What was charles Darwin's contributions to science?

Question

What was charles Darwin's contributions to science?

Answer 1

he thought of the theory called natural selection.

basically he said that the species of today were formed by their ancestors due to the environment's 'selection' of who would be adaptable and who would die.  

Answer 2

thePaulClark's biography summary is good.

Darwin's theory of Evolution by natural selection is one of the pillars of modern science, and nothing in biology makes sense if it does not take natural selection into account. Evolution by natural selection is analogous to claiming that the Earth revolves around the Sun, it just starts to make more sense when you realise it. It is just that big a contribution.

.

Answer 3

Charles Robert Darwin  was an English naturalist, eminent as a collector and geologist, who proposed and provided scientific evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors through the process he called natural selection. The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and the general public in his lifetime, while his theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s, and now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory. In modified form, Darwin’s scientific discovery remains the foundation of biology, as it provides a unifying logical explanation for the diversity of life.

Darwin developed his interest in natural history while studying first medicine at Edinburgh University, then theology at Cambridge. His five-year voyage on the Beagle established him as a geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell’s uniformitarian ideas, and publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author. Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin investigated the transmutation of species and conceived his theory of natural selection in 1838. Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work had priority. He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay which described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of both of their theories.

His 1859 book On the Origin of Species established evolution by common descent as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. He examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to s*x, followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final book, he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.

In recognition of Darwin’s pre-eminence, he was one of only five 19th century UK non-royal personages to be honoured by a state funeral, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.

Answer 4

Charles Darwin was to science what L Ron Hubbard is to religion.

Charles Darwin was a Naturalist that tried to account how life could come to be as we find it today. His book called "The Origin of Species" never dealt with the origin of species. Scientists today don't even have a solid definition of species. There are creatures in different species that can interbreed.

Have any of you people ever even read Darwin's books? Do you realize how little science is even in his book. There are some observations of nature. That is science. The recording and reporting of facts. But mostly his writings consist of leaps of great conjecture. Take this for example. He saw 14 varieties of finches. He then concluded that this proved that they were related to the carrot. He states, "It is a truly wonderful FACT that all plants and all animals throughout all time and space should be related." He gathered all that and called it fact just by observing a slight variety in finch population. Darwin thought the cell was a simple sac of protoplasm. He had no idea what could drive variation. In his ignorance he could also not have known the limited nature of the available variation. A plant cannot evolve into an animal. They are not related. They are separate creations.

He talks later in his book about how in electric fishes that the organs are built differently and many of the electric fishes are not even in the same phylogeny. He then concludes that like several inventors happening on the same invention, so to an organism can reinvent over and over the same marvelous organs. This is pure speculation.

He must of thought the matter that made life up was some sort of magical substance that was capable of forming new life forms like in some Diseny animation or something.

Darwin's greatest contribution to science was in that the governments, banks, and businesses, who are inherentily evil, got a hold of his teachings, they locked in the funding and propogation of his teaching in all of science media and education. With this government funded religious speculation on origins, all observations from that point on had to be made under the law of Naturalism. Dr.Francis Crick, the co-disconverer of DNA stated, "Biologists must constantly keep in mind what they see was not designed, but rather, evolved."

Study molecular biology. You see that you really need to keep this in mind when you dive into the awesome complexity of the machinery of life.