![]() ![]() By studying embryos at different stages of their development, scientists thought they could reveal insights into the process of evolution itself. ![]() It posited that, for any given animal, the development of its embryo from conception to birth (or hatching) was a ‘recap’ of the process of evolution that had produced that animal. Published in 1922, it was written by the wonderfully named Apsley Cherry-Garrard (or Cherry to his friends) and recounts a winter trek from the expedition base camp to an Emperor Penguin rookery some 108km (67 miles) away, to collect eggs for scientific research (and breakfast, probably).Īt the time of the expedition, a scientific theory known as the Recapitulation Theory was doing the rounds. The “worst journey” referred to in the title was a kind of side trip to Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated 1910-1913 voyage to the South Pole aboard the Terra Nova. “The weirdest bird’s-nesting expedition that has ever been or ever will be.” Apsley Cherry-Garrard ![]()
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