What Darwin Didn't Know

Darwin has become an icon of scientific virtue, not only because he sought naturalistic explanations for the biological phenomena around him, as well as the mechanisms through which nature, unaided by some supernatural force or agency, would gradually provide such answers, or because he refused to make his theory public before amassing enough evidence to convince any reasonable skeptic, but because he worked so hard and for so long to test whether his dazzling hypothesis had more than just beauty and logical coherence behind it.

Yet, and this is the paradox, Darwin's theory relied on the faithful assumption of information that Darwin simply did not have. What's more, in some respects, Darwin was fully aware of his ignorance (of the mechanism responsible for heredity, for instance). And yet, for the past century and a half, Darwin's predictions have been borne out by even the most surprising and unanticipated gusts of evidence.

In today's documentary, evolutionary biologist Armand Leroi explores these questions and tickles our minds with challenges to Darwinian evolution, as well as with the possibility of witnessing the birth of the evolution of evolution itself...

Hungry for more Darwin? Indulge yourself...

.