Charles Darwin

Topic description and stories

Calls vs. balls: monkeys with more impressive roars produce less sperm

22 Oct 2015

Evolutionary ‘trade-off’ between size of throat and testes discovered in howler monkeys furthers Darwin’s theory of sexual selection and corresponds...

Comparison of embryos of fish, salamander, turtle, chick, pig, cow, rabbit and human embryos at three different stages of development.

Haeckel’s embryos: the images that would not go away

06 Jul 2015

A new book tells, for the first time in full, the extraordinary story of drawings of embryos initially published in 1868. ̽��ֱ��artist was accused of...

Credit: Conrad Martens/Cambridge Digital Library

HMS Beagle sketchbooks added to Cambridge Digital Library

05 Jan 2015

Tiny sketchbooks that bring to life one of the most famous voyages in history have been digitised and made available online for the first time.

Skulls in print: scientific racism in the transatlantic world

19 Mar 2014

A PhD student’s research at Cambridge’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science has revealed how racist ideas and images circulated between...

̽��ֱ��longitude problem: 300-year-old archive opened to the world

18 Jul 2013

It was the conundrum that baffled some of the greatest and most eccentric experts of the 18th century - and captivated the British public during an...

Original manuscript of Fauna Cantabrigiensis

̽��ֱ��remarkable notebook of a 19th-century naturalist

09 Jan 2013

A notebook recording the fauna of Cambridgeshire observed and collected by the Reverend Leonard Jenyns between 1820 and 1849 has been published in...

History’s great books meet today’s technology

17 Apr 2012

A lecture series by Sidney Sussex College about great ideas and works is now available on iTunes.

Can a scientist be religious?

11 Mar 2012

̽��ֱ��relationship between science and religion has had its rocky moments. But Dr Robert Asher, author of the newly published book 'Evolution and...

In search of Life at Lady Mitchell Hall

27 Jan 2012

Darwin College continues the popular Darwin College lecture series this week on 27 January with Life in Ruins. ̽��ֱ��annual eight week series held at...