Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin was the son of a wealthy physician in nineteenth—century England. He was an avid naturalist and a respected member of the scientific community. In his time the study of the natural world was considered a gentleman's hobby, and Darwin never made his living as a scientist. However, he inherited enough money to be able to live quietly in the country, where he could pursue his studies and try to avoid the controversies that his theories provoked.

In 1858 Darwin proposed an alternative explanation for the complexity and order of the natural world. He theorized that competition for scarce resources would tend to weed out more poorly adapted organisms, leaving better adapted organisms to reproduce and pass along their characteristics. Darwin argued that over a long period of time this process, called "natural selection," could account...