There are several individuals that had a major impact on Darwin, but the most important influence was Charles Lyell. Lyell was known for one of the most influential books of our time called The Principles of Geology. Lyell's book stated his theory that the Earth's crust was always changing a small amount over a vast period of time. Lyell's "Uniformitarian" idea was extremely controversial for 1830 and he was criticized and ridiculed for his theory. While Darwin was on his boat The Beagle, he experienced an earthquake and then measured an 8 foot uplift in the land. Darwin took the motto of uniformitarianism, "The present is the key to the past," and he applied it to his research on evolution. Darwin came to the conclusion that just like how the land slowly developed to what we see today, the biological evolution of creatures and life around us took just as much time for organisms to develop into their full potential. Just like Lyell's book not being accepted by the church neither was Darwin theory on evolution. Neither of their ideas were accepted during their lifespan but their contributions and ideas to science live on today.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/02/4/l_024_01.html
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ReplyDeleteYou do a good job of making the connection between Darwin's work and Lyell's, showing the parallel's that exist between the two sets of ideas. More explanation was needed regarding Lyell's work, however.
ReplyDeleteThe key to Lyell's idea of uniformitarianism isn't that the earth changes a little bit at a time (although it does). The main point is that the forces that produce these gradual changes are relatively constant and have been present since the earth was created (from a geological perspective). It was important for Darwin to recognize that these geological forces had biological equivalents that shaped organisms gradually over time.
The greatest contribution Lyell made to Darwin isn't even on the bullet list. He gave Darwin the gift of time. Prior to Lyell's work, the prevailing opinion was that the earth was only thousands of years old. That isn't nearly long enough to evolution to work. By presenting evidence that the earth was actually millions (and now we know, billions) of years old, Lyell gave Darwin enough time for the slow process of evolution by natural selection to do its job.
I'm unaware of any ridicule that Lyell faced with his work. There were certainly dissenters but I believe it was relatively well accepted.
Missing the discussion on whether Darwin could have developed his theory without Lyell?
"Neither of their ideas were accepted during their lifespan but their contributions and ideas to science live on today."
Actually, both were accepted. Be careful about making too grand of a statement and make sure you have the facts to back you up.
There was certainly controversy when Darwin published, but not as much as he feared, I would suggest. He delayed publishing for over 20 years, in part because of his concerns over the reception of his work. Ironically, that delay may have paved the way for a better reception by a scientific community more open to the concepts he presented. In addition to fears over how the work would be accepted, could he have been concerned about anything else? How do you think his family might have been impacted, particularly his very religious wife? These are all things to consider.
Consider these posts to be papers, not tweets. Expand. Provide detail. Format them as you would a paper, with paragraphs to make it easier for those reading (and grading) your work. Show me what you know.