Darwin's Notebooks: See Darwin Think

I've always been fascinated by how great discoveries are made, how great minds think, and how they come up with the ideas that change the way we think about our world.

So, I've been thinking of Charles Darwin, again. His two notebooks, to be precise. I often talk about Darwin because the thing is - there is so much to talk about... not just the man and his life, but how even now, more than a hundred and fifty years later, he still astounds.

Few days ago, he was in the news.

More precisely, two of his notebooks were.

Twenty years ago, two of Darwin's notebooks 'mysteriously disappeared' (as we know, when folks don't want to use the word 'stolen', they use the term 'mysteriously disappeared') from Cambridge University Library archives. They had been removed to be photographed, in Sep of 2000, then they went missing. In 2020, the experts determined after many comprehensive searches that the notebooks had indeed been (you guessed it) stolen. Many public searches and appeals were made. Police were notified. The notebooks were listed in an Interpol data base. It was no use, however. Folks gave up hope of ever seeing the two notebooks again.

Last week, however, someone had a ('mysterious'?) change of heart.

And he/she DID return them.

These notebooks 'mysteriously re-appeared', wrapped in plastic and in a pink gift bag to Cambridge University Library. In case you think there was any clarity as to who took it and why? Nope. Nothing. There was a note, but it had no name or details.

It had one cryptic line - 'Librarian: Happy Easter - X'.

The librarian, Jessica Gardner, was happy (although she was in tears):

"... I was heartbroken to learn of their loss, and my joy at their return is immense. They may be tiny, just the size of postcards, but the notebooks' impact on the history of science and their importance to our world-class collections here cannot be overstated."

The question is of course - why were these notebooks so important?

Let's go back in time to early 1800s.

Let's visit with little Charles Darwin.

Charles Darwin was born on 12th February, 1809 (same date as Abraham Lincoln's birth - of all dates!) in Shrewsbury, England. His mother died when he was only eight years old. As a child, Charles Darwin was a terrible disappointment to his father. "You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family".

Yes, well.

Disgrace indeed.

Young Darwin did try to please his father, however, and tried to study medicine, but a surgery so traumatized him that he gave it up, and instead got a degree in divinity from Cambridge.

And that's where his degree and his life might have kept him if he hadn't got a strange and unexpected offer from Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, a naval survey ship. FitzRoy needed a companion to socialize with on the ship (as his rank or status demanded) and after his preferred friend dropped out, he chose Darwin (apparently, FitzRoy liked the shape of Darwin's nose, believe it or not). It is not a stretch to say that FitzRoy was a strangely moody and melancholy man, with fits of temper, grudges, and depression. He was also very young.

Darwin was just twenty-two when he set off on the HMS Beagle in 1831.

FitzRoy was just twenty-three.

I've a hypothesis. It is this - the geniuses of this world begin their life-defining work at the age of 25. It's my thinking. It's my own observation. When the rest of us are still wondering what we might want to do, they are already on their way to doing it. Sometimes, they know their path, sometimes they choose it, sometimes luck puts them on it. Either way, they find themselves on the road to extraordinary contributions and equally extraordinary renown.

In this case, it would be accurate to say Captain FitzRoy put Darwin on his path.

On the famed five-year voyage that Darwin took on the HMS Beagle, from 1831 - 1836 he collected enough specimens and documented enough observations to last him a lifetime.

The two notebooks were written - when Darwin was not the elderly man in 1881 with a beard and undeniable wisdom/gravitas, but closer to the youngster in 1831, like the photo of 1840, unsure of himself and his place in this world - when he started to formulate his theory...

These notebooks showed him thinking... in 1837...

On one page, Darwin writes...

"I think..."

Below that there is a stick figure of a tree.

It wasn't just a tree or any tree. It was his 'Tree of Life'.

This was possibly the first time he jotted down the idea of how species evolved from one to the next, like the branches of a tree...

It was such a simple idea. All organisms battle for limited resources and those that have an advantage of sorts would win in the end - the fight for survival - and pass on its advantages to its offspring.

Yet, as we know, it's the simplest facts/ideas/thoughts that are hardest to see.

And that's why the notebooks are so important... Charles Darwin saw what many didn't see.

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