Interview With Darwin

An Interview with Charles Darwin

Classe 2C1 – A.S. 2008-09

ITIS “Paolo Carcano” - Como

Good morning Mr. Darwin,we are second year

students of a technical school in Como and we

study chemistry; we would like to ask you some

questions about your life and your theories

Ok it’s a pleasure!

I was born on 12th February 1809 in Shrewsbury; I was the fifth of six children. My father was a doctor.

Let’s start from some biographical info; when and where were you born?

Where did you study?Where you a good student?

At first, I went to university in Edinburgh to study medicine but I found it disgusting

so my father, who worried about my future, sent me to Christ’s College in

Cambridge to become a clergymen. But I was distracted by other interests so… no

I wasn’t a good student!

I liked reading books about natural history and collecting insects, rocks and shells. I also observed birds and

fish.

What were these other interests?

We left England in 1831 for a five- year voyage. We visited South

America and Australasia, in particular the Galapagos Islands.

When was your famous journey on the Beagle and were did you

go?

I saw different types of tortoises and finches that

particularly struck me because they were similar

but also different, for example for their diet.

What in particular did you see there

that made you think of your theory?

I claimed that living species were not fixed, but

were the product of a gradualprocess of change driven by

natural Selection: the survival and reproduction of organisms that were most suited to their environment,

at the expense of thoseless successful.

So when you published “On the Origin of Species”what were the ideas you

expressed in it?

Yes, I had problems with my contemporaries because they despised and mocked my theories; in fact they believed in the literal interpretation of the Bible. I didn’t fight for my ideas, I preferred to continue studying, but my good friend T.H Huxley did!

Did you have problems with your contemporaries and did you fight for your ideas?

I regretted that I didn’t have many fossils to prove my idea of

a common ancestry; I also regretted that I didn’t know

anything about how traits are inherited and passed from

generation to generation. I didn’t know that there was DNA!

What did you regret at the

time?

Yes, I have read a lot of scientific articles, books and nowadays, web-

pages about the development of my theories.

Have you been following the development of your theories

in the last 150 years?

In the light of what we know now, do you think you made

any mistakes ?

Yes, I made a mistakes about speciation;

I described very well how a species changes through time

but I didn’t explain how one splits into two.

I think it was also wrong not to consider Mendel’s theory.

However, do you think that modern discoveries have proved you theory

to be mostly right?

Yes, I think that modern discoveries, like DNA and fossils,

have proved my theories. The discovery of DNA explains how

traits are passed on, including the advantageous ones, and the fossil record shows that there really are transitional forms.

My theory is used in a lot of fields, first of all in biology but in culture,

language and medicine too.

So what do you think are the most important developments of your

theory nowadays?

What are you most proud of?

I’m very proud of the developments in medicine. For example now

scientists know that the continuous evolution of bacterial pathogens

requires that they persist in discovering new forms of

antibiotics; they can never stop studying!

You can visitthese websites:

darwin-online.org.uk/, www.aboutdarwin.com/ and

www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/, where you can read everything about my life and work, and

www.wellcometreeoflife.org where you can see an interesting documentary

on how species evolved.

What do you advise we read or watch to

learn more about your theories?