Historians Are Looking for Images of the HMS Beagle’s Anchors
Researchers are hoping to confirm that they have discovered an anchor from the ship that carried Darwin stuck in the mud of an Australian river
The Fishy Mystery of Lake Malawi
In the second-largest lake in Africa, fish evolution is taking place at an explosive rate. Why? Scientists are diving into the question
How a Love of Flowers Helped Charles Darwin Validate Natural Selection
Though his voyage to the Galapagos and his work with finches dominate the narrative of the famed naturalist, he was, at heart, a botanist
Did Charles Darwin Have Lyme Disease?
New study attributes British naturalist’s persistent poor health to tick-borne disease
Tracing Alfred Russel Wallace’s Footsteps Through the Jungles of Borneo
A biologist treks to the site where the little-known naturalist penned a paper on evolution that would spur on a rivalrous Charles Darwin
One Million British Botanical Treasures Will Be Digitized
Artifacts in the sprawling collection include a Chilean potato plant collected by Charles Darwin and 18th-century lavender
How Do Scientists Identify New Species? For Neanderthals, It Was All About Timing and Luck
Even the most remarkable fossil find means nothing if scientists aren’t ready to see it for what it is
How Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Evolved
A new Smithsonian Book highlights firsthand accounts, diaries, letters and notebooks from aboard the HMS Beagle
Charles Darwin’s Grandfather Was Famous for His Poems About Plant Sex
Erasmus Darwin’s poetics influenced his grandson’s vision of nature
The Woman Who Challenged Darwin’s Sexism
How a preacher with no scientific training ended up writing the first feminist critique of Origins
What Does It Mean to Be a Species? Genetics Is Changing the Answer
As DNA techniques let us see animals in finer and finer gradients, the old definition is falling apart
Darwin Would Have Loved the Cliffs of Newfoundland, Where 500-Million-Years-Old Fossils Reside
Step back in time half a billion years to a world of mysterious sea creatures that would have thrilled Darwin
The Hidden Connections Between Darwin and the Physicist Who Championed Entropy
These magnificently bearded men both introduced a dose of randomness and irreversibility into the universe
For Viruses, the Best Way to Infect Baby Is Through Mama
Some viruses might take it easier on women—to get to their children
Go Big or Go Generic: How Sexual Selection Is Like Advertising
When it comes to attracting mates, it pays to either go all out—or not try at all
Behind the Scenes at the National Zoo With the World’s Most Dangerous Bird
The zoo’s cassowary “still has that mysterious aura about her—that prehistoric, dinosaur-walking-through-the-rainforest-quality.”
Behold LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor of Life on Earth
New discoveries suggest life likely descends from the inhospitable environment of deep sea vents
A Letter Written by Charles Darwin, Twice Stolen, Returns to the Smithsonian
After being snatched by an intern in the mid 1970s, the missive written by the scientist returns to Washington
The “Sistine Chapel of Evolution” Is in New Haven, Connecticut
Charles Darwin never visited the Yale museum, but you can, and see for yourself the specimens that he praised as the best evidence for his theory
Charles Darwin’s Famous Finches Could Be Extinct in Half a Century
The finches on the Galapagos Islands are suffering from a parasitic fly introduced to the islands by humans
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