Reply to comment

Evolutionary theory is important to biology because it is a central paradigm of the field.  It is a story that is capable of making sense of a very diverse set of observations that have arisen from the study of living things.  The story of evolution is applicable to everything from ribosomes to human history. 

Consider the award of the Nobel Prize in chemistry to three biochemists: Ada Yonath, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, and Thomas Steitz for their work determining the structure of the ribosome.  They used x-ray crystallography to determine the three dimensional structure of the ribosome.  The structure of a biological macromolecule or cluster of macromolecules implies something about its function.  Knowledge about the ribosomes of bacteria work will help scientists create drugs that disrupt their function, new classes of antibiotics.  There are significant differences between the ribosomes of bacteria and humans.  New antibiotics are necessary because bacteria have evolved resistance to many of the drugs currently available.  Essentially, random mutations in the bacteria’s genome that allow them to survive in the presence of antibiotics, lead to reproductive success for those mutants.  The wild type bacteria are killed and can not produce offspring.  Scientists are studying ribosomes in part to understand and control bacterial evolution. 

From the publication of Darwin’s Descent of Man, human evolution continues to be a controversial topic.  It is germane to conversations about race, disease, and the future.  How humans evolved could help us predict what the human race might become.  Knowledge of the evolutionary basis of human behavior could allow us to make more informed long-term decisions.  There are a lot of potential applications of evolutionary theory to human culture and society.