1. Carol Anelli (Dept. of Entomology)

History is very important in understanding the biology and discovery of multi cellular organisms especially when studying Darwin’s theory of evolution. Geology and natural theology played a very important role in Darwin’s work. As new advancements in technology continue, it strengthens Darwin’s theory even more which shows how strong of a foundation Darwin’s theory laid for us. Hutton introduced the rock cycle which is always constant and shows how the Earth is always changing. Fossils would be embedded in rocks in the Paris Basin which makes us question what happened overtime. In the times of the church hierarchy, geology and religion would often conflict with each other because of the idea that God created all living things and it is impossible for evolution to occur. The Paradigm of Natural Theology was very interesting to me because of how it used a basic watch to make the analogy that God’s creatures must have a designer like the watch had. I really like how much theology is linked to science because most people would consider theology to be a more abstract idea than science. Overall I think this was a really interesting presentation because I haven’t taken biology in a long time and it really helps to brush up on important scientists like Darwin that had such an influence on modern science. I also liked how we talked about Darwin’s upbringing and his relationship with his wife and children. He was a distant person at times and it shows how much of a thinker he was and how he was always curious about the world and I love when people are curious and go out and find the answers to their curiosities.

In the lecture given by Dr. Anelli she discussed how Darwin has a relation to medicine through the study of invertebrates which has allowed relation to humans to be studied. Additionally she mentioned how as technology develops, darwinian theory has been strengthened it rather than weakening it. Before darwin, variations were not important and there were only different types of organisms. However, the development of darwinian theory has allowed what we know of natural selection and evolution to come about. She also mentioned how the time period impeded the time he published his theory and how correspondents played a role in science of this period. Her references to the movie “Creation” allowed a bigger picture to be seen and helped me to get a better picture of Darwin’s life.