Theory of Evolution
In classroom teaching the theory of evolution is usually biased toward the biological development of all currently known species of organisms, from earlier forms of organic life.
When we consider evolution there are other aspects which should be thought about apart from concentration being confined to the evolution of life, which would seem to be only one small part of evolution when thought about in the overall sense. The following are some other branches of the evolutionary tree which occurred long before life.
- Cosmic Evolution. This had to be the first step in the overall process of evolution. It is commonly referred to as the ‘big bang’, which gave birth to our universe by the explosion of an infinitely dense particle of matter known as a singularity.
- Stellar Evolution. Resulting from the ‘big bang’ it is thought that atoms of Hydrogen and Helium were produced plus a host of other elementary particles such as quarks. These particles combined together to form protons and neutrons, which along with electrons are the building blocks of chemical elements.
- Evolution of the Elements. Over time these protons and neutrons combined together by atomic processes, to evolve into the natural chemical elements we commonly know and use today.
- Evolution of the Planets. Ancient stars were formed from Hydrogen and Helium, and at the end of their life cycles released tremendous amounts of swirling clouds of gases and chemical elements which resulted in our solar system and new born star; the sun.
- Organic Evolution. About 4.5 billion years ago a large molten lump of molten rock began cooling until its temperature was low enough for water to form among the newly dried rock. We call this planet Earth and it is our home. It is believed that from the initial watery ‘soup’ formed, molecules were formed which had the ability to replicate, and evolved into the first forms of organic life.
- Macro Evolution. About 3.5 billion years ago out of this watery soup the self replicating molecules had evolved into the first life in the forms of single celled photo synthetic bacteria, which are believed to be the common ancestor of all the species of organism which we see around us today. If we go back far enough to a common ancestor then it is true that all organisms are genetically related.
- Micro Evolution. To bring about the many different kinds of species we observe, some kind of variation had to exist within our common ancestor’s genetic make up. This was achieved by there being differing amounts and different sequences in the DNA molecule between differing types of bacteria. The natural process which we refer to as natural selection did the rest over enormous tome periods.
The theory of evolution is therefore decidedly not limited to biology, but involves all of the sciences, in leading us back to the start of things; the ‘big bang’. The events which took place prior to the ‘big bang’ are best left to quantum physicists, and are certainly beyond the scope of this article!
Written by admin on October 26, 2011 under Miscellaneous.
Comments