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James Hutton
AKA the father of modern geology. Apart from being one of the most prominent figures in this field of science, he is also a noted physician, naturalist, chemical manufacturer, and an experimental agriculturalist. One of his contributions to science was his uniformitarianism which happens to be one of the fundamental principles that geology has. Not only did he make great observations concerning the world that surrounded him, he was able to come up with reased and valid geological arguments. -
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Erasmus Darwin
British physician, poet, and botanist noted for his republican politics and materialistic theory of evolution. Although today he is best known as the grandfather of naturalist Charles Darwin.
The overriding characteristic of Darwin’s work is his commitment to progress. Medical historians celebrate Darwin for his Zoonomia (or The Laws of Organic Life; 1794–96), an ambitious two-volume work aiming to classify facts about animals. -
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William Paley
English Anglican priest, Utilitarian philosopher, and author of influential works on Christianity, ethics, and science, among them the standard exposition in English theology of the teleological argument for the existence of God. Paley’s most important works were The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785), a subject of lectures at the University of Cambridge & A View of the Evidence of Christianity (1794) -
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Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Was a French Naturalist who advocated that acquired characters are inheritable. Though his theory of heredity has been refuted by modern genetics and evolutionary theory, nevertheless Lamarck is widely regarded as one of the most influential naturalists and an important forerunner of evolution. Lamarck’s brilliant contributions to science comprise of extraordinary work in botany, paleontology, geology, meteorology and chemistry. Lamarck went blind and died a poor man in Paris on Dec. 1829. -
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John Henslow
British botanist, clergyman, and geologist who popularized botany at the University of Cambridge by introducing new methods of teaching the subject. John Stevens Henslow will be best remembered as friend and mentor to Charles Darwin, but he also made a lasting contribution to the University of Cambridge and the education system of his day. Henslow believed in freedom of speech and intellectual inquiry. -
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Charles Lyell
Sir Charles Lyell was the most famous lawyer and geologist of his time. One of the most important British scientists in history, Lyell wrote “Principles of Geology”, a landmark work in geology that explores James Hutton’s doctrine of uniformitarianism.
Lyell’s geological contributions ranged from volcanoes and geological dynamics through stratigraphy, paleontology, and glaciology. Lyell died on February 22, 1875. He was 77 years old. -
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Robert Chambers
a Scottish publisher, geologist, evolutionary thinker, author and journal editor who, was highly influential in mid-19th century scientific and political circles.
During the 1830s, Robert Chambers took a particularly keen interest in the then rapidly expanding field of geology.
Chambers was an early phrenologist and was the anonymous author of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, which was so controversial that his authorship was not acknowledged until after his death. -
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Charles Darwin
Darwin was a British scientist who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution and transformed the way we think about the natural world. Darwin noticed that each island supported its own form of finch which were closely related but differed in important ways. He proposed a theory of evolution occurring by the process of natural selection. The animals (or plants) best suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on the characteristics which helped them survive -
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Alfred Wallace
Alfred Wallace was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. He is best known for independently proposing a theory of evolution due to natural selection that prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own theory.He is also known for the concept of warning colouration in animals, and the Wallace effect, a hypothesis on how natural selection could contribute to speciation by encouraging the development of barriers against hybridization.