Investment Derivatives For Dummies

Chapter 3: Biology and evolution

at lunch time, i brought up the topic of homo sapiens having at the minimum 1% to 4% trace of neandertal DNA. reactions were varied. i detected hostility in some. and a few haven't even heard of what a neandertal is or any of the early hominids. and others still displayed utter uninterest. i didn't know much of it (in detail) either until i found this anthropology book filled with colorful illustrations from booksale. ;p

the conversation spilled over to the missing link which i gladly responded to with the fossil evidence of australopithecus and the earlier ramipithecines. there is a vast library of fossils found if only people would care to educate themselves.

i brought up the factors of change that facilitates the process of evolution. what is a theory in a scientific sense. And should there be another sense to that word? Dispelling common misconceptions of what evolution is. thinks like thinking humans evolved from monkeys. i wonder who perpetuates this misinformation. who stands to benefit from misunderstanding science?

it pays well to be reading up on the subject.

DEFINTIONS

genes are actual units of heredity.

alleles are alternate forms of a single gene.

genotype the genetic composition of an organism.

evolution is a heritable change in genotype which becomes effected in the gene pool of a population.

FACTORS FOR CHANGE

1. mutation is chemical alteration of a gene that produces a new allele.

2. genetic drift are chance fluctuations of allele frequencies in the gene pool of a population.

3. gene flow is the introduction of allelles from the gene pool of one population into that of another.

4. natural selection is the evolutionary process through which factors in the environment exert pressure that favors some individuals over others to produce the next generation.

5. adaptation is a process by which organisms acheive a beneficial adjustment to an available environment.

6. speciation is an evolutionary process resulting to an establishment of a new species caused by isolating mechanisms.