Today is a special day for this Blog. 150 years ago came to light the first edition the "summary" of the observations and conjectures that for years did Charles Darwin about the natural world. " On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life " as they called the first to the fifth edition, is perhaps one of the most important books in the history of biology and most likely in the sciences in general. Not only is the book laid the groundwork for the formal development of evolutionary biology (hypotheses, predictions, etc., see previous post) but it generated (and continues to generate) a large impact on society in general (eg, humans began to place in the world natural and revoked the need to invoke supernatural forces to explain the biodiversity). To remember and celebrate this important event, perhaps today we should take a couple of hours to (re-) read some chapters of this magnificent book , read some of the many biographies have been published on Darwin (me in particular I really liked it , recommended some time ago here ), or maybe see some of the hundreds of videos that have come in the last year and available on youtube: is interesting, and depronto a bit unfortunate that the celebration "Darwinian" does not always give due credit Alfred Russel Wallace who was a key figure in developing the theory of evolution by natural selection, and perhaps by whom you see the hasty publication of "Origin." Without detriment to Darwin for his meticulous comments and ideas, I have great appreciation for Wallace, who lived for many years in the jungles of Southeast Asian and Amazon and who had the "vision" of the mechanism of natural selection when suffering from a tropical high fever. Today then, we may also (re-) read the articles read before the Linnean Society in 1858 on the ideas of Darwin and Wallace.
Evolution and Diversity!
Evolution and Diversity!
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