Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin was born in 1809 in Shrewsbury, England, into a wealthy and distinguished family -his grandfather Erasmus Darwin had already speculated about evolutionary ideas. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and theology at Cambridge, where his passion for natural history flourished. His Cambridge mentor, botanist John Stevens Henslow, recommended him for the position of naturalist aboard HMS Beagle.

The five-year voyage of the Beagle (1831–1836) took Darwin around the world, but it was his observations in the Galapagos Islands that proved most consequential. Noticing that finches on different islands had differently shaped beaks suited to different food sources, he began to develop his theory of natural selection -the process by which inherited traits that improve survival and reproduction become more common in a population over generations.

Darwin spent over twenty years refining his theory and amassing evidence before publishing 'On the Origin of Species' in 1859. The first edition sold out on the day of publication. The book was both celebrated and fiercely attacked -particularly by religious authorities who saw it as challenging the divine creation of species. It transformed biology and our understanding of life on Earth.

Darwin continued working prolifically until his death, publishing major works on orchids, earthworms, the expression of emotions in humans and animals, and -most controversially -the application of evolutionary theory to human origins in 'The Descent of Man' (1871). He died in 1882 and was honored with burial in Westminster Abbey, near Isaac Newton.