It is 1846. Darwin is poised to publish The Origin of Species, and blow the scientific world apart. But one small creature makes him hesitate … First, he decides to solve the riddle of a tiny barnacle he picked up on the shores of southern Chile, the last of his Beagles specimens - the investigation takes eight years and tests his theory to the limit. Lavishly illustrated and superbly told, Darwin and the Barnacle is the fascinating story of how genius sometimes proceeds through indirection - and how one small item of curiosity contributed to history’s most spectacular scientific breakthrough.