160 years after Darwin ‘stirred up the mud’, the ‘controversy’ over evolution by means of natural selection was settled long ago, as far as the scientific community is concerned.

To mark Charles Darwin’s 211th birthday, some thoughts on his 1871 classic, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, an unlikely anecdote about a snail, plus all the usual book reviews and links to Darwin-related news stories.