Blog Post Module 1

 I would say that evolution is a change in genomes or heritable traits over at least one generation. This covers the fact that for a change to be evolution, it has to be something that can genetically be passed down to offspring and show that by occurring over generations. It is also worth noting that evolution cannot happen to an individual--it can only occur in a population (again, over generations). Trying to explain that evolution CAN happen to an individual usually just results in people using incorrect definitions of evolution or assuming that personal change and development is the same as evolving, and that is just simply not the case. The pattern or process by which evolutionary change occurs would be what we call natural selection, also known as the selection for or against different traits due to their fitness for the environment. Environments are always changing, so this is why we see such drastic changes in so many different animals over their life span. Sometimes these changes are mutations selected for or against by the environment, but sometimes a change in environment just selects for one variation of a species to survive better (ex. the bigger or smaller-beaked birds in Darwin's finches experiments). I would say that it is an indisputable fact that evolution occurs, as there is abounding evidence of heritable traits changing over generations in populations of many types of animals, like Darwin's Galapagos finches. That was years and years of research to show that evolution was definitely occurring between these finches. The theory part of evolution is the idea that we do not know exactly how evolution manifests and do not understand all intricate details of the process enough for it to be considered a scientific law. So evolution is a fact, but evolutionary theory is something that is seeking to explain the mechanism behind the fact that evolution occurs through research to find evidence. I also understand that the argument of "evolution is only a theory" is often used by people to negate anything involving evolution since it is "not fact, only theory". In reality, theories are based in fact and seeking to explain those facts through an incredible amount of research and evidence. By saying something is "only a theory", people are discrediting how much work, effort, and research goes into compiling a theory. I think it is an interesting point to make that something can be both a fact and a theory, just different elements of the concept go to each category.

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