Subject: Evolution in physics in cosmology

From: Robert Harmon <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 23:56:09 -0400

Hello,

I applaud your efforts to increase public understanding of the role and 
importance of evolution in science. I am likely to become involved in a 
local Darwin Day program! Keep up the good work.

As an astronomer, I would like to point out a misstatement on your web 
site at http://www.darwinday.org/englishL/home/index.html. On that page 
it states that "evolution...has become the central organizing principle 
for all basic scientific research; particularly in biology but also in 
physics and cosmology."

This statement is much too strong. I don't think that you could find any 
physicists who would say that evolution is the central organizing 
principle in physics. As far as we know, physical laws do not change 
over time, and even if they do, their is nothing akin to natural 
selection that would guide such changes.

In astronomy and cosmology we speak of the evolution of stars and of the 
universe, but in this case evolution simply means change over time; 
again their is nothing akin to natural selection at work. Furthermore, 
stellar evolution refers to the changes which take place in individual 
stars, not in populations of stars. This is of course in marked contrast 
to biological evolution, which takes place in populations, not 
individual organisms. I am very careful to make this distinction in my 
introductory astronomy classes.

Regards,
Robert Harmon
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Ohio Wesleyan University