This article was originally published on Nov. 1, 2021.
When you hear the name Charles Darwin, what do you think of? Let's begin with the most famous—the theory of evolution—you know, the one that explains how organisms evolve and survive through natural selection. In 1837, Darwin was just short of 30 when he gave birth to a new branch of life sciences called evolutionary biology.
He had just finished up a voyage aboard the HMS Beagle, on which he sailed around South America and spent a considerable amount of time collecting observations on different species of plants and animals. During that five-year adventure, Darwin made a notable observation while collecting bird specimens from the Galapagos Islands. He determined that the finches on the island shared similarities with the ones on the mainland, yet had modified features that allowed them to gather food easily.
Darwin concluded that the different finches ultimately ...
