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Asked by emmagrace to Dalya, Derek, Sarah, Tim, Tom on 20 Jun 2011.
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Dalya Soond answered on 17 Jun 2011:
Much of it. We have examples in recent history where we can see evolution occuring during our lives. For instance, there were some rabbits that were brought onto an island sometime in the 1800’s. Since they were on an island, they could no longer mix with their friends on land. Within 100 years, these rabbits were no longer able to breed with the rabbits on the mainland, which is one of the hallmarks of a new species.
I also recently read a really interesting article in National Geographic about an experiment they have been doing since the 1950’s in Russia trying to make wild wolves more like house dogs. They didn’t mention whether they could no longedr breed with wild wolves, but it only took 6 generations for these wolves to look and act more like dogs.
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Tim Millar answered on 17 Jun 2011:
Generally yes. There are now a few examples where Darwin’s ideas don’t quite fit what we see, but overall, it is a good explanation of the world of nature we see around us.
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Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 17 Jun 2011:
Mostly, yes. The basic principle of evolution and “survival of the fittest” is a good theory and it is backed up by experimental evidence. It is a good explanation of the mechanism of how life continues and changes.
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Tom Crick answered on 18 Jun 2011:
The answer is generally yes. The body of scientific evidence (and a wide range of experiments) supports the theory of evolution and natural selection.
Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, which is an incredible piece of work considering the scientific and political environment of that era.
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Sarah Thomas answered on 20 Jun 2011:
I think that darwin was right about the way that new species evolved through adapting to their environments 🙂
Comments
emmagrace commented on :
But i dont rememeber being a monkey? do you?
Derek commented on :
Your brain doesn’t remember directly… of course not. In the same way that we don’t remember speaking in Latin at the time of the Roman Empire. However, we certainly had ancestors that were alive back then. That was a different generation and a different _individual_ memory.
However there are parts of us that “remember” out monkey ancestry. Take laughter for example. We laugh and so do monkeys. Now, were did _we_ learn that from? I suspect that the laughter reaction is *very* old. I don’t know for sure, but I would imagine that this is something that our bodies have preserved as part of that instinct and primate heritage.
emmagrace commented on :
Well i can i remember being a baby! And i remember from the second i was born, anyway god has created us as humans and we ARE humans. Were not monkeys, if we were then why arent we classified as monkeys? some people turn into monkeys if god wills but we werent monkeys!!nwe might be classified as animals but we aint monkeys and we never were!! learn the truth!!
Derek commented on :
You’re right that WE don’t remember being monkeys. Everyone has their own memory. Just as you don’t remember, neither do I.
You are also right that we are humans, not monkeys.
You are a human.
So are your parents.
So are your grandparents.
So are your great grandparents.
These are all humans, going back a long, long, long time.
But in the same way that you are slightly different to your parents, and they are slightly different to their parents, if you add up all these little changes then the differences can be quite noticeable.
In fact, if you go back not 10s, or even 100s or 1000s of years, but instead millions of years, then the differences are quite large.
What Charles Darwin suggested in his theory, is that you can explain the differences in animals, by adding up all these little changes and imagining that some animal babies are slightly different than others and thay when they grow up and have their babies, there are more differences. The more generations that go past, the more these changes continue. Good changes help and bad changes harm each generation. This is his principle of “Survival of the fittest”.
Although people use the term lightly and say that we are descendants of apes or monkeys (and I, I apologise, also do this), it is certainly the case that Charles Darwins theory leads to the conclusion that both humans and monkeys have a common ancestor… but only if you go back far enough (and we are talking of 10s of millions of years here).
And, there are also things about us, that we have inherited from those distant ancestors. This could be the fact that both monkeys and humans have hands with 5 fingers. Or that we laugh when we find things amusing. As I wrote… we DON’T know this for certain. That was my idea that PERHAPS we got that ability owing to the fact that we (and monkeys) have descended from some common monkey-human ancestor.
Regardless of what the absolute truth is, or how you believe that different creatures were created, this common descendent idea is what Charles Darwin’s theory suggests. And, maybe Charles Darwin is completely wrong, but at the moment, it seems to be the best way we have of explaining what we see in the world… both the things that are living and what we find in the fossils too).
emmagrace commented on :
Its so obvious charlis darwin theory is so not true though, no one can say you have to believe in it because its rubbish. If we cant remember being a monkey then how can he remember this? does he have the brain of a genius?
Sarah commented on :
Thank you Derek, that’s a really good explanation. 🙂
emmagrace commented on :
ARE YOU GUYS WORKING TOGETHER? WELL YOUR SCIENTIST AND YOU SHOULD RESPECT WHAT I THINK AND MY FEELINGS. CHARLIS DARWIN IS A STUPID BOY THAT LIKES ANIMALS AND THE ONLY THING HE DID WAS MAKE A STUPID BOOK WITH NO EVIDENCE AND FROM HSI BRAIN. THEN HE SHOWED TO HIS FRIEND AND EVERYONE. SO HIS NOT REALLY A SCEINTIST.
emmagrace commented on :
Reply derek!! I bet you cant remember this as well!!
Sarah commented on :
Hey emmagrace,
You so are right that no one can tell you that you have to believe in Darwin’s theory, no one should tell you what you believe in – you have to make your own choice.
I answered another question about the Darwin theory and I explained a bit about the scientific evidence that supports it. Here is a link to it: http://ias.im/42.2161
Do you want to read it and tell me what you think?
Tom commented on :
This comic strip gives a very nice (albeit long!) overview of evolution.