Darwin: On the Origin of Species

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2009

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, Melvyn Bragg presents a series about Darwin's life and work.How Darwin was eventually persuaded to publish On the Origin of Species in November 1859 and the book's impact on fellow scientists and the general public.Featuring contributions from Darwin biographer Jim Moore, Steve Jones, geneticist at University College London, Jim Secord of the Darwin Correspondence Project and Johannes Vogel, Sandy Knapp and Judith Magee, all of the National History Museum.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time, for more details about in our time, and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:08.0	UK slash Radio 4. I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.0	We ended yesterday's program with the question. In May, 1842, Darwin wrote an outline of what
0:16.8	would later become his theory of evolution by natural selection, but he waited another 17 years until November 1859 before publishing his theory in book form.
0:27.0	Why did he wait so long?
0:29.0	Part of the answer to that question is here at Burlington House on London's Piccadilly. By the mid-19th century
0:35.2	Burlington House had become the hub of British science, the Royal Society at offices here.
0:40.0	So did the Linaian Society, the Chemical Society, the Geological Society and the Royal Astronomical
0:45.8	Society.
0:46.8	This was a world that Darwin wanted to be part of.
0:49.8	I have with me Jim Moore, Darwin Bographer, Jim Seacord, Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, and
0:55.6	Sandy Knapp, a botanist at the Natural History Museum and Botanical Secretary of the
1:00.4	Linnaian Society.
1:01.4	Jim Seacord, I mentioned some of the societies that are premises here.
1:05.0	Can you tell us a little more about them and which of them Darwin belonged to?
1:09.0	Well, when Darwin went on his great voyage around the world in the Beagle, he came back to London, and in London he really wanted to be associated with the best men of science at the time.
1:20.0	Science in this period was a gentlemanly activity.
1:23.0	So effectively, the societies that we see around us
1:26.0	were extensions of that gentlemanly world.
1:28.0	They were effectively gentlemen's clubs for science.
1:31.0	And so, almost immediately he joined the various societies that were relevant to his interests,
1:36.0	particularly the Geological Society in 1836. He became a fellow of the Zoological Society in 1837 and then he was elected a fellow
	...

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