Hobbies And Interests
Evolution
Evolution through inherited changes in DNA is said by Darwin to take place very slowly. In contrast, traits are acquired during the lifetime of an organism and have not been thought to affect the offspring. For example, it took many thousands of years for the thumb to evolve, but a child can learn how to do a cartwheel in a few days.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a French naturalist, believed that parents could pass on acquired traits, or the consequences of those traits to their children. His theories were discarded as Darwinism gained ground. However, more recent studies show that factors like diet can result in changes in the DNA of the mother, who passes the DNA on to her offspring.
Faster Changes in DNA
In laboratory experiments, mice that are genetically developed to be yellow, diabetic and cancerous can instead grow to be brown, lean, and healthy because their mother ate folic acid, vitamin B12 and genistein. Since 1999, this experiment has been successfully repeated in different labs. While this doesn't discredit evolution, some scientists are proposing that what an individual organism acquires, like its food habits, can indeed affect its DNA and be inherited much more quickly than inheritance by the evolutionary process.