Darwin's Voyage of Discovery

Darwin's Voyage of Discovery

Charles Darwin was known to be a insightful observer, a genuine collector of specimens, and over time became a respected scientist. His most memorable yet challenging theories were his theory of evolution (gradual change in species) through natural selection. His claim was misinterpret by many people of his time as being a challenge to their faith, and others felt that his ideal of survival of fittest to the extreme-- taking it out of the wild as a animals way to survive, but applying it to human activities such as economics, politics, and societies throughout the world. Darwin single handily started this war between himself and the people of his time, and those who understood and believed his because he was always be criticized for his "off the wall" theories. It wasn't until after his death people began to respect his work--which today is being taught throughout the world. The ironic thing is that Darwin just stumbled across this theory of evolution in his none paid voyage across the coast of South America on the H.M.S. Beagle.

As a young and fresh 22 year old, Darwin was set out to participate in a voyage that would change his life and the outlook on the world's order. The voyage was a five years long, and his job was just to be a naturalist (pick up a few specimens to be analyzed later when they got back to Europe). Darwin had plenty of time to explore the places they would stop paying close attention to the different types of species, there behavior, and there adaptation to there environment. He found different types of rocks and fossils that seemed to be almost identical, but yet differed as well which struck curiosity in young Darwin to find out the meaning behind this variation. He found that in a book the Charles Lyell wrote that this may have happened because the world is much older than people think it is and is capable of undergoing gradual change over time. Throughout his journey he kept this theory in mind which we later supports his own theory of evolution.

It wasn't until he got to the islands of Galapagos were he realized that species that we remembered from South America were extraordinary alike to the ones in the islands which he concluded had to be related but wondered how organisms might adapt to specific environmental situations. He discovered that these specimens weren't only related but were at one