Science jargon

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 Feb 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Mermaid	16 Feb 2002
In the scientific sense, individual animals can't evolve - only populations of animals can evolve. There is naturally a lot of variation between animals in any population, and only the animals in the population with the most appropriate characteristics will survive to pass on their genes (and therefore their characteristics) to the next generation of the population. So in the scientific sense of the word, the possibilities are already present in the population, and the process of evolution acts on them to create change in the population. For example - say we have a population of wooly rhinos. Some will be more wooly and some less wooly. Now imagine the climate starts to cool. Only the woolliest wooly rhinos will survive, and therefore only the woolliest rhinos will get a chance to breed. Therefore the next generation of wooly rhinos will be woolier on average than their parents were. Eventually, if the climate keeps coolling, a whole new species of rhino may evolve - the SUPERWOOLLY rhino. :-) Sorry if this isn't clear enough, or is too scientific & boring. Genetics is my university major - I love arguments like this! Bright blessings - Mermaid

Kiama	16 Feb 2002
Mermaid: Firstly, welome to the forums! Secondly: Instead of hitting the 'post' button when you want to reply to a thread, you would do better to just hit the 'reply' button. This way, your reply to the thread will be in the same thread as the rest of the replies, and people would understand it better! But don't worry, loads of people make this mistake! Kiama

blue	16 Feb 2002
You mean this wasn't suppose to be a new thread?! Hell's Bells! I was ready to run with this one!

The Science jargon thread was originally posted on 16 Feb 2002 in the Spirituality board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Spirituality, or read more archived threads.