Growing up in Brooklyn, he dreamed of being Shackleton at the South Pole or Darwin on board the Beagle.

ECONOMIST: Barry Blumberg

The most frequently cited studies in a field used to be the product of a lone genius, like Einstein or Darwin.

NEWYORKER: Groupthink

For parents who want their children to grow up relatively unexposed to doubt, Darwin or indecent lunchroom chatter, home-schooling offers hope.

ECONOMIST: The growth of home-schooling

Darwin had little or no mathematical ability, but with the masses of information he had accumulated, he was able to conceive a process to which mathematics was later applied.

WSJ: Great Scientists Don't Need Math

When she realised she would never be Linnaeus or Mendel, or even an ocean-going naturalist like Darwin, she turned her back on biology and became a storyteller instead.

ECONOMIST: New fiction: Stories from science | The

In a number of states, the struggle between religious and secular approaches to education has focused on the teaching of evolution - with disputes over whether Darwin's theory of evolution or the biblical creation story should be taught.

BBC: Ten commandments 'advert' ban remains

In the second decade of this century, Esa plans to launch the Darwin flotilla - a fleet of four or five spacecraft that will hunt for Earth-like planets around other stars and analyse their atmospheres for signs of extra-terrestrial life.

BBC: Corot will be launched just after Christmas (Image: Cnes)

In fact, argues Mr Darwin, there was, at least for its first 100 years or so, no single vision of empire, but several.

ECONOMIST: The British empire: Pondering the past | The

Darwin said evolution occurred by natural selection where the "fittest" animals or plants were more likely to survive and reproduce.

BBC: Bid to preserve Alfred Russel Wallace's birthplace

As Charles Darwin put it, the species that survive are not the most intelligent or strongest but those most adaptable to change.

ECONOMIST: Global or local?