected spelling and punctuation, and suggested that Darwin write some paragraphs that are easy to stimulate believers and the church with gentle tone and clearer arguments.
Darwin
If there were more reasons not to get married, if Darwin had been single and continued to live among intellectuals in London, if he had not married Emma, he might have written a more intense book. Because of Emma's participation, the debate on the views in the book can get rid of the emotional fetters and focus on facts and logic.
The Origin of Species was first published in 1859. 12 years later, Darwin published The Origin of Man. No matter how controversial the homology of apes is, the origin of human beings obviously has no influence on the feelings of Darwin and his wife. Shortly after the book was published, their oldest surviving girl, Edie, got married. Darwin told her: I have a happy life, which is entirely due to your mother-you should follow her example and your husband will love you as much as I love your mother.
Darwin
Darwin died before Emma 14 years. There is a legend that he converted to religion before he died. Perhaps, to comfort Emma's sadness that she can't meet in heaven? There is no such thing. No such record was found in Emma's diary. Darwin was a scientist who stood his ground to the death.
Establish evolution theory
183 1 After graduating from Cambridge University, his teacher Henslow recommended him as a "naturalist" to join the British Navy's "Beagle" on February 27th, 65438. First, I visited Brazil, Argentina and other neighboring islands on the east and west coasts of South America, then crossed the Pacific Ocean to Oceania, then crossed the Indian Ocean to South Africa, then returned to Brazil by bypassing the Cape of Good Hope through the Atlantic Ocean, and finally returned to Britain on June 2 1836. When he traveled around the world with balloons, he took some birds. In order to feed these birds, he planted a kind of grass called grass reed in the hut. It was dark in the cabin, and only the windows let in the sunlight. Darwin noticed that the grass seedlings curved towards the window. However, in the following decades, Darwin was busy establishing the theory of evolution, and it was not until his later years that he began a series of experiments to study phototropism. These experimental results are summarized in the book Power of Plants published by 1880. Darwin did these experiments with grass seeds. When grass seeds germinate, the germ is covered with a layer of coleoptile, which first breaks through the ground to protect the germ from damage when unearthed. Darwin found that coleoptile is the key to phototropism. If seeds are planted in the dark, their coleoptiles will grow vertically upward. If the sun shines on the seedlings from one side, the coleoptile bends in the direction of the sun. If the top of the coleoptile is cut off or covered with opaque things, the coleoptile will not bend to light, although light can still illuminate the coleoptile. If the coleoptile is covered with transparent things, the coleoptile will bend to the light. Even if the coleoptile is buried with opaque black sand and only the top is left, the buried coleoptile will still bend to the light. Darwin speculated that a signal substance was secreted at the top of the coleoptile and transported down to the curved part, causing the coleoptile to bend towards light. [ 1]
Darwin
This voyage changed Darwin's life. After returning to England, he has been busy with research and determined to become a serious scientist to promote evolution. 1838, he accidentally read T. Malthus's Population Theory, from which he was inspired and confirmed a very important idea he was developing: the world was not created in a week, the age of the earth is much older than that mentioned in the Bible, and all animals and plants have changed and are still changing. As for humans, it may have been changed by some primitive animals. Darwin realized the significance of struggle for existence in biological life and that natural conditions are necessary "choosers" in biological evolution. Different natural conditions, different selectors and different results.
Darwin
However, he is extremely cautious about publishing the research results. 1842 began to write an outline, which was later expanded to several articles. 1858, under the pressure of young naturalist R. Wallace's creative epiphany and the encouragement of his friends, Darwin decided to submit Wallace's articles and some of his own essays to the professional Committee. 1859 The Origin of Species was published, and the first edition 1250 copies sold out on the same day. Later, Darwin spent twenty years collecting data, enriching his theory of species evolution through natural selection, and expounding its consequences and significance. [3]
Emma Wedgwood and her children
As a creative person who doesn't pursue fame, Darwin avoided arguing about his theory. Darwin wrote several books for scientists and psychologists when religious fanatics attacked the theory of evolution as contrary to the biblical theory of creation. The origin and sexual selection of human beings reports the evidence that human beings evolved from lower life forms, that animals and humans have similar psychological processes, and that natural selection occurred in the process of evolution.
1April 882 19, the great scientist died of illness, and people buried his body next to Newton's grave to show their respect for the scientist. [4]
Evolutionary viewpoint
The development of Darwin's biological thought
The view of nature about the mutual transformation and evolution of all things can be traced back to the early days of human civilization. For example, China's Yin-Yang Eight Diagrams Theory in the Book of Changes simplifies nature into eight basic phenomena, namely, heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountains and rivers, and tries to explain the complex changing laws of the material world with Yin-Yang Eight Diagrams. Anaximander, an ancient Greek (about 6th century BC), believed that life was originally produced by mud in the sea, and primitive aquatic creatures were transformed into terrestrial creatures through metamorphosis (similar to the molting of insect larvae). In the Western Middle Ages, the Christian Bible described everything in the world as a special creation of God. This is called creationism. Teleology, which is accompanied by creationism, holds that the arrangement of nature has a purpose. "Cats are created to eat mice, mice are created to eat cats, and the whole nature is created to prove the wisdom of the creator." From the Renaissance in the second half of the15th century to the18th century, modern natural science was formed and developed. The dominant view of the scientific community in this period is invariance. At that time, this view was expressed by I Newton and C·V· Linnaeus as a scientific law: the earth moves because of the so-called first driving force, and then it will move forever, as did biological species before. Kant's celestial theory first opened the first gap in the unchangeable view of nature; Subsequently, the natural view of transformation theory gradually formed in various fields of natural science. Some biologists in this period were often confused between the two concepts. For example, in his later years, Linnaeus deleted the word species invariance in his book Natural Systems. Although Buffon, a French biologist, brought the theory of transformation into biology, he lingered between the theory of transformation and the theory of invariance all his life. Lamarck expounded his views on biotransformation in the book Animal Philosophy published by 1809, and never wavered. [5][6]
Lamarconism
From the end of 18 to the end of 19, most zoologists did not seriously study biological evolution, deviated from the traditional materialism of ancient Greece and fell into idealism. Although the "vitality theory" admits that biological species can be transformed, it attributes the cause of evolution to immaterial internal forces, and holds that the "internal forces" of organisms, that is, vitality, drive the evolution of organisms, making them more and more complex and perfect. However, the theory of vitality lacks practical evidence and is an idealistic speculation. The most famous vitalist is the French biologist Lamarck. The ultimate teleology or directism, which appeared in the late19th century, holds that biological evolution has an established route and direction.
Darwin
Later generations called Lamarckianism or Lamarckianism on biological evolution, and its main viewpoints are as follows: ① Species are changeable, and species are groups composed of mutated individuals. (2) There are a series of grades (steps) from simple to complex among creatures in nature, and creatures themselves have an inherent "willpower" to drive them to develop and change from low to high. ③ Organisms have strong adaptability to the environment; Environmental changes will cause biological changes, thus improving its adaptability; The diversification of environment is the fundamental reason of biodiversity. (4) The change of environment will cause the change of animal habits, which will make some organs develop when they are used frequently, while others will degenerate when they are not used; Directional variation under the influence of environment, that is, acquired traits, can be inherited. If the environment changes in a certain direction, due to the use of organs and acquired inheritance, tiny variations gradually accumulate and eventually organisms evolve. The inner will in Lamarckian theory is idealistic; Acquired is mostly phenotypic variation, and modern genetics has proved that it cannot be inherited. [7]
Darwin-Wallace theory
Darwinism 1 July, 8581day, C.R. Darwin and A.R. Wallace read a paper on the origin of species in linnean society of london. Later generations called their theory of natural selection Darwin-Wallace theory. Darwin systematically expounded his theory of evolution in the book Origin of Species published in 1859. The main idea of its core principle of natural selection is that all living things tend to over-breed, and living space and food are limited, so living things must "fight for survival". Individuals in the same population have variation, those individuals who have favorable variation and can adapt to the environment will survive and reproduce, and those individuals who have no favorable variation will be eliminated. If the change of natural conditions is directional, then in the historical process, after long-term natural selection, small variations will accumulate and become significant variations. This may lead to the formation of subspecies and new species. [8]
Darwin's theory of evolution holds that biological variation, heredity and natural selection can lead to adaptive changes of organisms from the perspective of the interaction between organisms and the environment. Because it is based on sufficient scientific facts and can stand the test of time, it has had a far-reaching influence in academic circles for more than one hundred years. But Darwin's theory of evolution still has some obvious weaknesses: ① His principle of natural selection is based on the popular hypothesis of "fusion inheritance" at that time. According to the concept of fusion inheritance, the genetic material of father and mother can be fused like blood; In this way, any new mutation will disappear after several generations of integration. How do mutations accumulate and how does natural selection work? (2) Darwin overemphasized the gradual change of biological evolution; He believes that "there is no jumping in nature" and explains the jumping evolution shown by paleontological data with "extinction of intermediate types" and "incomplete fossil records". His views have been severely criticized by discontinuous equilibrium theorists and new capitalism. [3]
The development of evolutionism
The development of evolution after Darwin 1865 Austrian botanist G.J. Mendel got the correct conclusion of particle inheritance from pea hybridization experiment. He proved that genetic material can be separated and recombined in the process of reproduction and passage. With the establishment of genetics in the early 20th century, T.H. Morgan and others further established the theory of chromosome inheritance, which fully revealed the basic laws of inheritance. This should make up for the defects of Darwin's theory and contribute to the development of evolution; But at that time, most geneticists (including Morgan) opposed Darwin's theory of natural selection. There has been a serious crisis in people's belief in Darwin's theory of evolution.
(1) Neo-Lamarckianism and Neo-Darwinism. From the end of 19 to the beginning of the 20th century, some new evolutionary theories appeared. At the beginning of the 20th century, Dutch botanist H. de Fries put forward the mutation theory of "species are produced by mutation" according to the variation of evening primrose, and opposed the gradual change theory. This theory was supported by many geneticists at that time. Although some followers of Lamarckian theory abandoned Lamarckian concept of inner will, they still emphasized acquired inheritance, which was regarded as the main factor of evolution. Michurin's theory, promoted by T.D. lysenko in the Soviet Union in 1950s, emphasized that under the direct influence of the environment, organisms can undergo directional mutation and acquire heredity. All these views are called neo-Lamarconism. 1883, A.F.L weismann proved the error of acquired heredity by experiments, emphasizing that natural selection is the driving force of biological evolution, and his view was later called neo-Darwinism. [9]
modern synthetic theory of evolution
In the 1920s and 1930s, firstly, R.A. Fisher, S.Wright and J.B. Shadane combined biostatistics with Mendel's theory of particle genetics, reinterpreted Darwin's theory of natural selection and formed population genetics. Later, C.C. Chet Vyrikov, T.dobrzanski, J.Huxley, E.Meyer, F.J. Ayala, G.L. stebbins, G.G. Simpson and J.W. Valentine developed Darwin's theory and established modern comprehensive evolution based on chromosome genetics, population genetics, species concept, paleontology and molecular biology. Modern comprehensive evolutionary theory completely denies the inheritance of acquired traits, emphasizes gradual evolution, thinks that evolution is a phenomenon of groups rather than individuals, reiterates the overriding importance of natural selection, and inherits and develops Darwin's evolutionary theory.
③ Neutral theory and discontinuous equilibrium theory. From 65438 to 0968, Japanese scholar Gen Kimura proposed the neutral theory of molecular evolution based on the materials of molecular biology. It is believed that at the molecular level, most evolutionary changes and variations within species are not caused by natural selection, but by the random drift of neutral or nearly neutral mutant alleles, which is contrary to the universal view of natural selection in modern comprehensive evolution (see the neutral theory of molecular evolution). [ 10]
1972, N. Eldredge and S. J. Gould * * * both put forward the "punctuated equilibrium" evolutionary model to explain the obvious discontinuity and jump in the evolution of paleontology, and thought that the gradual evolutionary model based on natural selection, that is, the linear gradual evolutionary model, could not explain the origin of more than one taxon, and opposed the only progressive evolutionary view of modern Darwinism. The debate continues (see discontinuous equilibrium theory). [ 1 1]