Darwin's Lost Voyage: HMS Beagle Without Its Naturalist

In 1831, Charles Darwin nearly rejected the position on HMS Beagle that would lead to his revolutionary theory of evolution. This episode explores how the development of biological science might have unfolded if Robert FitzRoy had chosen a different ship's naturalist. Our hosts examine the specific observations and experiences that shaped Darwin's thinking, alternative scientific theories that dominated the era, and how different naturalists might have interpreted the Beagle's discoveries. We trace how delayed or altered understanding of natural selection would have impacted fields from medicine to social science, while considering which other scientists might have eventually proposed similar evolutionary theories.

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