Books: Grand Designs Abroad ; A Reason for Everything by Marek Kohn FABER & FABER Pounds 20 (400Pp). Pounds 18 (Free P&p) from 0870 079 8897

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One night on the Atlantic in the 1830s, when he still believed in the Almighty, Charles Darwin wrote in his diary, "I have worked all day at the produce of my plankton net. Many of these creatures so low in the scale of nature are most exquisite in their forms and rich colours. It creates a feeling of wonder that so much beauty should be apparently created for so little purpose."

Beauty and purpose: their relationship in living organisms is this book's key question. A Reason for Everything focuses on the fortunes of "Darwin's dangerous idea": adaptation by natural selection. Individual organisms inherit features that tend to increase their descendants: they are …