Review
The Miriam Webster dictionary defines an
armada as "A fleet of
warships." In Iain McCalman's
Darwin's Armada, the term refers to the
three scientists who were early supporters of Darwin's theory of evolution by
natural selection, and who paved the way for its acceptance by Great Britain's
scientific community: Joseph Hooker, botanist (1817-1911), Thomas Huxley,
biologist (1825-1895) and Alfred Wallace, zoologist (1823-1913). The book is, in
essence, the story of how the theory of evolution by natural selection came to
be (how evolution evolved, if you will), and the vital role played by these men
in its development.
The first half of
Darwin's Armada provides brief biographical sketches of
Darwin, Hooker, Huxley and Wallace, and then concentrates on the voyages the men
took to other lands and the scientific skills they acquired during...
Beyond the Book
Evolutionary Ideas Before Darwin
The theory of evolution states that all life is related and has descended
from a common ancestor; complex creatures evolve over a long period of time from
simpler organisms. Evolution is not concerned with the origin of Earth
or of the Universe, but attempts to explain why different living things have
developed and diversified since life first appeared on Earth.
Evolutionary thought had been around for centuries before Charles Darwin's time;
the first person known to have speculated on the topic was the Greek philosopher Anaximander in the 6
th
century BCE. Similar pre-evolutionary ideas appeared across Greece, Rome, China,
and throughout the Arab world into the Middle Ages. German philosopher Immanuel
Kant...
