Thread by @AdamRutherford

160 years ago today, the world changed. Happy birthday to evolution by natural selection!

‘Three papers on the tendency of species to form varieties; and on the perpetuation of varieties and species by natural means of selection. Zoologist 16: 6293-6308’

darwin-online.org.uk/content/frames…

It was an inauspicious launch of one of the greatest ideas anyone has ever had. Lyell and Hooker presented the papers to an underwhelmed Linnean Society. friendsofdarwin.com/articles/darwi…

Darwin had expressed anxiety that Wallace’s ideas were presented alongside his, but that he also was credited properly. Wallace was unaware of the presentation, but expressed deep gratitude later.

Darwin had expressed the idea in note form earlier to Asa Gray, but it was Wallace who prompted him to go public, and a year later, On the Origin of Species was published.

Wallace and Darwin remained friends. Any suggestion that Darwin stole the idea from Wallace or that there was beef between them is incorrect. CD supported ARW throughout his life.
Both deserve credit, but it was the completeness of Darwin’s work that elevates him.

In the last 160 years, thousands of scientists have spent millions of hours testing ideas set in place that day. The principles of natural selection have withstood that necessary onslaught.

Genetics and molecular biology have utterly reinforced the idea, and gave us the mechanisms by which evolution has occurred.

In the words of Theodosius Dobzhansky, ‘Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution’.

It is a privilege to live in a world where this is known. As @RichardDawkins pointed out, an alien would measure our maturity as a species by asking if we had discovered evolution yet.

And yet there is so much more to discover; every week I learn something that is astonishing.

Join us.

Here are some fun people who have helped me with my darwinology and evolution:
@matthewcobb @Graham_Coop @emma_darwin @AngelaDSaini @friendsofdarwin @theAliceRoberts @aylwyn_scally @razibkhan @Ben_garrod @SteveBrusatte @mt_genes @brennawalks @pontus_skoglund
Too many to name!