Abstract
This I believe: we need to understand evolution, adaptation, and phenotype
Highlights
It is genes that make evolution possible
Some genes produce traits that enable an organism to survive better and reproduce more in a particular environment. Those traits and the genes that affect them will become more prevalent over time, as long as the environment favors them. Those same genes, in a different environment, might not be adaptive, and because environments change, “perfect” adaptation neither occurs nor is expected—but nobody said the concept of natural selection was simple
Natural selection is best understood as survival of the fit enough
Summary
It is genes that make evolution possible. All eukaryotic organisms are related in a massive tree of life that includes organisms familiar and unfamiliar, linked through the transmission of genes from generation to generation over the last 2 billion years. This I believe: we need to understand evolution, adaptation, and phenotype Misunderstandings about the concept of evolution could produce an entire new column, but suffice to say that this basic biological principle, explaining why phenomena in biology are the way they are, rather than some other way, somehow hasn’t filtered into American scientific literacy.
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