Men, towards the end of the last millennium, felt a sudden tightening of the bowels with the news that the services of their sex had at last been dispensed with. Dolly the Sheep - conceived without male assistance - had arrived. Her birth reminded at least half the population of how precarious man's position may be. What is the point of being a man? For a brief and essential instant he is a donor of DNA; but outside that glorious moment his role is hard to understand. This book is about science not society; about maleness not manhood. The condition is, in the end, a matter of biology,...

This biography of Darwin explores his time spent in Britain, in particular Kent, and his years of work on the plants, animals and people that make their home in the land of his birth.

A fascinating and illuminating look at the sun and our relationships to it, from one of our greatest science writers.