Editing History of science (section)

===Evolution and inheritance===
[[File:Darwin tree.png|upright|thumb|right|In mid-July 1837 [[Charles Darwin]] started his "B" notebook on the ''Transmutation of Species'', and on page 36 wrote "I think" above his first [[Tree of life (biology)|evolutionary tree]].]]
Perhaps the most prominent, controversial, and far-reaching theory in all of science has been the theory of [[evolution]] by [[natural selection]], which was independently formulated by [[Charles Darwin]] and [[Alfred Russel Wallace|Alfred Wallace]]. It was described in detail in Darwin's book ''[[The Origin of Species]]'', which was published in 1859. In it, Darwin proposed that the features of all living things, including humans, were shaped by natural processes over long periods of time. The theory of evolution in its current form affects almost all areas of biology.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dobzhansky |first1=Theodosius |year=1964 |title=Biology, Molecular and Organismic |url=http://people.ibest.uidaho.edu/~bree/courses/1_Dobzhansky_1964.pdf |journal=American Zoologist |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=443–452 |doi=10.1093/icb/4.4.443 |pmid=14223586 |access-date=5 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303220935/http://people.ibest.uidaho.edu/~bree/courses/1_Dobzhansky_1964.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=dead |doi-access=free}}</ref> Implications of evolution on fields outside of pure science have led to both [[Social effect of evolutionary theory|opposition and support]] from different parts of society, and profoundly influenced the popular understanding of "man's place in the universe". Separately, [[Gregor Mendel]] formulated the principles of inheritance in 1866, which became the basis of modern [[genetics]].