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Before my retirement a few years ago I was faced, in my professional capacity, with a dispute over Intelligent Design/Creationism and Evolution. Since I had no background in either, I read much about both--including Darwin's "Natural Selection" which was the long manuscript (published in 1975) version of his "Origin of Species." He begins Chapter VIII in "Natural Selection" with these words: "In the sixth chapter I briefly alluded to the many grave difficulties, enough at first sight to overwhelm our theory of natural selection. In this chapter we will consider those connected with the absolute necessity of all passages having been extremely gradual from one living being into another, or of one part or organ into another." And then, of course, I read S.J. Gould's "Structure of Evolutionary Theory" which throws its focus on Darwin's worry over the necessity--"absolute necessity"!!--of gradualism. There were many other naturalists and evolutionists I also read, but to my mind these two were the best.

I am now an avid Late Precambrian-Early Cambrian critter stalker trying to find that one 100 meter or so bed that will yield at least a few ancestral body plans which could be seen as either transitional or, equally stimulating, as totally without representation in any of today's critters or those of the Cambrian explosion. Will I find them? Probably not. Am I having fun spending my meager retirement funds on trying? Yes. The most fun I have ever had. And the people I meet and with whom I spend my time are the nicest and most companionable I have ever met. And after a few glasses of good red wine around a warming campfire, the subject of Darwin's reservation about his own theory almost always takes over the conversations. And for that alone, I happily celebrate the publication of the "Origin of Species."