Today we celebrate the birthday of Charles Darwin, who elucidated the mechanism of evolution by natural selection and wrote On The Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection. All of modern biology, including the great success of molecular biology, is built on Darwin's work with contributions by Alfred Russell Wallace. It would be hard to find a person who made more significant contributions to modern life. I highly recommend that all educated people read Origin of Species, which ranks among the greatest pieces of literature. 

 Charles was among the many important members of the Darwin-Wedgewood family (yes, the blue china). Erasmus Darwin was Charles' grandfather, a notable poet, and friend of the Shelleys. Percy Shelley regarded Erasmus as the most important poet of their time, and Frankenstein likely would not exist if not for the time that Mary spent with Erasmus. Ralph Vaughan Williams is Charles’ great nephew.

Emma Darwin is Charles's great grandaughter, a novelist, writing teacher, and a distinguished contributor to Substack at This Itch of Writing

 Of course, we know Charles for his evolution work, but he had a long career in which he explored the biology of many organisms, including barnacles. His book The Power of Movement in Plants laid the groundwork for our current understanding of plant movement.