Charles Darwin Riassunto PDF

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english lesson about charles darwin...

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CHARLES DARWIN RIASSUNTO Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury on 12th February 1809. He is was an English biologist and naturalist. He helped to investigate marine invertebrates.he then became very famous for his theory about the evolution of animal and vegetable species based on natural selection. He elaborated his theory when he accepted to go on a self-founded research trip to the Galapagos on the HMS Beagle on 27 December 1831. Darwin planned to spend 2 years on the island, but the experience lasted almost 5 years. Darwin spent most of that time on land investigating geology and making natural history collections. He kept careful notes of his observations and theoric speculations, He started observing plants, animals, all kinds of organisms and their process of evolution and variations. Most of his zoology notes are about marine invertebrates, starting with plankton. Darwin died in London on 19th April 1882. One of Darwin's most famous works was "the origin of species". He believed that the fittest species in the environment are more likely to survive. In particular he noticed that: 1. The variations of organisms are inherited by their offsprings in order to survive easier and longer. 2. Organisms produce more offsprings so that the family can have more possibilities. 3. The environment makes organisms vary in a certain way. 4. The variation are though random and rather small. (A good example to explain very well his theory is the one concerning the moth Biston Betularia. White moths were more common known by scientists but in 1854 they found a black one. Soon they understood that their colour was a natural variation. The fact was, that Vegetation was mostly characterised by birch trees (whose bark's colour is white). White moth, landing on the tree were able to camouflage and avoid being attacked by predators, being almost invisible. Because of industrial pollution, smog and soot, birch trees turned dark gray/black: this way, white moths were not able to camouflage anymore and their strain started decreasing. Black moths, were less common than the white ones, were in that moment able to camouflage in the darkness of the bark. White moths became less present and during 1850, they could be seen only far from industrial centres. When in England strict rules against smog emissions were established and trees slowly started to clear, the number of white moths increased again. This example shows that even if the presence of black moths was initially casual, they resulted to be more advantaged on the white ones during the period of huge pollution: this was the concept natural selection.) His theory created a lot of oppositions as well as supporters. concept of creationism, which was based on the idea that the human being was created by God only. The division between these two ideologies (Darwin and creationism) caused a lot of problems in the Victorian society.

social Darwinism (first developed by Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher): the concepts of selection and fight for existence were extended to society. This was a problem though, because people would justify, racial discrimination since there was a huge division between, for example, strong and weak and rich and poor. The first ones were supposed to dominate the second ones. Despite this, Darwin never accepted Spencer's racist theory. The social Darwinism was a fake scientific ideology that was based on the struggle for life, which implied civil fights and social differences. In this way, this theory justifies differences and the elimination of the weakest ones....