I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection — Charles Darwin
A fundamental characteristic of biological organisms is their innate drive to survive and reproduce. If either of these traits were absent, that particular lineage of biology would cease to exist.
For survival and reproduction, biological organisms require a source of energy. This energy is a vital resource for them and is needed to preserve their integrity against the ravages of entropy. It is their Kryptonite.
In the context of plants, they harness sunlight as the source of energy and convert it into consumable nutrients through the process of photosynthesis. Animals, on the other hand, form a food chain that ultimately relies on the sustenance provided by plants. Therefore, the ultimate source of energy for all biology on the Earth is sunlight, powered by the thermonuclear reactions occurring at its core.
The amount of energy available, however, is limited. There is a fixed amount of sunlight that falls on per square kilometer of Earth’s surface. The amount depends on the geographical location and the season. Tropical latitudes have more sunlight available for consumption compared to higher latitudes. It is no wonder that the variety of life forms is far richer in the tropics.
The limited availability of energy, coupled with the energy requirements of biological organisms for survival and reproduction, triggers a competition for energy resources. There is no central authority managing the distribution of energy to ensure equitable allocation. Each organism is on its own, employing whatever means necessary to secure as much energy as possible.
Emergence of new traits among organisms can aid in securing more energy. For plants, characteristics such as greater height or a larger leaf area can help capture more sunlight. Access to a larger portion of the available energy, akin to having a larger slice of the pie, improves the chances of survival and reproduction. Over several generations, these advantageous traits begin to dominate the population, leading to the evolution of the organism into a new species.
Given two fundamental facts: (a) biological organisms need energy to survive and reproduce, and (b) the amount of available energy is finite, a competition to secure energy is inevitably established and traits beneficial for securing energy are favored.
This straightforward narrative encapsulates the fundamental principle of natural selection. It is a process where organisms possessing traits that enhance chances for survival and reproduction (by securing more energy) tend to produce more offspring compared to their counterparts. This leads to a gradual increase in the prevalence of beneficial traits over successive generations.
The beauty and elegance of this concept lie in the fact that two fundamental facts, which could be considered as axioms, lead to the formulation of natural selection as the only viable path forward. Even if alternative processes for evolutions could be theoretically construed, they may not be sustainable solutions without help from an external agency and would lead to logical dead ends.
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