Charles Darwin Biography Essay

Charles Robert Darwin is a biologist and a naturalist mostly known for his theory about natural selection and evolution. Charles Robert Darwin was born on 12th February 1809 in Shrewsbury town in England. He was the second youngest and the second son of a family of six kids. He was born in a kind of wealthy family, and he expressed a passion for nature exploration since he was a kid. His entire family lineage has been associated with science profession. His father Dr. Robert Waring Darwin was a doctor while his paternal grandfather was a Dr. Erarmus Darwin was a known botanist but also a freethinking poet, and his maternal grandfather Josiah Wedgwood was a Unitarian potter. After the death of his mother Susannah Wedgwood when he was still eight years old, her three eldest sisters took care of him. He father spent so much time with him. Therefore, his father 's presence and influence in hand with Darwin's curiosity enabled him to learn so much about human psychology. His family appreciated religion so much, and their mode of living of every member was expected to follow an Anglicanism mode in their thoughts and deeds. But later Darwin's theory will bring controversy with the religious views of how humans come to existence.

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In 1818 Darwin enrolled in a school nearby school in his town known as the Anglican Shrewsbury School. Darwin did not have so much fun studying here by what he says that he hated the rote way of learning. Due to his family background and influence, Darwin was a science student, but the culture of the school did not appreciate sciences. Therefore, his headmaster condemned him. His fellow students nicknamed him the gas after he doubled with a chemistry class. He remained an active student until when he completed in 1825.In October of the same year, Darwin and his brother Erasmus joined Edinburgh University. Just like any other family, your parents expect what they would like you to be when you grow up; Darwin's father was no different, he expected that his son would have followed his footsteps in the medical field. Darwin was 16 years old when his father sent him to this university to study medicine. This was a hard time for Darwin despite the fact that he understands most of the things they are taught in class his passions were not that field. Although he did not liked the profession, it was a formative experience that would later help him in research of his theories. Some of the things he learned at Edinburgh was too much of anatomy than medicine; the chemistry of rocks, plants and animal biological classifications and how to identify flora and fauna. Therefore, two years later, he decided to tell his father that he wants to change his course and study a different course that he finds he finds more interesting but by this time, he had acquired the general knowledge about continental sciences. It was in Edinburgh where Darwin knew what if feels like to have different facts on the common science facts that people are used to. Most of the students who had problems with graduating at Oxford and Cambridge came and joined here, then at a one society conference Darwin heard these students argue about the anatomy of humans face is the same to all animals, humans are in no way different than others.

Darwin's father, Robert thought that Darwin quest fits a church calling, and in 1828 he sent Darwin to Christ's College Cambridge. He went up and took a different course, and in 1841 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree and managed to be number 10 in his class. Professor John Stevens Henslow tutored Darwin everything about botany while reverend Adam Sedgwick took him through zoology studies. Reverend Henslow was responsible for Darwin's geology trip to the Southern American with HMS Beagle accompanying the young captain of the ship, Robert Fitzroy (Brock 244). Darwin was aboard just as a friend and not as a researcher, but he had carried geology books with him plus having an extensive knowledge of how to preserve carcass. He knew he was up to something, but he was not quite sure that he was about to invent a fascinating theory. The trip started on the coast of England on 27th December 1831 up to Tierra del Fuego.

He focused more on fossils invention during the entire trip that took more than two years.His fossils raised controversies amongst his fellow scholars. Darwin collected skulls and bones of different dead mammals who are believed to be rhinoceros, armadillos, giant sloths and mastodons from places like the Pacific Islands, Archipelago, and mostly South America, Bahia Blanca, Port St.Julian and alongside rivers especially the Uruguay river where he found a 71cm skull. When they were sailing from Argentina to Chile, Darwin through curiosity, he opted to do mountain climbing at the Andean foothills to investigate on the forces that raise the ground to form such mountains. On 15th January 1835 Darwin was at 1200 meters where he experienced an active volcano erupting on Mt. Osorno. On February 20th he also experiences another earthquake while he was still in a forest in the mountains. He had experienced the first-hand experience of the forces of nature, and this helped him understand more about the earth's dynamics.

Upon his return, he had a very different perspective of natural history in which driven him to develop his own unique about how animals come into existence. By the end of the trip in 1836, Darwin had finished a 770-page diary with 5,436 skins, bones, and carcasses. Despite the findings he got he came back with more questions than he had when starting up the trip. He had conflicting questions like why are the species that generally look the same but differ with only a few aspects and why were other giant species extinct and others still surviving (Clark 117). For example, he enquired breeders of how were they able to spot differences among bred pigeons and dogs. After the trip, his father helped him with 400 euros to settle. Darwin did not rely on income for his survival, and since he was financially stable, this contributed for him to dig in into his passions rather than looking for work as a geologist. Thomas Robert Malthus, an economist from Britain, simplified Darwin's ideology after he read his Malthus'1798 essay. The essay talked about how populations are controlled or remain in balance and Malthus argued that any increase in food availability for basic survival will be outdone by the geometric rate of how the population is growing. Darwin later incorporated this knowledge in his research which helped him formulate the theory of natural selection. In 1837, he became well known due to his diary's publication commonly known as Journal of Researches. Then through linkage with the Cambridge network, he was a treasury grant of 1,000 euros; he, therefore, employed other geology and zoology professionals and did an official publication of the specimen he found during his voyage trip in the southern parts of America as the Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle.

Through his radical understanding of equality and antislavery during the 1830's helped Darwin in formulating his dissenting views on the theory of evolution. The church viewed his theory as attacking the supernatural of how human come into being; it was hard for them to believe that there is a possibility that mammals had a natural law of existence rather than spiritual creation. Were all mammals created in the image of God since they all share similar backbone structure? Should all animals be equal despite the fact that humans have dominated the kingdom?

In 1842 Darwin had already compiled a 35-page sketch concept of his natural selection theory. Through his research, Darwin assumed that when populations of any species explode there will be a struggle for basic resources, therefore, creating a competitive environment so as the strong will survive while the weak will have to be weeded off by the system. But for those species that adapt changes in their ecology cycle to meet the new conditions will therefore survive. This was how he explained as the reason to why some species do not exist anymore. He had no intention of publishing this article, but due to his illness, he feared that his death might be soon, so he made a copy of his natural selection concept and sent it as a letter to Emma in 1844.Darwin requested her wife, Emma to make sure it is published to the public if he will die before he had released it. Darwin believed that if he comes out in society and convinces people to accept in his evolution theory is like confessing on a murder case. It could be a capital offense, especially considering he was born in an Anglican family. An Atheist could use his ideology against Christianity since that could have been the answer they have been waiting for all that long. He was in a dilemma of what to do next. His theory could bring up a sensitive issue contradicting with the society morals. In 1856 Darwin began writing another third volume of his book Natural Selection in which its main objective was to answer all those critics and facts from those who are opposing his idea. It was in 1858 that a paper published Darwin's theory and the year after that, it was also published in On the Origin of species in which many people refer to as the book that shook the whole world. The book took the all world by storm from professors, clergymen, and scholars. The book had already sold out just on the first day of its release to the public.

By 1838, stomach and heart complications forced Darwin to relocate and stay in the Scotland Highlands, but he continued his study about evolution of mankind for the next two decades. He focused more on the development of apes by observing a sample at a zoo. In his scientific perspective, he even argued that the belief in God is just a belief we have that make humans have faith in survival strategy. In 1839, Darwin got married to his first cousin Emma Wedgwood. He spent the rest of his life trying to research and give specific answer to his critics. He also published some other several books like Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication which was published in the year 1868, and in 1871 he also published another controversial book known as The Descent of Man and in 1872, he also published The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals. In 1878 he was recognized and honored by the French Academy of Sciences. He is a respected naturalist and all universities around the world study and teaches his evolution theory to their students. Darwin finally died at his family home in London on April 19th, 1882 and was later buried at the Westminster Abbey. They had a big family together including ten children by which three of them died while still, they are infants

Works Cited

Brock, W. H. "Charles Darwin: Voyaging." Medical history 40.2 (1996): 244.

Clark, Ronald William. The survival of Charles Darwin: a biography of a man and an idea. 1986.

Darwin, Charles. "On the origin of species by means of natural selection. 1859." London: Murray Google Scholar (1968).