Evolution

Unfortunately this week I don't have much cutting edge science to share because I've been doing more finance and investment work. I was actually really surprised that I liked it as much as I do. In fact two of our guest speakers encouraged me to seek a career path in the industry. Even though the starting salary is somewhere in the 150 k a year range I'm thinking not. If there's one thing that I've learned right now is that I want a life outside of work and something tells me that working 70 hours a week isn't conducive to that.

Initially the plan for today was to talk about genetically modified organisms or GMO’s but I’m not sure where you folks are coming from so I thought I’d start with a foundation and build. So what’s this evolution dealio? Well to put it simply evolution is a process of change that occurs in populations over a period of time due to heritable trait changes. Key words are it happens in populations not individuals. So what does that mean to you? Well no matter how much you try to lick your elbow your neck isn’t going to get longer, take that Lamark!

Second point is it’s pretty much all about sex. Now it doesn’t obviously have to do with sex but without traits that are heritable it doesn’t happen. Now you may ask what digestion has to do with sex but without being able to get energy from your food you don’t have energy to produce gametes (eggs and sperm).

Third point is that it’s called a theory but evolution is not disputed in the scientific community but it’s the mechanism is (natural selection is the prevailing thought). Evidence is all around us, just look at antibiotic resistant bacteria. Also keep in mind that even if it’s great for the individual if it doesn’t result in some sort of reproductive advantage it’s evolutionarily worthless.

What evolutions not: directional or purposeful. That means things aren’t going toward some sort of perfect incarnation. Another important thing to remember is what’s evolutionarily great in one environment isn’t necessarily best in other environments. Think of Shaq on the basketball court he’s pretty decent, now put him into a Smart Car and he might have some problems. Hopefully that little crash course lays some ground work but I’m curious as to what you people think of evolution?