Spooky, Scary, Midterms

    Personal growth is a hard thing to measure. Personally, I think I've come the furthest in my ability to think deeper and more critically. During our first discussion we talked about Darwin's finches and why their beaks might be changing through the years. My first thought was "Well, duh this is a heritable trait, we know that. That's obvious." Initially, I was incredibly confused and, honestly, a little irritated that there was so much discussion around it. Beak size is heritable, we should know this. Looking back, I understand my initial reaction: something I thought I knew was being challenged and I was confused. I'm glad I was able to keep an open mind, though, because all the rabbit holes and possibilities are not only more fun to delve into, but make a lot of sense. Beaks can adjust by small amounts with more or less use. Heritability of the trait was not a known fact at the time Just because the trait is heritable and there is a change does not mean that there is evolution taking place. What even defines evolution? 

    To be frank, I think that I still agree with my original definition of evolution. There's a lot of things that can be associated with it and a lot of nuances that need to be taken into account, but I believe that what I originally wrote holds water. Along with this, I think that the concepts are connecting pretty decently. I don't feel that I'm struggling excessively with anything, even if there are some topics that I need to delve a little deeper into for them to make more sense. I appreciate the discussions and abilities to talk things out, hear other perspectives.

    I think I will continue my rabbit hole dive into inbreeding with some mutation thrown in. I was talking with my husband just earlier today about how it seems impossible to try and "cure" cancer, since cancer is just an excess division of cells and a mutation, totally random and occasionally with a genetic predisposition. I would like to delve into the dystopian future that would need to occur for cancer to very truly stop existing, opposed to just us having really great defense mechanisms for it.