Simple Beginnings introduction

In this part of the website, developed to support our exhibition Simple Beginnings: the Story of Evolution, you can learn more about the history and science behind evolution.

2009 would have been Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday. To most people he is the man who first thought of evolution, but this was not the case. So why is it Darwin we celebrate?

Evolution is one of the most important ideas in modern science. It provides the structure that unifies all life on Earth and is supported by a vast amount of evidence.

Evolution tells us why we are here, who we truly are, and defines our place in on Earth. The idea of evolution can be traced back more than 2,000 years, but it was Darwin who transformed evolution it into a fully-formed scientific theory; a theory that underpins all of modern biology.

Darwin spent most of his life accumulating a wealth of evidence to support his ideas. His genius was that he could take thousands of apparently separate ideas and observations and draw them all into one coherent theory.

He also made science accessible to a wider audience, writing books that were aimed not at the elite but at everybody. In doing so he brought science in the 1800s into the public realm and laid the ground for the professional science that shapes our everyday life.