Charles Darwin in his later year (Image: Julia Margaret Cameron / Wikimedia Commons)

TALK about a dilemma: next year has been labelled the International Year of Astronomy because it marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the telescope. Unfortunately, as it is the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth, 2009 has also been appropriated as Darwin Year. Both anniversaries have good claims on our attention, so at New Scientist we find ourselves unable to decide which year matters most.

It’s an unfair question, of course. Galileo and Darwin worked in different fields, in different eras and under different cultural pressures. But never ones to duck …