Charles Darwin

He tied the nuptial knot with Emma Darwin in the year 1838. The couple was blessed with ten children out of whom two died in infancy. Annie died at the age of ten. However, his other children went on to have distinguished careers in their life.

He was faced with frail health all through his life, which caused him periods of incapacity. In 1882, he was diagnosed with angina pectoris, which caused coronary thrombosis and disease of the heart.

He died on April 19, 1882 due to angina attacks and heart failure. Though he was to be buried at St Mary's churchyard at Downe, public and parliamentary petitioning led to him being buried at Westminster Abbey, near John Herschel and Isaac Newton.

Charles Robert Darwin was fifth of six children born to Robert Darwin and Susannah Darwin. His father was a doctor and financier by profession.

Since he was born in an affluent family, it gave him an access to explore nature, which he grew a fantasy for. He attained his basic education from Anglican Shrewsbury School, before attending the University Of Edinburgh Medical School.

Uninspired by the teaching methods and interested in the subjects taught, he took to learning taxidermy from John Edmonstone. he registered himself at the Plinian Society, a student natural history group. He first presented his discovery on March 27, 1827 at the Plinian where he argued that the black spores found in oyster shells were in actuality the eggs of a skate leech.

He further studied classification of plants and assisted with work on the collections of the University Museum. Meanwhile, his lack of interest in medical studies led his father to enrol him at the Christ’s College to attain a BA degree.

He despised mainstream education and showed profound interest in botany. He became close to John Stevens Henslow, who in turn became his mentor. It was during this time that he capitalized on the opportunity to meet other naturalists as well.

In August 1831, he received as offer from Henslow to join him as naturalist for a self-funded supernumerary place on HMS Beagle. Darwin was eager to go on the journey as he knew it would change his life forever.

Captained by Robert FitzRoy, the ship embarked on a two year journey (as planned) around the world. Though his father initially resented at the idea, Darwin was later given the green signal. The voyage which lasted for five years proved to be a lifetime opportunity for him.

The journey commenced on December 27, 1831. While the Beagle surveyed the coasts, he spent time on land investigating geology and making natural history collection.

Over the course of the journey, he collected various specimens of birds, plants and fossils, which he attached to the copy of his journal and sent across to Cambridge. The unique opportunity gave him an experience to observe closely, principles of botany, geology and zoology.

He suffered from seasickness but did not let this come in way of his research. While his expertise in geology, beetle collecting and dissecting marine invertebrates assisted him, as for other sectors, he collected specimens for expert evaluation.

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution changed the way the world look at the creation of life. Until then, the dominant thinking was that all species either came into being at the start of the world, or were created over the course of natural history. In both the cases, it was believed that the species remained much the same throughout the time. Darwin, however, noticed similarities among species all over the globe, as well as variations based on specific locations. This led him to conclude that they had gradually evolved from common ancestors. He came to believe that species survived through a process called “natural selection,” where species that successfully adapted to meet the changing requirements of their natural habitat survived, while those that failed to evolve and reproduce died off.