On Darwin’s Trouble with the Finches 

Andrew Berry

Scientific discovery, as any PhD student halfway through their project will tell you, is hard work: progress is step-wise, and the steps are small. Not surprisingly, however, the popular view of science overlooks the daily grind and focuses instead on the occasional flashes of inspiration that have punctuated its history. In this view, science progresses in a series of great leaps forward, and the scientists involved are mythic heroes grappling singlehandedly with the great problems of their time. The mythology also requires that these visionary moments acquire their own icons – Newton had his apple, Watt his kettle – and intellectual history is thus handily reduced to a series of mnemonics.

Subscribers to the print edition can log in to view the entire article. For information about subscribing to the London Review of Books click here. This article is available for purchase online. Buy this article.