Charles Darwin
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On the Origin of SpeciesDarwin was born 200 years ago, and 50 years later unveiled his theory of natural selection. To mark these anniversaries we bring you the definitive guide to the naturalist's great book, with extracts from key chapters and essays from leading scientists and thinkers including Richard Dawkins and former Bishop of Oxford Richard Harries
Top story
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To save a mockingbird
28 Nov 2011:Conservationists are attempting to reintroduce the mockingbird that inspired Darwin to the island of Floreana in the Galápagos
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The descendants of Darwin, his publisher – and his pigeons – meet to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species -
English Heritage calls for the return of a notebook in which Darwin recorded his observations -
Gallery (13 pictures): Winning entries of a photographic competition celebrating the birth of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution -
Extracts and comment
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In his introduction to the first edition of On the Origin of Species, the great naturalist lays out his "mystery of mysteries"
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Darwin wonders how varieties can become full species. Crucial to this is what he calls "the struggle for existence"
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This chapter is the crux of the Origin of Species, in which Darwin sets out his theory of natural selection
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Darwin admits that "difficulties" will have occurred to his reader, some "so serious that to this day I can hardly reflect on them without being in some degree staggered"
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Darwin admits that the idea the eye could have been formed by natural selection seems at first glance "absurd in the highest possible degree"
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"If you accept that natural traits are variable, that variation is heritable and that there is a struggle for existence, evolution by natural selection must follow"
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Richard Dawkins: Big enough to undermine creation but simple enough to be stated in a sentence, the theory of natural selection is a masterpiece
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On the Origin of Species, an instant bestseller, drew both applause and fury, writes Tim Radford
Latest videos
Most recent
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5 Jan 2012: Also among the most overrated people in history, according to the magazine, are Charles Darwin, Spartacus and Malcolm X -
4 Jan 2012: The HMS Beagle Project is seeking a port in the UK where a modern replica of the ship that carried Darwin on his famous voyage will be built
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16 Dec 2011:
Philip Ball: We enjoy the whiff of scandal, and we love seeing giants knocked off their pedestals. But we shouldn't rush to judgments of scientists' motivations
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9 Dec 2011: Ruth Padel: Both depend on metaphor, which is as crucial to scientific discovery as it is to lyric
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28 Nov 2011:
Conservationists are attempting to reintroduce the mockingbird that inspired Darwin to the island of Floreana in the Galápagos
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Audio
(34min 57sec),
9 Nov 2011:
John Hooper and Larry Elliott on how Italy became the latest EU economy to face attack on the bond markets and economist Robert H Frank discusses his new book The Darwin Economy
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24 Aug 2011: Jonathan Jones: A recent trip to Kew Gardens revealed to me that John Ruskin was right: the loveliest art has its roots in the natural world
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27 May 2011:
Tim Radford: With a cool assurance that should persuade the open-minded and thrill the converted, Steve Jones tackles the arguments Creationists level against Darwin
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7 May 2011:
HMS Beagle's captain reports on his long voyage of discovery: At the first meeting of the Royal Geographical Society this season, a sketch of the surveying voyages of The Beagle from 1825 to 1836
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25 Apr 2011:
Around six million years ago in Africa, human history began. But how exactly did hairy, tree-dwelling apes, become modern 21st-century people?
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16 Apr 2011: Ian Sansom on a clan afflicted by too much inbreeding
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28 Mar 2011:
'I feel that if I leave the ship for too long or go too far, it may sail without me, and that then I would be lost in the real world'
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20 Mar 2011: Tim Flannery argues that a rosy future for Earth is still possible, writes Marek Kohn
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26 Feb 2011: 'Wallace was the greatest holistic thinker of his age and he deserves to join Darwin in the scientific pantheon'
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30 Jan 2011:
John Gray's superb meditation on our desire for immortality makes for an enthralling read, says Richard Holloway
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