A first edition of Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species' was auctioned off for £103,000 today - the 150th anniversary of its original publication.
The copy had been kept in a toilet bookcase for years and was bought by the family of the current owners for 'a few shillings' in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
The family only recognised that they owned such a valuable edition when they recognised a picture of the spine of another first edition at a Darwin exhibition.
Christies who conducted the auction had estimated it would sell for between £40,000 and £60,000.
Rachel Perkins of the Natural History Museum, holds a copy of Charles Darwin's book, 'The Origin Of The Species'. A copy was sold at auction today for £103,000
Darwin's work continues to court controversy. He was born 200 years ago on February 12
This year has been termed 'Darwin Year' because February 12 was the 200th anniversary of the British naturalist's birth.
However today is the 150th anniversary of his book and there have been a flood of books, articles and conferences debating his theory of evolution.
While many covered well-trodden ground, some have taken new paths.
But no consensus is in sight, probably because Darwinian evolution is both a powerful scientific theory describing how life forms develop through natural selection and a basis for philosophies and social
views that often include atheism.
'People are encountering and rejecting evolution not so much as a science but as a philosophy,' said Nick Spencer, director of studies at the public theology think-tank Theos in London.
'Today's most eloquent Darwinians often associate evolution with atheism ... amorality (and) the idea there is no design or purpose in the universe.'
He said many people had embraced anti-evolution views in the United States and Britain in recent decades 'not so much because they are rejecting evolution as a science, although that is often how that sentiment is articulated, but because they're rejecting it as a philosophy about life'.
'It's quite possible to be an evolutionist and not to hold that philosophy about life, to be an evolutionist and still believe in God and purpose and design,' he said.
Creationism, the idea God made the world as described in the Bible, and the 'intelligent design' view positing an unnamed creator are usually linked to conservative U.S. Protestant groups in the U.S.
HMS Beagle was a 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. The research Darwin carried out while on board led to the publication of the Origin Of Species book
Nidhal Guessoum, an Algerian astrophysicist at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, said 62 per cent of the Muslim students and professors on his campus said in a recent survey that evolution was 'just an unproven theory'.
Only 10 per cent of non-Muslim professors agreed.
He also cited a poll saying 80 per cent of Pakistani students doubted evolution and many teachers misunderstood the scientific theory.
'It will take a long, sustained effort, and a compassionate approach' to convince such Muslims that evolution need not negate faith, he said. '"More biology" does not improve the situation much (and) 'more science' does not work.'
In Paris yesterday, a conference at UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) heard several scientists who accept evolution argue Darwin could not explain underlying order and patterns found in nature.
'We have to differentiate between evolution and Darwinism,' said French philosopher of science Jean Staune, author of the new book 'Au-dela de Darwin' (Beyond Darwin).
'Of course there is adaptation. But like physics and chemistry, biology is also subject to its own laws.'
Michael Denton, a geneticist with New Zealand's University of Otago, said Darwinian 'functionalists' believed life forms adapted to the outside world while his 'structuralist' view also saw an internal logic driving this evolution down certain paths.
His view, which he called "extraordinarily foreign to modern biology," explained why many animals developed eyes like human ones and why proteins, one of the building blocks of life, fold into structures unchanged for three billion years.
Denton said he was a religious agnostic seeking answers to unresolved scientific questions.
'Our knowledge of biology is actually very limited,' he said. "I have no axe to grind -- I'll leave it to science to find this out.'
