This is just one example of a very general trend, namely that natural selection routinely builds mechanisms that human engineers still struggle to match. Imagine how hard it would be to build a spider-sized robot that could do this! Even so, it’s amazing that natural selection can engineer such intricately patterned instincts, and amazing that it can squeeze so much behavioral complexity into such a tiny brain. Now, the spider presumably doesn’t have a mental image of the completed web in its little spider mind, in the way that a human architect or engineer would. To kick off with a simple example, consider this industrious little spider, diligently weaving her web. No less than eyes and claws, these things are adaptations designed ultimately to pass on the genes giving rise to them. More precisely, the motivations and neural circuitry underpinning behavior evolve. The first lesson in the science of animal behavior is this: Natural selection doesn’t just create anatomical adaptations, like eyes and wings and teeth and claws it creates behavioral adaptations as well. Many viral animal clips-of gorillas and gazelles, weird birds and bees-look like frivolous fun on the surface, but turn out to hold important lessons about the evolution of our “ cousins in fur and feathers” … and about our own evolution. And one area where this may be particularly effective is in the science of animal behavior. One way that I suspect has gone relatively unnoticed is using memes and viral YouTube clips as a gateway drug to science.

They recognize how useful science is, of course, but they’re closed off to the pleasures of its discoveries.Īs a result, science educators like myself are always trying to find ways to turn people on to science. Many people could get hooked on science, but for one reason or another don’t take to it immediately and never acquire the taste.

For some, the joys of science are readily accessible they get hooked on it as children, then get to enjoy a regular fix of science for the rest of their lives. Science can be a peculiar source of joy-the joy, largely unique to human beings, of understanding the universe in which we live.

Evolution the greatest show on earth