Video: “Origin of Species”

1. How is evolution like a “tree of life?” All modern animals and plants came from common ancestors like different twigs on a tree coming from same branches or same trunk.

1. How is evolution like a “tree of life?” All modern animals and plants came from common ancestors like different twigs on a tree coming from same branches or same trunk.

1. How is evolution like a “tree of life?” All modern animals and plants came from common ancestors like different twigs on a tree coming from same branches or same trunk.

2. According to the Watchmaker argument, if something as complex as a watch has a designer, then people must have a designer too since they are far more complex than a watch. How would Darwin respond to this? Given enough time (millions, billions of years) complex life forms could have evolved from simpler ones without God. Adult humans develop from single cell by natural processes.

3. What was the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 about? John Scopes was public school teacher accused of teaching evolution in class. Teaching evolution was illegal in Tennessee till 1967.

4. What did Darwin observe in “artificial selection” as practiced by animal breeders and farmers that led him to develop his ideas of “natural selection?” Saw how horses, cattle, vegetables were selectively bred to get desired characteristics. Wondered how nature might select some living things to survive over others.

5. Lamarck suggested that characteristics that living things acquired in life (e.g. highly developed muscles) were passed on to their offspring. What was wrong with this explanation? Characteristics acquired in life aren’t passed on to offspring. Genes are responsible for traits that are inherited.

Characteristics acquired in life aren’t passed on to offspring. Genes are responsible for traits that are inherited. Lamarck’s view Darwin’s view

6. How does “the cruelty of nature” contribute to natural selection? Not enough food for all offspring to survive. Those that are best adapted to environment survive and pass those traits on to offspring.

7. Why did Darwin not go public with his theories? What changed his mind 15 years later? Was afraid of persecution from the church. Another scientist was about to publish his own paper with the same idea. Alfred Wallace

8. How does natural selection explain the increase of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in recent decades? By careless use of antibiotics and antibacterial cleaners, we are leaving the naturally resistant ones to survive and reproduce.

8. How does natural selection explain the increase of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in recent decades? By careless use of antibiotics and antibacterial cleaners, we are leaving the naturally resistant ones to survive and reproduce.

If a doctor prescribes antibiotics when you get sick, why is it important for you to take all the pills, even if you get better halfway through? If you don’t take them all, you’ll leave behind the ones that are already resistant to the antibiotic. They’ll reproduce, meaning the antibiotic won’t work next time.

Questions?