Chapter 508 - 243 Let Me Take a Look! (5.6K)_2

Upon hearing these words, Xu Yun was momentarily stunned.

Then he carefully examined Big Bald Head’s forehead and his frown lines, and a faintly similar elderly figure emerged in his mind...

Being scrutinized like this by Xu Yun made Big Bald Head a bit uncomfortable:

"Classmate... you... what’s wrong?"

Xu Yun withdrew his gaze, continued to maintain a wary posture, and pretended to ask casually:

"Excuse me, sir, what is your name..."

Big Bald Head was slightly taken aback, then immediately slapped his forehead:

"Sorry, sorry, I got too excited and forgot to introduce myself. I’m a natural history researcher, named Charles Robert..."

Upon hearing the words Charles and Robert at the beginning.

Xu Yun’s fingers, holding "1650-1830: Two Hundred Years of Scientific History Leap," involuntarily tightened again.

It really is him!

But soon, another doubt arose in Xu Yun’s mind:

Why is this person appearing here at the University of Cambridge?

As a biologist his entire life, Xu Yun was incredibly familiar with this person’s resume:

He never taught at the University of Cambridge, but instead spent some time at Oxford.

Has history taken another turn?

Meanwhile.

Big Bald Head also revealed the last set of words in his surname:

"...Darwin."

.....

In local history, there were two circumnavigations that shook humanity’s most fundamental values.

One of them is likely well-known.

That is Luffy’s voyage... oops, wrong, it’s Magellan’s voyage.

This voyage proved the theory of a round Earth, ending a controversy that persisted for thousands of years, and serves as a milestone in human history.

The other voyage is no less significant than Magellan’s, but not many people know about it.

It took place at the end of 1831.

At that time in the East, Emperor Daoguang was happily ruling his great empire.

He was completely unaware that in nine years, the first cannonball of the First Opium War would land on the soil of Huaxia.

And on the other side of the Earth.

A ship named the Beagle, an English warship, also began its second voyage.

The significance of this voyage was so great that over a hundred years later, the British named their Mars lander Beagle 2.

Students who were sailors in a past life should all know.

Back then, sea voyages were incredibly dull and tedious.

For instance, Stokes, the ship’s previous captain who shared a name with a certain physicist, stayed on the ship for two years and eventually shot himself due to mental stress.

The second captain was named FitzRoy, an extremely irritable fellow with a family history of mental illness.

Worried he might have the same suicidal urge, he found a mild-mannered young man to accompany him.

This young man was a top graduate from the University of Cambridge Divinity School, proficient in interpreting scriptures, and could even serve as a priest.

But FitzRoy possibly never thought until his death.

The theology graduate he brought along would, ten years after their voyage, launch a vehement challenge against theology.

The impact of that challenge was unparalleled in human history, even shaking the foundations of creationism.

Indeed.

This young man was Charles Robert Darwin.

At this point.

Many might think the next sentence should be "Everyone knows the following story, Darwin proposed the Theory of Evolution," right?

But I’m sorry.

This story is far from simple.

Actually, at first, Darwin had no intention of overthrowing theology or forming any theory.

He merely acted like a regular natural historian, disembarking to do his work whenever the ship reached a new place.

Observing various animals, creating specimens, excavating fossils, and recording his findings in detail.

He simply discovered a phenomenon:

Except for celestial disasters, species extinction doesn’t occur suddenly; it has a transition state.

For example, he initially thought he had found the fossil of an extinct giant sloth, but it looked peculiar, like an armadillo.

It wasn’t until he returned to London that he realized he had discovered a creature existing between the two.

Darwin’s voyage started in the Andes Mountains, passed through Chile, the Galapagos Islands, Conception Port, Australia, and eventually returned to the United Kingdom.

After his return, Darwin wrote two books over more than a decade:

"Journal of Researches During Voyage of the Beagle" and "Geological Observations During Voyage of the Beagle."

Indeed.

No "Origin of Species."

This is actually a little-known detail of Darwin’s theory of evolution—"Origin of Species" was somewhat hastily published.

The change occurred in 1851.

That year, Darwin’s gravely ill daughter Annie passed away, which some called a punishment for defying his theological training.

From then on, Darwin started to become somewhat extreme; he rejected theology and began writing his main work on evolution theory in 1855.

In 1859, Darwin published "Origin of Species."

So, how to put it...

Publishing "Origin of Species" actually carried a bit of a retaliatory mindset.

Thus, on one hand, the theory of evolution is undeniably one of the foundations of modern biology.

On the other hand, some ideas in "Origin of Species" were quite extreme.

Even Darwin himself was in a subtle state:

He rejected creationism, yet encouraged his son to become a priest—interpreted by some later commentators as a practical career choice, but this explanation remains speculative.