All 3 Uses
natural selection
in
The War of the Worlds
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- He pointed out—writing in a foolish, facetious tone—that the perfection of mechanical appliances must ultimately supersede limbs; the perfection of chemical devices, digestion; that such organs as hair, external nose, teeth, ears, and chin were no longer essential parts of the human being, and that the tendency of natural selection would lie in the direction of their steady diminution through the coming ages.†
Chpt 2.2natural selection = the process through which species adapt to their environments
- Now by the action of natural selection, all terrestrial plants have acquired a resisting power against bacterial diseases—they never succumb without a severe struggle, but the red weed rotted like a thing already dead.†
Chpt 2.6 *
- But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind we have developed resisting power; to no germs do we succumb without a struggle, and to many—those that cause putrefaction in dead matter, for instance—our living frames are altogether immune.†
Chpt 2.8
Definitions:
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(1)
(natural selection) the process where traits that lead to more surviving offspring become more common in a population over time -- thus better adapting future generations to the environmentWhen Charles Darwin visited the Galápagos Islands in 1835, he observed that finches had different beak shapes perfectly suited to the specific food source on their island.
Darwin eventually used the term "natural selection" to describe the process where birds with beaks better suited for the local food survived and reproduced more successfully. He explained that just as a farmer selects the best crops (artificial selection), nature acts as the selector, favoring inherited traits—like the adapted beaks—that allow an organism to thrive and pass those traits to the next generation. - (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)