Charles Robert Darwin

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Charles Robert Darwin
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• Charles Robert Darwin (February 12, 1809 - April
  19, 1882) was an English naturalist, that is a
  scientist who studied nature. He is most famous
  for proposing the theory of evolution.

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• The theory of evolution says that all types of
  living things on Earth including all plants,
  animals and microbes come from a common ancestor
  by slowly changing down the generations. He said
  the way living things changed over time is
  through natural selection of those that best fit
  into the place where they live. Fitting into the
  place where you live is called adapting. Those
  who fit best into the place where they live, the
  best adapted, survive. Those who are less
  well-adapted die off. Put another way, those that
  are not well-adapted and cannot live well enough
  to raise young do not pass on the information
  about their shape and way of life.

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• He noticed that although young plants or animals
  of the same kind are very similar to their
  parents no two are exactly the same and there is
  always a range of shape, size, color. Some of
  these differences the plant or animal may have
  got from their own ancestors, but some are new
  and caused by mutations. Since some differences
  might make an organism more able to live in the
  wild, it would have a better chance to survive,
  and would pass on its details about its shape and
  size (called its genes) to its offspring and then
  to their offspring. Any difference that would
  cause the plant or animal to have less of a
  chance to live would be less likely to be passed
  on, and would eventually die out altogether. In
  this way groups of similar plants or animals
  (called a Species) slowly change in shape and
  form so that they can live more successfully and
  have more offspring who will survive them.

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• He first thought of this theory in 1838.
  Historians think that he did not talk about his
  theory because he was afraid that people would
  not like his theory if it showed questions about
  religion, especially how the earth was made. So
  he did not publish it in a book until 1859, when
  he heard that another scientist, Alfred Wallace
  had the same ideas. Wallace was close to
  publishing his ideas, so Darwin gave a lecture
  talking about his own and Wallace's ideas, then
  published his book. The name of the book was On
  the Origin of Species by Means of Natural
  Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races
  in the Struggle for Life. This is also just
  called The Origin of Species.

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Celebrating Darwin

• On Thursday 12 February, we celebrated 200 years
  since Charles Darwin, one of the world's most
  creative and influential thinkers, was born.

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• Darwin200 is a national program of events
  honouring his scientific ideas and their impact.
  Many celebrations are taking place during the
  next few months but will continue until 24
  November 2009, the 150th anniversary of the
  publication of his famous book - The Origin of
  Species.

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• Darwin - a British scientist, laid the
  foundations of the theory of evolution and
  transformed the way we think about the natural
  world.

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Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!!!
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About the Darwin Day Celebration

• Darwin Day Celebration is a nonprofit educational
  corporation, and its mission is to promote the
  public education about science and to encourage
  the celebration of science and humanity. It is
  managed by the American Humanist Association as
  an autonomous program.

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• Science is our most reliable knowledge system,
  and it has provided us with information that has
  greatly improved our lives, through this
  intellectual enterprise. Therefore we believe
  that it is time for everyone to learn more about
  science, and to celebrate its many
  accomplishments.

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Mission Statement

• The dual mission of Darwin Day Celebration is to
  promote public education about science and in
  addition to encourage the celebration of Science
  and Humanity throughout the global community
  including the general public, private and public
  institutions, science professionals, science
  educators at all levels, libraries, museums, the
  print and electronic media, and science
  enthusiasts everywhere. Science is our most
  reliable knowledge system. It has been, and
  continues to be, acquired solely through the
  application of human curiosity and ingenuity and,
  most importantly, it has provided enormous
  benefit to the health, prosperity and
  intellectual satisfaction for our human
  existence. These are worthy achievements for all
  people to celebrate!

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The Origins and History of DDC

• We suspect that ever since Charles Darwin
  published his famous book, On The Origin of
  Species that there have been sporadic efforts to
  celebrate his accomplishments. One, with a recent
  but prolonged history, was initiated in 1980, at
  Salem College in Massachusetts. This weeklong
  event called the Darwin Festival continues to be
  held each year.
• However, the history that leads directly to this
  Darwin Day Web site was initiated by Dr. Robert
  ("Bob") Stephens and took place at Stanford
  University. The first EVENT sponsored by the
  Stanford Humanists student group and the Humanist
  Community, was held on April 22, 1995. The famous
  anthropologist Dr. Donald Johanson, who
  discovered the early fossil human called