Darwin Evolves Online
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Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 4/21/2008 9:56:00 AM
Charles Darwin’s original tracts that gave rise to the theory of natural selection are now available online, thanks to a massive effort by Cambridge University, where the naturalist himself was a student.More than 20,000 papers—almost 90,000 images—can now be accessed, a valuable trove for students and teachers, as well as the scientific community. While many of his papers have been publicly available for students able to travel to Cambridge, the online collection makes Darwin’s own words and the influence of his work much more immediate.
The resource is immense. Included in the online database are Darwin’s personal notes during his historic five-year trip on the HMS Beagle, his first sketch of what is now called an evolutionary tree, as well as a recipe book from his wife Emma, whom Darwin married in 1839—three years after his return from his historic voyage where he would begin to craft the idea of natural selection from his studies of animals and fossils. Also available: a first draft of On the Origin of Species from the 1840s—which wasn’t published until 1859.
While it is extraordinary to see text in Darwin’s own hand, a Cambridge team has thoughtfully provided a keyed version, as many scans of the original writing are faded and difficult to read.
Still, it is the image of his own written notes that will no doubt draw many new students to Darwin’s seminal ideas—and hopefully inspire some original observations of their own.
