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investigator and environmentalist have go down off on a two - year voyage to retrace Charles Darwin ’s famous journeying across the globe . The despatch come more than 190 twelvemonth after the naturalist sweep the world collecting specimens and influence thought that would help him formulate his possibility of phylogenesis .

The expedition , named Darwin200 , began on Aug. 15 when an international team set off from Plymouth , England , on circuit card the Dutch tall ship Oosterschelde . The team will sail more than 46,000 mile ( 74,000 kilometers ) and drop anchor in 32 unlike embrasure across four continents , before terminate their journey in Falmouth , U.K. Along the way , they will accumulate scientific datum , trail future environmentalists and raise conservation .

A tall ship sailing on water

The Darwin200 expedition are sailing around the world on the Dutch tall ship Oosterschelde.

The expedition ’s route will closely follow Darwin ’s original voyage aboard the HMS Beagle , which jell off from Plymouth on Dec. 27 , 1831 and come back to Falmouth on Oct. 2 , 1836 . Darwin was 22 years sometime when he joined the expedition with the intention of get word the populace before joining the church building . But during the head trip , Darwin became fascinated by the wide reach of different species he find , which eventually led to him formulating histheory of evolutionby natural selection . Darwin ’s history of the journey , which was published after his return , also helped him establish his reputation as one of prudish Britain ’s academic elite group .

Related : Charles Darwin ’s stolen ' tree diagram of life story ' notebooks return after 20 years

The principal purpose of the new expedition is to train and animate 200 youthful environmentalists , between 18 and 25 years honest-to-god , who will each spend a week on board the Oosterschelde studying threatened specie that Darwin encountered on his voyage .

A statue of Charles Darwin sat on a chair

A statue of Charles Darwin at the National History Museum in London.

" We wanted to make a likewise transformative experience [ for the immature naturalist ] , " Stewart McPherson , mission theatre director of Darwin200 , said in astatement . They have " the potential to be the STEM [ scientific discipline , technology , engineering , and mathematics ] and conservation leaders of tomorrow , " he added .

Every workweek , the team will broadcast synergistic " nature hour " academic term survive from the ship for people across the macrocosm .

— Does evolution ever go backward ?

An old drawing of the HMS Beagle in black and white

The HMS Beagle drawn in 1890 while on an expedition in Chile.

— 7 regulation that explain Earth ’s most extreme animal shapes and sizes

— What energy origin touch off the phylogenesis of life ?

The squad will also gather important data on sea plastics and coral reef wellness , as well as survey seabirds , whales and dolphin .

A Fijian crested iguana (Brachylophus vitiensis) resting on a coconut palm on the island of Fiji in the South Pacific.

The Oosterschelde will make its next stop in Tenerife in the Canary Islands , before heading to Brazil . From there it will cruise around South America before sailing to Australia , New Zealand , Pacific island state and South Africa , and then in the end return home .

A two paneled image. On one side, a space capsule in the ocean. On the other side, an illustration of a human with a DNA strand

An Indigenous Australian man in traditional dress holding a wooden weapon with feathers.

A man with light skin and dark hair and beard leans back in a wooden boat, rowing with oars into the sea

A screenshot of a video showing the Fram2 Dragon capsule moving over Antarctica

a digital reconstruction of the Titanic shipwreck

a photo of an eye looking through a keyhole

A collage-style illustration showing many different eyes against a striped background

an illustration of a man shaping a bonsai tree

a sculpture of a Tecumseh leader dying

a woman yawns at her desk

A large group of people marches at the Stand Up For Science rally

An image comparing the relative sizes of our solar system�s known dwarf planets, including the newly discovered 2017 OF201

an illustration showing a large disk of material around a star

a person holds a GLP-1 injector

an MRI scan of a brain

A photograph of two of Colossal�s genetically engineered wolves as pups.

selfie taken by a mars rover, showing bits of its hardware in the foreground and rover tracks extending across a barren reddish-sand landscape in the background