5 page bibliography on the History of Mass Communication

HIST 2112

Professor Rivera

A Brief Biography of Charles Darwin

INTRODUCTION

This paper will be a brief biography on Charles Darwin, also known for being one of the

greatest biologist of his time. He contributed to science by leaving behind his legacy and

theories, so current and future scientist benefit from his hard work. Darwin was a biologist and

naturalist who is known for his theories and the process of how organisms adapt to their

environment. He embarked on a five-year voyage around the world on the HMS Beagle. He

studied a lot of different species that led him to express his theories. He ended up publishing

many books. One of his best being the “On the Origin of Species”, which was the principle of

biology. Darwin relates to biology because he came up with the idea of the theory of biological

evolution by natural selection also known as Darwinism. He believed that species change over

time, share common ancestors and give rise to new species.

BACKGROUND

Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shropshire, England on February 12, 1809. Due to

his mother’s death, he was raised by his father and his 3 older sisters. Darwin’s way of thinking

was influenced by the people around him, which led him to explore and question the world the

way they did. He was an outdoor kid who loved to collect outdoor items and identified them.

Some of the items he would find were eggs, just to study the development and growth of nature’s

creatures. Darwin did not like school mainly because he did not like way teachers taught. He

believed teachers would constantly just repeat themselves which encouraged him to discover

things on his own. In Darwin’s era, education only focused on Latin and Greek, which was not

his strong points. With his father being a doctor, he expected Darwin to follow his footsteps by

becoming a doctor as well. At the age of sixteen, Darwin attended medical school at Edinburgh

University and realized being a doctor was not for him. He did not like blood, or like how the

teachers taught the material. Later, he went to the University of Cambridge to continue his

studies. He was not the most incentive student in the world but he still managed to be successful

and graduate. Darwin was more interested in teaching himself. Whenever he was not attending

class, he was studying plants and soon became a botanist.

INFLUENCES

Darwin was inspired by a naturalist by the name of Alexander von Humboldt, who was

also an explorer that traveled all around the world and studied animals and plants. Due to

Humboldt being such an inspiration to Darwin. Darwin decided he wanted to follow in his

footsteps but his father would not allow it. Darwin’s father always seemed to challenge him

(Sullivan, 2016, pg. 14). Darwin’s uncle managed to convince his dad, so Darwin went on to

travel on the HMS Beagle. During his journey, he studied geology by dissected species and

writing notes. This long journey also anticipated his theories. During his voyage he discovered

many different islands and the many different animals that lived on these islands. All the things

Darwin collected were brought back to England for deeper research at the end of his voyage.

When his voyage was over he decided to start writing books, one of the books he wrote was

Zoology of the Voyage of the HMS Beagle, which described all the animals he studied and how

they operated. The book was so phenomenal Humboldt wrote to Darwin approvingly.

MAJOR CONTRIBUTION

Soon, Darwin published another book, On the Origin of Species that is still being used

today as a guide for zoology and geology. In this book Darwin makes a statement, “Any

variation [of life] . . . will generally be inherited by its offspring. The offspring, also, will thus

have a better chance of surviving, for, of the many individuals of any species which are

periodically born, but a small number can survive. I have called this principle, by which each

slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection, in order to mark its

relation to man’s power of selection.” (Sullivan, 2016, pg. 31).

LEGACY

Darwin made his mark in science by creating a theory of evolution that examined the

process of mutation and the traits between and within organisms. Religion played a huge part in

his theories which made things intense.. His biggest contribution was developing new principles

that influenced the way people would think about the world, evolution, supernaturalism, social

groups, and natural selection. According to Amundson “even today in the 21st century biologist

continues to work on Darwin’s theories, but they change the foundation constantly. As his

reputation began to rise again in the 20th century, experimental approaches to evolution started to

develop”. (Amundson, 2014, para. 4).

CONCLUSION

Darwin transformed the understanding of the universe and where people should be placed in it.

According to Dupre, “over 150 years later, scientists are still trying to puzzle his theories. The

conception of the world is way different than it was in the 18th century. His theory was surfaced

as the conqueror during the evolutionary synthesis in the 1940’s when new discoveries in

genetics were produced. Darwinism has now become the basics of new philosophy in biology”.

(Dupre, 2003, para. 6). With the 21st century being so advanced in technology it has caused a

shift in Darwin’s ideas. Darwinism rejects phenomena and causations but eliminating God from

science makes room for phenomena, which causes effects in intellectual revolution that has

lasted to this day. Darwin’s theory explained why polar bear are only located in the artic and why

exotic animals are only find in tropical areas. Due to advance technology humans are protected

from the harshness from the environment. Scientist compare human genes to show how different

they are and how much they have evolved over the decades. Darwin inspires future biologists to

create theories of their own and to also follow his theories and find new solutions.

Works Cited:

Sullivan, Laura L. Charles Darwin: Groundbreaking Naturalist and Evolutionary Theorist. Abdo

Publishing, 2016. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).

Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species. London: John Murray, 1859. Print.

King, David T, and James T Bradley. Charles Darwin: A Celebration of His Life and Legacy.

NewSouth Books, 2013.

Amundson, Ron. In Endeavour September-December 2014. Elsevier Ltd, 2014. ScienceDirect.

Dupre, John. Darwin's Legacy What Evolution Means Today. Oxford; New York : Oxford University

Press, 2003.