Evolution

Evolution is about transformations of "Forms" of life over time. Evolution applies to all living things, such as plants and animals. Charles Darwin is the first scientist to bring this insight into view to the world. He was criticized for his claims and many others didn't buy into it. But, you know what? He was right!

Evolution is really about change...a constant flux in nature if you will. The universe, similar to living things, is constantly changing. Planets can have changes in temperature, they are formed at some point and perish at some time as well (time scales of billions of years). Stars are also born and some explode in death - "SuperNova."

"Every cell is a triumph of natural selection (Carl Sagan)," which means that it survived over time and against competition of other cells that nature had spawned. Everything living today has triumphed over natural selection. Many things that have lived, like the dinosaurs who existed for a period of about 165 million years, are now extinct. A matter of fact 99.9% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every day. This is nearly 1,000 times the natural rate and is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65 million years ago. So I guess you can conclude that existence is temporal for anything living, even an entire species. The only constant in nature is change. It's one of those very democratic traits of nature, nothing gets to last forever.

On a more positive note, we have been in the game of life for about 200,000 years as modern humans and look at what we've achieved. As far as we know no other creature has done what we have done in our short stead of 200,000 years. Evolution does not favor intelligence. The dinosaurs generation by generation did not get smarter. They did not build tools or spaceships! The dinosaurs 165 million years of existence versus the 200,000 years of human is quite a difference. Of course our ancestors who passed down our current DNA were alive then. We are at the end of a chain of existence now....with each new link being formed as time progresses. The human mind first sparked probably within the last 80,000 years of our time. The earliest evidence of modern thinking is shell beads that were carved with holes for a necklace found to be related with burial rituals and ornaments to be worn as well. Cave art that we have found is as old as 40,000 years ago.

So we did have quite a hiatus between humans showing up on the scene of life and getting to where we are now. In short, we went from stone tools to iPhones and footprints on the moon within 200,000 years. The dinosaurs never made it (developed this thing called "intelligence"). They didn't have the biological evolutionary genetic mutations that we do - to have thumbs, to not be "too big" like a whale or small like an insect, to have brains as big as ours wired for curiosity, emotion, imagination, creativity and engineering. To have language abilities...to be able to express thoughts and have another creature understand what you are thinking...to have books where you can convey thoughts long past your death - these are the gifts in our genetic toolbox that we possess.

Evolution does favor adaptability. Humans are able to survive in multiple environments and to adapt and overcome. Humans are the most adaptable animal on Earth. Therefore, we have the potential to do many things and live long as a species. We have the potential to become a multi-planet species who brings life to dead worlds (such as Mars). From beginnings such as the oldest stone tools (about 2.6 million years old) used by our Neanderthal cousins to the tools of today like worldwide communication, like the Internet, our technology has evolved. The Neanderthals were a link in the chain of changes of lifeforms over time in which we are connected to them and they to us.

Nature loves to experiment and has an imagination beyond that of humankind. Our Neanderthal cousins that began before us are now extinct but are a link to the human chain (or branch on the tree of life) that currently ends with us and stretches back to the origins of life billions of years ago. By using the DNA sequences of modern organisms, biologists have tentatively traced the most recent common ancestor of all life to an aquatic microorganism that lived in extremely high temperatures (such as a hydrothermal vent inhabitant).

DNA is the structure, at the chemical level, that is the common blueprint for all life on Earth (except RNA viruses). The Human Genome Project was able to identify about 25,000 human genes. Genes can "code" for what kind of living thing you are - plant, animal, microorganism, or virus. Intelligence, hair color, eye color, diseases you may develop in life, pretty much anything and everything that makes the physical (and partially mental) you "you," is tied to your genetics.

Taken a step further than just having the genes that makes a human being. We have "switches" that are part of our Non-coding DNA. Non-coding DNA, a large percent of the genome size, is the DNA sequences that DO NOT encode for protein sequences. Genes code for proteins! These switches basically can turn on a feature of an organism or turn it off, hence the name "switch". These switches may be a way to prevent or possibly treat disease. Switches at work in nature could explain differences, like legs, between a lizard and a snake. Hox Genes are like foreman on a construction job site that tell the switches what to do (building the body plan).

The Ecosystem Within Human Microbiome Project Your Unique Microbiome

Human Evolution in Space Sixth Mass Extinction What Darwin Never Knew

The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates

Awesome Prehistoric Cave Painting Website

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