NATURAL SELECTION: THE ONLY THING DARWIN GOT RIGHT
Our chemistry lecturer announced his dismay that the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was given to Melvin Calvin for discovering the C3 cycle in plants, the distinctive biochemical pathway by which carbon dioxide from air is converted to sugars in broad-leaved plants. In his opinion, it should have been awarded to Andrew Benson and James Bassham who, at the very least, should have shared the prize. Yet, the C3-cycle for photosynthesis has always been associated with Calvin and not Benson nor Bassham. Similarly, the fame for the ‘ Origin of Species ’ by natural selection should be shared with Russel Wallace yet the theory is always associated with Charles Darwin. Both Wallace and Darwin were meticulous naturalists documenting everything they observed on their travels and collecting numerous specimens for later study. While Darwin travelled around the Americas and the Galapagos Wallace spent his time in the Amazon basin and on the numerous islands of the Malay Archipelago. Both men ma