February is Charles Darwin’s birth month, and we will use the occasion to run a series of blogs summarizing the man, his life, and at least some of his contributions to science.
Most folks would probably confess that they know little about Darwin, and odds are that most of what people think they know about him is wrong. For example, one misconception is that Darwin invented the idea of evolution. In his book, On the Origin of species by means of natural selection one of the first things Darwin does is trace the history of thought on change among living things, from Aristotle to his own grandfather.
The word “evolution” does not even appear in Darwin’s writing until later editions of the Origin.
Darwin was not the first person to observe that species evolve, but because of the success of his book--a best-seller in Victorian England--and the robustness of his ideas, he is the best known.
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