The Kiwi's Egg: Charles Darwin and Natural Selection

by David Quammen

Evolution, during the early nineteenth century, was an idea in the air. Other thinkers had suggested it, but no one had proposed a cogent explanation for how evolution occurs. Then, in September 1838, a young Englishman named Charles Darwin hit upon the idea that 'natural selection' among competing individuals would lead to wondrous adaptations and species diversity. Twenty-one years passed between that epiphany and publication of On the Origin of Species. The human drama and scientific basis of Darwin's twenty-one-year delay constitute a fascinating, tangled tale that elucidates the character of a cautious naturalist who initiated an intellectual revolution.

Also published under the title "The Reluctant Mr Darwin" in the US.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Evolution, Nature, Biology, Biography

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

David Quammen (born February 1948) is an award-winning science, nature and travel writer whose work has appeared in publications such as National Geographic, Outside, Harper's, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times Book Review; he has also written fiction. He wrote a column called "Natural Acts" for Outside magazine for fifteen years. Quammen lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read - and one that gets more and more fascinating as the book progresses.

Darwin's early life - including his voyage on The Beagle - is barely touched upon, instead the author concentrates on life after his return to England. We hear about his research, his happy marriage, his poor health, his correspondence with other naturalists and biologists, and the long gesticulation period that finally led up to the publishing of his magnum opus On The Origin of the Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. We also learn about the philosophies and research preceding and contributing to Darwin's theory of evolution, and about competing theories that were popular at the time. Finally the author gives a brief mention of all the scientists who have worked on the subject since Darwin's death, and who have made valuable contributions to his ideas.

David Quammen is a journalist and author - of novels as well as non-fiction books. He is wonderfully readable. I feel as if I have learnt a lot about both Darwin and the history of evolutionary biology, and it was a most enjoyable experience.... All in all a smashing read.

Notes from the book of particular interest to me, mostly just taken straight from the book:

* Darwin was born into a wealthy family. He never had to work. He did study though, initially as a medical student - which he gave up after 2 years due to boredom and a dislike of the brutality of it (operations done without aesthetic). He then went on to be a theology student at Cambridge. One of the main reasons he chose to do this was because a lot of amateur naturalists were clergymen, but he mentioned in his autobiography that when on The Beagle he'd been a very orthodox young man, teased for his Bible-quoting piety. The choice to read theology was therefore attractive to him on two fronts.

* He was honoured when he returned from his voyage of almost five years on The Beagle, and established many useful contacts in the scientific world. In 1839 he published his "Journal" from The Beagle voyage and this made him famous, and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

* His health deteriorated in the next few years. He began to complain of mysterious symptoms - jumpy heart, nausea, vomiting, headaches, nervous excitement and inordinate flatulence. These things made him miserable and slowed down his work. Was he a hypochondriac, a neurasthenic, or had he been bitten by some nasty disease-bearing bug on his Beagle voyage? Even today no-one is sure. What is certain is that these symptoms intruded strongly into his life, and he often had to stop work because of feeling ill. Much of his liaising with other scientists was done by correspondence, and this too may have been due to health limitations. On several occasions he went to spas for water cures, with varying levels of success, none permanent.

*Thomas Robert Malthus. A clergyman and English economist who believed that all populations (human beings or plants for that matter), would increase exponentially until checked by such issues as disease or starvation due to lack of resources. Darwin was familiar with his ideas, and they had a great influence on his theory of natural selection.

* Following on from Darwin's idea about natural selection, was his idea of "transmutation" - whereby over time, and in response to natural selection, species would change their form.

*Darwin gave up religious faith when forty years old, basically because of the problem of 'evil, and gratuitous suffering inflicted on innocents', but also, as he said "I cannot believe that there is a bit more interference by the Creator in the construction of each species, than in the course of the planets". He chose to call himself an agnostic.....a term invented by his friend Thomas Huxley in 1869. Darwin felt the term "atheist" was too aggressive and confident.

*Darwin first introduced his ideas to the world in a paper presented at The Linnean Society on 1st July 1858. He did not present his paper alone, but in conjunction with a biogeographer (someone who studies plant and animal distribution around the planet), called Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace was on an expedition in Indonesia at the time, and he and Darwin had been corresponding. Darwin was shocked when one day Wallace presented him with a manuscript about evolution that was incredibly similar to his own ideas, especially concerning transmutation. The one big difference was that Wallace focused on competition between varieties, not individuals. Anyway Darwin went ahead and presented a paper co-authored by both of them. Wallace's permission for this could not be obtained in time (he was too far away)....fortunately when he heard about it he was honoured to be associated with such a famous naturalist. In the event, the presentation had little effect on the audience. The time for ideas about evolution had not yet arrived.

* 1859 On The Origin of the Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life was finally published. Perhaps Wallace's manuscript had been a wake up call that Darwin finally had to get his ideas out to the public. It quickly became known simply as Origin of the Species. After its publication Darwin devoted a lot of energy to revising it, promoting it, monitoring its reception and playing his role in the scientific discussion it engendered. It sold about 25,000 copies of the English editions alone, during his lifetime.

*1871 Darwin published a second book, meant to complement Origin of the Species, called The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, but this was not as good as its precursor.

*People who had various ideas about evolution before Darwin, many of whom he acknowledged in the third edition of Origin of the Species, after accusations that he was taking credit for ideas that others had published before him.
Maupertius
Diderot
J.F. Blumenbach
Geoffroy
Robert Grant
Robert Chambers (author of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation)
Patrick Matthew
Erazmus Darwin
Lamark.

*1882: Darwin died and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

*After Darwin's death his theory was strongly debated and often rejected. For two generations afterwards - the 1880s and 1890s - his explanation of evolution was severely doubted, resisted and then generally rejected. Evolutionists groped for less repellent alternatives. The three main contenders were:
Lamarkism (a theory from before Darwin's time)
And two modern theories.
Orthogenesis
Saltationism.

*1856-1863: Gregor Mendel conducts his research with pea plants, at a monastery in Brno, near Prague.

This eventually had a huge influence upon how people were to come to understand how traits were inherited, plus his work pointed towards the concept of the gene. He punctured the idea of *blending inheritance*. He suggested the modern distinction between phenotype (what an organism shows), and genotype (what an organism carries).

* August Weisman, a German Zoologist.
His research showed that acquired characteristics are not inherited. Activities and the impact of environmental conditions are not thing we pass on from generation to generation. The giraffe stretching it's neck up to pick leaves will not therefore give its offspring longer necks via this activity.
He also even more clearly than Mendal saw the difference between genotype and phenotype.
Plus he recognised another important phenomenon - that the haphazard intercrossing of chromosome branches during the process of cell division to form gametes, results in chromosomal recombination. That is tangling, breaking and reconnecting. In sexual reproduction this intercrossing continually generates a richness of possible combinations, and therefore an abundance of variation amongst offspring, even amongst offspring of the same parents.

*Re Weisman's work...biologists today realise that such recombination of existing genes, along with outright mistakes of gene duplication, create wholly new gene forms - mutations. This answers the lingering question that clouded Darwin's work and the work of his successors - ie what is the source of variation. Now we know that mutation and recombination supply most of it.

* Later influences on Evolutionary Theory....

Thomas Hunt Morgan - research on fruit fly genetics.

Richard Goldschmidt - notion of the lucky mutant.

RA Fisher/JBS Haldane/Sewall Wright - brilliant new work in mathematical genetics.

Henri Becquerel - his discovery of radioactivity at the end of the 19th century showed how old the planet really was, thus allowing Darwin all the eons necessary for evolution by natural selection.

The Modern Synthesis: 1930s & early 1940s
George Gaylord Simpson (palaeontologist)
Theodosius Dobzhansky (geneticist)
Julian Huxley (a biological thinker)
Ernst Mayr (naturalist & systematicist)
Etc....
They unified Mendelian genetics with Darwinian selection and established a synthesized theory of evolution, roughly as it is accepted today, although their ideas have been critiqued, modified, and added to.

Ernst Mayr - hypothesis about genetic revolutions among insularized populations.

Niles Eldredge & Stephen Jay Gould - concept of punctuated equilibria

Motoo Kimura - neutral theory of molecular evolution

Richard Lewontin - his response to Motoo Kimura's theory

George C Williams and Richard Dawkins - selfish genes.

Edward O Wilson - his provocative overview of sociobiology.

Stuart Kauffman - ideas about self-organisation emerging from complex genetic systems.

*Current thinking about Darwin's work:
Natural selection isn't the sole mechanism of evolutionary change, but it's the primary mechanism. It's the central concept of Darwinism, and its the starting point for understanding how evolution works.

(Note: All the above italics are mine.)

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having thoroughly enjoyed several of Quammen’s other books, I’m a bit sad that I didn’t really feel enthusiastic about this one — especially because I do have a great interest in Darwin, the early theories of evolution and the reaction to them in society. I mean, we’re still seeing that reaction now: I know people who don’t believe in evolution forming new species; I know people who are not convinced by the proofs we have; and various people somewhere in between. And this is an idea that’s in our general consciousness, unlike — for example — electron shells.

But the long descriptions of the incubation of Darwin’s idea are, well, long. And often totally speculative, alas. We have so many records of Darwin, but of course they don’t necessarily answer the questions we really want answered. All in all, this just… didn’t captivate me as I would’ve liked, despite reminding me that by all accounts I think I quite like Darwin as a person as well as a scientist.

[Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buy.

Throughly enjoyable. Sets out and achieves its goal of a short biography of Darwin.

[Mick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent and readable history of evolution as a scientific theory, and how Darwin slowly developed the idea (which preceded him, in various forms) over a period of decades.

It's not a definitive Darwin biography, although it covers many of his other exploits, but it doesn't pretend to be. The book is about the development of an idea, and it Quammen handles that brilliantly.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent writing from a first class science writer. Clear, interesting and memorable description of Darwin's incubation of his dangerous idea; how and why it took over 21 years from his first grasp of evolution to publication. Really interesting stuff.

[Alan Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting biography and evaluation of Darwin's Natural selection theory. Written in an accessible style this begins after Darwin's return from his time on the Beagle, and covers his years as a virtual recluse, working on his theory and other books on biology and geology

[Brenda Greene · Rating 4 out of 5]

David shows Darwin the man, his brilliance, meticulous research, sensitivity to prevailing religious thought, doubts, health and family life. At a time when what species were was thought to be known, global travel, ample leisure time and keen observational skills allowed him to ponder how species arose and changed. He recorded his ideas coalesced by theme into lettered notebooks supported by massive evidence.

Then Wallace, at least 20 years his junior and some 40 years since Darwin conceived the concept of natural selection, after also traveling globally, comes to the same conclusion. This propels Darwin to finally publish his ideas, eventually as the Origin of Species. There is a little innacuracy or perhaps missing information as to why Wallace shared his insight on what was to be called evolution first and foremost with Darwin. Wallace succinctly described natural selection without providing the process a name.

Having read (or tried to read) Darwin's Origin, David helpfully provides an overview and summarises the brilliant insights which are buried within. How his arguments were received by other brilliant and not so brilliant scientists as well as religious leaders and society in general, the majority of whom did not travel far, nor think critically, shows why he was so reticent to publish. The pressure on this reclusive man to revise his ideas in line with dogma was immense. Misinformation, misquoted and unsubstantiated reinterpretation abounded.

David shows how Darwin gradually became agnostic without any crisis of faith. His wife was religious and its likely that Darwin would have declared himself an atheist if he was not sensitive to her point of view.

A decade later, the significance of Gregor Mendel's work, which provided the means by which Natural selection acts, sadly remained largely unknown. It was decades again before natural selection and genetics were linked. Meanwhole Darwin became famous, then infamous and after his death, famous again.

Darwin's breadth of investigation from embryology to geology is astonishing, made possible by the fortune his father Erasmus left him as well as sales of the Origin. Natural selection, sexual selection and dispersal were shown to be the major drivers of the Origin of Species. David's short overview shows this well.

[Sheena Townsend · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book focuses on the period following the voyage on The Beagle until the end of Darwin’s life, but mostly on the development of CD’s ideas about Natural Selection. Those familiar with evolutionary theory and at least a bit of history relating to Darwin’s life will not find much new here, but the presentation makes for an easy read which works rather well as a result of the way it provides context with snippets from both cultural and personal perspectives. Quammen contextualises the development of Darwin’s ideas alongside CD’s. relationships with his mentors and peers in science and natural history and in terms of major events in his personal life such as his marriage and the births and death of several of his children. It was interesting and an engaging quick read even though I know the topic rather well.

[Jente Ottenburghs · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, but entertaining biography of Charles Darwin. The books skips the voyage of the Beagle (a good choice, because I have read about it so many times) and dives right into the events after Darwin's return to England. Quammen does a great job in showing and explaining the work of Darwin. I also liked that he briefly discusses other important people (Lamarck, Wallace, Mendel) and provides some examples of other evolutionary ideas that were popular at the time (orthogenesis and saltationism).

[Robert Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s difficult to fault this excellent tale of Darwin, his family and his scientific peers. A very likeable fellow indeed, conscientious,modest and considered, a loving husband and, near the end of his life, a grandfather taking simple pleasure in the company of his grandson. This book would certainly challenge folk with religious faith but does so in a gentle way and might be more persuasive as a result.

[Celia Sánchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining biography of Charles Darwin. The books skips the voyage of the Beagle and dives right into the events after Darwin's return to England. Quammen also gives a fair account of how Alfred Wallace arrived at the same conclusions regarding Natural selection independantly.

Great read .....

[Gary Stocker]

Readable account of how, after returning from his voyage on HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin got "The Origin of Species" into print. Also gives a fair account of how Alfred Wallace arrived at the same conclusions independantly. Probably more for those who have got an interest in this field. Okay for the more general reader as well though.