Yesterday, while working at home doing chores and walking in and out of range, I listened to portions of the radio program RadioLab, exploring new ideas. The program I heard investigated current ideas about evolution. I’m not a scientist, but when I was a student, I gained a rudimentary understanding of Darwin’s evolution theories. In a nutshell, the theory of Darwin that I learned is “change over time’ because of “heritable physical or behavioral traits.” And the essence of this theory is that “all life on Earth is connected and related to each other.” Also, diversity of life is a product” of changes through natural selection “where some traits were favored” in an environment over others. (https://www.livescience.com/474-controversy-evolution-works.html) The snatches of the program I heard got me thinking about several things along with new ideas about evolution.
First, the program introduced to me some new concepts about evolution. Two stood out for me. First, and this is a theory that Darwin also considered, beauty is a significant factor among many factors in the evolutionary process. Beauty! Scientists presented evidence from a bird species that suggests that females select mates based on the beauty of their songs or the beauty of their plumage, even to the point of making the male vulnerable because he is more obvious to predators.
The other concept is that individual preferences are a significant part of the evolutionary equation. Every bird, or mammal, in fact every creature is an individual. And individual preferences make a difference when selecting a mate. Over time these choices make a difference.
As I listened to the program, I reflected on what I had thought I had known as ‘truth.’ I also marveled at the new ideas. Together these two reflections loosened me up. I now think differently about the meaning of ‘natural selection.’ I always wondered why there is so much natural beauty surrounding us, bird plumage, butterflies, blue skies. Examples are endless! Perhaps we understand more now. I also realized that evolution is ongoing, and it is happening all around us all the time. We are just a part of the whole ongoing process. Finally, the program made me realize that there is always more to learn, and that it is foolhardy even dangerous to believe that we know all there is to know about anything. Period.