Charles Darwin was born on Febrary 12th, 1809, and lived until 1882. He was a geologist who significantly advanced our understanding of how coral reefs form. He contributed to the study of archaeology through his study of soil formation processes. Darwin made many contributions to the collections of natural materials including insects and birds to major British museums and institutions of study. He was an experienced traveller, and reported on the ethnography of peoples around the world, especially in South America. He played an important role as keeper of the clocks on a major British mapping project, also in South America.
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Everyone knows that Darwin was a biologist, and in many ways he was the first prominent modern biologist. Though Darwin scholars know this, many people do not realize that he was also a geologist. Really, he was mainly a geologist on the day he stepped foot on The Beagle for his famous five year…
We know that Darwin was a biologist, and in many ways he was the first prominent modern biologist. But many people do not realize that he was also a geologist. Really, he was mainly a geologist on the day he stepped foot on The Beagle for his famous five year tour. This is especially true if we…
For Darwin's Birthday Weekend, a reposting of my review of David Dobb's Reef Madness:
Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral is a book about the origins of modern science, the interplay between theory and empiricism, the machinations of the Victorian scientific…
Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral is a book about the origins of modern science, the interplay between theory and empiricism, the machinations of the Victorian scientific gentry, epic rivalries, polyps and plankton.
Reef Madness is by David Dobbs, of Neuron…
I cannot help but wonder what knowledgeable people are to do when a species like Homo sapiens is confronted with a colossal planetary emergency that it appears to have induced. Do human beings not have an original, overarching obligation or perhaps an absolute duty to warn of such a dire situation? What honor should be bestowed on first rank scientists and other esteemed professionals in possession of well-established science who pose as if they "see no truth, hear no truth and speak no truth" regarding known causes of the clear and present danger while mainstreamed, false (preternatural, pseudoscientific) knowledge is deliberately allowed to stand unchallenged as if it represented the best available science?
Darwin was in my humble opinion the scientist who most affected the future. He called into question the accepted truth of the Bible (as well as then-current science) and contributed to the development of free-thinking every where.
Happy birthday, old sock!
JimB
Sylvester, that is true. But it is also true that modern science generally can trace its roots to Darwin. Of course, it can trace its roots to a lot of individuals, some events, some organizations, in the past. But Darwin developed the highest form of what I would call the "true" scientific method. Not this circle of hypothesis testing and formulation thing (that's nice too). Rather, he developed the method of drawing information from multiple sources (observation, experience, literature, ideas held forth in conversations, creative thought), evaluating everything in context of everything else, giving all ideas an equal measure of consideration for as long as they stood the various tests, and finally, synthesis into a provisional model. He did that first with his work on coral reef formation, then later with his work on evolution, for example.
In a sense, Darwin made other scientists suck it up and do the work and not just be armchair victorian meddlers in natural history as much as many had been.
He certainly wasn't alone in that approach but he did in part invent it for himself while on the Voyage and in those early ears after, in my opinion.