Steve Connor discovers uncanny parallels between a swashbuckling pioneer and a new animated hero
Simon Kelner: Twitterspeak evolved too late for Darwin, thankfully
Friday 23 March 2012
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?
'Extinct' tortoise found living in the Galapagos
Tuesday 10 January 2012
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.
Laughter is free – well, it is at this year's Edinburgh Fringe
Tuesday 09 August 2011
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.
Guy Adams: Charles Darwin - controversial in Oklahoma
Monday 08 August 2011
National Museum of Scotland open to public again
Friday 29 July 2011
The National Museum of Scotland opens its doors today after completing a three-year, £47m makeover.
Booby that inspired Darwin caught in an evolutionary trap
Friday 17 June 2011
With its trademark flippers and comical mating dance, the blue-footed booby is one of the most commonly sighted birds on the Galapagos Islands.
Climate change puts the heat on Darwin's Chillingham cattle
Tuesday 14 June 2011
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.
What Darwin Got Wrong, By Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini
Sunday 13 March 2011
Here On Earth, By Tim Flannery
Friday 11 March 2011
This past 150 years are widely seen as the golden age of biology – when it began to seem that all life is understandable and will soon be understood; and that what can be understood can and should be controlled for our own benefit. In 1859, in the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin first explained the mechanism of evolution "by means of natural selection". Then Gregor Mendel described the units of heredity now known as genes; then, in the early decades of the 20th century, Darwin's notions were fused with Mendel's to create "neodarwinism" – evolution conceived as a shift in the content of gene pools of populations.
The science of women and sex: Is Stephen Fry right after all?
Tuesday 02 November 2010
Evolution book wins science prize that could soon become extinct
Friday 22 October 2010
An account of the 10 greatest inventions of evolution has won this year's Royal Society Science Book Prize, which may be the last time the awards are given following the failure to find a sponsor.
Outside Edge (15/08/10)
Sunday 15 August 2010
Another week, another extraordinary feat of endurance. Former British Army captain Ed Stafford, 34, of Hallaton in Leicestershire has become the first man to walk the entire length of the Amazon river, some 6,000 miles from Mount Mismi in Peru to Belem in Brazil. It took 859 days – and, he says, 50,000 mosquito bites – during which time he was imprisoned for murder, chased by Ashaninka Indians and had his mouth filled with concrete by locals who thought he was prospecting for oil. But even he didn't have to face the peril that Walter Kaiser, a 59-year-old Austrian, endured while climbing the Hochkesslekopf. He tumbled 50ft after being hit by a falling goat. He felt a bit sheepish.
The Art Instinct, By Denis Dutton
Sunday 18 July 2010
Denis Dutton's big idea is that the human love of art can be explained by Darwinism. All the standard explanations of why we value art – because it's expressive, because it's informative, because of its formal qualities – are mere fragments of explanations, which only make sense in the context of our evolutionary history.
Tormented Hope, By Brian Dillon
Friday 02 July 2010
This eloquent and incisive book about the uses of acute hypochondria takes as its focus nine noble minds trapped in bodies they treated as treacherous enemies.








