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New light shed on Charles Darwin's 'abominable mystery'
By Helen Briggs
BBC Science correspondent
23 January, 2020
A scientist has shed new light on the origins of Charles Darwin's "abominable mystery".
The famous naturalist was haunted by the question of how the first flowering plants evolved.
Darwin feared this inexplicable puzzle would undermine his theories of evolution, says Prof Richard Buggs.
Forgotten historical documents show a rival scientist was arguing for divine intervention in the rise of the flowering plants.
This greatly vexed Darwin in his final months, says the evolutionary biologist at Queen Mary, University of London.
"The mystery seems to have been made particularly abominable to him by its highly publicised use by the keeper of botany at the British Museum to argue for divine intervention in the history of life," he says.
What is the abominable mystery?
Darwin coined the phrase, abominable mystery, in 1879. In a letter to his closest friend, botanist and explorer Dr Joseph Hooker, he wrote: "The rapid development as far as we can judge of all the higher plants within recent geological times is an abominable mystery."
[...]
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55769269
By Helen Briggs
BBC Science correspondent
23 January, 2020
A scientist has shed new light on the origins of Charles Darwin's "abominable mystery".
The famous naturalist was haunted by the question of how the first flowering plants evolved.
Darwin feared this inexplicable puzzle would undermine his theories of evolution, says Prof Richard Buggs.
Forgotten historical documents show a rival scientist was arguing for divine intervention in the rise of the flowering plants.
This greatly vexed Darwin in his final months, says the evolutionary biologist at Queen Mary, University of London.
"The mystery seems to have been made particularly abominable to him by its highly publicised use by the keeper of botany at the British Museum to argue for divine intervention in the history of life," he says.
What is the abominable mystery?
Darwin coined the phrase, abominable mystery, in 1879. In a letter to his closest friend, botanist and explorer Dr Joseph Hooker, he wrote: "The rapid development as far as we can judge of all the higher plants within recent geological times is an abominable mystery."
[...]
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55769269