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Charles Robert Darwin

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Charles Robert Darwin (February 12, 1809 - April 19, 1882) was an English naturalist, that is a scientist who studied nature. He is most famous for proposing the ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Charles Robert Darwin


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Charles Robert Darwin
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  • Charles Robert Darwin (February 12, 1809 - April
    19, 1882) was an English naturalist, that is a
    scientist who studied nature. He is most famous
    for proposing the theory of evolution.

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  • The theory of evolution says that all types of
    living things on Earth including all plants,
    animals and microbes come from a common ancestor
    by slowly changing down the generations. He said
    the way living things changed over time is
    through natural selection of those that best fit
    into the place where they live. Fitting into the
    place where you live is called adapting. Those
    who fit best into the place where they live, the
    best adapted, survive. Those who are less
    well-adapted die off. Put another way, those that
    are not well-adapted and cannot live well enough
    to raise young do not pass on the information
    about their shape and way of life.

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  • He noticed that although young plants or animals
    of the same kind are very similar to their
    parents no two are exactly the same and there is
    always a range of shape, size, color. Some of
    these differences the plant or animal may have
    got from their own ancestors, but some are new
    and caused by mutations. Since some differences
    might make an organism more able to live in the
    wild, it would have a better chance to survive,
    and would pass on its details about its shape and
    size (called its genes) to its offspring and then
    to their offspring. Any difference that would
    cause the plant or animal to have less of a
    chance to live would be less likely to be passed
    on, and would eventually die out altogether. In
    this way groups of similar plants or animals
    (called a Species) slowly change in shape and
    form so that they can live more successfully and
    have more offspring who will survive them.

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  • He first thought of this theory in 1838.
    Historians think that he did not talk about his
    theory because he was afraid that people would
    not like his theory if it showed questions about
    religion, especially how the earth was made. So
    he did not publish it in a book until 1859, when
    he heard that another scientist, Alfred Wallace
    had the same ideas. Wallace was close to
    publishing his ideas, so Darwin gave a lecture
    talking about his own and Wallace's ideas, then
    published his book. The name of the book was On
    the Origin of Species by Means of Natural
    Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races
    in the Struggle for Life. This is also just
    called The Origin of Species.

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Celebrating Darwin
  • On Thursday 12 February, we celebrated 200 years
    since Charles Darwin, one of the world's most
    creative and influential thinkers, was born.

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  • Darwin200 is a national program of events
    honouring his scientific ideas and their impact.
    Many celebrations are taking place during the
    next few months but will continue until 24
    November 2009, the 150th anniversary of the
    publication of his famous book - The Origin of
    Species.

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  • Darwin - a British scientist, laid the
    foundations of the theory of evolution and
    transformed the way we think about the natural
    world.

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Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!!!
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About the Darwin Day Celebration
  • Darwin Day Celebration is a nonprofit educational
    corporation, and its mission is to promote the
    public education about science and to encourage
    the celebration of science and humanity. It is
    managed by the American Humanist Association as
    an autonomous program.

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  • Science is our most reliable knowledge system,
    and it has provided us with information that has
    greatly improved our lives, through this
    intellectual enterprise. Therefore we believe
    that it is time for everyone to learn more about
    science, and to celebrate its many
    accomplishments.

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Mission Statement
  • The dual mission of Darwin Day Celebration is to
    promote public education about science and in
    addition to encourage the celebration of Science
    and Humanity throughout the global community
    including the general public, private and public
    institutions, science professionals, science
    educators at all levels, libraries, museums, the
    print and electronic media, and science
    enthusiasts everywhere. Science is our most
    reliable knowledge system. It has been, and
    continues to be, acquired solely through the
    application of human curiosity and ingenuity and,
    most importantly, it has provided enormous
    benefit to the health, prosperity and
    intellectual satisfaction for our human
    existence. These are worthy achievements for all
    people to celebrate!

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The Origins and History of DDC
  • We suspect that ever since Charles Darwin
    published his famous book, On The Origin of
    Species that there have been sporadic efforts to
    celebrate his accomplishments. One, with a recent
    but prolonged history, was initiated in 1980, at
    Salem College in Massachusetts. This weeklong
    event called the Darwin Festival continues to be
    held each year.
  • However, the history that leads directly to this
    Darwin Day Web site was initiated by Dr. Robert
    ("Bob") Stephens and took place at Stanford
    University. The first EVENT sponsored by the
    Stanford Humanists student group and the Humanist
    Community, was held on April 22, 1995. The famous
    anthropologist Dr. Donald Johanson, who
    discovered the early fossil human called
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