It was written some time ago. It was reluctantly published 24 November 1859. Darwin feared his work would not be well received and worried for his family and any social bias against the work. But, halfway across the world in the West Indies, a scientist by the name of Alfred Russel Wallace (pictured left) had written a paper as well and it mirrored Darwin's findings.
The two men had worked autonomously and until their papers were provided to an international organization of scientists; had no idea the other existed. It wasn't until Darwin heard about Wallace did he consent to publish his findings.
The LAWS of NATURAL SELECTION are real. They can be found over and over again in nature. Basically, natural selection is about survival and the manifestation of a species as nature's habitat changes.
The most starkly obvious example and often cited in education is the "Peppered Moth (click here)." The story of the Peppered Moth is pure survival. It's dominate "type" is this light colored moth that blends into a tree bark in the UK where it was commonly found. They were the delicacy of birds. They could easily hide in their habitat and enough survived from season to season to propagate the species. However, when the industrial mills began their smokestack pollution, the trees became dark on the surface. The light colored moth which had survived nicely as a food source was not easily seen and the population of the moths began to drop sharply. The birds now had an easy time finding them.
Do to genetics, there was a variant of the moth that was dark in color. They were the minority of the survivors because they could be found easily against the light colored tree bark. Now, that the trees were coated with dark smoke pollution, the dark moth became the dominant species.
That genetic variability allowed the species to survive and as pollution laws came into effect and the trees were no longer covered in soot, the majority returned to the light colored species. Had it not been for the dark variant, the species could have perished and the outcomes to the birds would be questionable. Basically, genetics saved the food chain/food web.
Most of the species in the world have genetic variability and so do human beings. It is what makes human eyes blue, brown, green or hazel. There are dominant and recessive genes, hence, most species that survive changes in habitat carry both the dominant and recessive gene.
In the case of humans, there is a great deal of compassion for people with genetic disorders. Most of these tragic disorders are high on the priority of medical research. It is the way humans have survived. We solve the problems of survival and seek to perfect our life experience.
The natural world does the same thing, but, it is the heartiness of the species genetics that allows survival.
