Charles Darwin

1809–1882 · British · Victorian Era

Known for: Developed the theory of evolution by natural selection

Charles Darwin produced the most revolutionary idea in the history of biology—that all life evolves through natural selection—and then spent 20 years terrified to publish it. He sailed around the world on HMS Beagle, collected specimens that would reshape science, and then sat on his findings because he dreaded the religious firestorm. He only published On the Origin of Species in 1859 when Alfred Russel Wallace independently arrived at the same theory.

He was an obsessive observer who spent eight straight years studying barnacles before writing his masterwork. He suffered from chronic illness that left him frequently bedridden. Despite his poor health, he produced a body of work that unified all of biology under a single explanatory framework.

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