Evolutionary Biology Flashcards

What is Evolutionary Biology?

Evolutionary biology is a subdiscipline of the biological sciences concerned with the origin of life and the diversification and adaptation of life forms over time.

The processes studied in both evolution and evolutionary biology include natural selection, common descent, and speciation. While evolution is attributed to Darwin, evolutionary biology -- the merging of previously separate fields of genetics, ecology, systematics, and paleontology -- is attributed to Julian Huxley in the 1930’s.

Research in evolutionary biology encompasses adaptation, molecular evolution, and the many other different forces that contribute to evolution. These theories are now merging with areas of developmental biology as well as economics, algorithms, and artificial intelligence.

Evolutionary Biology, Politics & Education

On completing his Origin of Species, Darwin was not rejoicing over his discoveries; indeed he knew it would be unwelcomed, criticized. He had natural concerns with not only the reactions of others, but also indeed his own faith.

Certainly, evolutionists and creationists believe in entirely different “facts” -- and very few creationists have convincingly debated evolutionists. However, many Christians can and do find a place in their mind to believe both evolution and a version of Genesis.

Evolution itself, whilst accepted for the most part globally, still sparks debate. Some schools and education boards have argued to remove this fundamental of Biology from the curriculum. Difficult as it is to imagine teaching Biology without Evolution, this is happening. In some cases, evolution is replaced with a creationist (either Christian or Islamic) version of events in science classes!

Islamic Turkey banned the teaching of evolution in schools as recently as 2017. And there are Christian schools in America that would adopt the same position if allowed. With the failing of Ken Ham’s “educational” ark, even in bible-belt Kentucky, debate still continues about the teaching of evolution and/or creation in the US. The National Center for Science Education is among the only organizations dedicated to defending the teaching of evolution in American public schools. You can get involved if you are passionate about science and education -- and believe children should learn how to think and not what to think.

Evolutionary biology also often involves stem cell research in order to make headway in fighting diseases. Stem cell research, however, often uses embryonic cells, so scientists often wait powerlessly as judges connected to governments decide if their potentially life-saving experiments can go ahead.  If you’re serious about Evolutionary Biology, then you can pick up the debate about this research and abortion at the Richard Dawkins Foundation.

Careers in Evolutionary Biology

An evolutionary biology degree would be a pretty specialized "major," so it is more likely studied as a subset of a more general degree; graduates often go onto postgraduate studies, after which you can consider the following roles:

Postdoctoral researcher

Institute Director

Scientific Writer

Professor

Lecturer

Author

Evolutionary Biologist

Scientist

You might also team your Evolutionary Biology studies with Ecology and work as an ecologist or environmental planner.

Graduates might come to work for a government, industry, educational facility or privately-funded foundation. The work, however, is likely to be research and laboratory- or teaching-based.

Currently, there is work to be done for evolutionary biologists with the study of human genome, stem cell research, cancer research and so much more. Evolutionary biologists are at the cutting edge of working to overcome so many issues that still affecting humanity. Global issues such as limited food supply for an increasing population will likely be solved, in part, by evolutionary biologists working on genetically modified foods.

If you want to find out more about careers in evolutionary biology, then you could read this article from Study.com. Crash course has created a great quick video providing a lowdown on this fascinating subject. The Society for the Study of Evolution is also a great place to find out more. But to really get stuck on evolutionary biology, there’s no place quite like the Dawkins Institute for Inquiry.

Learning Evolutionary Biology

Evolutionary Biology might be studied as part of another degree including Ecology or Human Behavior. Subjects linked to evolutionary biology include: Ecology, Marine Biology, Genetics, Zoology, Anthropology, Psychology, and Neuroscience.

This is a very scientific study area; the syllabus contains vast amounts of scientific terminology, facts, theories, models and concepts. Evolutionary biology students must hone practical research skills and techniques while becoming expert at the analytical recording and interpretation of data.  

Brainscape is an excellent educational tool enabling students to commit essential information to memory for both exam time and life beyond. Our technique is especially useful for evolutionary biology students who may be continuing directly on from their studies with new and relevant research of their own in the form of post-doctorate roles.

Evolutionary Biology in Brainscape

As you'll see by browsing above or using our search tool, are classes in Brainscape for specific topics such as Evolution, Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Genetics, Human Evolution, Molecular biology, Cellular Biology, Microbiology, Genomics, and Developmental Biology.  

Studying evolutionary biology might require you to take a high-stakes exam such as AP Biology. Brainscape and Next Step Test preparation have worked in partnership to prepare premium class content for your AP Biology exam.

You can also try out our software for free and make your own flashcards either just for your own use or in collaboration with your classmates or students.

Learn faster with Brainscape

Most people know there’s science behind learning. Thousands of studies show the effective results of various learning methods.

Computer-aided learning tools may take advantage of these proven methods to boost learning. However, Brainscape uniquely incorporates three learning methods discussed below. This makes Brainscape among the most powerful tools for bite-sized study on the market today!

Brainscape has developed a system called Confidence-Based Repetition (CBR), which is a mix of active recall, spaced repetition, and metacognition.

No other learning tool incorporates all three of these learning tools as well; and consequently, no other learning tool is as effective as Brainscape for flashcard study.

When a note card is displayed in Brainscape, you'll use the process of active recall to retrieve the answer. The answers in Brainscape are not presented in a way designed for the learner to quickly recognize a correct answer, you’ll work hard to retrieve the answer and consequently strengthen your memory trace.

Brainscape also presents information to students in the popular flashcard style that incorporates the spaced repetition technique of showing people small amounts of information at intervals with excellent results in terms of learning.

The difference with Brainscape is the turbo-charged metacognition process that fuels the Brainscape algorithm. With other computer-aided learning tools, you’ll view flashcard after flashcard that the algorithm has randomly chosen for you to see. Consequently, you’ll spend time repeating flashcards you already know inside out.

When you use Brainscape, you’ll spend a few seconds to incorporate the metacognition process. Simply consider your breadth of understanding and leave a rating from 1-5 after viewing each card. The algorithm then uses that information to set the frequency of the flashcard. The results are astounding, the deck is shuffled perfectly for optimal learning and students learn twice as fast.

With Brainscape you can set aside time and study at your PC or also access Brainscape from your iOS or Android device. You can make use of ten spare minutes anytime throughout the day.

How to get started

It couldn’t be easier to get started with Brainscape.

Our market has thousands of decks prepared by top experts and students, just browse the classes on this page and you’ll see flashcards ranging from "Genomic Conflict" to "Coevolution." Choose any subject and start learning now.

Perhaps you’d like to start making your own catalog in this quickly growing field? Brainscape thrives on the contribution of learners. And we have software that makes it super fast for you to import data for a speedy set of flashcards. Simply click “make flashcards” at the top of the page to get started.

There is absolutely no pressure to share your cards, by the way.  For many, we know that learning is individual and personal. With Brainscape Pro, you can also choose the privacy settings of your flashcards so that you can share your cards with other select class members, the whole of your class, the Brainscape community -- or just you.

We wish you all the best in your evolutionary biology studies. Happy learning from the Brainscape team!