Thursday, December 8, 2011

Call it humbug! Says Darwin

Sham S. Misri

Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in England. He was the British naturalist. He is famous for his theories of evolution and natural selection. Darwin theorized that all the life on earth developed gradually over millions of years from common ancestry. His five year voyage on Beagle established him as an eminent scientist.

Darwin was puzzled by the geographical distribution of wild life and fossils of extinct animals that he collected on his voyage. He kept careful notes of his observations. He had expertise in beetle collection and geology. Despite suffering badly from seasickness, Darwin wrote copious notes while on board the ship. Most of his notes are about marine invertebrates. When Darwin returned to London, he conducted thorough research of his notes and specimens.

Once, one of Darwin’s assistants wanted to test the scientific knowledge of Darwin. He had worked with Darwin for a long time.  A mischief came to his mind. From many animal samples that Darwin and his team had collected from various places, the assistant cut the head part of one insect and joined it tactfully with the body of some other worm. The assistant carefully waxed the joint and made it appear like an unknown species. The assistant brought the fake animal in a dish and wanted to show it to Charles Darwin. When Darwin saw his assistant enter his room, the assistant presented the dish with the fake animal.

The assistant said to Charles Darwin,” Sir, What name we should give to this animal?”
That time Darwin was busy in his own work. Without touching the specimen, Darwin just looked at the animal in a casual way and said to his assistant,” Did it hum?”  
The assistant quickly replied, “Yes sir”    
At this Darwin said, “Call it humbug”. (Humbug means NON SENSE).
The assistant felt ashamed and begged for pardon from Darwin.

Darwin's work had a tremendous impact on religious thought. Many people strongly opposed the idea of evolution because it conflicted with their religious convictions. Darwin avoided talking about the theological aspects of his work. Darwin set his theory in his book called, "The Origin of Species “, He continued to write on botany, geology, and zoology until his death in 1882. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Parum Misri
Very funny.Keep it up.