{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2F62ed3a13-0a82-4be2-8c8d-93be7b57ae14","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"The Mystery of Darwin's Stolen Notebooks","description":"Darwin\u2019s tiny, priceless Tree of Life sketch is arguably the most iconic drawing in the history of science.\n\n\u201cThe Tree of Life notebooks are Darwin at his most radical,\u201d says Professor Jim Secord, a world expert on the subject. \u201cThe theory of natural selection and evolution is the foundation stone of modern biology and much of the rest of the sciences.\u201d\n\nHowever, the notebooks were stolen in the early 2000s and were missing for two decades before their anonymous return in a pink gift bag on March 9, 2022 \u2013 alongside a very odd note!\n\nDespite an investigation that involved the Met Police, Interpol and a global public appeal, we still don\u2019t know who took Darwin\u2019s notebooks or why.\n\nBut why would someone steal them in the first place? What makes Darwin\u2019s Tree of Life notebooks so important that someone saw fit to spirit them away from Cambridge University Library then return them again \u2013 20 years later.\n\nIn this first podcast from one of the world\u2019s great libraries, you\u2019ll find out about the notebooks\u2019 great importance, the endlessly curious life and letters of Charles Darwin, and the end of a nearly 50-year mega project to transcribe and publish 15,000 letters to and from Darwin \u2013 making them freely available to us all.\n\nWith guests Professor Jim Secord and Stuart Roberts, Head of Communications at Cambridge University Library.\n\nHosted by communications specialist Sue Keogh FRSA.\n\nFor more information about Darwin\u2019s life and letters, please visit https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/9e84d6cc-21df-4b9c-bdd2-952035e90c5d/5GlzKREoYaS1qvW6f4mB0M4o.jpg"}