Why did early scientists doubt the theory of evolution? Uncover the mystery of the 19th century!

In the scientific community of the mid-19th century, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution originated from his 1859 publication "On the Origin of Species". Although this book prompted many biologists to believe in the existence of evolution, it did not mean that everyone agreed. It is recognized that natural selection is the main driving force of this process. Over time, scientists began to explore alternative theories of evolution and cast doubt on Darwin's theory.

In the discussion of evolution, theories such as Lamarckism (inheritance of acquired characteristics), forward evolution, and mutation theory gradually surfaced, replacing Darwin's ideas.

Darwin himself endorsed Lamarckism, while Alfred Russell Wallace strongly supported natural selection and rejected Lamarckism outright. With the arrival of the 1880s, biologists began to have doubts about Darwin's views on evolution. This period is known as the Dark Age of Darwinism. Many scientists pointed out the weaknesses of Darwin's views on genetics.

This suspicion stems largely from Darwin's theory of hybrid inheritance, which means that any new mutation, even a beneficial one, will be weakened by 50% in each generation.

This theory directly contradicts the idea of ​​natural selection by making it impossible for small mutations to survive and be selected over the long term. In addition, the interaction between Darwin's panspermia theory and Lamarckism exacerbated the scientific community's distrust of the theory of evolution.

In this context, August Weismann proposed the germ plasm theory, which believed that the relationship between genetic material and the body is one-way, which means that the body will not affect the genetic material. This view directly overturned Darwin's theory of panspermia and Lamarck's views, and formed a stronger anti-Darwinian sentiment in the scientific community.

Weisman's experiments showed that cutting off the tails of mice did not affect the tail length of their offspring. This theory emphasized that inheritance is "hard" rather than plastic.

With the independent rediscovery of Gregor Mendel's genetics in 1900 by Hugo de Vries and Carl Corens, this new discovery brought new hope to the biological world. However, there were obvious contradictions between the independent genetic characteristics of Mendelian genetics and mature biological thinking, which led to further shaking of the theory of evolution.

By 1912, Thomas Hunt Morgan's experiments on fruit flies conclusively demonstrated that variation in the process of evolution provides a new material basis for species, rather than a one-time leap as early scholars believed. With the research on mathematical population genetics by R.A. Fisher and J.B.S. Haldane, the theory of evolution gradually moved towards a new stable period.

The work of Fisher and Haldane marked the rebirth of evolutionary theory by making the concept of natural selection predictable, measurable, and verifiable.

However, even as these forward-thinking studies progressed, biological research that defended natural history has all but died out in the United States, and enthusiasm for evolution among scientists and educators has been minimal. Harvard physiologist William John Crozet even told his students that evolution was not a science at all.

Until 1942, Julian Huxley's "Evolution: A Modern Synthesis" integrated various scientific views with the intention of reshaping the image of evolution and emphasizing its systematic nature. He elaborated on natural selection as an observable natural phenomenon, a perspective that not only advanced the integration of biological and physical sciences but also reconceptualized humans' role in the evolutionary process.

What Huxley wanted to achieve was a view of evolution with humans as the pinnacle. This view defied past doubts about evolution and ultimately led biology into a new era.

In that era of change, the scientific community was full of different theories and debates. The theory of evolution was striving for recognition as it developed. However, what would happen when real changes came quickly?

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