Biological Evolution

"Natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life"

- Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species
 

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Charles Darwin wrote these words 150 years ago to describe what is now generally acknowledged as the central organizing principle of modern biology: natural selection

In other words, this is how life works, whether we like it or not...
 

In fact, here's a quick summary of reality:

Human beings, like all animals, are the sole product of billions of years of random, mindless biological evolution. Had the dinosaurs not been wiped out by an asteroid 65 million years ago, I would not be here typing this note. The same would true if one (or both) of my parents had died in an accident before they produced me.

The human mind is purely biological - solely the result of Darwinian selection. Being an extremely complex, pattern-seeking organ (and still relatively unaccustomed to newly-acquired consciousness), it is for the greater part confused, it relies heavily on 'back-projection', and is of course expert at wishful thinking.
 

A Special Letter:

   As I write this column, I'm flying from San Francisco to New York City for three days of meetings at the American Museum of Natural History on bringing the latest scientific data to the public via museums and planetariums. I look forward to working with my colleagues. I'm also eager to gaze again at their stunning collection of fossils and to travel to distant locations in our universe at the Rose Center and the Hayden Planetarium, the museum's digital planetarium. Both the fossil dinosaurs and the immersive planetarium environment present concrete evidence that evolution is pervasive throughout the natural world.

The universe evolved from the Big Bang to systems of galaxies, stars, and planets; these, including Earth, continue to evolve. Astronomers are teasing out the role of dark matter and dark energy. Life on Earth goes back at least 3.5 billion years as evidenced by fossilized stromatolites from Australia. Over that vast span of time, there's evidence that life evolved from small single celled-organisms to the incredible diversity we see today. Scientific research continues to discover additional evidence that supports evolution as the fundamental description for how the physical universe and life developed in the past and will continue to change in the future.

Yet, teaching evolution remains controversial in America.

Just now, I'm cruising at 35,000 feet above the snow-laced landscape. The texture of the ground below reveals the power of geologic forces. In California, Los Angeles moves inexorably toward San Francisco at 3.5 cm per year. Anyone who has experienced an earthquake has a personal understanding of the forces that drive geological evolution. At altitude, the folds, rifts and fault lines reveal an evolving planet. In what's called the range and basin region, the western mountain chains thrust upward and great valleys drop between them. The vast central plains stretch slowly downhill toward the East Coast from the heights of the Rockies. Over time, the ancient inland ocean receded, revealing most of what is now the center of our continent. More than erosion and weathering shaped this land. As the tectonic plates push and grind together, our planet evolves. It takes a long time, but it makes sense when seen from an airplane window.

Teaching the age and history of our planet takes us back about 4.6 billion years; it is included in only 55% of our 50 State's science education standards.

Today, we find the fossil remains of extinct creatures that wandered the shores of the ancient American sea high in the Rockies and layered in the badlands of the US and Canada. The evolution of life on our planet is evident in these layers of rock and fossil. In Africa, fossil evidence of early hominids links us to ancestral species. Where did we come from? We six billion humans find our biological genesis in these African fossils.

Human evolution is included in the National Science Education Standards and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy, our national statements of the fundamental science concepts for grades K-12. The Standards and Benchmarks describe the basics for scientifically literate citizens. At the state level, politics overtake science education. Human evolution is included in only 8% of the state science standards, and is therefore not required in almost all American elementary, middle or high school science courses.
("The Emphasis Given to Evolution in State Science Standards: A lever for Change in Evolution Education?" Gerald Skoog, Kimberly Bilica, 2002) The evolution of the universe, our solar system, and our planet fare somewhat better, but still do not appear
in almost half of the states' science standards. These standards drive the content of textbooks and state achievement tests, and learning about evolution is getting left out.

Evolution is fundamental to modern biology, geology and astronomy. Ignoring or discarding fundamental scientific understandings of the natural world does not prepare our children well for the future. As America strives to "leave no child behind," it's time that evolution is not left behind in our science classrooms.

Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin

Darwin was born February 12, 1809; he published Origin of the Species at age 50. Each year, Darwin's birthday is celebrated around the world. To find an event in your area, check the "Darwin Day Celebration" web site:

http://www.darwinday.org/home/index.html

- Edna Devore, 11 Feb 2005, Director of Education and Public Outreach, SETI Institute

Those who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution, as not adequately supported by facts, seem quite to forget that their own theory is supported by no facts at all
- Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
 

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