I've been reading Darwin's Origin of Species recently, mostly because of having a number of conversations with people about the ethics of medical intervention. These conversations often end up talking about natural selection and evolution, so I thought it might be worth going back to the source.

It's such beautiful writing - uncertain, clear, poetic, and world's away from Science's dogmatic persistence with the facade of objectivity. If I were reviewing it for a London freebie, I'd give it 5 stars. If I were tweeting a review I'd say:

Darwin's "Origin of Species" confronts humanity's self-importance and is better than anything by that bloke Dan Brown.

Here's a bit:

How fleeting are the wishes and efforts of man! How short his time, and consequently how poor will be his results, compared with those accumulated by Nature during whole geological periods!

Charles Darwin - Origin of Species