The Power of Evolution
By Nuhash Humayun
Would you believe me if I told you whales were once cows?! Face it or not, you will be surprised at what evolution did and can do! Those who watch “Pokemon” will have heard about evolution as Pokemon evolve when they reach a certain mana. But in reality, it's a whole new aspect. In the terms of a dictionary, evolution is the process of adaptation i.e. transforming in vivid ways to adjust with the surroundings. Animals, plants & microorganisms evolve, than re-evolve with the cause of time and with the change of surroundings in order to maintain existence or meet biological needs.
A long time ago, humans (us) were monkeys (as most of us know). At that time, we ate ferns and toxic plants. So, in order to digest it, we had grown the “appendix” via the help of evolution. But at present we have no use of it. Similarly for the sake of survival, we had grown a larger brain, managed to overcome nature, but is now ruling the world.
In order to adapt, many terrestrial (ground roaming) animals have grown wings in place of arms their in order to soar the outer hemispheres; or gills in place of their lungs to set afoot on the vast aquatic terrain. Meanwhile camels, donkeys have evolved to roam the dessert by extending their fatty tissue and sealing water within their fur. Now don't have your imagination fling dreaming why we cannot grow wing, have gills etc.etc? That is because evolution is a very long process and only occurs at sheer necessity. Animals and plants are known to evolve and modify critical biological features within a time period of about 1-10 thousand years.
Evolution helps to answer some questions related to animal/plant diversity. Obviously, we know a larger body requires a larger diet to maintain itself, and a smaller diet requires less food. This principle plays the role of sizes of creatures/plants. That is, due to many ecological and biological factors, some species get more food while others get less. Therefore, in order to maintain its body with the limited food available, the creature shrinks its organs. This helps explain why some birds are large e.g. falcon, and why some are small e.g. mosquito.
Humans many centuries ago lived very long lives (about 500-1000 years) and grew very large. But with the shortage of food, we have grown shorter with a dramatic cut down in life-span. With the current alarming rate of food deficiency, we will grow even shorter with very short life-spans.
But, evolution fights a never ending war. At desperate moments, evolution is known to do many surprising things. So, there is nothing to be afraid of as evolution has saved many species from clear and present extinction. After a massive meteor hit the earth, the survival of all life was threatened due to oxygen deficiency. But thanks to evolution, animals grew bigger lungs and shorter eyes.
The only life on this planet was once a molecule of amino acid. Through millions of years of endless effort and determination, the tiny particle began to extract particles around it; gradually growing larger and larger. Through this process the simple chemical became the first living organism, a bacteria called-“pyroadide”. This further grew to be the animals and plants of today.
Sometimes people are favored for their talent while others are criticized for being talent less. But people are not born with this raw talent. Extraordinary abilities develop when the body is faced with extreme burden, forcing the body to enhance in unusual ways. Everyone possesses the body infrastructure and the same amount of chromosomes (genes). Practically, it's the content of these chromosomes that determine a person, his abilities, his behavior etc. But we have the supreme beings. We possess the power to mould ourselves; it's a power that displaces and rearranges the nucleotides containing thymine, adenine, guanine, and cytosine of our genes; it's the power that breaks our ancestral bonds with the past; it's the power of determination. No matter what our heritage, no matter what we had possessed from our forefathers, we have power, the strength to change ourselves; we have the power to be exactly whoever we want to be, be it a super soccer player or the next Einstein.
This is the outcome of human evolution: the ultimate adaptation.
