interview with darwin
DESCRIPTION
An imagined interview with Charles Darwin, in honour of his 200th birthday, devised by an Italian class in their second year of High School.TRANSCRIPT
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?