Issue Date |
23.04.2012 |
ID |
Michel: 2924-2943;
Scott: 1032a-t;
Stanley Gibbons: 2795-2814, MH 2795a;
Yvert et Tellier: 2842-2861;
Category: Co |
Design |
Artwork: Ivan Akimovich Sushchenko |
Stamps in set |
20 |
Values |
US$ .45 - Charles Darwin
US$ .45 - William Harvey
US$ .45 - Robert Boyle
US$ .45 - Johannes Kepler
US$ .45 - Thomas Edison
US$ .45 - Andre-Marie Ampere
US$ .45 - Michael Faraday
US$ .45 - Jons Jacob Berzelius
US$ .45 - James Watt
US$ .45 - Galileo Galilei
US$ .45 - Andreas Vesalius
US$ .45 - Antoine Lavoisier
US$ .45 - Dmitry Mendeleyev
US$ .45 - Carl Gauss
US$ .45 - Isaac Newton
US$ .45 - Gregor Mendel
US$ .45 - John Dalton
US$ .45 - Carl Linnaeus
US$ .45 - Robert Fulton
US$ .45 - William Thomson, Baron Kelvin |
Size (width x height) |
stamps: 40mm x 31mm
Sheet: 224 mm x 154mm
|
Layout |
Sheet of 20 stamps |
Products |
FDC x4 |
Paper |
unwatermarked gummed paper |
Perforation |
13.50 x 13.50 |
Print Technique |
Black, cyan, magenta, yellow by offset lithography |
Printed by |
Pioneer Printing, Cheyenne, Wyoming, U.S.A. |
Quantity |
|
Issuing Authority |
Marshall Islands Postal Service Authority |
On April 23, 2012, the Marshall Islands Postal Service issued the set of
20 stamps featuring great scientists of history.
History has seen many great scientists who have made priceless contributions to the
advancement of mankind, and in 2012 the Republic of the Marshall Islands
issued these stamps to honour 20 of the greatest scientists with
Charles Darwin and Carl Linnaeus among them.
Darwin, for instance, is famous for his theory of evolution
through natural selection, while Edison is best known for inventing the
incandescent light bulb.
Newton is remembered for postulating his theory of gravity, and Linnaeus is renowned
for developing a system to classify living things.
Among these great personalities, Charles Darwin and Carl Linnaeus
can be considered as contributors to Paleontological Science.
Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire in 12 February 1809,
to a wealthy and well-connected family.
He had initially planned to study medicine at Edinburgh University but later switched to Divinity
at Cambridge encouraged a passion for natural science.
|
Charles Darwin on stamp of Marshall Islands 2012,
MiNr.: 2924, Scott: 1032a.
|
His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist whose
observations and theories supported Charles Lyell's uniformitarian
ideas, and publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as
a popular author.
Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage,
Darwin investigated the transmutation of species and conceived his theory of natural selection
in 1838.
Although Darwin discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research
and his geological work had priority.
Charles Darwin was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay which described
the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of both of their theories.
Darwin 1859 book "On the Origin of Species" established evolutionary descent
with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature.
He examined human evolution and sexual selection in "The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex",
followed by "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals".
Charles Darwin research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final
book, he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.
|
Carl Linnaeus on stamp of Marshall Islands 2012,
MiNr.: 2941, Scott: 1032r.
|
The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and much
of the general public in his lifetime, while his theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the
primary explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s, and now
forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory.
In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life
sciences, providing logical explanation for the diversity of life.
In recognition of Darwin's pre-eminence, he was one of only five
19th-century UK non-royal personages to be honoured by a state funeral,
and was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.
Darwin's work had far-reaching impacts on the development of Paleontology,
Anthropology and many other Biology and Physiology related sciences.
Carl Linnaeus,
also known after his ennoblement as about this sound Carl von Linne, was a Swedish botanist,
physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature
uses in all biology related sciences (including Paleontology).
He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.
Products and associated philatelic items
References:
Acknowledgements:
-
Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice, PhD Department of Geological and
Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, USA,
for reviewing of a draft of this article.