Charles Darwin, he may be one of the most famous people in the world. He is also well recognized with his book The origin of species (1859), introducing the theory of evolution. I was familiar with the theory Darwin proposed because I learned in school, however I had only few knowledge about Charles Darwin himself. The lecture of “The Origin of the Origin” by prof. Janet Browne provided me various ideas and sights about Darwin and how he reached the theory of evolution.
Especially I was amazed by Darwin’s fieldwork and detailed observation on creatures. Through sketching of hundreds of types of insects and mammals and both males and females, he integrated features such as their figures, colors, ecology, life cycle and sex ratio. For example, Darwin formulated his ideas on natural selection when he visited to the Galapagos Island, where he found several species of finch adapted to different environmental niches. The finches also differed in beak shape, food source, and how food was captured. In that way he corrected huge amount of data to support his theory.
I also found that Darwin could not attain this big finding or publish his book without any supports or collaborations with people around him. John Henslow was the one of people Darwin admired and he was also the one who made an arrangement of the Beagle voyage for Darwin. Darwin also wrote numerous letters to the scholars asking more resources which he was not familiar with or confirm each details about his researches. Correspondents all over the globe were plied with questions and requests for facts and specimens. Alfred Russel Wallace was the one of the important figures to help him to publish Darwin’s book The origin of species. Even though Darwin kept researching on his revolutionary theory for many years, he was hesitating to publish it because he was afraid of conservatives at the time. Wallace, however, he bravely announced unorthodox views and published his paper in 1855. Darwin was encouraged to see the paper Wallace sent to him because the paper was proposing the similar theory as Darwin had. Those collaborations and interactions with other people definitely helped the Darwin’s theory moved forward.
He also built a model attitude as a scientist to see their own research objectively and telling scientific fact earnestly. For instance, the point that Darwin is impressive as a scientist is that he did not try to apply everything in nature with his evolution theory. The theory at the time was epoch-making discovery, and yet it had not been completed as the perfect theory due to lack of evidences. He admitted and wrote in his book that there are still matters which he was not able to explain fully with his theory therefore he was ready to take any counterargument against the theory of evolution. Although those descriptions which made his position weaken and brought many opponents at that time, gradually it had been accepted by people with following backup researches took over by other researchers. It proved that his attitude as a scientist encouraged many researchers to continue exploring his uncertain evidences and still his principles influence and inspire many academic fields and the thinking of every person .