But what is it? What does it mean to be fit? Photo by Marcel Brekelmans Or lose it if you don’t know what you’re doing and you injure yourself. Indeed, the meaning isn’t far from that, because going to the gym undoubtedly can improve fitness. Find out more about the work happening in this Section through our publications and recent news.What is this “fitness” the evolutionary biologists often talk about? When something good occurs to a living being, it gains fitness - like if it works out at the gym.
Oxford researchers are also studying the evolutionary consequences of interactions between and within species, both in the wild and using experimental evolution in the laboratory. Oxford researchers are studying these links between ‘genotype’ and ‘phenotype’ across the Kingdoms, in organisms such as birds and bacteria, moths and mammals, plants and protists, tardigrades and tunicates, fish, flies and flatworms. These differences in DNA sequence cause changes in how cells and individuals behave, or how embryos develop. Oxford researchers are pushing back the boundaries of knowledge in many ways to uncover these mysteries.Įvolution requires inherited variation, so a key area of Oxford research is into studying the molecule of inheritance - DNA - to find all the genetic differences between and within species. Predicting organism responses to environmental changeīut evolution is still a subject where much remains unknown, where puzzles and problems are many, and where new approaches and new technologies are needed to unlock hidden mysteries.Tackling the spread of infectious diseases.By understanding evolution, we can begin to understand our place in the world, and address major challenges such as: Just like the plants that provide us with food and materials, the microorganisms that keep us healthy or make us ill, and the forests and plankton that produce our oxygen.
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