Charles Darwin

With the new decade fast-approaching, I can’t help but think about reinvention.Studio 360has done several segments that take dusty old ideas and wipe them clean with poetry. Recycling them into verse can reveal surprises. Here are some of my favorites. Susan B.A. Somers-Willet created poems based on the impoverished mothers of Troy, Michigan. I especially […]

Where did we come from? Evolutionary biologist Spencer Wells is pretty close to the answer. He’s the National Geographic “Explorer-in-Residence” and heads an initiative called the Genographic Project. His new book is called Pandora’s Seed. By collecting DNA samples from people around the world, he’s tracing the paths of human migration, and he’s uncovered some […]

“Set the sails; I feel the winds a’stirring.” So begins the song, “Charlie Darwin,” by the rock band The Low Anthem. Frontman Ben Knox Miller describes how the band came up with the tune and its darker message, “Who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin? Fighting for a system built to fail.”

Charles Darwin’s great-great-granddaughter Ruth Padel writes poetry inspired by the life and contradictions of her famous ancestor.

Most common spiders are able to contort their bodies in a way that allows them to sail long distances. This discovery fills in the blanks for scientists who earlier were mystified by how spiders were able to colonize distant islands.