This year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of On The Origin of Species. Charles Darwin's great-great-granddaughter, Ruth Padel, tells her famous ancestor's life story all in verse. One poem describes Darwin's awe at the sealife that washed up on the deck of the ...

Padel reads from her poetry collection, Darwin: A Life In Poems.

"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? ...

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. By collecting DNA samples from people around the world, he's tracing the paths of human migration, and he's ...

Amateur paleontologist Jon Halsey isn't afraid to turn over a few rocks. By digging in areas near his home outside of Dallas, he's been able to amass an extensive collection of fossils which he stores in his garage. He calls the collection "The American Museum of God," revering the power ...

Denis Dutton is a professor of the philosophy of art interested in evolutionary biology. In his controversial book The Art Instinct, he argues that certain tastes in art are genetic. Dutton believes that if we examine art from around the world, we can see the marks ...

According to Dutton, Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” shows how our art instinct is still evolving.

A new play, "Hominid," reenacts a violent incident that took place in a chimpanzee colony. Primate expert Frans de Waal and the play's actors describe what it took to stage a chimpanzee drama with a very human story. Produced by Philip Graitcer, with

Acclaimed novelist Lydia Millet imagines a future where a genetic engineering accident has wiped out much of the earth's plant life. When a few blades of grass appear on a remote island, a scientist goes to investigate. Martha Plimpton reads the story. With production ...