“There is probably no more original, more complex, and bolder concept in the history of ideas than Darwin’s mechanistic explanation of adaptation.”
- Ernst Mayr in The Growth of Biological Thought (1982), p. 481.
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), one of the many grandchildren of Erasmus Darwin (an equally remarkable person), provided the world with the knowledge of a natural mechanism which explains the gradual appearance of organismal traits, backed up by tons of evidence from fossils to domesticated animals, and an appreciation of the immense time span during which this mechanism can act. The last paragraph of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species has inspired thousands – me included – to embark on a journey to study life in all its glorious diversity. Read the rest of this entry »
