Page 208 - Biomimetics: Technology Imitates Nature

Biomimetics: Technology Imitates Nature

natural selection has no evolutionary power. Darwin was also aware of
this fact and had to state this in his book The Origin of Species:
Natural selection can do nothing until favourable individual differences or vari-
ations occur. 143

Lamarck's Impact

So, how could these "favorable variations" occur? Darwin tried to
answer this question from the standpoint of the primitive understand-
ing of science at that time. According to the French biologist Chevalier
de Lamarck (1744-1829), who lived before Darwin, living creatures
passed on the traits they acquired during their lifetime to the next gen-
eration. He asserted that these traits, which accumulated from one gen-
eration to another, caused new species to be formed. For instance, he
claimed that giraffes evolved from antelopes; as they struggled to eat
the leaves of high trees, their necks were extended from generation to
generation.
Darwin also gave similar examples.
In his book The Origin of Species, for in-
stance, he said that some bears going into
water to find food transformed them-

selves into whales over time. 144
However, the laws of inheritance dis-
covered by Gregor Mendel (1822-84) and
verified by the science of genetics, which
flourished in the twentieth century, utter-
Accidental mutations develop in-
to defects in humans as well as ly demolished the legend that acquired
other living beings. The traits were passed on to subsequent gen-
Chernobyl disaster is an eye- erations. Thus, natural selection fell out of
opener for the effects of muta-
tions.

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