一百多年前，一位年轻的英国博物学家搭乘"小猎犬号"军舰，展开了一场长达五年的环球航行。在南美洲附近的加拉帕戈斯群岛，他注意到不同岛屿上的雀鸟，喙的形状竟然各不相同——有的又长又尖，适合啄食昆虫；有的又短又厚，适合咬开坚硬的种子。这个小小的发现，后来彻底改变了人类对生命起源的理解。

Over a hundred years ago, a young British naturalist boarded the naval ship HMS Beagle for a five-year voyage around the world. Near South America, on the Galápagos Islands, he noticed that finches on different islands had beaks of strikingly different shapes, some long and pointed, suited for picking out insects; others short and thick, suited for cracking open hard seeds. This small observation would later completely transform humanity's understanding of the origin of life.

这位博物学家名叫查尔斯·达尔文。经过二十多年反复的观察与思考，他提出了"自然选择"学说：生物个体之间存在着细微的差异，那些恰好更适应环境的个体，更容易存活下来并繁衍后代，这些有利的特征就会一代代累积、传递下去。这个理论后来被写进了一本改变科学史的著作——《物种起源》。

This naturalist's name was Charles Darwin. After more than twenty years of careful observation and thought, he proposed the theory of "natural selection": individuals within a species show slight variations, and those that happen to be better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing these advantageous traits on generation after generation. This theory was later published in a book that would change the course of science, On the Origin of Species.

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