Darwin, Durian, and Alfred Russel Wallace

I recently had the great pleasure of writing for "What's Up", a kids' magazine published here in Singapore by one of my colleagues at NTU, Cherian George. Cherian patiently guided me through a few drafts as I learned how to write for older children in a way that was accessible and yet not condescending. Thank you, Cherian.

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Did you ever feel like your ideas were just as good as somebody else’s, but nobody listened to you because you were not as big, or cool, or good looking? You might be surprised to learn that scientists can also get overlooked, and for all the wrong reasons.

We see this in the surprising story of two naturalists, one famous, one not. If I say the name Charles Darwin, you will recognize it immediately. Everybody knows that Darwin is the father of the theory of evolution.

But if I say the name Alfred Russel Wallace, many people may respond, “Alfred who?” Well, that’s a shame, because the theory of evolution actually has not just one but two fathers, and the other one is -- you guessed it! -- Alfred Russel Wallace.

Darwin came from a rich, upper-class family and knew lots of important people. By contrast, Wallace was not well off, and did not have the same social connections. While Darwin was educated all the way through university, Wallace’s family could only afford to send him to elementary school for less than two years.

But the two men were very much alike in being great travellers. We’ve all heard about Darwin’s important trips to the Galapagos Islands and elsewhere aboard the HMS Beagle. For his part, Wallace first explored the Amazon. Sadly, he lost almost all his notes and collections from that trip in a shipwreck, and then spent ten days on the high seas in a leaking lifeboat before the crew of a passing ship rescued him. This didn’t put him off traveling, however, and he later spent a lot of time in the Malay Archipelago, the old term for what we now call Indonesia, Malaysia and...Singapore!

And it was here that Wallace realized how evolution works, and wrote down his theory. It’s exciting to think that our very own part of the world was the inspiration for such a blockbuster scientific breakthrough!

In 1858, Wallace sent his scientific paper describing his theory of evolution to Darwin. He probably did this hoping that Darwin, who knew so many scientists, would help him publish his paper in a scientific journal. For Darwin, Wallace’s paper was a huge shock. He had been working on his theory of evolution for 20 years, and thought he was the only one who had figured it out. Now he knew that he had competition.

It may sound funny to talk about scientists competing with each other, but they do. Why? Because you only get credit for a discovery if you publish it first. So it didn’t matter that Darwin had been working on the theory of evolution for longer than Wallace. Wallace would get all the credit if he published first. And Wallace’s paper was ready. Darwin was holding it in his hands!

What would you do if you were Darwin? I wonder if he was tempted to keep Wallace’s paper a secret, and then quickly write and publish his own. But you know what? Instead, Darwin was fair to Wallace while making sure that he protected his own work. He lost no time in writing down his theory and then gave both papers for publication in the same scientific journal.

So both Darwin and Wallace got credit for the theory of evolution, and the two of them became very famous. In fact, by the time Wallace died at the age of 91, he was probably the best known naturalist in Britain, even more so than Darwin.

So what happened? Why does no one remember Wallace while Darwin’s name is on everybody’s lips? That’s a tough question, and no one is quite sure. It seems that after their deaths, both Darwin and Wallace were forgotten for a little while because of a negative reaction to their theory. When evolution became popular again, only Darwin was brought back into the limelight.

This might be because Darwin had also published a very important book on evolution some time after his and Wallace’s paper appeared. This book, usually called The Origin of Species, was very popular, and may have seemed like a bigger or more important contribution to those who looked back in history. They may have given Darwin more credit, and eventually all the credit!

But this story has a happy ending. Recently, several books have set straight the story about Wallace and Darwin, and you can find lots of articles on the web that give Wallace his rightful place in history.

So a wrong is being righted, and there is no need to favour Darwin over Wallace any more. However, if you would like an excuse to cheer for one of them, here’s a bit of trivia for you: Wallace loved durian. Darwin did not.


The author is a Professor at the School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University.