this is Startalk so bill do you collect
stuff as a kid yeah would you collect
rocks and then in ninth grade we were
compelled to get an insect collection
yeah ah I can still give you order and
family of a lot of insects and you can
see evolution you know from your
Orthoptera to your hymen options for
example I would clearly clearly write
your locust to your four wing flies
gotcha and you can see it Chuck do you
ever collect anything I collect dung
beetles ah
do you really cuz it would be pretty
cool if you did that would be pretty
cool because quite frankly there is so
varied and the really depends on the
pond where they live when you speak of
dump you have to use in a British accent
oh yes it's much of fact I kill of dung
beetles there you go people don't know
but some Dominque you're going our metal
castle no I collect things as a kid I
didn't collect Jack not good no you know
what's funny I still okay I'm ashamed to
say what I collect right now but it's
hotel key cards don't ask me let's not
go into real that's where I collect
right now okay when I was older I
started clicking keys really you have a
key ring that has maybe 500 keys on it
okay yeah yeah well then I stopped I
said why the hell am I doing this and I
should stop it so one morning I wore my
door open every door you encounter it
Neil: So Bill, Darwin was a big collector. He came
up with evolution by natural selection
could you give us like a three-minute
exposition of Darwin's theory of
evolution? Bill: the big idea is that living
things make more of themselves than can
survive. A troubling realization.
But left to their own,
dandelions would take over the world.
Left to their own... Neil: That's why there's so
many acorns on the ground under an
acorn tree. That's why there's
so many sperm right yes half a billion
last I counted yeah Wow that would take
you all afternoon
and so I estimated so that fundamental
idea damn it I lost count
start again daddy no go ahead well that
and you can't really tag them
it's probably where you stay there you
don't imagine I kept ticking but the
Bill: But the thing is - species make more of themselves
than can survive so they compete for
places and ecosystems and then they
compete within their own species,
that's sexual selection, and then here we all are.
Now, along this line, the conclusion that Darwin
reached and I think many naturalists
reach naturally is that we are all to
have a common ancestor. We're all
descended from the same thing,
whatever that thing is, and people throw
out the word single-celled organism
archaea with something like this, but
there's no evidence on Earth so far that
there's any other way to do it except
with DNA so the thing that is
fascinating is Charles Darwin wrote this
book where he has the theory and the
experiments. He was quite a diligent
experimenter. In one volume, and he didn't
know about DNA! He didn't know about
genes, as such, genetics. He didn't know
what we think of as genes. Didn't know
chromosomes, really. He was just jamming, looking
at his collections and reaching amazing
conclusions. World-changing conclusions.
Got to respect that! Chuck: Which have since
been confirmed via DNA.
BIll: Oh man, every which way. Oh yeah.
Chuck: Chromosomes and genes and so forth.
 
