Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea

The theory of evolution stands over modern biology as quantum mechanics and relativity do over modern physics. And few modern scientists are as widely familiar and celebrated as Darwin. Yet most of us remain less than entirely clear as to how evolution by natural selection works and a series of celebrated titles by such writers as Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins do little to help, being each so partisan of a particular, contentious, view of the subject.