Scientific discoveries this week: 4/29/13
Orlando, Florida
Researchers from the University of Central Florida demonstrated that species can evolve over generations regardless of whether they have to compete for food, habitat, or other factors. They used a computer model to mimic how organisms evolve and their results indicated that competition is not necessary for evolution to take place. According to Kenneth Stanley, a professor with the research team, evolvable organisms separate themselves from other less evolvable organisms over time simply by becoming more diverse. Their results do not correspond with commonly held beliefs and indicate that the traditional selective and adaptive explanations for increasing evolvability deserve more scrutiny.