On the Origin of Species is 150 years old, but the work of Charles Darwin remains as influential as ever. 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 ...

Padel reads from her 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 ...

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, ...

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," ...

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 ...