Undeniable by Bill Nye Page A

Estonian explorer Karl Ernst von Baer and philosopher Johann Goethe explored the ideas further; later still came Niles Eldredge, Stephen Jay Gould, and many others, each adding another element to the scientific story.
    Darwin’s idea of evolution through natural selection sparked a broader fascination with the idea of competition in the natural world. I’ve got a good deal more about this in chapter 8. The idea of competition inspired “social Darwinism,” which looked at competition among human populations (often in racist ways that were unrelated to what Darwin actually wrote). Meanwhile, Darwin himself got to thinking about populations: not just human populations, but populations of every species observable in nature. He saw that there is a spectrum of variation between species that comes into being slowly, tiny change by tiny change. He realized that variations happen naturally when an organism reproduces. He realized that populations of species compete for resources. And he realized that the traits that are inherited, which benefit the organism, have a greater chance of showing up in that organism’s offspring, providing the engine that drives evolutionary change.
    Although Darwin and Wallace came upon the idea of evolution at almost the same time, I can see why we associate the theory of evolution solely with Darwin. (I’ll tip my hat to Wallace in a later chapter.) Darwin’s book is amazing. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection —that’s the full title—includes dozens of diligent observations and experiments that Darwin personally conducted. It is also beautifully written. He leaves the reader to draw his or her own conclusions as to whether or not the theory of evolution is the real deal. Just for example: “On the view that each species has been independently created, with all its parts as we now see them, I can see no explanation. But on the view that groups of species have descended from other species, and have been modified through natural selection, I think we can obtain some light…”
    In his writings, Darwin makes it clear that he cannot state whether or not there is a creator in charge. The idea was impossible to prove or disprove then, and it still is today. But what emerged from Darwin’s steady investigations was a new view of the world that can be appreciated and understood on its own terms. Perhaps there is intelligence in charge of the universe, but Darwin’s theory shows no sign of it, and has no need of it. The exquisite variety and balance that we see in nature is a result of nature itself.
    I know that this realization still bothers a great many people. For me, it is stunning and uplifting. After 2,400 years of speculation, humankind has finally uncovered this fundamental aspect of nature and our place among living things. Just think what other equally revolutionary discoveries lie right around the corner.

 
    7
    LAMARCK AND HIS NOT-ACQUIRED TRAITS
    By the time Darwin came along there were and had been a great many naturalists—what today we might call biologists—who had been paying attention to the similar shapes and functions they observed among plants and animals. Philosophers had been wrestling with the origin of life since the heyday of the ancient Greeks. Almost all had speculated on how life began, and how living things became so obviously interdependent. They observed and documented patterns in nature. Big fish need little fish. Squirrels need trees. Humans need to eat, and nature provides the groceries. But how did the great variety of living things come to be; how did we all get here?
    Living things were generally believed to have a soul or a metaphysical quality that was passed from parent to child and even from tree to acorn. In the minds of nineteenth-century naturalists, permanence had been there from the beginning; change was not built in. Yet they suspected that a mechanism for change did exist.