Evolution Day
The question of how man appeared has excited the minds of scientists since ancient times
Where did we come from, when did we become aware of ourselves, and why did we rise so high above other species? Unraveling these mysteries could also tell us what awaits us in the future In attempts to find answers and explain the inexplicable, people created various religious theories in which man was viewed as a creation of God Creationism grew stronger and became the only hypothesis, which over time ceased to be such and turned into an axiom that does not require proof, but claims to be the unconditional truth
On November 24, 1859, a revolution occurred in the scientific world Charles Darwin's book on the origin of species has been published This publication was the result of the author's painstaking work and careful observations, to which he devoted almost two decades of his life The book about evolution provided answers to many questions and became the very stone that smashed the ideas of creationists to smithereens, leaving them no chance The theory of evolution remains only a theory today, but it has accumulated such an evidence base that modern science no longer considers it the truth without reservations Her “birthday” is celebrated every year on November 24th
Today only the lazy have not heard of Charles Darwin He is recognized as one of the greatest scientists who created the theory of evolution, which explains the laws of the origin of species During his time at school, Darwin did not make much progress because he did not make any effort in those sciences that interested him little Darwin had a slight interest in chemistry, but he quickly lost interest in it Then the future naturalist planned to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor, but this was not destined to happen In the future, he studied not only biology, but also created several scientific works on geology, which, by the way, did not interest him at all
Darwin began keeping his famous diary in 1837 In it he recorded data about the species of plants and domestic animals These observations prompted him to think about natural selection, a mechanism that is the main “engine” of evolution The first publication of "The Origin of Species" was a small essay that did not make much noise, but was noticed by some prominent scientists of the time Subsequently, Darwin corresponded with many of them, and expressed his ideas in letters
To date, more than 15 volumes of Darwin's correspondence have been published It is also noteworthy that he was not the only one who began to develop the idea of evolution Darwin came to it in parallel with the English naturalist Alfred Wallace It turned out that both independently came to the same conclusion under the influence of the works of Thomas Malthus Wallace sent the manuscript of his article to Darwin, who in turn forwarded it, along with his own work, to Charles Lyell, who subsequently presented both works simultaneously to the Linean Society
In 1859, Darwin published his already expanded work, in which he clearly showed the principle by which different species of animals and plants changed from generation to generation The theory of evolution provides comprehensive explanations for the amazing diversity of flora and fauna on the planet The very first small edition of Darwin's monograph was swept off the shelves in record time - just two days His work is still published to this day
In fact, the roots of Darwin's theory of evolution grew deep into ancient cosmogonic myths In ancient documents one can even find interesting hypotheses about the origin of man from fish Some ancient scientists also found and recorded in written sources “traces” of evolution—fossils with imprints of ancient animals and plants Darwin never claimed that man descended from apes According to the scientist, humans and monkeys simply have a common ancestor, which became the progenitor of these species
A similar situation occurs with dogs and wolves Many still mistakenly consider the first to be domesticated “renegades” who used to hunt for prey in the forests and howl at the moon with ecstasy In fact, dogs did not descend from wolves, this has been proven by scientists Dogs and wolves share a common ancestor, as do humans and apes Today there are three major classes of observations that provide unequivocal support for Darwin's hypothesis It also formed the basis of the synthetic theory of evolution along with genetics, paleontology, microbiology and a number of other disciplines