Darwin is sent a specimen
150 years ago today, on 2nd November, 1859, the publisher John Murray wrote to Charles Darwin in Ilkley: By this day's post I send you a specimen copy of your book bound— I hope it may receive your...
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Getting to know Charles Darwin in person
Martin Amis on the latest volume of letters by the poet Philip Larkin in Saturday's Guardian: The age of the literary correspondence is dying, slowly but surely electrocuted by the superconductors of...
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Whewell sets the right tone
There has been quite a lot of debate recently about the right tone to take when disagreeing with people misguided enough to deny evolution, or believe in pseudoscience or the supernatural. My own...
View ArticleHow to read Darwin - by Darwin
On 6th March, 1860, Charles Darwin advised a scientist whom he correctly believed to be sceptical of his views how to go about reading On the Origin of Species: The fair way to view the argument of my...
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Two triumphant predictions for science
Today marks the completion of the planet Neptune's first orbit of the sun since it was discovered by astronomers on 23 September, 1846. The discovery of Neptune is one of those neat stories often used...
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19th April, 1882: Charles Darwin dies
On Wednesday, 19th April, 1882, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, at Down House in Kent, Charles Darwin died in the arms of his loving wife, Emma. Darwin's life must surely be the most well-documented of...
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I have seriously cool friends (part 3)
My wonderful, long-suffering partner, Jen, filled a gaping hole in my Darwin-groupie library this Christmas: The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Vol. 19 (1871) (middle shelf, far right) How on Earth...
View ArticleCharles Darwin to Charles Lyell, 10th January, 1860
Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming tail, an imperfect skull & undoubtedly was an hermaphrodite! Here is a pleasant genealogy for mankind.- The...
View Article24th August
On 24th August, 1831, Charles Darwin's great friend and mentor, John Stevens Henslow, sat down at his desk, took up his pen, and wrote what turned out to be one of the most important letters in the...
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20-Feb-1835: Darwin witnesses an earthquake
On 20th February, 1835, Charles Darwin was lying down in a wood having a rest in Valvidia, Southern Chile, when he experienced a major earthquake. A few weeks later, he described what happened in a...
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Darwin's octopus
Charles Darwin to John Stevens Henslow (18-May-1832): St Jago [modern-day Porto Praya in the Cape Verde Islands] is singularly barren & produces few plants or insects.—so that my hammer was my...
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Darwin's beetles
The University of Cambridge Zoological Museum has a rather wonderful box of beetle specimens collected by Charles Darwin when he was at the university. The young Darwin had an inordinate fondness for...
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Book review: ‘The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 8, 1860’
Letters to and from Darwin in the immediate aftermath of the publication of ‘On the Origin of Species’. In my opinion, the magnificent, multi-volume Correspondence of Charles Darwin is by far the best...
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