Well it has just turned the 12th here.
200 years ago today one of the most profoundly important humans to ever live was born. Charles Darwin's explorations and inquiry into nature have brought us a profound and enriching understanding of our origins. His book, 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life,' has revolutionised Biological science. It has helped to act as a unifying theory for all biology; it has opened up new fields of study in engineering and mathematics and brought humanity a step closer to leaving the infancy of our species behind.
The principles of evolutionary biology which Darwin helped to define allow modern medicine to take lessons learned in one field of biology and apply them to another, helping to develope some of the most potent and important medicinal drugs of recent times and promising many more. Something I am sure we can all be grateful for.
Despite the claims of some, Evolutionary theory is one of the strongest arguments one can have against racism and bigotry, for survival of the fittest embraces the concept of diversity, concepts of racial superiority are made a nonsense of by an understanding of genetics and evolutionary theory. Indeed, Darwin was an abolitionist with strong feelings regarding slavery. Modern consensus on common descent is a driving force away from slavery and racism.
Add to this that he was both a world-travelling explorer and a loving father of a very large family,
I hope you will all join me in wishing Charles Darwin a very happy birthday.