Principia marks the dawn of modern physics, beginning with the familiar three laws of motion ("To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction" is the third). Yet the cognitive power on display here can trigger chills. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica ( Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy ) by Isaac Newton (1687)ĭramatic is an unlikely word for a book that devotes half its pages to deconstructions of ellipses, parabolas, and tangents. Darwin revolutionized our understanding of life, the relationship of humanity to all creatures in the world, and the mythological foundation of all religions." "The most important science book of all time. A century and a half later, Darwin's paean to evolution still begs to be heard: "There is grandeur in this view of life," he wrote, that "from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." The result is an avalanche of detail - there seems to be no species he did not contemplate - thankfully delivered in accessible, conversational prose. Wary of a religious backlash, he kept his ideas secret for almost two decades while bolstering them with additional observations and experiments. Darwin's theory knocked us from that pedestal. Prior to its publication, the prevailing view was that each species had existed in its current form since the moment of divine creation and that humans were a privileged form of life, above and apart from nature. Yet Darwin's masterwork is, undeniably, The Origin of Species, in which he introduced his theory of evolution by natural selection. Fossils spring to life on the page as Darwin describes his adventures, which include encounters with "savages" in Tierra del Fuego, an accidental meal of a rare bird in Patagonia (which was then named in Darwin's honor), and wobbly attempts to ride Galápagos tortoises. One of the most delightful, witty, and beautifully written of all natural histories, The Voyage of the Beagle recounts the young Darwin's 1831 to 1836 trip to South America, the Galápagos Islands, Australia, and back again to England, a journey that transformed his understanding of biology and fed the development of his ideas about evolution. The Voyage of the Beagle (1845) and The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin
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