science

This Thing of Darkness

This Thing of Darkness is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand This Thing of Darkness rather than just read about it. In short: This Thing of Darkness (published in the United States as To the Edge of the World) was the debut novel of Harry Thompson, published in 2005 only months before his death in November of that year at the age of 45. Set in the period from 1828 to 1865, it is a historically fictionalised biography of Robert FitzRoy, who was given command of HMS Beagle halfway through its first voyage.

Key takeaways

This Thing of Darkness belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect This Thing of Darkness to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of This Thing of Darkness from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This Thing of Darkness (published in the United States as To the Edge of the World) was the debut novel of Harry Thompson, published in 2005 only months before his death in November of that year at the age of 45. Set in the period from 1828 to 1865, it is a historically fictionalised biography of Robert FitzRoy, who was given command of HMS Beagle halfway through its first voyage. He subsequently captained the vessel over its famous second voyage, during which Charles Darwin travelled as his companion. The novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Historical background Born to an aristocratic family, Robert FitzRoy joined the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth aged 12 and entered the Royal Navy the following year, rising rapidly through the ranks. The novel begins in 1828 with the suicide of the commander of HMS Beagle, Pringle Stokes, and FitzRoy's subsequent appointment as the vessel's (temporary) captain at the age of twenty-three. Whilst conducting Beagle's mission of surveying Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, during which he proved to be a meticulous surveyor, he captured four native Fuegians (Fuegia Basket, Jemmy Button, York Minster, and Boat Memory) and brought them back to England when Beagle returned in October 1830. FitzRoy's intention was that they should be educated and converted to Christianity before being returned to their homelands, where they would be able to act as interpreters – with the aim of establishing friendly relations between their fellow countrymen and the British – and also use their new knowledge to improve the lives of their compatriots. The captives became celebrities and were presented to King William IV; Boat Memory later died from smallpox. FitzRoy undertook the second voyage of HMS Beagle to return the surviving three Fuegians, at considerable personal expense. He was accompanied by Charles Darwin, who by the end of the voyage had become famous in scientific circles as a result of the discoveries he made during it, and who also collected much of the material that was to underpin his evolutionary theories during these travels. By 1860, following the publication of On the Origin of Species, FitzRoy – a committed Christian – later regretted that he had facilitated Darwin's research. On Beagle's return to England, FitzRoy was elected as the Tory Member of Parliament for Durham. He was appointed to several official posts, amongst them becoming the second Governor of New Zealand. His attempts to treat the indigenous Māori population equitably made him unpopular with the settlers and the New Zealand Company and he was subsequently recalled to England. FitzRoy was a pioneer of developing charts to allow weather predictions to be made; weather forecasting is named after his attempts at what he called "forecasting the weather". He published the world's first daily weather forecasts in The Times in 1860 and also provided personal forecasts to Queen Victoria. He committed suicide in April 1865 as a result of depression and a combination of problems at the Meteorological Office, which he headed, and personal financial and health difficulties.

Title The title comes from Prospero's line "This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine" in Act V, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.

Characters This Thing of Darkness includes a large cast of fictionalised historical persons. In addition to FitzRoy and Darwin, the characters include:

Bartholomew Sulivan, British naval officer and hydrographer Boat Memory (original name unknown), a native Fuegian brought to England Syms Covington, cabin boy on HMS Beagle and later a servant of Charles Darwin Reverend George Packenham Despard, a missionary in the Falklands Islands Fuegia Basket (original name yok'cushly), a native Fuegian girl brought to England Jemmy Button (original name o'run-del'lico), a native Fuegian brought to England Maria Isabella Smyth, second wife of Robert Fitzroy Mary Henrietta O'Brien, first wife of Robert FitzRoy Philip Parker King, British naval officer and explorer Reverend Richard Matthews, a missionary in New Zealand Robert McCormick British Royal Navy Ship's Surgeon, explorer and naturalist Thomas Moore, governor of the Falkland Islands William Sheppard, prospective parliamentary candidate York Minster (original name el'leparu), a native Fuegian brought to England

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with This Thing of Darkness

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what This Thing of Darkness claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to This Thing of Darkness before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about This Thing of Darkness ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of This Thing of Darkness

In research: This Thing of Darkness appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses This Thing of Darkness in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: This Thing of Darkness is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2005 British novels, 2005 English-language novels, 2005 debut novels, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for This Thing of Darkness outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study This Thing of Darkness in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what This Thing of Darkness means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain This Thing of Darkness out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is This Thing of Darkness in simple terms?

Why does This Thing of Darkness matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study This Thing of Darkness?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on This Thing of Darkness.