Since my major (Finance) is not in the science field but instead in the business field, evolution and human variability do not really play much of a role. However, I did find Alters and Alters description of evolution being a unifying theme to make a lot of sense and help explain parts of other sciences. For example, I took a neuroanatomy course in which we analyzed human behavior by looking at how the chemicals in the brain interact. I learned that the brain’s memory system has changed somewhat significantly with the invention of the Internet, as people now have much more short term memory activity than long term because we are now relying on the Internet to store long term information. This means our attention spans and short term recall are shrinking the more we use the Internet to gather information, which is a scary thought. I think this bit of information is really interesting because it shows how the human brain is evolving with our technology, for better or for worse. I never realized that there is a connection between neuroanatomy and evolution before reading Alters and Alters reasoning of how evolution affects so much of science. I can’t imagine how much our brains, along with almost every body part or organ, have already changed throughout the centuries and how much more they will change as technology continues to develop. Without the concept of evolution we would never be able to compare the past to the present, as evolution “provides a framework for scientific disciplines with historical aspects”. Using the past is an essential part of not only the sciences, but almost any other field, meaning evolution reaches almost every aspect of our lives. 

Again, the readings and videos didn’t really make me think about my field differently because I am not majoring in a science field, but I did find one of the readings to be very compelling. “The 2% difference” article shocked me completely, as I never would have thought that 98% of a human’s DNA is the same as a chimpanzee, but after reading the article, it actually made a lot of sense. Instead of genes being the most important aspect, the number of neurons instead is the key distinction between humans and chimps. Humans having “humongous numbers” (Sapolsky 2) of specific neurons being the separation shows that while genes and DNA are very important to scientists, they don’t always tell the whole story. I think that this concept is something that people in all science fields should remember, as it encourages keeping an open mind and exploring all possibilities, even if you think one specific item is more important than anything else. I even think that this idea will be helpful to keep in mind in the Finance field, as I don’t want to end up overfocusing my attention on a piece of information that is actually not that important. Evolution and the lessons it teaches us are not only a uniting theme for the science fields, but for every field of study.