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Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species

Definition

This is an influential book written by Charles Darwin in 1859 where he introduced his scientific theory that populations evolve over generations through a process called natural selection.

Analogy

Imagine you're baking cookies for a contest. You start off with one recipe but each time you bake, you tweak something small - maybe more sugar or less baking time - until eventually your cookies are so good they win first place! That's kind of how On The Origin Of Species explains evolution - small changes over many generations leading to big differences.

Related terms

Evolutionary Biology: The branch of biology concerned with understanding how different life forms have changed over time due to changes in their genetic characteristics.

Adaptation: In biology, this refers to an organism's ability to adjust to different conditions in order to survive and reproduce.

Natural Selection: As mentioned earlier, this is the process where organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.