10daysofscience

By David Finnigan

Quick, what’s the most ridiculous-looking animal in the world? Is it the Leafy Sea Dragon? It is, isn’t it?

Yes, it is.

I don’t mean to criticise spuriously. Orgel’s Second Law (as formulated by Dan Dennett) states that ‘Evolution is smarter than you are,’ meaning that although we may not understand the purpose of a particular evolved feature, it is likely to have some adaptive function that outweighs its ridiculousness. Continue Reading »

By Fiona MacDonald

Zoology graduate Fiona MacDonald presents part two of her opinion piece on the continuing evolution of humans.

Disease, competition for resources and natural disasters were the natural selection factors driving evolution in Darwin’s day. Yet, as covered in Part One, it appears humans have managed to cheat their way past these factors using modern technology.

However, the human species still has challenges to face. Ironically, the biggest obstacle to our survival now is something Darwin may not have taken into account – ourselves. I don’t think he could have predicted the impact we’ve had on the planet and our spectacular population growth.

We can wipe out a species’ habitat in a day, pollute their food supply over the course of a week and, in a few years, alter the temperature to the point they can no longer survive. There are most likely plenty of mutations arising that will help certain species survive one or two of these pressures – but not all of them at once. Estimations are that one species becomes extinct every hour.

Are humans putting so much pressure on the planet that even the fittest may not survive? Image: Credit: Photo by Georgie_grrl through Flickr

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By Fiona MacDonald

Zoology graduate and science writer Fiona MacDonald ponders what Charles Darwin might think of evolution in the modern world.

I often find myself wondering what Charles Darwin, the most famous zoologist of all time, would make of society and evolution today. It has been 150 years since ‘On the Origin of the Species’ was published and, although the same species walk the planet (give or take a few), a lot has changed.

Charles Darwin. Image: wikipedia

He argued each species had evolved in order to survive changing conditions, like a new habitat, predator or climate. Darwin’s ideas clashed with the era’s accepted view that every creature was created by God, exactly as they were. Yet 150 years on, scientists unanimously agree Darwin was on the right track. Continue Reading »