I’ve defended Charles Darwin’s metaphorical Tree of Life previously; now I shall celebrate his vision by showing how it developed over time and why it is still relevant today. Darwin’s first inkling (1837) Charles Darwin had been back less than a year from his tour on the HMS Beagle and he had been thinking furiously [...]

What’s wrong with New Scientist [Follows from a previous post] In one sense, and I am sure this is the sense that New Scientist will use in its defence, the headline is perfectly true. Darwin was wrong. He wrote The Origin of Species in 1859. A small selection of the things he didn’t know about at the time [...]

Observe the New Scientist cover above. This is the final straw for me. I used to subscribe to New Scientist, but after reading a series of very poor articles I let the subscription lapse. Since then, I have bought a few issues from the newsstand and I see the occasional story referred on by email, [...]