Chapter 511 - 244: Countermove (Good luck to the candidates taking the college entrance exam tomorrow!!!!)_2

The more lazy and not using the brain, the more the brain will become like a rusted chain, hard to operate normally.

This saying had quite a market in the early days of modern biology and was once regarded by many as a truth.

However, biologists of later generations all know.

The theory of use and disuse is a relatively idealistic theory; it has no problem with individual variations, but it is not very applicable to species.

Because the theory of use and disuse believes that evolution and degeneration only change organs, but genes remain unchanged.

Just like the fish in the deep sea.

Due to the lack of light in the deep sea, deep-sea fish basically have no vision; their eyes degrade and lose their function.

But according to Lamarck’s thoughts, the genes of these fish will not change.

So the newly born deep-sea fish would all have vision and little Yanzi-like eyes, which would then slowly degrade into Li Ronghao.

Yet, this is obviously not consistent with the actual situation.

But still, that statement holds.

The technological level of the later generations differs vastly from that of ancient and modern times, and so does the level of scientific theories.

Some very superficial truths that seem obvious in later years might still belong to cutting-edge theories in 1850, without relevant accumulation.

Hence, upon hearing Xu Yun mention the theory of use and disuse, Darwin immediately became interested:

"My theory is not yet completely formed, but it slightly differs from Mr. Lamarck’s theory of use and disuse."

"Mr. Lamarck believes that the heredity of descendants does not change, and an individual’s evolution is determined by the individual itself, which is a standard idealistic view."

"Whereas I believe evolution should be a process of correlated genetic optimization, where organisms evolve according to their environment, resulting in different species, including..."

While speaking, Darwin suddenly stopped.

He glanced around, then looked at Xu Yun again.

Thinking to himself, the other person is probably not a devout believer, he continued:

"Including humans."

After finishing, Darwin stared intently at Xu Yun’s left hand.

Afraid that this young man might sudden go into a fury.

After all, the idea of divine creation was still a very popular concept at the time, not to mention that Trinity College being a divinity school had the highest number of believers at the University of Cambridge.

Very quickly.

Under Darwin’s gaze, Xu Yun raised his left hand, and then.....

Picked up a water cup and took a sip of water.

Darwin:

"?????"

After Xu Yun put the water cup down.

Darwin touched his bald head again, and with surprise, asked:

"Young man, aren’t you surprised?"

"Call me Luo Feng, Mr. Darwin."

Xu Yun first introduced his name, then asked in return:

"Surprised? Why should I be surprised?"

After saying this, he paused for a moment, then gave an example:

"It is rumored that there is a snake breeder named Orochimaru in the East who is very familiar with land snakes."

"Once he went to the seaside and found that sea snakes and land snakes were noticeably different in appearance."

"For example, terrestrial snakes are round, while sea snakes have a flat-sided tail, similar to fish that are adapted for swimming."

"Later, he proposed a hypothesis that animals would self-optimize according to the environment and pass it on to the next generation; some externally different species might have been the same ancestor thousands of years ago..."

"Wonderful!"

As soon as Xu Yun finished speaking, Darwin suddenly stood up with a bang, pressed his hands on the table, and asked excitedly:

"Student Luo Feng, where is this Orochimaru from? Is he still alive?"

Simultaneously.

A sudden joy of meeting a kindred spirit on the path of scientific inquiry emerged in Darwin’s heart.

Although over these years, he has been establishing the foundation of species evolution theories, many acquaintances thought he was inspired by the seabird fossils from Pulaya Port.

Only Darwin himself knew.

His true attention to the causes of species being influenced by the environment actually originated from a sea snake caught by a crew member!

That was when the Beagle was sailing near the Magellan Strait, close to the South American west coast area.

One morning, the ship encountered a commotion of mackerels, and the crew started shouting and fishing.

It turned out a crew member, whether by luck or misfortune, unexpectedly caught a long-snouted sea snake when casting the net.

Later, while eating sea snake hotpot, Darwin suddenly noticed that the bones of the sea snake were completely different from those of terrestrial snakes.

One was vertical, the other was flat, and together they could form a right-angle coordinate system.

So Darwin began to pay attention to the situation. After the whole ship ate... researched over a hundred sea snakes, Darwin finally hypothesized:

That these snakes actually shared a common ancestor with terrestrial snakes, but their structures mutated to adapt to life in the sea and exhibited innate heredity!

This secret was kept in Darwin’s heart, yet today he accidentally learned that someone in the East also discovered something similar?

So almost in an instant.

Darwin regarded this never-seen Orochimaru as a kindred spirit.

Compared with an excited Darwin, Xu Yun appeared much more composed.

After all, this story was written by Darwin himself in his autobiography.....

How could the learned be accused of plagiarism?

Then he gestured Darwin to sit down, took a steady breath, and said:

"Sorry, Mr. Darwin, Mr. Orochimaru was a figure from several hundred years ago, and is now naturally no longer among the living."

"Ah, has he passed away?"

Darwin opened his mouth, shook his head, and sighed:

"What a pity..."

Then Xu Yun asked:

"By the way, Mr. Darwin, how is your progress now in related theoretical work?"