One of the most remarkable but insufficiently noted features of Charles Darwin's conception of evolution is that its logical implications are still being worked out. I am not merely claiming that experimental and observation studies continue to make use of and bear on Darwinian ideas and principles. I am calling attention to the fact that after almost a century and a half, new deductions are still being teased out of his very fertile axioms of descent with modification and natural selection.
The apparent simplicity of the phrase "survival of the fittest" (which was coined by Herbert Spencer and was not used in the early editions of Darwin's On the Origin of Species) hides more than it reveals. Far from being tautological, the underlying insight has vast implications that have, in some instances, taken so long to realize because of the series of logical steps required for...
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mail@the-scientist.comNeil Greenspan is a professor of pathology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. His research, clinical, and teaching interests relate to immunology and allied fields and are informed by his study of evolution. Greenspan and about fifteen Case faculty colleagues have organized a Celebration of Darwin and Evolution spanning the 2008-2009 academic year. Details can be found at: www.case.edu/darwin/.
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