Cornell Video

Published 150 years ago, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species provided the foundation for the modern science of biology. It also set in motion a revolution in the sciences and in our understanding of ourselves and our place in nature.

This CyberTower Study Room is a brief introduction to Darwin's theory and its implications. Beginning with an overview of Darwin's predecessors, we learn how Jean Baptiste Lamarck set the stage for Darwin's monumental achievement with his Philosophie Zoologique, which advanced a theory of evolution by means of the inheritance of acquired characteristics.

Darwin, whose academic training at Cambridge University was in Anglican theology, became an acclaimed naturalist and science writer following the five-year voyage of HMS Beagle. Using the notes and specimens that he had collected during the voyage, Darwin spent twenty years refining his theory, first published in 1859, of evolution by natural selection.

In the last segment of this Study Room, we visit the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, New York, whose director, Dr. Warren Allman, discusses the importance of such museums to the science of evolutionary biology. We also hear from Cornell professor William Provine, who discusses Darwin's work and its importance to the history and philosophy of biology.

This video is part 1 of 6 in the Darwinian Revolutions series.