Today marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of one of the world's most important and controversial books — Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

As NPR's Joe Palca reported on Morning Edition, "Darwin's book fundamentally altered how scientists look at the natural world, and continues to frame biological research today":

But there's more Darwin-related news to pass along.

First, there's the incredible report that a rare, first-edition copy of Origin was recently found on a bathroom bookshelf in Oxford, England, and will soon be auctioned for an estimated $100,000 or so.

Then, as the BBC reports, there's the public appeal from the curator at Darwin's home for help in finding his lost Galapagos notebook. It is, curator Annie Kemkaran-Smith believes, "an invaluable record of some of the most famous few weeks in the history of science." It's believed to have been stolen from Darwin's home in the early 1980s.