My declared major is human biology and therefore, it is a given that there will be a lot of material covered throughout my college career that examines evolution. Courses such as biology itself discuss the importance of natural selection, Darwinism, and how humans vary through the concept of variability and recombination within chromosomes. Human variability is all about how we, as humans, are different from one another. Moreover, there is a lot to a person than just one ethnicity, nationality, and our phenotype. Throughout attending Michigan State University, I finally began to realize the importance of comprehending how our DNA works in order to make us different from one another. In this week of lectures, and the previous week, we had discussed natural selection and how this is an important factor in who gets to survive and evolve with the world. Human genes and characteristics play a huge role in defining who survives and evolution itself. A quote from the Alters and Alters text states, “A simple answer is that evolution is the basic context of all the biological sciences…evolution is the explanatory framework, the unifying theory” (pg. 2) and this makes sense. If we think about the concept of DNA and how genes are linked together or far in different loci, this biological study drive us to understand evolution studies and why some humans are built the way that they are while also considering who is most fit to evolve in the world.
The lectures presented this week gave me more insight into material I have studied previously throughout my time at MSU. However, even though there is material that I recognize, the concept of regulation and recombination made it possible to further comprehend the importance of human genes and why humans evolve the way that they do. I found it very interesting to learn the concept of hox genes this week talking about how humans are related to other species such as chimpanzees by 98% all due to the concept of our genes. The 2% difference article exposes the ways in which humans are not that different. The article discusses differences between humans and chimpanzees, such as the size of the brain and how the brain is powered, and how human brains are powered much stronger and larger. However, 98% of similarity comes from regulating genes that have the power of development and growth. Humans have such strong abilities even though most of the species are built the same due to these hox genes. To reiterate, I never stressed the importance of hox genes until learning more about it this week. It makes me really understand and value the concept of development and why/when something evolves and what does not evolve. This has definitely brought a new light into understanding the framework of biology.
Hey Hanna! It was really cool to get a view of this class from the perspective of a human biology major, something that’s way different from what I’m studying. I really liked how you pointed out how humans are more than just one thing, ethnicity, nationality, and phenotypes are only one part of the puzzle. It was also really cool to see that, even though you’ve been studying biology before you came into the class and have learned about some of the same topics we’ve covered, that you were still able to gain some new insight into your field. Like with the hox genes, for example, even though you had already known about them you were still able to develop a deeper understanding of the important role that they play in evolution.