DARWIN200 YEARS

IES LLANESIES LLANESHistory WorkshopHistory Workshop

IES LLANESIES LLANESHistory workshopHistory workshop

WeWe areare

Aníbal Ibáñez GordilloAníbal Ibáñez GordilloBeatriz Fernández SantosBeatriz Fernández Santos Carlos Barrena Beltrán Carlos Barrena Beltrán Emilio Beltrán Martínez Emilio Beltrán Martínez

Ester Benjumea Ester Benjumea DomínguezDomínguez

Eva María Martínez Eva María Martínez LópezLópez

Fco. Javier Carmona Fco. Javier Carmona Molero Gonzalo Morales Molero Gonzalo Morales

Moreno Moreno J. C. Hernández RodríguezJ. C. Hernández Rodríguez

Marcos Ibáñez GordilloMarcos Ibáñez Gordillo y y

Marta Calderón Álvarez Marta Calderón Álvarez

(Coordinator: Miguel (Coordinator: Miguel Camacho)Camacho)

Ssssh!We are going to

talk about Charles Darwin.

DARWIN was born in the English town of DARWIN was born in the English town of Shrewsbury the 12th-2-09. Shrewsbury the 12th-2-09.

The same date as today but…200 years ago. The same date as today but…200 years ago. Our greatgrandparent's grandparents time.Our greatgrandparent's grandparents time.

In that time In that time there weren't there weren't any any computers. computers.

And tuenti And tuenti didn't exist. didn't exist.

The mail The mail wasn't wasn't electronic. electronic.

There were not There were not telephones or telephones or planes. planes.

And the ships And the ships didn't have didn't have motor.motor.

* Darwin's family was as strange and

interesting as his insects and pigeons

collections.

* This is his grandfather, ERASMUS DARWIN so famous as a doctor that George III, the king, invited

him to be his personal doctor, but Darwin

refused.

*Darwin's grandfather

was very critical.

What Erasmus Darwin loved more was nature and its origin,

this means natural history.

• In this book called In this book called ZOONOMY he defended ZOONOMY he defended

that all living beings that all living beings EVOLVED to perfection. EVOLVED to perfection.

• That idea was against That idea was against the church ideas in the church ideas in that that

time.time.

Darwin's mother, Susana

Wedgewood, was a very

sensitive and religious person and an active

member of Shrewsbury's

church.

Darwin said that there could be a more cultured person, but his father was the smartest person he had ever known.

In that inusual home environment, cultured, tolerant and free,the young Darwin grew up.

His father, the doctor Robert Darwin,His father, the doctor Robert Darwin, wasn't believer at all.wasn't believer at all.

Darwin's father Darwin's father wanted his son to wanted his son to be a doctor, as all be a doctor, as all the family had the family had been, and decided been, and decided to take him to the to take him to the medical visits so medical visits so that he could get that he could get used to it. used to it.

When he was 16 he When he was 16 he sent him to sent him to Edimburgh to study Edimburgh to study medicine.medicine.

BUT DARWIN SAID:“The medicine

classes at 8 AM are a nightmare”

and added…

“I can't stand the blood”

… bad situation for someone who's going to be a doctor...

Darwin didn't study so much but…Darwin didn't study so much but…

He learnt to dissect birds from a taxidermist black friend.

And he got really interested about biology and wildlife.

The young DarwinThe young Darwin Darwin wasn't a good student, he was just Darwin wasn't a good student, he was just

interested in nature, plants and animals… interested in nature, plants and animals… and in his collections.and in his collections.

In the studies...

He didn't go well, but he went to the Scientific Society’s meetings

And when he was 18, he gave his first conference about a larva of leech.

In the end he gave up medicine.

His father conviced him to study to be a vicar. Charles Darwin believed in God and being a vicar was a very respectable job that let him time to

investigate.

Charles went to live in the country and he dedicated part of his time to hunt and study the Natural History.

And he went to Cambridge:

He was going to study to be a vicar of the anglican church.

There, the teachers defended religious points of view. They didn´ t like science or new ideas.

He met Henslow (His new teacher)

• Although the classes were usually boring, Henslow´ s classes were different.

• And the teacher Henslow did things such as taking care of a botanical garden that was in Cambridge.

Henslow was the person who invited Darwin to participate on the trip around the world on the HMS beagle.He was 22 years old.He said “Yes”, although 3 of the 5 years, he had to be in land (He was very ill on the ship)He dedicated that time to think, write and pick up more plants, minerals and animals.

In the Galapagos he observed the small differences between the species of the finches and the tortoises. He observed earthquakes, fossils or shells at sea level, even coral islands that had sunk.Darwin agreed with Lyell: the world is formed by gradual changes, sometimes sudden, about a permanent change.

In his house in 1836 Darwin ordered and classified his collection because Henslow kept all his studies.

He gave conferences about fossils and reefs and he had scientific meetings with their friends Lyell, Owen, Henslow…

He wrote a report about the coral islands.

In 1837 Darwin started writing his “Diary of a voyage on the Beagle”. It was the most read voyage book in the 19th century.

That year Gould said to Darwin that the finches that Darwin gave him, taken from three different Galapagos islands, belonged to three different species.

So they were not three varieties of the same species, as Darwin thought.

And he concluded that a new species can appear if that species is isolated from its own species.

Then if the three species of finches from the Galapagos islands come from a common ancestor…all the finches of America come from a common species …

And so on…

IT is the EVOLUTION tree .

Darwin read Malthus, who considered that human beings will grow in geometrical progression while food grows in aritmethical progression. In the end there will be more people than food. And the excess of people will be reduced for hunger, diseases or wars.

Darwin was surprised with the ideas of Malthus, because he saw the big force of nature. A lot of creatures multiply in great amounts, but only a few survive.

He applied this to the animals and living beings:When there are bad conditions only those who adapt

better, will survive. For example, in a bird community not all of them are equal, those with a harder beak are able to change their diet and eat seeds, so they will survive better and will reproduce more, and transmit that ability

to their children.

He named this “natural selection process”.

This is evolution

mechanism.

Aged 30, Darwin married his cousin, Emma.

He had 10 children and lived happily with her in their house near Kent county.

Emma was so religious that she asked Darwin in a letter to rethink about his vision on creationism.

Darwin didn't accept, but he cried each time he saw the letter.

In 1844 he wrote to his wife “I have just finished the sketch for the species theory. I ask you to publish it if die”.

And he wrote to a botanist friend, Hooker: ” I am watching the light coming and I' am convinced (opposite to my initial thinking) that the species are not... (this seems the confession of a murder) unchangeable”

Only his scientist mates knew a part of his work that would still take 15 years to be finished and printed.

• Darwin didn't publish it to avoid the polemic that his theory was going to produce. He wanted that time and that energy to continue investigating, to store more data, probes, and enjoy. And also, since he went back to Britain, he suffered a strange illness that would never pass: he often suffered from headaches, vomit, shivers and convulsions.

But in 1858 the naturalist Wallace sent him a paper from the Malaysian islands with the main elements of Darwin's theory.

Wallace asked Darwin to read it, to know if he agreed with it, to publish it.

Wallace had discovered Darwin's secret by himself!

Darwin wrote a new version of his book “Origin of the Species”

It was published in 1859, and became “the book that revolutionized the world”

The first day all the books were sold. There were crowds of people waiting for the publication of more books.

It was translated into 30 languages but it didn’t come to Spain until 1877. However, its controversy appeared much sooner.

Wallace was very elegant: he accepted Darwin's supremacy and he called the new theory"

Darwinism”.

In the 20th century, advances in Palaeontology and Genetics reinforced and completed the original theory. It's the current Theory of Neodarwinism.

“Nothing has any sense in biology if it is not considered through the eyes of evolution". T. Dobzhansky

Darwin was responsible for a clear difference in society before and after his books publications.

Evolutionists and non evolucionists were born. Some people said that the church couldn't agree with evolutionism and believe in God at the same time.

Those years, almost every one, included the Those years, almost every one, included the “Official Science”, thought that the world was as “Official Science”, thought that the world was as God made it the day of CREATION, God made it the day of CREATION, Just 6,000 Just 6,000 years ago!years ago!

Today we know that the Earth is 4,600 millions Today we know that the Earth is 4,600 millions years oldyears old

Nowadays in fundamentalist religious societies Nowadays in fundamentalist religious societies they still think in a similar way and try to attack they still think in a similar way and try to attack the evolutionism with a false science, known as the evolutionism with a false science, known as Intelligent Design, a modern creationism .Intelligent Design, a modern creationism .

Some radical evolutionists have defended the Some radical evolutionists have defended the natural selection and supremacy of the strongestnatural selection and supremacy of the strongest to to explain the domination of some men in relation to explain the domination of some men in relation to

others.others.This is known as This is known as SociaSocial l DarwinismDarwinism and the ones and the ones who defend it say: If natural selection works in the who defend it say: If natural selection works in the

jungle, why not in society?jungle, why not in society?

This wasn't a Charles Darwin's idea.

Although his work caused a great controversy, Darwin didn't stop receiving honours and distinctions until his death in 1882, aged 73. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, next to Isaac Newton.It is the maximun honour that an English man can receive after his death. • Nowadays

museums, libraries and universities all over the world have his name.

Today we are celebrating 200 YEARS of that THEORYwhich is so important for science.

Happily and without any dogma.

THE IES LLANES HISTORY WORK GROUP DEDICATES THIS WORK TO

THE TEACHERS: MANUEL F. BORDAS AND VIDAL BÁÑEZ

Year 2009, Charles Darwin's Bicentenary