Peter and Rosemary Grant
Scientific understanding is an always changing and adapting body of knowledge, that allow us to constantly expand our capacity to make accurate and reliable predictions about reality. This body of knowledge always has its practical applications, in the sense that it allows us to build a more prosperous civilization on and on. But many people don’t realize that not only our technological advancements matter, but also to know how to use said technology in a way that is completely harmonious with nature or our ecosystem. There are many men and women who spend their lives trying to make the world a better place in this way.
Today I bring to you very important news, which will intrigue especially those of you who have a particular interest towards biology. It has been a while since Charles Darwin explained to us how the processes by which all life forms arise take place, but he still wonder us with his unparalleled genius. So let me remind you what evolution is about:
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. Evolutionary processes give rise to biodiversity at every level of biological organisation, including the levels of species, individual organisms, and molecules.
In the mid-19th century, Charles Darwin formulated the scientific theory of evolution by natural selection, published in his book On the Origin of Species (1859). Evolution by natural selection is a process first demonstrated by the observation that often, more offspring are produced than can possibly survive. This is followed by three observable facts about living organisms: 1) traits vary among individuals with respect to morphology, physiology, and behaviour (phenotypic variation), 2) different traits confer different rates of survival and reproduction (differential fitness), and 3) traits can be passed from generation to generation (heritability of fitness). Thus, in successive generations members of a population are replaced by progeny of parents better adapted to survive and reproduce in the biophysical environment in which natural selection takes place.
Evolution (Wikipedia)
Charles Darwin 1880 by Elliott and Fry
One peculiar thing to take in consideration is that Darwin himself believed that this processes would take much time. And indeed, biologists have had a hard time to see evolution in action, that is in real time or as closely they can get to it. But the truth is that it has already been accomplished. A brilliant couple of biologists demonstrated that Darwin was wrong about it, that evolutionary changes can happen much faster than we thought.
These biologists are Rosemary and Peter Grant, a couple of scientists that have been following Darwin footsteps for decades. Inspired by Darwin’s Origin of species book, they wanted to know how all of these species form so they traveled to Galapagos archipelago to research and study the same birds that Darwin himself studied back then, the finches.
Darwin's finches by John Gould
After all their research they found not only the possibility of very fast evolutionary changes, but also the close relationship all these processes have with ecology, the way that abrupt changes in the environment can greatly influence the adaptation of species to it.
Through their 40 years of research with the finches they observed how it was possible for two different species of finches to breed between them, forming this way a third species that could breed between them, that is, the formation of a new species. They also observed what it is known as character displacement, which is the competition between two species over resources that provokes the divergence of the characteristic of said species.
What I think it is of most importance here is how this knowledge about evolution brought to us by these two brilliant scientists have allow the scientists to help other life forms by applying what they call “Assisted evolution” to aid whole species to survive or accelerate their adaptation.
The Great contribution to the scientific knowledge makes this news a very important thing to share with the world. Rosemary and Peter Grant have aid us to merge evolution with ecology, explaining the close relationship that there is between the environment and the species adaptation to it, raising our consciousness about taking care of our planet because when humans affect it they are also harming the life forms who live here as well.
With nothing else to say, I also wanted to share with you a video where they explain their whole journey. The video is courtesy of Carnegie science. I leave the website in this link so you can check it out:
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