Charles Darwin, Geologist

Sandra Herbert - Collection Biography / Science

486 pages, parution le 17/08/2005

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Résumé

"At last we have this beautifully written study of the importance of geology in Darwin's life and work and of the importance of Darwin's own geological work. For far too long he has been claimed by biology alone. This book demonstrates the vital role that Darwin's geology played in originating The Origin. Sandra Herbert deserves our thanks. As one who lives in the region that inspired Darwin's first such studies, however far afield they later took him, I feel a particular gratitude."
HUGH TORRENS, past president INHIGEO, University of Keele

The early nineteenth century was a golden age for the study of geology. New discoveries in the field were greeted with the same enthusiasm reserved today for advances in the biomedical sciences. In her long-awaited account of Charles Darwin's intellectual development, Sandra Herbert focuses on his geological training, research, and thought, asking both how geology influenced Darwin and how Darwin influenced the science. Elegantly written, extensively illustrated, and informed by the author's prodigious research in Darwin's papers and in the nineteenth-century history of earth sciences, Charles Darwin, Geologist provides a fresh perspective on the life and accomplishments of this exemplary thinker.

As Herbert reveals, Darwin's great ambition as a young scientist-one he only partially realized-was to create a "simple" geology based on movements of the earth's crust. (Only one part of his scheme has survived in a form similar to what he imagined: a theory explaining the structure and distribution of coral reefs.) Darwin collected geological specimens and took extensive notes on geology during all of his travels. His grand adventure as a geologist took place during the circumnavigation of the earth by H.M.S. Beagle (1831-1836)-the same voyage that informed his magnum opus, On the Origin of Species.

Upon his return to England it was his geological findings that first excited scientific and public opinion. Geologists, including Darwin's former teachers, proved a receptive audience, the British government sponsored publication of his research, and the general public welcomed his discoveries about the earth's crust. Because of ill health, Darwin's years as a geological traveler ended much too soon: his last major geological fieldwork took place in Wales when he was only thirty-three. However, the experience had been transformative: the methods and hypotheses of Victorian-era geology, Herbert suggests, profoundly shaped Darwin's mind and his scientific methods as he worked toward a full-blown understanding of evolution and natural selection.

L'auteur - Sandra Herbert

Sandra Herbert is Director of the Program in the Human Context of Science and Technology and Professor of History at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She is the editor of The Red Notebook of Charles Darwin and coeditor of Charles Darwin's Notebooks, 1836-1844: Geology, Transmutation of Species, Metaphysical Enquiries.

Sommaire

List of Illustrations
Preface
"I a geologist"
Geology
Specimens
The Romantic Thread
A Prospective Author
Negotiating Genesis and Geology
Toward Simplicity
Simplicity Challenged
Geology and Species
Geology and the Origin of Species
Conclusion
List of Abbreviations
Symbols Used in the Transcriptions of Darwin's Notebooks
Notes
Bibliography
Index

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Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Cornell University Press
Auteur(s)	Sandra Herbert
Collection	Biography / Science
Parution	17/08/2005
Nb. de pages	486
Format	16 x 24
Couverture	Relié
Poids	908g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780801443480
ISBN13	978-0-8014-4348-0