"Reviewers of alternative comedy have failed to do what the rock-music press did 30 years ago: evolve a critical language to talk about a new art form." So claimed Robert Newman in 2006.

The heretic thinker rips into liberal and humanist delusions - but his pessimism needs a new focus

Something to Declare

It may be a curlew or a kakapo. It may be the baiji, or a bat. But no one knows for sure, now, what is the rarest creature on the planet.

The giant tortoise Lonesome George, whose failed efforts to produce offspring made him a symbol of disappearing species, has been found dead, officials at the Galapagos National Park announced.

The Charity Commission has launched an investigation into allegations that one of London’s major mosques has been taken over by extremists after an imam who tried to preach that evolution was compatible with Islam was forced to resign.

Steve Connor discovers uncanny parallels between a swashbuckling pioneer and a new animated hero

Our world is a frantic, intellectually combustible place. Opinions are 10 a penny in the age of Twitter. Mature reflection does not play a major part in public discourse. Knee-jerk reaction?

A species of giant tortoise that disappeared after being heavily hunted in the Galapagos more than a century ago may still be living on an island 200 miles away, a study has found.

A spirit of free comedy has broken out in Edinburgh as performers and festival-goers shun expensive venues in favour of free shows to reflect straitened times – without cutting back on laughs.

The National Museum of Scotland opens its doors today after completing a three-year, £47m makeover.

With its trademark flippers and comical mating dance, the blue-footed booby is one of the most commonly sighted birds on the Galapagos Islands.

The blast furnaces that powered the Industrial Revolution had only just begun belching clouds of carbon into the sky when, in 1860, Charles Darwin encouraged a Victorian nobleman to maintain accurate data on an intriguing herd of cattle living feral in the grounds of his medieval castle.