Biography of Charles Darwin

An evolution on Earth

12 February 1809
19 April 1882
None better than Darwin might embody the prototype of the scholar whose meager means, those of reason and observation, is able to divert the course of the history of ideas, to influence the entire progress of science. Everyone knows that his theory on evolution has become crucial to understanding the origins and diversity of living things we know today and that this theory is not yet peacefully accepted; Indeed, it is still the result of heated discussions or net waste, such as in certain western fringes more fundamentalist and tied to tradition. No wonder. The concept of evolution does not get along with that of creation, as well as with that of a well-defined ordering principle, to make room for the case and the unexpected, natural selection based on the environment.
More than normal, therefore, that the Darwinian revolution will be up against old certainties and visions of the world and of history. Born on 12 February 1809 in England, at Shrewsbury in Shropshire (on the border with Wales), Charles Darwin is part of a wealthy bourgeois family and starts to study medicine so that it can follow the same career of father and grandfather Erasmus, which alternates the exercise of the medical profession to passion for nature studies, wrote some works (such as the "Zoonomia") in which some arguments presented points of contact with the theories that later will processed by Lamarck and Charles will remember that I have read with great admiration.
Abandoned his medical studies to which he felt little interest Darwin undertakes under the pressure of an unpleasant family forcing the ecclesiastical career, his eyes still worse than that. The smart young man brooded a fierce love for the natural sciences and so when the opportunity presented itself to take part as a naturalist on board for a trip on the Brig "Beagle", he embarked to ride while against paterno. Ever family proved more fruitful prohibitions rebellion.
The experience of the "Beagle" proved critical to the scientific maturation of Darwin. On 27 December 1831 the "Beagle" sets sail for a long cruise in the southern hemisphere that will last five years during which are explored primarily South American coasts. Darwin collects a lot of material and analyzes the fossils found in geological strata coming under single observation combined with a strict logic, the famous conclusions. He returned to England on 2 October 1836, he decides to fix his family life. He married and settled down in the countryside, Down from where most won't budge until his death on 19 April 1882. These fifty years of sedentary life were imposed by his precarious health condition, probably caused by a tropical disease that had struck him on the trip. Corresponded with many biologists, breeders and growers which called for information and necessary data for the compilation of his theories.
Rearranged the data and the results of his observations of Darwin published "a naturalist's Voyage round the world" in 1839. In 1859 published his masterpiece "the origin of species" which, on the one hand, aroused fierce opposition, especially in religious environments and scandal among scientists found in brief a wide acceptance. The book was accompanied by a considerable amount of evidence and arguments that comforted the theses that were hardly candlelight smentibili reason. The structural homologies studied by comparative anatomy became proof of ancestors common to all species, which meant that the classic "finality" of religion is overthrown and reinterpreted through natural explanations that did not have to resort to divine intervention. Subsequently the results of paleontology, embryology, biochemistry have corroborated the theories of British genius, forever changing the face of life we observe on planet Earth. Charles Darwin is buried in London at Westminster Abbey.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.