Week 2 Learning

This week in AP Biology we learned more about evolution, the common ancestry of life, and hypothesis on  molecular origins of life.

Evolution

Chapter 9 taught us about evolution, variation, and natural selection. We also learned about different evolution theories besides natural selection such as how individuals do not evolve, populations do. We touched on convergent evolution, which is a similar problem, similar solution.

It makes me wonder if a single population can solve a “problem” with multiple different adaptations? We dug deeper into Darwin’s life, and learned how he came from a wealthy family and went on a voyage around the world and studied different organisms. Through the Galapagos Island, Darwin discovered natural selection. However, he didn’t publish this theory for twenty years because Alfred Russel Wallace sent a paper to him with the same theory for Darwin to review. Darwin quickly published his theory before Wallace could get credit first. He also wrote The Origin of Species.

Common Ancestry of Life

Finally, the lecture taught us that there was a common ancestry of life. This was very interesting to me and hard to wrap my head around. We all come from 1 ancestor, kind of like a family tree. This makes me question how scientist came to this conclusion and what exactly that common ancestor is and where it came from. Did it come from a bacteria?

Hypothesis on Molecular Origins of Life

First there is the Metabolism-First Hypothesis. This consists of several different hypothesis proposed by different researchers about how life first formed. These hypotheses are united by the idea that ordered chemical reactions was the property of the initial life form. Then, there is the Replication First Hypothesis. This is the belief that the first life was a self replicating DNA. This makes me wonder how RNA could replicate and store.

Everything we have learned this week is connected to Big Idea 1, talking about common ancestry, the hypotheses for the origin of life, and the continuation of evolution.

Links:

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