Darwin Misinterpreted!

Charles Darwin is arguably the most celebrated biologist that we know. I wonder if he would really have appreciated/realted to the theories he once enunciated and the way they are taught in school these days!

I was taught that man has shed his tail because he no longer needed it! Now, I wonder if tail was really that useless... if I had a tail I am sure I would have used it for a lot of innovative things! ;-)

Man could walk on two legs because that left his hands for other useful purposes! (now no double entendres intended there!)

Or for that matter, the peacock has 'evolved' a beautiful tail to attract the female peahen? (hmmm... and you thought I was kidding when I said a tail would be useful?)

Now... now... I remember walking along with my biology teacher to her home after school hours to 'discuss' this. I found it really hard to believe that you could 'evolve' because you 'wanted' it!

I would naively ask her "mam! I want to fly... does it mean if I want it strong enough, I actually would grow wings?" She used to smile back and say "well... evolution happens over millions of years! not in yor lifespan!"

Then my grandfather confused me even more. I guess it was his attempt to explain to me that a male dog is needed for a female dog to conceive its litter of puppies. He said "the female dog 'dreams' about her favorite male dog and the puppies are typically born like the one in her dreams!"

Well... does it mean biology happens based on what we think? Can we direct the path of its evolution?

Somehow something was missing. And I tried asking so many people... I was always such a troublesome child :P I had to question everything and I would not stop till I find a convincing answer.

Time passed. I think after a decade of hearing to those dissatisfied answers, it just dawned on me in my shower of what exactly darwin probably meant by his theory of evolution! Thank God! I was more sensible than Archimedes in reacting to this 'eureka moment' !

Things are afterall not as directed as they seem in nature. There is a great sense of comfort to the human brain in assuming and believing that things are ordered and directed. However, here is what Darwin probably proposed on how species have evolved.

Each species happily reproduces a copy of it. It is neither 'directed' nor thoughtful. Very small random mutations are bound to happen in this process. Read that carefully ... I said *random* - not 'directed' and not based on *wants/wishes*. Now of these, nature decides which of these survive and which perish!

Let me explain that with an example.. instead of taking the timeline to be millions of years, lets say a wolf in the wild hypothetically managed to have a litter of puppies with all randomly mutated genes. Lets say one had a super large tail, one makes too much noise, the other was born with 5 legs and one had super sensitive nose!

Now there is a good chance that the one with the large tail would probably perish because it is difficult to run with a large tail. And then so would be the cruel fate with the pup with 5 legs ... it can hardly move and is bound to die of hunger. The one which makes too much noise probably ends up in a predator's stomach! And the one with the super sensitive nose will probably survive and infact be able to manage more food for itself than the rest on the pack. So it not only survives and but spreads more of its mutated genes!

Now the mother wolf did not necessarily "direct" or "want" that its offspring should have sharp sensitivity to smells. It just happened randomly... absolutely random mutations and the nature then decided which one would survive!

Unfortunate that even the text books get this wrong. I had to really struggle to accept that they preach you can biologically evolve based on your wants as if its directed!

Its a random world... some survive and some dont!

Now... lets get back to the question I asked my biology teacher when I was fifteen. "Mam! Can I fly if I really want to?"

I think the answer to that is ... Yes you can! Not in the biological sense may be, but if you free your mind of all the evils and have courage in your heart...I think you can! Like they say, "some people buy crutches when in trouble, some just grow wings!"