June 12 2017, 12:01am,The Times

Cities are observably shaping the evolution of physical organisms

The diversity of species, living and extinct, was once thought by all sophisticated people to be explicable by the actions of a divine creator. In perhaps the most important intellectual advance in human history, the right explanation was arrived at less than 200 years ago by Charles Darwin.

Though Darwin did not originate the concept of evolution, he explained its basic mechanism of natural selection and random mutation. His conclusions are substantiated by mountains of evidence from the fossil record, embryology, molecular biology, the geographical distribution of plants and animals, and much else.

Now there is evidence of evolution at greater speed than anything previously observed. Modern humans live increasingly in cities and, as science would predict, organisms adapt to their environment. Pigeons and other

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Darwin's Idea - The Times (subscription)