Charles Robert Darwin

1. Charles Robert Darwin

2. Charles Robert Darwin(February 12, 1809 - April 19, 1882) was an English naturalist, that is a scientist who studied nature. He is most famous for proposing the theory of evolution.

3. The theory of evolution says that all types of living things on Earth including all plants, animals and microbes come from a common ancestor by slowly changing down the generations. He said the way living things changed over time is through natural selection of those that best fit into the place where they live. Fitting into the place where you live is called adapting. Those who fit best into the place where they live, the best adapted, survive. Those who are less well-adapted die off. Put another way, those that are not well-adapted and cannot live well enough to raise young do not pass on the information about their shape and way of life.

5. He noticed that although young plants or animals of the same kind are very similar to their parents no two are exactly the same and there is always a range of shape, size, color. Some of these differences the plant or animal may have got from their own ancestors, but some are new and caused by mutations. Since some differences might make an organism more able to live in the wild, it would have a better chance to survive, and would pass on its details about its shape and size (called its genes) to its offspring and then to their offspring. Any difference that would cause the plant or animal to have less of a chance to live would be less likely to be passed on, and would eventually die out altogether. In this way groups of similar plants or animals (called a Species) slowly change in shape and form so that they can live more successfully and have more offspring who will survive them.

7. He first thought of this theory in 1838. Historians think that he did not talk about his theory because he was afraid that people would not like his theory if it showed questions about religion, especially how the earth was made. So he did not publish it in a book until 1859, when he heard that another scientist, Alfred Wallace had the same ideas. Wallace was close to publishing his ideas, so Darwin gave a lecture talking about his own and Wallace's ideas, then published his book. The name of the book was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. This is also just called The Origin of Species.

9. Celebrating Darwin On Thursday 12 February, we celebrated 200 years since Charles Darwin, one of the world's most creative and influential thinkers, was born.

10. Darwin200 is a national program of events honouring his scientific ideas and their impact. Many celebrations are taking place during the next few months but will continue until 24 November 2009, the 150th anniversary of the publication of his famous book - The Origin of Species.

11. Darwin - a British scientist, laid the foundations of the theory of evolution and transformed the way we think about the natural world.

12. Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!!!

13. About the Darwin Day Celebration Darwin Day Celebration is a nonprofit educational corporation, and its mission is to promote the public education about science and to encourage the celebration of science and humanity. It is managed by the American Humanist Association as an autonomous program.

14. Science is our most reliable knowledge system, and it has provided us with information that has greatly improved our lives, through this intellectual enterprise. Therefore we believe that it is time for everyone to learn more about science, and to celebrate its many accomplishments.

15. Mission Statement The dual mission of Darwin Day Celebration is to promote public education about science and in addition to encourage the celebration of Science and Humanity throughout the global community including the general public, private and public institutions, science professionals, science educators at all levels, libraries, museums, the print and electronic media, and science enthusiasts everywhere. Science is our most reliable knowledge system. It has been, and continues to be, acquired solely through the application of human curiosity and ingenuity and, most importantly, it has provided enormous benefit to the health, prosperity and intellectual satisfaction for our human existence. These are worthy achievements for all people to celebrate!

17. The Origins and History of DDC We suspect that ever since Charles Darwin published his famous book, On The Origin of Species that there have been sporadic efforts to celebrate his accomplishments. One, with a recent but prolonged history, was initiated in 1980, at Salem College in Massachusetts. This weeklong event called the Darwin Festival continues to be held each year. However, the history that leads directly to this Darwin Day Web site was initiated by Dr. Robert ("Bob") Stephens and took place at Stanford University. The first EVENT sponsored by the Stanford Humanists student group and the Humanist Community, was held on April 22, 1995. The famous anthropologist Dr. Donald Johanson, who discovered the early fossil human called ‘Lucy’, gave a lecture entitled "Darwin and Human Origins" to over 600 people in the Kresge Auditorium.

19. The Role of Natural Selection For more than 20 years Darwin collected vast amounts of scientific data and pondered the issue of how animals and plants changed their morphology over long periods of time. In addition to establishing the science of evolutionary biology, Darwin was an accomplished geologist and had collected many fossils from various strata of rocks during his five-year voyage on the Beagle; as a result of this activity, he was aware of the vast age of the earth. He also studied mutations resulting from breeding experiments with domestic animals and plants. He was able to consider all this information when he was trying to determine the ‘specific mechanism’ that permitted animals and plants to change over time. Eventually he realized that the mechanism underlying the process of evolution was that of ‘natural selection’. This idea led him to publish On The Origin Of Species, arguably the most significant book of the last two centuries, on November the 24, 1859. 

21. Natural Selection Natural Selection -- its power compared with man's selection -- its power on characters of trifling importance -- its Power at all ages and on both sexes -- Sexual Selection -- On the generality of intercrosses between individuals of the same species -- Circumstances favourable and unfavourable to Natural Selection, namely, intercrossing, isolation, number of individuals -- Slow action -- Extinction caused by Natural Selection -- Divergence of Character, related to the diversity of inhabitants of any small area, and to naturalisation -- Action of Natural Selection, through Divergence of Character and Extinction, on the descendants from a common parent -- Explains the Grouping of all organic beings.

22. THE END Agata Rocka Olga Oleszczuk Natalia Mackiewicz Jan Gosik Class III May 2009