什么是达尔文

Darwin, Charles (Robert)

英国博物学家。祖父是伊拉斯谟斯.达尔文（Erasmus Darwin），外祖父是维吉伍德（Josiah Wedgwood）。他在爱丁堡大学攻读医学，又在剑桥大学攻读生物。後来被推荐为考察船「小猎犬号」（Beagle）的博物学家，前往南美洲及南部海域进行长时期的科学调查之旅（1831～1836）。他把旅途中在动物学及地质学上的发现撰写下来，成为许多重要的出版品，并形成演化论的基础。他观察到同一物种之个体间的竞争，例如，在同一地的群体中，喙较尖的个体比较有机会生存及繁殖，而且，如果这样的特徵传给新世代，会成为往後世代的支配性特徵。他把这种自然选择（natural selection）视为有利之变异传给後代而不利之特徵逐渐消失的机制。达尔文钻研於他的理论二十年，在1858年与华莱士（Alfred Russel Wallace）一起出版论文。着名的《物种起源》（On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, 1859）一出版即供不应求，而他具有强烈争议性的理论很快被大部分科学界人士所接受；但宗教领袖是反弹最大的势力。虽然达尔文的理念後来被遗传学及分子生物学的发展所修正，他的作品仍是现代演化论的中心。其他许多重要着作包括《驯化动植物的变异》（Variation in Animals and Plants Under Domestication, 1868）和《人类的後裔》（The Descent of Man, 1871）。死後葬於西敏寺（Westminster Abbey）。亦请参阅Darwinism。

1809～1882年

Darwin, Charles (Robert)

British naturalist. The grandson of Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, he studied medicine at Edinburgh University and biology at Cambridge. He was recommended as naturalist on HMS Beagle, which was bound on a long scientific survey expedition to South America and the South Seas (1831-36). His zoological and geological discoveries on the voyage resulted in numerous important publications, and formed the basis of his theories of evolution. Seeing competition between individuals of a single species, he recognized that within a local population the individual with, for example, the sharper beak might have a better chance to survive and reproduce, and that if such traits were passed on to new generations they would be predominant in future populations. He saw this natural selection as the mechanism by which advantageous variations were passed on to later generations and less advantageous traits gradually disappeared. He worked on his theory for 20 years before publishing a paper in 1858 with Alfred Russel Wallace. His famous On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) was immediately in great demand and his intensely controversial theory was accepted quickly in most scientific circles; most opposition came from religious leaders. Though Darwin's ideas were modified by later developments in genetics and molecular biology, his work remains central to modern evolutionary theory. His many other important works included Variation in Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868) and The Descent of Man . . . (1871). He was buried in Westminster Abbey. See also Darwinism.