The Genius of Darwin: What He Got Right, and What He Got Wrong – clip

Susan Lindee / University of Pennsylvania

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species presented one of the most important ideas in the history of human thought. Darwin’s impact over the last 150 years cannot be overstated: his ideas have provided the central organizing core for modern evolutionary science. But DNA had not been discovered, and therefore Darwin could not have foreseen the complexities of modern genetics. He did not understand that certain situations that occur in nature could confer advantages upon organisms that worked as a group, instead of as selfish individuals. This fascinating class will bring us up to date on Darwin’s remarkable theory which has survived a century-and-a-half of rigorous scientific skepticism and scrutiny.