A Musical Approach to Darwin

Watch evolution at work

A team around evolutionary biologist, Nico Michiels, from the University of Tübingen, developed a computer game to explain the principles of evolution. The game is part of the project “Darwin Rocks!” and was financially supported by the Volkswagen Foundation.

Short melodies, so-called tuneomes, are evolved by mutation and selection. The player assumes the role of the natural environment. He selects the tuneomes that he likes most. These correspond to the ones, which are better adapted to the environment than oathers due to mutations. Positively evaluated tuneomes have a higher chance of producing offspring in the next generation.

The game allows several parameters to be adjusted, like population size, the level of mutations from one generation to the next and the level of environmental stress. The player can also choose asexual or sexual reproduction and the possibility of partner selection or incest. In this way, evolution can be simulated and watched as it happens. As a bonus, favourite tuneomes can be downloaded as personalised ringtones. The game is available at http://www.darwinrocks.de/en/.

Join the choir

With his song, Mr. Darwin, the British composer David Haines chose a more traditional approach. In six verses the song tells the story of Darwin’s voyage on the "Beagle" and the development of the theory of evolution by natural selection. The song also tells about Patrick Matthew and Alfred Russell Wallace, who anticipated Darwin’s theory.

When Matthew investigated methods to raise trees for the construction of Royal Navy ships, he realised that within each species some individuals were better adapted to the environment than others due to specific traits. These individuals would survive and reproduce through a "natural process of selection", while poorly adapted ones would not. Thus, natural selection leads to the formation of species. Matthew published his ideas in the appendix to On Naval Timber and Arboriculture in 1831, nearly thirty years before Darwin and Wallace had their concepts published. Whereas Darwin maintained that change in the natural world was a gradual and continuous process, Matthew considered a series of sudden and discontinuous geographical catastrophes to have triggered evolution. In Matthew’s view, periods of rapid evolutionary change were followed by long periods of stability.

Intuitive comprehension versus meticulous analysis

Matthew acknowledged Darwin’s achievements in a letter to Gardener’s Chronicle in 1860. “To me the conception of this law of Nature came intuitively as a self-evident fact, almost without an effort of concentrated thought. Mr. Darwin here seems to have more merit in the discovery than I have had - to me it did not appear a discovery. He seems to have worked it out by inductive reason, slowly and with due caution to have made his way synthetically from fact to fact onwards; while with me it was by a general glance at the scheme of Nature that I estimated this select production of species as an a priori recognisable fact - an axiom, requiring only to be pointed out to be admitted by unprejudiced minds of sufficient grasp.”

Little attention at first for Darwin and Wallace

Darwin had worked on his theory of natural selection since the late 1830s. However, he did not intend to publicly present it, before he had amassed a wealth of evidence. Wallace explored the wildlife of South America and Asia and sent Darwin birds for his studies. In 1858 he requested Darwin’s support to publish his own ideas on evolution, which were very similar to Darwin’s theory. Darwin’s and Wallace’s concepts of evolution by natural selection were jointly presented at a meeting of the Linnean Society in 1858 and accepted for publication. Neither of the authors was present. Darwin was at his son’s funeral, who had died of scarlet fever. Wallace was in New Guinea. There was no discussion and the society’s president complained of the lack of any striking discoveries that year. Darwin wrote in his autobiography, “Nevertheless, our joint productions excited very little attention, and the only published notice of them which I can remember was by Professor Haughton of Dublin, whose verdict was that all that was new in them was false, and what was true was old.” Darwin’s book "On the Origin of Species" was published in 1859.

Sing along!

In his song, Mr. Darwin, David Haines acknowledges Darwin, Wallace and Matthew as discoverers of the theory of evolution by natural selection. You could use this instructional piece of music to sing along with your colleagues. Wouldn’t it be great fun to video your lab’s performance of the song and publish it on your biology department’s website? Learn the song and join the choir at http://davidhaines.co.uk/singtastic.html.

Sources: Kentwood D. Wells, J.W.T. Moody, evolution.berkeley.edu, Smithsonian magazine, www.linnean.org