I'm not a scientist, but have found myself thinking about the mechanism of evolution lately. I've been thinking about different strands of information that get reported in popular publications, about viruses, about mechanisms that switch genes on and off, and about cane toads.

Cane toads were introduced into Australia to deal with a pest, but soon became a pest themselves. They were originally from rain forest areas, but have proved remarkably adaptable and have been steadily and successfully making their way into the Australian desert area - specifically to Lake Ayre.

Now from what I remember of high school biology, and I'm sure that much has been discovered since then, so feel free to disagree, evolution is supposed to be a very, very slow process, especially for more complex animals like cane toads. But this adaptation, and, who knows, maybe what is to become an evolution, has happened in less than a heartbeat in evolutionary terms.

The other strand of information relates to some sort of environmental experience that has been passed on to grandchildren from their grandmothers - from my fading memory was it some effect of smoking? How can that be? Genetic damage, or genetic switch? Anyway, not survival of the fittest - or maybe it is.

So the question I have about evolution is this? Why cant evolution be a pro-active thing? It makes sense, in terms of survival, that rather than the eventual survival of the fittest theory, which seems awfully like a hit and miss affair, that the myriad, exponential possibilities presented by those genetic switches being turned on or off in response to environmental influences could be passed on as tendencies through parents to the fetus to subsequent generations making for a much more efficient and speedy process. Then, even psychological factors could be built into this system as stress, danger, well-being all affect the switch system (I think).

The other bit of information, the virus, can modify its host. Maybe this is where entirely new species evolve.

Anyway, I'm more an artist than a scientist, but it's fun to play with these ideas isn't it? Especially if you don't have the burden of knowing too much.

Learn more about this author, Jane Smith.
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