A Biography
Interview with Janet Browne about her book Darwin: A Biography. Traces Darwin’s intellectual journey from his formative Beagle voyage, highlighting how Lyell’s geology inspired his understanding of deep time and gradual change, which he then applied to biology. Discusses his work on species from pigeons and barnacles to plants and worms, his relationship with Alfred Russel Wallace, and the reception of Darwin’s later controversial works on human evolution and emotion. Notes Darwin’s remarkably forward-thinking ideas on plant intelligence and animal agency.
