Darwin!

Hearing the name, the horse whistle changed his mind: "Well, this is the last one. ”

Soon he met Charles Darwin, a biologist, or naturalist, who was known to everyone in later generations.

Although the concept of "biology" has been around for decades, people now seem to be more identified with "naturalism", an older and more mixed discipline. Prior to the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, Darwin was known mainly for his observations on his voyages around the world, and had written a book entitled Geology during the Voyage of the Beagle, and it is indeed more appropriate to call him a naturalist.

Mr. Darwin was not very good-looking, not yet forty years old, but his hairline was already quite severe.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Whistle!" He shook hands warmly, his tone trembling a little, and he looked extremely excited.

Kelvin was incomprehensible to his agitation, and there were some fanatical admirers of the horse whistle in England, but it is unlikely that these admirers were naturalists in their thirties or forties.

The horse whistle could roughly guess the reason.

After all, in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, he had already made clear the core idea of Darwin's theory of evolution – what Darwin himself was brewing.

Sure enough, after a brief introduction to himself, Darwin said, "I just finished reading the book 'Guns, Germs and Steel', and it has opened the door to a new world for me!" ”

The whistle was about to be polite, and Darwin then added: "I have heard that physicists call you the 'father of thermodynamics', and in my opinion, you should also be the 'father of biology'!" ”

Kelvin looked at the horse whistle and teased, "Heh, you're such a merry fellow." ”

"The father of biology, this ...... I really don't dare to take it. "The horse whistle was a little embarrassed.

For the title of the father of thermodynamics, although he always has to be humble on the surface, he is actually very happy in his heart.

And the "father of biology" really embarrassed him, probably because he really knows very little about biology, only some broken memories left from his student days, which are not systematic at all, and it is inevitable that he will feel weak when he wears such a high hat.

"I can buy a book like this for ten shillings, and it's definitely the best deal I've ever made this year." Darwin also brought "Guns, Germs and Steel" with him, and when he sat down, he took it out, apparently prepared to have a good exchange.

"Mr. Darwin, if I'm not mistaken, the book is of most interest to you about evolution. ”

"Yes, I have great respect for Mr. Lamarck, but I always felt that his theory of evolution was not perfect, and I thought about it for a long time." Darwin said, "It wasn't until I read your book that I suddenly understood it." ”

He then said: "Especially the sentence 'natural selection, survival of the fittest', the moment I saw it, I felt my soul tremble......"

The two talked a little bit about what the book was about, and then the conversation gradually drifted away and turned to evolution.

Ma Whistle took a sip of tea: "To be honest, Mr. Darwin, I think that the problem of Lamarckism is not that it is imperfect, but that there are some fundamental errors, and that you should abandon it to a greater extent and establish a more scientific theory of evolution." ”

"For example?" Darwin hesitated.

"For example, acquired inheritance, I think the so-called 'use and waste out' is almost impossible." Ma Whistle said. He didn't say anything to death, because he remembered the epigenetic thing.

"Acquired heredity may have a role to play in biological evolution, but it is by no means dominant, and the Lamarck claim is too exaggerated...... Dominance can only be natural selection, and genetic mutations are random. ”

Darwin frowned: "Genes? What does the word mean, does it refer to a trait? ”

"It's a word I invented." "You can understand it as something in living organisms that is used to inherit and determine traits, and although we don't know exactly what it is, it definitely exists." ”

"How do you spell genes?" Darwin asked very seriously.

“gene.”

"The word was not inspired by the Greek word 'sheng'." Darwin thought for a moment.

"Ah...... Right. ”

"An apt word, I wish I could know what it really is in my lifetime." Darwin sighed, and then asked, "Why do you think that acquired inheritance can never dominate biological evolution?" ”

Ma Whistle thought for a moment, and suddenly turned his head to look at Kelvin: "Let me ask you a question, if we cut off the ears of a cow, let it give birth to offspring, and then cut off the ears of its offspring, and so on for dozens of generations, hundreds of generations, or even longer, do you think we can breed cattle without ears?" ”

Kelvin was stunned for a moment, and then said uncertainly, "I guess...... I think so, according to the 'evolutionary viewpoint'. ”

This answer was expected by the horse, so he asked rhetorically, "Then why are all women born virgins?" ”

"Well, frankly, I don't believe in any evolutionary theory, especially the 'natural selection' you mentioned," ...... Kelvin waved his hand. I remember you said in your book that life on Earth may have evolved over hundreds of millions of years or even billions of years, and when you wrote this number, did you think about a question - it is older than the age of the earth and the sun. ”

Ma Whistle: "In fact, that's one of my motivations for increasing the Sun's age estimate in the first place. However, I also admit that there is no very reliable basis for estimates of evolutionary time. ”

Darwin said: "I don't think it's an exaggeration to have a billion years of evolution. ”

"Why?" Kelvin asked.

Darwin: "I've done a lot of research on all kinds of creatures on my voyages around the world, and I've collected a lot of ancient fossils, and my gut tells me that some of the fossils should be hundreds of millions of years old, and that they're obviously not the oldest. ”

Kelvin: "Intuition is often unreliable, at least in science. ”

"Let's stop talking about this, it's going to lead nowhere. Perhaps we can look forward to the wisdom of future generations, and perhaps in a few years, we will have the means to determine the precise time of the earth, the sun, and the evolution of life. Ma Whistle said.

He knew that the debate would not end until humans learned to use radioactivity to determine geological age.

Darwin: "I'm curious, what made you think of 'natural selection'?" I've observed and documented creatures all over the world and still haven't figured it out, and you seem to be ...... IMHO, it doesn't seem like you know a lot about biology. ”

After all, Ma Whistle knew too little about biology, and although he knew a lot of things ahead of his time, it was impossible to completely bluff Darwin.

After some conversation, Darwin soon discovered that the biological basis of the horse whistle was very loose, so he asked this question.

"You're right, I really don't know much about biology." Ma Whistle nodded, "Actually, the idea of natural selection came from the process of thinking about physics. ”

"What physics?" Both Darwin and Kelvin were surprised.

"I used to wonder if our world, or reality, is also the result of some degree of natural selection." Ma Whistle was vague and did not intend to go into details. There was something called quantum Darwinism, which was too illusory for nineteenth-century scientists.

Darwin listened, and for a moment thought: "Sounds more like a philosophical question." If the world is also the result of natural selection, then there must be many worlds. But what is the 'environment' for the world? ”

Ma Whistle smiled and shook his head: "I didn't figure it out, so I tried to think about other fields, and there was 'natural selection' about living things." Of course, it's sketchy and has little basis in reality, and it's more like a hypothesis, as I'm sure you'll already realize when you read Guns, Germs, and Steel...... The only way to establish a new, scientific theory of biological evolution is to be a true master of biology, like you, Mr. Darwin. ”

Darwin said, "Inspired by Guns, Germs and Steel, I really wanted to write a book on evolution. How about giving me a name? I will definitely list you as a co-author of the book. ”

"It's called 'Origin of Species', what do you think?" Ma Whistle said.

"Origin of Species...... That's an ambitious name. Darwin was a little stunned, "If the church saw it, it would be very unhappy." ”

"What do you think?" Ma Whistle was somewhat unsure of Darwin's attitude towards religion, and so far Darwin's views on religion could only be described as ambiguous.