Natural Selection and Evolution – A Stunning Concept Part 1

Today is the 150th anniversary of the publishing of The Origin of Species or its full title: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. This earth shaking work, by Charles Darwin, introduced the world to the concept of natural selection as a driving force of evolutionary change. I have been wanting to write about the basics (and I do mean basics) of evolution for a while, so I thought that I would start today.

Why am I doing this? I love biology, and the theory of evolution by natural selection is one of the most elegant (in my opinion) and simple theories in science. I want to share my understanding of this fascinating subject that underpins modern biology. And I love to teach, to tell, to share the wonder I have about the natural world with as many people as possible.

I find that many of the people that denounce the theory of evolution have little understanding of it, nor science in general. I intend to explain things in my own time. I might miss something, or gloss over it. Please, dear reader, ask questions. I crave dialogue and discussion, and although we may not agree, I will listen to you, if you grant me the same courtesy. I will not formerly list sources, as a lot of this material has built up over time from various books, lectures etc. If you would like some reading suggestion, again please ask!

To some, the theory of evolution is wrong simply because organisms *look* designed. They seem to do what they do so well that how could they be anything but designed? It also does not help that we live in a world filled with things that we humans have designed and function well in the role they were designed to fulfill. In a way, you could look at natural organisms and say that they were designed: designed by the slow, incremental process of natural selection. This is not my idea, but it is an interesting way to look at natural selection. Note that there is no mention of an external designer. In the case of natural selection the “designer” is simply the environment (including non living and living factors) that the organism must survive in…

I am getting ahead of myself, so I will pause for a moment to discuss to terms that will appear every now and then. The terms are ‘evolution’ and ‘natural selection’. Evolution simply means change. We use this term all of the time, in a variety of contexts. For example, we might say that a band’s music has evolved to be more mature over the last decade. You might remark that your attitude toward child poverty has evolved after you visited an orphanage in the Honduras. Evolution in biology has the same meaning! Evolution is just the change of organisms over time (time in this case is an extremely important idea, and I will return to it later…). These changes build up until new species are formed and the tree of life branches. Natural selection is the idea of natural processes (environment, predators, diseases, population pressures, parasites, etc) ’selecting’ for useful traits. Darwin, in Origin, used the analogy of artificial selection to help explain it. Most farmers, animal breeders, orchid growers out there know that if there is a trait that you desire in an organism, you look for organisms that posses that trait and then breed them, hoping the offspring will also have that trait. In natural selection, an organism might have some small mutation(more on this term later as well) that helps the organism survive just a little better than its neighbors. It is able to reproduce and pass on that mutation to its offspring. Over time, all of the organisms of that species has that trait. For example: all humans are bipedal, but most chimpanzees are not. At some time in our history, some distant ancestor started walking on two legs. It proved a useful strategy for something, and now we walk upright. So natural selection is simply the environment selecting traits. Blindly selecting traits, I will add. There is no farmer choosing the traits… Hence the ‘natural’ designation.

I think that is enough for one day. Next time I will talk more about the changes or mutations that cause the different traits for nature to select…

Scott

Music and YouTube

I want to say how much I appreciate the people who post entire songs on YouTube. Yes, they are breaking the law or something like that, but I like being able to listen to full songs of artists before buying…. And I do purchase. I fully believe in supporting the musicians in the work that they do. I just get tired of trying to judge something based upon a 23.5 second sound bite on iTunes or whatever music download site you prefer… I enjoy the convenience of sitting at my computer and searching an artist that I have just heard of (in this case it is a band called The Perishers) on YouTube and listening to several songs. If I like them I will go and buy and album (when I have $$$ of course!) and if I do not, then no loss… I do not download illegally, I just like to get a sense of a band beyond the odd single I might hear on the radio. I also, in the same vein, appreciate the weekly free singles on iTunes. I have found several bands that I enjoy and plan on buying albums of as a result of that free download! So thanks to those who choose to upload things within a legal gray area… of course I have no idea the moral/ethical ramifications of my listening to their uploads, thus justifying their activities and essentially am just as guilty as they are…
Meh
Scott
PS Is this like tasting the samples at the grocery store without buying the product?

Random Thoughts…

Greetings. It has been some weeks, but here are some random happenings and thoughts… I did manage to finish my marathon – 4 hours, 31 minutes and 36 seconds. I was pleased with my time and the fact that I actually finished! I have been pretty good about continuing to run, and just ran in a eight member relay race a couple of weeks ago and ran 13.3 km in 1 hour and 11 minutes. Right now I am waiting for my chance to register for the Winter 2010 semester at school. I am trying to finish my Bachelor of Science and there are a lot of upper level classes I still need. Some of them I will get this coming semester, assuming there is room! There is one class that I need, but will be taking a prerequisite at the same time… The prof will not consider my plea to be granted permission to take the class until near the end of the registration period in order to let people with the prereqs get first shot… oh well!

That is about it!
Cheers…

Wow…

I have not blogged since Michael Jackson passed away. In my defense, I had a rather busy summer, and A. was on the computer many of the times that I felt like blogging. No worries. This is simply an outlet for my thoughts and ramblings, and I will update or not at my pleasure. Please do not take offence and leave me my three loyal readers. I will be attempting blog more frequently, as hopefully my muse will speak to me more regularly and I will be able to add words of wisdom and deep insight unto the blogsphere…
The big thing going on right now is that in a little under six days, I will be running a marathon, and hopefully finishing!! I will running in the Okanagan International Marathon – that is correct – I will be running 42.2 km (26.something or another if you prefer miles X|) and my goal is under five hours and if I could get closer to four hours and thirty minutes, well that would be alright too!
I will probably post some more later about life, the universe, everything, but for now I just wanted to wake up all your RSS readers so that you know that I am still able to type, and am will too!\

Watch the skies and have your children vaccinated

RIP Michael Jackson…

Yes, I am going to add to the discussion of Michael Jackson’s death, but not in the way you might think. You may or may not know that I am not a fan of the celebrity worship culture that exists in our society. Some individuals argue that celebrities have to put up with the constant surveillance and reporting on their lives as part of the job description of celebrity. I disagree. I think that celebrities should be accorded the same respect and privacy that anyone deserves. They are people trying to make a life and a career for themselves. They do not deserve having cameras shoved in their faces and Perez Hilton gossiping about every minutiae of their lives. So how does this relate to Michael Jackson?
It is tragic that Michael Jackson died. It is tragic when anyone dies. Yet not everyone gets the world-stopping media attention when they die. Yesterday and today radio stations are playing tribute to MJ by playing his songs. People are lamenting his demise on Facebook and Twitter (so much so on Twitter that the servers crashed!). I ask why? What makes a sad, emotionally torn pop star worthy of such attention. His fame drove him into an unhealthy mental state. It is likely that he was abused as a child, and his early fame certainly did not help him become a well adjusted adult. Does this make his death earth-shattering news?
Now for the perspective: In South Africa, there were almost 1000 deaths a day due to HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007. 56 homeless people died in 2006 and 2007 in Vancouver. How many children die from starvation, unclean water and poverty in Canada and the world everyday? Where are the Twitter-crashing tweets about these countless deaths that happen everyday? Where are the news reports about these nameless, faceless people who die. It is just as tragic when one of the poor, the unknown die as when a famous celebrity dies. But few seem to notice. Each was a life unique, with hopes and dreams and desires and fears, now forever gone.
Celebrities are no more knowledgeable, important, wise or anything more than you, me or the homeless women looking for a safe place to stay the night on East Hasting’s.

It is tragic when someone, anyone dies. Do not get so hung up on a celebrity death…

S.

June draws to a close..

Managed to do my Tuesday and Wednesday runs with not too much trouble. Ran 6.62 km on Tuesday in 35 minutes, with an average pace of 5:17min/km and ran 10.09 km Wednesday in 51:34 minutes, with an average pace of ~5:07min/km. My left knee cap feels sore this morning, so I am going to try to run an easier 6 km tomorrow to loosen things up, especially my calves.

School is ending, and I have my final for Biology 270 this afternoon. I am not sure how I feel about it. I think I am adequately prepared, but I am not really sure what is going to be on it… meh…

Planning on seeing Transformers 2 this evening with my brother-in-law. I am not too worried about the plot. I want to see giant transforming robots blowing things up. I admit it, I am not some film snob. I like big robots and explosions and the like… What can I say.

That is it for me and my moderately mundane life…

Watch the skies.
S.