Nature and nurture: Lamarck's legacy

Abstract

This year (2014) marks the 270th anniversary of Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck's birth, which presents a good occasion to reflect on the wide-reaching, although largely ignored, legacy of the French naturalist and its modern-day renaissance. A discussion is provided of the broad and controversial influence of Lamarckian thought on science, politics and art, with a focus on Lamarck's curious recent comeback to the public and academic eyes in relation to the burgeoning discipline of epigenetics.