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| Gregor Mendel |
In a previous article I wrote about the origin of life
and related problems. That is only the first of the outstanding issues
regarding evolution. There are many more, for we are far from having an
explanation for everything that happened during the history of life.
The theory of evolution through
natural selection was first proposed by Darwin and refined by his followers when
new discovered biological phenomena solved some of the problems posed since the
beginning of the theory:
1. The laws of heredity (Mendel, 1865).
2. Mutations (Hugo de Vries, 1900).
3. The laws of genetics (Thomas Hunt
Morgan, early twentieth century).
4. The synthetic theory of evolution
(Simpson, Dobzhansky and others, around 1930)
5. The transmission of inheritance
through DNA (Oswald Avery, 1944).
6. The structure of DNA and the
deciphering of the genetic code (Watson, Crick, Rosalind Franklin and others).
7. The neutral theory of evolution
(Motoo Kimura, 1968).
8. Punctuated equilibrium (Stephen Jay
Gould, 1972).
9. Epigenetics (early twenty first
century).
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| Rosalind Franklin |
