07-Nov: On this day in 1913, Alfred Russel Wallace died. Wallace famously came up with a near-identical explanation for how evolution occurs independently of Charles Darwin. You can read about their friendship here: friendsofdarwin.com/articles/dar... #histsci

04-Nov: Born on this day in 1816, poultry expert, beekeeper, friend of Charles Darwin and mini-hero of science, W.B. Tegetmeier… friendsofdarwin.com/articles/teg... #histsci

No sun—no moon! No morn—no noon! No dawn—no dusk—no proper time of day […] November! —Thomas Hood (1799–1845) www.poemhunter.com/poem/novembe...

Kind of wish I’d cashed in my retirement fund investment sooner… But I guess that’s the end of that for the nonce. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Just sent out my latest science • history • nature newsletter. It features: Ice age art • Robert Macfarlane • Kathleen Jamie • medieval poems • lichen • Barbarian Conspiracy • the Shipping Forecast • escaping the entropy • and more… open.substack.com/pub/richardc... #HistSci

24-Oct: On this day in 1852, Charles Darwin wrote to his cousin to commend the miraculous new substance chloroform… #histsci friendsofdarwin.com/darwin-on-ch...

24-Oct: Out later today, the latest rip-roaring roller-coaster edition of my 100%-free eponymous Rich Text science • history • nature newsletter. Look out for it in your inbox. richardcarter.substack.com/welcome/

Subscribers to my TOTALLY FREE science • history • nature newsletter can look forward to finding it in their inboxes some time tomorrow afternoon (UK time). If you’re not yet a subscriber, now would seem the perfect opportunity to remedy your lapse… SEIZE IT! richardcarter.substack.com/welcome/

Transferring my stuff over to my new toy.

Daniel Naroditsky (1995-2025) #chess

21-Oct: To mark #WorldEarthwormDay, here’s my review of *the* book on the subject: Charles Darwin’s final masterpiece, ‘The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms’. #HisSci #NatureWriting friendsofdarwin.com/reviews/darw...

Second-hand bookshop haul. Tiny shop; excellent photography section.

Lovely Ludlow.

#HistSci being celebrated in Ludlow.

@rhiggitt.bsky.social Spotted in Ludlow this morning.

I’m currently visiting Shropshire, the county of Darwin’s birth. There’s a good choice of local beers available, but this one was the natural selection.

10-Oct: On this day in 1881, Charles Darwin's final book, ‘The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits’ was published. It was a magnificent swan-song. You can read my review here: friendsofdarwin.com/reviews/darw... #HistSci

TFW you think, ‘I know, I’ll just bash out a quick blog post!’ and, two hours later, you find yourself deep down the old Research Rabbit Hole, annotating a PDF from Nature journal about the population genomics of post-glacial western Eurasia.

After the reading, the obligatory note-making, transcribing and cross-linking from my index-card bookmark. I find the friction/hassle of making hand-written notes then having to re-type them into my system is a useful way of determining which notes are actually important to me. #Zettelkasten

The covers of all the books I’ve read (so far) this year. Follow the link below to my website then click the individual covers to read my review: richardcarter.com/books-2025/

Very much looking forward to seeing @profaliceroberts.bsky.social strut her stuff in Bradford tomorrow evening: how the Roman Empire evolved into a Christian empire. Right up my street! Bonus points if she manages to sneak in a reference to Darwin!

FINALLY finished boxing off our indoors coal-bunker. Power tools, electrical cabling and a lot of swearing were involved. The last time someone spent this long on a wall, Emperor Hadrian was very upset.

189 years ago today… On the 2nd of October [1836] we made the shore of England; and at Falmouth I left the Beagle, having lived on board the good little vessel nearly five years. —The Voyage of the Beagle, ch. 21 …After which, Charles Darwin remained a landlubber to the end of his days.

NOOOOO!!! Kelloggs have ruined All-Bran! They’ve reduced the bran content from 86% to 78%, padding it out with flour. IN WHAT WAY CAN REDUCING THE BRAN CONTENT IN A PRODUCT 86%-ACCURATELY NAMED ‘ALL-BRAN’ POSSIBLY MAKE IT ‘TASTIER THAN EVER’? I am incandescently irked!

28-Sep: On this day in 1838, Charles Darwin made some notes inspired by the writings of Rev. Thomas Malthus, and a famous simile was born. Here’s a lightly edited account from my book ‘On the Moor: science, history and nature on a country walk’… #HistSci friendsofdarwin.com/articles/dar...

23-Sep: On this day in 1832, young Charles Darwin made an important discovery at Punta Alta, near Bahia Blanca in Argentina: the fossil remains of what he took to be a species of rhinoceros. It was actually an extinct species of giant ground sloth, or Megatherium… #histsci

Spent 40 minutes providing FaceTime tech support to my 90-year-old dad this afternoon. Whenever he tried to print a photo on his printer, it came out in black and white. It turned out he has a black and white printer.

Great night out!

17-Sep: On this day is 1842, Charles Darwin moved to his forever home, Down House, in Kent. Here’s the story… friendsofdarwin.com/darwin-comes... #HistSci

Very much looking forward to seeing Fran Lebowitz in Manchester this evening.

16-Sep: On this day in 1835, Charles Darwin first set foot on the Galápagos Islands… friendsofdarwin.com/articles/dar...

Unscheduled Movie Night.

Last night, I dreamt I received some A1 writing advice from a famous author whose work I very much admire… #AmWriting

This new see-through menu bar on my Mac is doing my head in. How does this improve the quality of anything? Am I seriously going to have to resort to black wallpaper? (I’ve tweaked all the settings, including turning off the transparency, but they all look dreadful.)

15-Sep: On this day in 1832, Charles Darwin’s legendary powers of observation temporarily let him down while travelling with gauchos in Patagonia, when he failed to realise the people wearing chaps weren’t all chaps… #HistSci

Finally managed to visit the Ice Age Art exhibition at Cliffe Castle, Keighley (closes Sunday). Shown here, two reindeer swimming, carved on mammoth ivory 16,000 years ago by some unknown genius living in a rock-shelter in modernday France. These people shared their environment with living mammoths!

08-Sep: On this day in 1832, Charles Darwin observed gauchos using bolas. He later tried them out for himself, managing to ensnare his own horse in the process. #HistSci

@hotdogsladies.bsky.social For info (in case you didn’t know) according to my RSS reader, Ungainly has been down for a couple of days.

The start of our last day in Anglesey this year ☹️. As always, it’s been fab. This was the pre-breakfast brew-view from my favourite rock earlier.

Ooh! New Gilbert White biography by the excellent Jenny Uglow out soon. One to pre-order, I reckon. uk.bookshop.org/a/930/978057...

In our local bookshop earlier this week, I recognised a fellow customer’s voice from his podcast. He was: @ofmooseandmen.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

The covers of all the books I’ve read so far in 2025. For my reviews, see: richardcarter.com/books-2025/

@throwingmuses.bsky.social at @thetradesclub.bsky.social #HebdenBridge this evening.

24-Aug: On this day in 1831, Charles Darwin’s great friend and mentor John Stevens Henslow wrote what turned out to be one of the most important letters in the history of science… #HistSci friendsofdarwin.com/articles/hen...

A gift from the local goldfinches as a thank-you for all the sunflower hearts. Such stunning gilt-edged detail in a tiny feather. Darwinian sexual selection in action. There is grandeur in his view of life.

New book review: 'Bibliomaniac' by Robin Ince…

New book review: ‘The End of Enlightenment’ by Richard Whatmore…

Matthijs Van Mierlo of the YouTube channel ‘The Gaze’ has just released a video exploring the most important image in history. From an impressive shortlist, with which I mostly concur, he actually manages to arrive at the correct answer! (But I might be a little biased.)

They’re making hay while the sun shines in the field behind our house. They’re reached the ‘rowing-up’ phase. Bailing next.