THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES

Darwin presented his stunning insights in a landmark book that forever altered the way human beings view themselves and the world they live in. In The origin of species, he convincingly demonstrates the fact of evolution; that existing animals and plants cannot have appeared separately but must have slowly transformed from ancestral creatures. Most important, the book fully explains the mechanism that effects such a transformation - natural selection, the idea that made evolution scientifically intelligible for the first time. One of the few revolutionary works of science that is engrossingly readable, The origin of species not only launched the science of modern biology but also has influenced virtually all subsequent literary, philosophical, and religious thinking.