Our modern conception of evolution started with Charles Darwin and his idea of natural selection – “survival of the fittest” – to explain why certain individuals thrive while others fail to leave a legacy. Then came genetics to explain the underlying mechanism: changes in organisms caused by random mutations of genes.
Now this powerful picture is changing once more, as discoveries in genetics, epigenetics, developmental biology and other fields lend a new complexity and richness to our greatest theory of nature. Find out more in this special feature.
1 GENES AREN’T DESTINY
The principle of genetic plasticity
IN 1990, an international group of scientists embarked on one of the most ambitious research projects ever undertaken. They would sequence the entire human genome, determining the order of the 3.3 billion base pairs that code for the genes that make the proteins that each of us are built from. There was huge excitement at the prospect of decoding the “blueprint” of humanity. Given the complexity of our species, our genome was expected to contain at least 100,000 genes. What makes us human would finally be laid bare.
It didn’t quite work out like that. The Human Genome Project was a resounding success, publishing its results in 2003, two years ahead of target. However, it revealed that humans only have around 22,000 genes, which is about the same number as other mammals. Meanwhile, the blueprint itself turned out to be encrypted in ways we are still trying to crack.
The same thing is true of us that is true of every species: our DNA can be expressed in myriad different ways depending on…
