Copycat theory: Darwin stole ideas from rival?

As the scientific world prepares to mark Charles Darwin’s bicentenary, the author of ‘On the Origin of Species’ is facing accusations of plagiarism and unjustly claiming credit as the father of evolutionary theory.

One group of critics has commissioned computer experts with specialised anti-plagiarism software to scour Darwin’s book, published in 1859, for similarities to a paper released the year before by Alfred Russel Wallace, a naturalist who worked for eight years in modern Indonesia.

Initial indications are the analysis will show that some of the most important ideas in On the Origin of Species were taken from Wallace — in particular the idea that species with variations helping them to survive would thrive and pass on these features to their offspring.

Darwin’s defenders, by contrast, claim it was quite plausible for two scientists to have come up with similar ideas independently at the same time and that Darwin did far more than Wallace to set down, develop and promote the ideas.

An editorial in the Times on Boxing Day said Darwin had “a plausible claim to be counted the greatest figure in this nation’s history”. The adulation has appalled Darwin’s critics, including human rights lawyer David Hallmark, a trustee of the Wallace Foundation of Indonesia.

The software used by Hallmark’s copyright experts can detect where phrasing is identical and also see signs of an author’s style. Where a word is repeated frequently or a consistent sentence structure is used by two writers, this may suggest that one has copied from the other. Hallmark plans to submit his findings to the conference of the International Association of Forensic Linguists in Amsterdam in July.

LIKE MINDED

Alfred Russel Wallace’s supporters claim his ideas in an 1858 paper may have been plagiarised in 1859 by Darwin for On the Origin of Species.

They include:

Species are engaged in a struggle for existence

Checks in nature impede a species from proliferating

Climate affects the survival or extinction of a species

Selective breeding of domesticated animals illustrates the process of evolution in the wild
Source:-The Times of India Delhi 29 December 2008 P. 13
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