On this day 146 years ago, a new idea was introduced to the scientific world which
didn't bore the stuff out of the less scientifically-inclined.
November 24, 1859 saw the first publishing of Charles Darwin's work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (better known as The Origin of Species) to the masses in London. Darwin's fairly easy to read work introduced the theory of natural selection, which would in time revolutionize the scientific world.
Darwin put forth this theory after examining data collected on his 1831-36 Beagle expedition. I am absolutely no good at discussing this, so I will let
Wikipedia do it for me:
[...]Darwin infers: In a world of stable populations where each individual must struggle to survive, those with the "best" characteristics will be more likely to survive, and those desirable traits will be passed to their offspring; and that these advantageous characteristics are inherited by following generations, becoming dominant among the population through time. This is natural selection.
Darwin further infers that natural selection, if carried far enough, makes changes in a population, eventually leading to new species.[...]
The better known idea of the time was that of "creation biology", which sought to explain the world through the Young Earth philosophy held by many respected scientists. Thus, Darwin's work was contradictory to the idea that everything was in it's place because that's how it was intended to be placed (circular, ain't it?). Evolution was known, but the mechanisms for it were the unknown.
An extremely ironic passage from the Wikipedia article:
The book was highly controversial when first published, as it contradicted the then-prevailing theory of establishment scientists, of immediate, divine design in nature, and conflicted with a literal reading of the biblical creation stories in the Book of Genesis.
(Boy, if you replace "establishment scientists" with "wingnuts"...)
The biggest thing which prevented immediate widespread acceptance of Darwin's ideas was the lack of knowledge about genetics. However, that would be resolved with the rediscovery of Mendel's work in the 1930's.
In our world, science is being challenged in education by people who wish to teach bullshit intelligent design in schools. So tonight, revel in the fact that science can provide an explanation for opposable thumbs, while "intelligent" design twiddles it's own thumbs on how to explain it. Or eat turkey. Whatever floats your boat.