Competition and Natural Selection | Evolution | Biology | FuseSchool
Channel: FuseSchool - Global Education
Date: 19/04/2017

In nature, all organisms compete with each other for resources in order to survive. Competition between members of the same species is what makes organisms evolve.  

This theory of competition and ‘survival of the fittest’ is called Natural Selection, and was originally proposed by Charles Darwin in his book “On the Origin of Species” in 1859.  Darwin observed that within a species, different individuals show wide degrees of variation. He proposed that individuals with characteristics most suited to their environment are more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass on these characteristics. Meanwhile, individuals that are less well adapted to their environment might not survive and reproduce. Their less well adapted characteristics will eventually become removed from the population. 

This process causes species to change gradually, and enables new species to eventually emerge.  After it was published, “On the Origin of Species” caused a storm of controversy and Charles Darwin was ridiculed, but his theory of natural selection is now widely accepted. During the twentieth century we discovered that the characteristics of an organism that are passed from one generation to the next are controlled by genes. 

Scientists were then able to explain Darwin’s theory of natural selection in terms of the selection of favourable genes. Natural selection can directly impact humans when it comes to treating disease. Discovery of the antibiotic penicillin in 1928 was lauded as a great advance in therapeutic medicine, and it soon became widely used. However, within just a few years some bacteria could withstand the effects of penicillin - they had adapted a resistance to the antibiotic.  

These “fitter” bacteria survived, and in the late 20th century bacterial populations began to emerge that were resistant to penicillin. Nowadays, antibiotics are used more sparingly and scientists are attempting to find other ways to treat infections.

SUBSCRIBE to the FuseSchool YouTube channel for many more educational videos. Our teachers and animators come together to make fun & easy-to-understand videos in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Maths & ICT.

VISIT us at www.fuseschool.org, where all of our videos are carefully organised into topics and specific orders, and to see what else we have on offer. Comment, like and share with other learners. You can both ask and answer questions, and teachers will get back to you.

These videos can be used in a flipped classroom model or as a revision aid. 

Find all of our Chemistry videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRnpKjHpFyg&list=PLW0gavSzhMlReKGMVfUt6YuNQsO0bqSMV 

Find all of our Biology videos here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjkHzEVcyrE&list=PLW0gavSzhMlQYSpKryVcEr3ERup5SxHl0 

Find all of our Maths videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJq_cdz_L00&list=PLW0gavSzhMlTyWKCgW1616v3fIywogoZQ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/fuseSchool

Access a deeper Learning Experience in the FuseSchool platform and app: www.fuseschool.org
Follow us: http://www.youtube.com/fuseschool
Friend us: http://www.facebook.com/fuseschool

This Open Educational Resource is free of charge, under a Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC ( View License Deed: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ).  You are allowed to download the video for nonprofit, educational use. If you would like to modify the video, please contact us: info@fuseschool.org