Friday, October 20, 2006

 

Notes on Charles Darwin's voyage to the Galapagos by Richard Dawkins

From The Independent (UK):

Intro: The image of the old man on the 10 pound note is misleading. When Charles Darwin boarded 'HMS Beagle' in 1836 and made his now celebrated journey to the Galapagos, he was just 22 years old and poised to produce a diary as gripping as his scientific discoveries. As Darwin's complete works are put online, Richard Dawkins explains why he matters more than ever. And, overleaf, we publish extracts from the journals that transformed the way the world thinks about its origins.

Article by Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion: Amazon UK | US) follows:

Charles Darwin (On the Origin of Species: UK | US) is surely one of the most admirable men that ever lived. The idea that he launched upon the world in 1859 is a prime candidate for the title of the greatest idea ever to occur to a human mind.

If we measure the power of a scientific theory as some sort of ratio of how much it explains divided by how much it needs to assume, the theory of natural selection surely stands alone. This is why it is so important to have his complete works available online, and free of charge.

See "Charles Darwin's Complete Works Go Online - Open Access!"

[Science, Evolution, Random Mutations, Voyage]

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