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Evolution in the sense that Darwin meant it - natural selection - does depend on some specific details of life. Namely, there must be variation in the species,
by azakai 10y ago
Evolution in the sense that Darwin meant it - natural selection - does depend on some specific details of life. Namely, there must be variation in the species, the variation must be heritable, and there must be something that causes some of the species to produce more offspring.
Without one of those, natural selection stops. In theory, life might exist without one of them - if we live forever and stop having children, or if we all have the same amount of children, or if we design our children's genes artificially, etc.
- svachalek 10y agoWho is "we"? All life on earth? Even "we" as humanity is a colony organism; we have more non-human cells in our bodies than human ones.
- milkytron 10y agoCould you please elaborate on this part: > we have more non-human cells in our bodies than human ones. I'm not the most educated in biology, but I thought if a cell is created in our body by our body, it is a human cell. Is this wrong to think?
- azakai 10y agoDepends what you mean by "created in our body by our body." Your body begins with a single human cell, then divides and grows. All those cells have your human DNA. But at some point bacterial cells also appear as part of your body, for example in your digestive tract, playing important roles you can't live without. Their source is not from your human cells, but they still form part of your body as a whole, in a sense.
- taco_emoji 10y agoThey're speaking of the multitudinous microorganisms which live in and on our bodies.