SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
Even among people who do not pursue careers in science and engineering, an interest in natural history and evolution enhances critical thought. This interest is also a considerable economic force, through purchases of books and magazines, toys for children, and attendance at museums and even the cinema.
Summary
Three great themes run through the biological sciences: function, unity, and diversity. Much of
biology, from molecular biology to behavioral biology, from bacteriology to medicine, is
concerned with the mechanisms by which organisms function. Many of these mechanisms are
adaptations: features that enhance survival and reproduction. Some such features are found only
in certain groups of organisms, but others are shared by almost all living things, reflecting the
unity of life. At the same time, the diversity of characteristics among the earth's millions of species is staggering.
The unity, diversity, and adaptive characteristics of organisms are consequences of
evolutionary history, and can be understood fully only in this light. The science of evolutionary
biology is the study of the history of life and of the processes that lead to its unity and diversity.
Evolutionary biology sheds light on phenomena studied in the fields of molecular biology,
developmental biology, physiology, behavior, paleontology, ecology, and biogeography,
complementing these disciplines' study of biological mechanisms with explanations based on
history and adaptation. Throughout the biological sciences, the evolutionary perspective provides
a useful, often indispensable framework for organizing and interpreting observations and for
making predictions.
As was emphasized in a recent report from the United States National
Academy of Sciences, biological evolution is "the most important concept in modern biology
– a concept essential to understanding key aspects of living things."
Despite its centrality in the life sciences, evolutionary biology does not yet command a priority
in educational curricula or in research funding commensurate with its intellectual contributions
and its potential for contributing to societal needs. The reasons for this may include the
misperception that all important scientific questions about evolution have already been answered,
and the controversy among some nonscientists about the reality of evolution and its perceived
threat to traditional social values. However, evolutionary biology is an intellectually and
technologically dynamic discipline that includes some of the most exciting contemporary
discoveries in the biological sciences.
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Understanding Humanity
Evolutionary data and methods have been used to address many questions about the human species—our history, our variability, our behavior and culture, and indeed, what it means to be human. Some studies on human variation and evolution are unambiguous and uncontroversial.
Other writings about human evolution and its social implications have been extremely
controversial—and have evoked as much disagreement among evolutionary biologists as
elsewhere. These controversial topics usually have insufficient data to support the claims made, or are instances in which scientific data have been used, without justification, to support social or ethical arguments. Moreover, some popular writers and journalists misinterpret the findings of human evolution and genetics—indicating the need for broader education in these subjects.
· Human History. Major topics of study in human history, referred to earlier in this document,
are our incontrovertible relationships to African apes, the history of hominid evolution as
revealed in the fossil record, and the history of modern human populations, in which
evolutionary genetics has played the leading role. Extensive population
genetic studies, coupled with phylogenetic methods, have also determined genealogical
relationships among human populations. These genetic relationships correspond well to
relationships among language groups, which linguists have elucidated with methods modified
from evolutionary biology. The combination of these disciplines has provided a sounder
basis for inferences about major population migrations and the spread of important cultural
systems such as agriculture and the domestication of animals.
· Variation within and among Populations. Genetic differences among human populations
are small compared with the great amount of variation within them. Moreover, geographic
patterns often differ from one gene to another, which implies that a difference between
populations in one characteristic is not likely to be useful for predicting differences in other
characteristics. These data and principles have supported the vigorous arguments that many
evolutionary biologists have made against racism and other kinds of stereotyping.
· Human nature. One of the most controversial of all subjects is what is "natural" to the
human species. This topic evokes enormous interest among people in all walks of life,
whatever their beliefs about evolution may be. In contrast to other species, it is evidently
"natural" for us to learn and use language, for example. The issue comes down to which
human behavior patterns are products of evolutionary history, which are products of cultural
environment, and which result from an interaction between the two. Evolutionary behaviorists
have documented evolved differences in many behavioral traits among other animal species
and have successfully used principles such as kin selection to explain how these behaviors are
adaptive. Many evolutionary biologists, anthropologists, and psychologists are optimistic that
such principles can be applied to human behavior, and have offered evolutionary explanations
for some intriguing behaviors that are widely distributed among human populations, such as
incest taboos and gender roles. Other evolutionary biologists, anthropologists, and
psychologists are skeptical of these interpretations, and stress the effects of learning and
culture. The challenge will be to devise definitive tests of the hypotheses.
· Models of Cultural Change. Analogies between cultural change and biological evolution have
often been drawn, and at times have influenced models in cultural anthropology. Some past
analogies were naive and erroneous, such as the supposition that complexity necessarily
increases in both biological and cultural evolution. Even the best such analogies have severe
limitations because some mechanisms of cultural "evolution" differ importantly from those of
biological evolution. Nevertheless, the form and content of evolutionary models have been
used, with suitable modifications, to develop models of cultural change. Some of these
models take into account the interplay between cultural and genetic change, since there is
evidence that each can influence the other. The most promising models are quite recent and
have not yet been adequately tested with data.
· Evolution in Popular and Intellectual Culture. No one, from the most dedicated biologist to
the most impassioned creationist, would deny that the idea of evolution has had a huge
influence on modern thought. Innumerable books have been written about the impact of
Darwinism on philosophy, anthropology, psychology, literature, and political history.
Evolution has been used (abused, we would say) to justify both communism and capitalism,
both racism and egalitarianism. Such is the grip of the evolutionary concept on the
imagination.
Fascination with evolution, though, is not limited to ethereal realms of intellectual
discourse. An unmeasured, but probably large, economic benefit flows indirectly from the role
of evolutionary biology in educating children and adults in scientific concepts and also in
providing popular entertainment. Books and television productions on biodiversity, natural
history, human origins, and prehistoric life (including dinosaurs) are extremely popular and
provide a readily accessible entry into abstract scientific thinking. Many children first become
interested in science, engineering, and environmental affairs through exposure to natural
history and then through introduction to the evolutionary principles that explain life's unity,
diversity, and adaptations.
Even among people who do not pursue careers in science and
engineering, an interest in natural history and evolution enhances critical thought (the basis of
the Jeffersonian ideal of an educated citizenry). This interest is also a considerable economic
force, through purchases of books and magazines, toys for children, and attendance at
museums and even the cinema. (The popular movie Jurassic Park could not have been made
without the new understanding of dinosaurs developed by evolutionary biologists in the
preceding 20 years.)
The throngs of visitors to dinosaur exhibits in museums, the popularity of
science fiction that employs evolutionary themes, the news coverage of every major hominid
fossil discovery and every major new idea about human evolution, the widespread public
concern about genetic theories of human behavior and about the possibility of cloning—all
attest to the fascination, foreboding, and hope that people feel about the evolutionary history
and future of humanity and the world.
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