What Darwin Never Knew

Charles Darwin was a Geologist and biologist best known for his contributions on the study of evolution. He published his theory of evolution in 1859 on the “Origin of species”. Though Darwin had an idea of what the first species were, he still had the question about “how evolution takes place”. He didn’t know how physical forces affected species forcing them to adapt and change their appearance. After the discovery of DNA, those questions have been answered.

Darwin proposed the theory that “Natural selection” was the cause of change of specific traits on species. He believed that as time goes by, organisms change. This either results a physical, heritable, or behavior change. He also believed that as an organism starts to adapt to its new environment, its chances of survival increase.

One example in the documentary include the comparison between humans and chimpanzees genetic code. Scientists have discovered that there is only a 1% difference in the DNA of chimpanzee and humans. The differences are cause by “Switches” in genes. This shows how small of change in genes can cause a massive difference in traits.

The discovery of DNA allows researchers to use it as a solid foundation to understand more on evolution, causing researcher to look more into genetics. DNA has answered questions that couldn’t be answered, like where we come from, and what makes us different from other species. There is still much more to discover in this world, and DNA is our first step to that path.

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