These stories come from a short, elegant study just published by W.W. Norton, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin by David Quammen.

NPR: Charles Darwin and the Racing Asparagus

This is a view put forward originally by Charles Darwin, but revived in modern times by the biologists David Sloan Wilson, at Bimghamton University, and Edward O.

CNN: Why we love to lose ourselves in religion

David Lloyd George, William Gladstone, Rudyard Kipling, George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Conan Doyle and Darwin himself are on the list.

BBC: Search for Alfred Russel Wallace's 19th Century letters