1858: The Linnaean Society of London listens to the reading of a composite paper on how natural selection accounts for the evolution and variety of species. The authors are Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Modern biology is born.

Scientists of the time knew that evolution occurred. The fossil record showed evidence of life forms that no longer existed. The question was, how did it occur?

Darwin had been working on his theory since 1837, soon after his epic voyage on the HMS Beagle. The hypermethodical naturalist wanted not only to classify the prodigious variation he had observed, but...

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Purists will tell you the Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid is not a true Porsche. It is an affront to all that is sacred, the continued desecration of an icon by heathens. They will barely contain their piety as they catalog the heretic’s sins: It is big. It is heavy. ...