What have I learned so far?

First off, I think it is kind of crazy that evolution is both a theory and a fact. I has always been emphasized to me that it is a theory, but a well supported and generally accepted theory. If I were to go back to my first blog post, I would be more specific in that evolution must be heritable. It has not really occurred to me that there are innate aspects of a person, aspects that a are not easily changed, that are not heritable. My dad is homophobic and has complained that he doesn’t get how people could be gay because if the person is gay, they can’t have kids, and if they can’t have kids, they can’t pass on this trait of being gay. Despite the many issues with his statement, I think one of the key points that I did not know and could not argue at the time is his assumption that being gay is heritable. That’s another thing. I have realized that there are a lot of assumptions I make unconsciously when it comes to evolution. I have never thought about the fact that a lot of my assumptions are based on dominant recessive inheritance. I am not sure I knew of the other kind of inheritance - I cannot even think of what it is called at the moment. It is kind of cool to realize how many aspects need to be taken into account when considering the evolution of natural populations, and some aspects cannot be accurately predicted. Almost along the same vein, I had no idea that public health officials used evolution to examine bacterial and viral spread, their genetics, and how they may have mutated and changed in populations. Wow.

I did not know that non-random mating was not an evolutionary force because it does not change allele frequency in alleles across generations. I did not realize how big of a deal genetic drift was, and how it leads to allele fixation. Because it is random, there is no way to directly deal with it or account for it. We can only guess and create hundreds of simulations of natural populations. 

As for topics that I may need clarification on or help with, all I can say is I don’t know what I don’t know. I think I’m okay, but I can’t be 100% sure.

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