1	Natural Selection A simple, powerful idea that explains how populations of reproducing individuals respond to environmental challenges.
2	Assignment If the species A sequence shown on p. 10 reproduces once what will be the result? If the species C sequence goes thru 3 cycles of replication, what will be the result?
3	Natural Selection Is a process associated with a population of individuals and their offspring, NOT change within the life of an individual. The reproduction of individuals is essential to natural selection.
4	Natural Selection ‘Success’ of biological individual is defined by longer persistence and/or increase in abundance within the population. Resistance to antibiotics is a classical case of selection leading to ways to survive. The process that generates ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ within the population is named natural selection.
5	Populations with individuals that reproduce are subject to Natural Selection Natural selection takes place in all systems with reproduction (formation of new individuals similar to their parent(s)). Study of BIOLOGY encompasses all things with reproduction of this type. Viruses reproduce in this way, even though virus are not considered living organisms, they are subject to natural selection.
6	Attributes of LIFE Boundary (inside and outside) Capacity to acquire energy and materials from the environment Processing of materials and energy so that duplication can take place. Storage of information necessary to build parts needed for acquisition and processing, ie. Reproduction.
7	Early Organisms The simplest living systems today are a logical place to look for ideas about origin of organisms. What elements and molecules are part of even the simplest organism?
8	Components of all LIFE WATER as the ‘matrix’ in which chemical reactions take place. Life requires large molecules with many atoms. CARBON as the only element which bonds in a way that macromolecules can be built. SIX elements essential to all organisms are: Hydrogen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus and Sulfur.
9	Macromolecules Nucleic acids = DNA & RNA Proteins, all enzymes are proteins Carbohydrates, CH₂O Lipids or fats boundary between inside & outside
10	Early Life: Current Ideas All studied individuals store information in nucleic acids, but perform function thru proteins. RNA can store information and perform some function, so it seems likely that the earliest organisms were based on RNA.
11	Organisms evolve, even the simplest Once individuals can reproduce, there will be evolution (= changes associated with function). Individuals of a type that survives longer and/or reproduces faster will increase in abundance (or in their proportion of population). The ability to vertically transmit or ‘pass on’ attributes to offspring results in a increase in the abundance of the better function.
12	SCIENCE versus LAW In science, observations are the source of truth. Human institutions, i.e., law, give authority to the words written by the government (or religion). Science explores the (real =observable) world and authority emerges from interpretation of observations and the ability to create (engineer) things. Science tries to get close to ‘truth’, but never expects not to learn more in future.
13	EVOLUTION of organisms Biological evolution is both a logical consequence of a population of reproducing individuals, i.e. an inescapable DEDUCTION. AND based on observation of patterns of structure and sequence among species that exist today and those that are now extinct, i.e. INDUCTION.
14	EVOLUTION requires reproduction and populations. All change is not similar to biological evolution. Changes, such as the ‘evolution of universe’ or your mental or physical growth via education and exercise, are not based on competition among reproducing individuals. Most change through time (development) is fundamentally distinct from biological evolution.
15	Evolution and Continuity There is a continuity of life – like begets like, but offspring are not typically identical to either parent. At the molecular level the continuity of life is maintain by the duplication process of the nucleic acid DNA.
16	HOMOLOGY Sequence similarity (of bases in DNA or amino acids in protein) is a direct, unambiguous and quantifiable way to measure similarity (& differences) between pairs of species and among collections of species.
17	Alternatives to EVOLUTION Almost all peoples of the world have generated ‘ORIGIN’ stories. In the USA, historical circumstances generated a subgroup of Christians that believe the English words of the Bible tell the true CREATION of the world. Known as fundamentalists, they insist on having their origin story taught in schools.
18	‘Intelligent’ Design: Origin Religion and government have been separated by USA government, so that the religious beliefs of the majority are not promulgated thru the government (as they were in Europe). Biblical creation stories have been morphed into ‘Intelligent Design’ in an attempt to get religious ideas into schools.
19	‘Intelligent’ Design: The Idea ID asserts that complexity can only arise by the design process. As life is complex, it must have been designed. Only God is powerful enough to have done the design. ID is impossible to evaluate by observation, because it asserts everything that ever existed was designed. As you study biology, you may conclude that the ‘design’ is flawed.
20	Take Home Problem The fact that people choose to wear clothes suggests that, if they were designed, they could have been designed better. Pretend you are a designer. What features would you add to the human body to design it better than what we have now?
21	Vocabulary Abundance, N Attribute Authority =law? Population growth Homology Intelligent design Natural selection Offspring Reproduction Populations