If you think you understand evolution...

"If you think you understand [evolution], you don't know nearly enough about it."

So begins the superb article by Michael LePage in the April 19 issue of New Scientist, a magzine for which I am quickly developing considerable respect (and, admittedly, in which I have done two brief interviews).

LePage does not pull any punches, which is incredibly refreshing. Consider these choice excerpts:

It will soon be 200 years since the birth of Charles Darwin and 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species, arguably the most important book ever written.

Darwin presented compelling evidence for evolution in On the Origin and, since his time, the case has become overwhelming. Countless fossil discoveries allow us to trace the evolution of today's organisms from earlier forms. DNA sequencing has confirmed beyond any doubt that all living creatures share a common origin. Innumerable examples of evolution in action can be seen all around us, from the pollution-matching pepper moth to fast-changing viruses such as HIV and H5N1 bird flu. Evolution is as firmly established a scientific fact as the roundness of the Earth.

Most of us are happy to admit that we do not understand, say, string theory in physics, yet we are all convinced we understand evolution. In fact, as biologists are discovering, its consequences can be stranger than we ever imagined. Evolution must be the best-known yet worst-understood of all scientific theories.

LePage provides an interesting and clear review of 10 common misconceptions about evolution. Unfortunately, there are many more of these than can be covered in the pages of a magazine. Fortunately, an expanded discussion -- including 24 of the "greatest misses" in understanding the history of life on the planet -- is available freely online.