Reads for the weekend: When humanity screws with evolution
Saturday, March 15th, 2008This week’s “Reads for the weekend” is completely off-topic, but is on a subject that I find fascinating: evolution.
Many interpret evolution as the continual “improvement” of a species over time, but this is an over-simplification. Evolution makes no assumptions on what is “good” or what is an “improvement”. It does not favour the fastest or the strongest but rather whatever characteristics ensure survival and spur reproduction.
This week’s links show three observations that have clued us into how we humans play a role in the evolution of other species. Interestingly, the changes in these cases are not of the sort one might expect to be favoured by evolution; it is also certain, that if it were not for our influence, these species would evolve rather differently.
