Quotes About Evolution

In evolutionary theory, this is called the Red Queen phenomenon," Malcolm said. "Because in Alice in Wonderland the Red Queen tells Alice she has to run as fast as she can just to stay where she is. That's the way evolutionary spirals seem. All the organisms are evolving at a furious pace just to stay in the same balance. To stay where they are.

they nevertheless suggested that evolutionary pressures were moving the human race toward ever-greater conformity.

The old ideas about survival of the fittest had gone out of fashion long ago. Those views were too simpleminded. Nineteenth-century thinkers saw evolution as 'nature red in tooth and claw,' envisioning a world where strong animals killed weaker ones. They didn't take into account that the weaker ones would inevitably get stronger, or fight back in some other way. Which of course they always do.

Human beings are so destructive,' Malcolm said. 'I sometimes think we're a kind of plague that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that I sometimes think, maybe that's our function. Maybe every few eons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the decks, and let's evolution proceed to its next phase.

Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all.

And to imagine all these things happen purely by chance is like imagining that a tornado can hit a junkyard and assemble the parts into a working 747 airplane. It's very hard to believe.

Saben lo que están haciendo. Hay máquinas por doquier. Antes servían al hombre, pero ahora empiezan a dominarle. Muy sutilmente, pero pronto lo lograrán. -Harry Benson-

En general, el promedio de vida de una especie era de cuatro millones de años. En el caso de los mamíferos se reducía a un millón de años. Transcurrido ese tiempo la especie desaparecía.

life finds a way.

The world changes. Ideologues and zealots don't.

Because the history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way." Malcolm shook his head. "I don't mean to be philosophical, but there it is.

The DNA molecule was so old that its evolution had essentially finished more than two billion years ago. There had been little new since that time. Just a few recent combinations of the old genes—and not much of that.

Porque la historia de la evolución es que la vida escapa a todas las barreras. La vida evade los encierros. La vida se expande a nuevos territorios. De manera dolorosa, quizá hasta peligrosa, pero la vida encuentra el modo.

Story of our species, Malcom said, laughing. Everybody knows it's coming, but not so soon.

Parasitism and symbiosis were the true basis for evolutionary change. These processes lay at the heart of all evolution, and had been present from the very beginning. Lynn Margulis was famous for demonstrating that bacteria had originally developed nuclei by swallowing other bacteria.

A sign that read WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH dangled from one hinge

I'm not who I used to be, he thought.

Life will always find a way. - Dr. Ion Malcom

The world is alive, Ted. Things are constantly in flux. Species are winning, losing, rising, falling, taking over, being pushed back. Merely setting aside wilderness doesn't freeze it in its present state, any

The future is coming faster than most people realize.

You got cell phones, you got computers, you got antibiotics, medicines, hospitals. And you say the old ways are better?

Extinction was simply proof of failure to adapt

Esa idea de mantener interconectado al mundo entero equivaldrá a la muerte en masa. Todo biólogo sabe que los pequeños grupos aislados evolucionan más rápidamente.

We looked at the world around us as a snapshot when it was really a movie, constantly changing. Of course we knew it was changing but we behaved as if it wasn't. We denied the reality of change. So change always surprised us.