Universe Today has had the incredible opportunity to explore several scientific fields including impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, planetary atmospheres, planetary geophysics, cosmochemistry, meteorites, radio astronomy, extremophiles, organic chemistry, black holes, cryovolcanism, planetary protection, dark matter, supernovas, neutron stars and exomoons and how these diverse yet unique fields all form the basis for us to better understand our place in the Universe.
Here, Universe Today discusses the incredible field of evolutionary biology with Dr. David Baum, Professor of Botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He discusses the importance of studying evolutionary biology, the highlights of his career, what evolutionary biology can teach us about the search for life beyond Earth, and what advice he can give to prospective students who want to study evolutionary biology. So what is the importance of studying evolutionary biology?
Dr. Baum tells Universe Today: “Humans and all living things are the product of evolution. So what could be more important than understanding how evolution works to produce such amazing organisms and ecosystems! Biology is primarily concerned with how questions, such as: How do we fight infections? How do animals choose their mates? How do plants use light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into plant compounds?”
Dr. Baum continues: “Evolutionary biologists ask why questions. When we do, the answer can be either historical or generally ahistorical. In both cases, evolutionary models enrich our understanding of the natural world. Evolution also helps us make predictions, such as the almost inevitable development of resistance to antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, etc.”
The field of evolutionary biology, also called evolution by natural selection, was founded in 1859 by Charles Darwin, who coined the concept of evolution by natural selection in his book On the Origin of Species. Although these new insights into the evolution of life were groundbreaking, they were not recognized as a separate field by the academic community until the 1930s. And it took another five decades before departments of evolutionary biology were established at universities.
Since then, the field of evolutionary biology has “evolved” to better understand speciation, sexual reproduction, aging, and cooperation, bringing fields like computer science and molecular genetics into the process of answering these questions. It involves the study of different types of evolution, including adaptive, convergent, divergent, and coevolution, which attempt to explain how life evolves over time based on its environment, species, and interactions. In addition, medicine uses evolutionary biology to gain deeper insights into evolutionary medicine and evolutionary therapies. So what are some of the career highlights Dr. Baum has experienced while studying evolutionary biology?
Dr. Baum tells Universe Today: “There are too many to list, but perhaps the best part was that in 2014 I hypothesized how complex cells with nuclei might have arisen, and then in 2015 researchers discovered a new group of organisms that, when visualized in 2020, supported our model so surprisingly well that textbooks on the subject were rewritten!”
As the name suggests, the field of evolutionary biology is the study of biological development over time, which can range from thousands to billions of years. Evolutionary biologists seek to understand the processes that allowed life to develop on Earth, from the first single-celled organisms that existed in our planet's early history to the millions of complex species that inhabit our planet today. Although Earth is the only known celestial body with life, the questions that drive the field of evolutionary biology extend beyond the boundaries of our small, blue world. In doing so, evolutionary biologists ask whether the same processes could have allowed life to arise on other celestial bodies, including the planets Mars and Venus and even moons like Europa and Titan.
Today, the planet Mars is a dry, cold, and desolate world. But could life have formed billions of years ago, after the Red Planet itself was formed? And while the surface of Venus has extreme temperatures and pressures where life as we know it cannot exist, what was it like billions of years ago? And what about Venus' atmosphere, which offers evidence that life as we know it could exist today at high altitudes, where conditions of temperature and pressure are more similar to those on Earth? Is there life in the deep oceans of Europa, and what about the lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane on Titan? Given these burning questions, what can evolutionary biology teach us about the search for life beyond Earth?
“My lab is studying how evolution can begin on inanimate planets,” Dr. Baum tells Universe Today. “We use both chemical experiments and analytical work based on principles from physics and evolutionary theory. I believe this work will ultimately clarify whether some kind of evolving biosphere is inevitable and whether it is likely to be made up of individualized units such as cells and whether these units are likely to have an analogue in genetic systems. It's too early to know, but I suspect that individualization is probably universal, but I'm less sure about genetics. However, we suspect that without genetic systems, cellular complexity is likely to be limited.”
As mentioned above, the field of evolutionary biology encompasses a wide range of expertise from a variety of scientific disciplines, including computer science, genetics, and medicine. In addition, it has enabled the creation of new fields of research that study the evolution of robotics, engineering, architecture, and economics. For evolutionary robotics, scientists used the theory of natural selection to improve robots using artificial intelligence (AI), which involves developing algorithms to weed out the least efficient robot designs based on a specific task assigned to them. This has allowed engineers to develop efficient robots that can function in environments unfavorable to humans, such as nanoscale or space. So what advice can Dr. Baum give to prospective students who want to study evolutionary biology?
Dr. Baum tells Universe Today: “Read lots of wonderful popular books to get a feel for the underlying principles, but be critical of your own thinking – the concept of evolution by natural selection seems simple, but it turns out to be much more subtle and complex than people usually think.”
As the field of evolutionary biology continues to grow, expand, and “evolve,” helping other fields of science do the same, so will our understanding of how life arose on Earth and possibly on other worlds. In the 165 years since it was introduced by Charles Darwin, the field of evolutionary biology has grown to encompass far more than Darwin could have imagined, so it's exciting to think about where evolutionary biology will be in the next 165 years.
Dr. Baum concludes to Universe Today: “Evolutionary biology is central to understanding why organisms are the way they are. But it is also the basis for the most profound questions in astrobiology and physics: Is there a drive for life in the universe? If a world produces life, is there a drive for complexity and intelligence? And, to extrapolate, are we alone in the universe?!”
How will evolutionary biology help us understand our place in the universe in the years and decades to come? Only time will tell, and that's why we do science!
And as always, keep doing science and keep looking up!
Like this:
Is loading…
