Week 1 - Evolution

   

 For the first week, I had learnt a very interesting topic for me which is "EVOLUTION". The topic seems complex to understand but I had went through a very fascinating week along the learning. First and foremost, I have discovered the historical development of the theory of evolution. Before attending the class, I only know that evolution is a change and involves living things like humans and animals. After getting into the formal learning about evolution, I specifically defined that evolution is a change that occurs through time. Speaking about evolution, there is a man's name that will pop out in my mind of a sudden -Charles Darwin. Before he proposed his idea on evolution, there was an idea from Lamarck which is unreasonable for me because he says that environment pressure causes body changes. He gives example of giraffes having long necks because they were stretching further to get leaves in trees then that body shape was inherited. Actually, the long necks is not because of adaptation but due to mutation, variation and sexual selection. I also learnt some theories from Lyell, Aristotle, Hutton and Malthus during  student-centred learning activity. 

    Darwin eventually came with Darwinian Evolution. He proposed that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors through the natural selection process. For a better understanding, I had watched the video on "Endless Forms Most Beautiful". Excitingly that I get to know more and more from this summer lecture video. Not only that, I got to know that how Darwin could finally come out with the idea of evolution. He was on a voyage for five years and discovered variety of species such as giant sloths, flightless birds, finches, seals and swimming lizards. He observed that finches came out with different size of beaks depends on the source of food they eat. On the other hand, he also found geological evidences such as the volcanic island and coral reef formations. This had changed my previous thought  that evolution only applies on human and animals. Plants also do!

   Based on the learning in class, I am excited enough to find out more about evolution. Only knowing that it is about changes and with little evidences really does not fit my inquiries to fully understand and seize this topic. So, I turned out to find out more by surfing the internet and watch some videos to get a clear picture of this theory. It is fundamental for me to know because once I knew Darwin was the reason for the great hoax when he said that humans were originated from apes. I want to know why people are emphasizing his idea of evolution even majority of the world think his theory is absurd.At the end of our learning about evolution on the first week, our lecturer gave a take home task to watch a video about natural selection and artificial selection. Hopefully I can find more evidences to strengthen my understandings.