What is "natural selection"

Selection \Se*lec"tion\, n. [L. selectio: cf. F. s['e]lection.] . The act of selecting, or the state of being selected; choice, by preference.

2. That which is selected; a collection of things chosen; as, a choice selection of books.

Natural selection. (Biol.) See under Natural.

Natural \Nat"u*ral\ (?; 135), a. [OE. naturel, F. naturel, fr. L. naturalis, fr. natura. See Nature.]

1. Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the constitution of a thing; belonging to native character; according to nature; essential; characteristic; innate; not artificial, foreign, assumed, put on, or acquired; as, the natural growth of animals or plants; the natural motion of a gravitating body; natural strength or disposition; the natural heat of the body; natural color.

   With strong natural sense, and rare force of will.
   --Macaulay.

2. Conformed to the order, laws, or actual facts, of nature; consonant to the methods of nature; according to the stated course of things, or in accordance with the laws which govern events, feelings, etc.; not exceptional or violent; legitimate; normal; regular; as, the natural consequence of crime; a natural death; anger is a natural response to insult.

   What can be more natural than the circumstances in the behavior of those women who had lost their husbands on this fatal day?
   --Addison.

3. Having to do with existing system to things; dealing with, or derived from, the creation, or the world of matter and mind, as known by man; within the scope of human reason or experience; not supernatural; as, a natural law; natural science; history, theology.

   I call that natural religion which men might know . . . by the mere principles of reason, improved by consideration and experience, without the help of revelation.
   --Bp. Wilkins.

4. Conformed to truth or reality; as:

   1. Springing from true sentiment; not artificial or exaggerated; -- said of action, delivery, etc.; as, a natural gesture, tone, etc.

   2. Resembling the object imitated; true to nature; according to the life; -- said of anything copied or imitated; as, a portrait is natural.

5. Having the character or sentiments properly belonging to one's position; not unnatural in feelings.

   To leave his wife, to leave his babes, . . . He wants the natural touch.
   --Shak.

6. Connected by the ties of consanguinity. especially, Related by birth rather than by adoption; as, one's natural mother. ``Natural friends.''
   --J. H. Newman.

7. Hence: Begotten without the sanction of law; born out of wedlock; illegitimate; bastard; as, a natural child.

8. Of or pertaining to the lower or animal nature, as contrasted with the higher or moral powers, or that which is spiritual; being in a state of nature; unregenerate.

   The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
   --1 Cor. ii. 14.

9. (Math.) Belonging to, to be taken in, or referred to, some system, in which the base is 1; -- said of certain functions or numbers; as, natural numbers, those commencing at 1; natural sines, cosines, etc., those taken in arcs whose radii are 1.

10. (Mus.)

    1. Produced by natural organs, as those of the human throat, in distinction from instrumental music.

    2. Of or pertaining to a key which has neither a flat nor a sharp for its signature, as the key of C major.

    3. Applied to an air or modulation of harmony which moves by easy and smooth transitions, digressing but little from the original key.

    4. Neither flat nor sharp; -- of a tone.

    5. Changed to the pitch which is neither flat nor sharp, by appending the sign [natural]; as, A natural.
       --Moore (Encyc. of Music).

11. Existing in nature or created by the forces of nature, in contrast to production by man; not made, manufactured, or processed by humans; as, a natural ruby; a natural bridge; natural fibers; a deposit of natural calcium sulfate. Opposed to artificial, man-made, manufactured, processed and synthetic. [WordNet sense 2]

12. Hence: Not processed or refined; in the same statre as that existing in nature; as, natural wood; natural foods.

    Natural day, the space of twenty-four hours.
    --Chaucer.

    Natural fats, Natural gas, etc. See under Fat, Gas. etc.

    Natural Harmony (Mus.), the harmony of the triad or common chord.

    Natural history, in its broadest sense, a history or description of nature as a whole, including the sciences of botany, zo["o]logy, geology, mineralogy, paleontology, chemistry, and physics. In recent usage the term is often restricted to the sciences of botany and zo["o]logy collectively, and sometimes to the science of zoology alone.

    Natural law, that instinctive sense of justice and of right and wrong, which is native in mankind, as distinguished from specifically revealed divine law, and formulated human law.

    Natural modulation (Mus.), transition from one key to its relative keys.

    Natural order. (Nat. Hist.) See under order.

    Natural person. (Law) See under person, n.

    Natural philosophy, originally, the study of nature in general; the natural sciences; in modern usage, that branch of physical science, commonly called physics, which treats of the phenomena and laws of matter and considers those effects only which are unaccompanied by any change of a chemical nature; -- contrasted with mental philosophy and moral philosophy.

    Natural scale (Mus.), a scale which is written without flats or sharps.

    Note: Model would be a preferable term, as less likely to mislead, the so-called artificial scales (scales represented by the use of flats and sharps) being equally natural with the so-called natural scale.

    Natural science, the study of objects and phenomena existing in nature, especially biology, chemistry, physics and their interdisciplinary related sciences; natural history, in its broadest sense; -- used especially in contradistinction to social science, mathematics, philosophy, mental science or moral science.

    Natural selection (Biol.), the operation of natural laws analogous, in their operation and results, to designed selection in breeding plants and animals, and resulting in the survival of the fittest; the elimination over time of species unable to compete in specific environments with other species more adapted to survival; -- the essential mechanism of evolution. The principle of natural selection is neutral with respect to the mechanism by which inheritable changes occur in organisms (most commonly thought to be due to mutation of genes and reorganization of genomes), but proposes that those forms which have become so modified as to be better adapted to the existing environment have tended to survive and leave similarly adapted descendants, while those less perfectly adapted have tended to die out through lack of fitness for the environment, thus resulting in the survival of the fittest. See Darwinism.

    Natural system (Bot. & Zo["o]l.), a classification based upon real affinities, as shown in the structure of all parts of the organisms, and by their embryology.

    It should be borne in mind that the natural system of botany is natural only in the constitution of its genera, tribes, orders, etc., and in its grand divisions.
    --Gray.

    Natural theology, or Natural religion, that part of theological science which treats of those evidences of the existence and attributes of the Supreme Being which are exhibited in nature; -- distinguished from revealed religion. See Quotation under Natural, a., 3.

    Natural vowel, the vowel sound heard in urn, furl, sir, her, etc.; -- so called as being uttered in the easiest open position of the mouth organs. See Neutral vowel, under Neutral and Guide to Pronunciation, [sect] 17.

    Syn: See Native.

n. 1 (context evolutionary biology English) A process by which heritable traits conferring survival and reproductive advantage to individuals, or related individuals, tend to be passed on to succeeding generations and become more frequent in a population, whereas other less favourable traits tend to become eliminated. 2 (context quantitative genetics English) A process in which individual organisms or phenotypes that possess favourable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce: the differential survival and reproduction of phenotypes.

n. a natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best adapted to the environment [syn: survival, survival of the fittest, selection]

Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in heritable traits of a population over time. Charles Darwin popularised the term "natural selection"; he compared it with artificial selection ( selective breeding).

Variation exists within all populations of organisms. This occurs partly because random mutations arise in the genome of an individual organism, and offspring can inherit such mutations. Throughout the lives of the individuals, their genomes interact with their environments to cause variations in traits. (The environment of a genome includes the molecular biology in the cell, other cells, other individuals, populations, species, as well as the abiotic environment.) Individuals with certain variants of the trait may survive and reproduce more than individuals with other, less successful, variants. Therefore, the population evolves. Factors that affect reproductive success are also important, an issue that Darwin developed in his ideas on sexual selection (now often included in natural selection) and on fecundity selection, for example.

Natural selection acts on the phenotype, or the observable characteristics of an organism, but the genetic (heritable) basis of any phenotype that gives a reproductive advantage may become more common in a population (see allele frequency). Over time, this process can result in populations that specialise for particular ecological niches ( microevolution) and may eventually result in the emergence of new species ( macroevolution). In other words, natural selection is an important process (though not the only process) by which evolution takes place within a population of organisms. Natural selection can be contrasted with artificial selection, in which humans intentionally choose specific traits (although they may not always get what they want). In natural selection there is no intentional choice. In other words, artificial selection is teleological and natural selection is not teleological, though biologists often use teleological language to describe it.

Natural selection is one of the cornerstones of modern biology. The concept, published by Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in a joint presentation of papers in 1858, was elaborated in Darwin's influential 1859 book On the Origin of Species, which described natural selection as analogous to artificial selection, a process by which animals and plants with traits considered desirable by human breeders are systematically favoured for reproduction. The concept of natural selection originally developed in the absence of a valid theory of heredity; at the time of Darwin's writing, science had yet to develop modern theories of genetics. The union of traditional Darwinian evolution with subsequent discoveries in classical and molecular genetics is termed the modern evolutionary synthesis. Natural selection remains the primary explanation for adaptive evolution.

Natural Selection was a U.S. pop group, best known for their 1991 hit "Do Anything" that reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, behind " Emotions" by Mariah Carey. It also peaked at number ten on the Australian ARIA Charts in 1991.

Natural Selection is the eleventh studio album by guitarist Frank Gambale, released in 2011 through Wombat Records.

Natural Selection is a 2011 comedy-drama film written and directed by Robbie Pickering. It stars Rachael Harris, Matt O'Leary, John Diehl, and Jon Gries. The film was accepted by South by Southwest for the 2011 Narrative Feature Competition.

Natural Selection'' (NS'') is a modification for the video game Half-Life. Its concept is a mixture of the first-person shooter (FPS) and real-time strategy (RTS) game genres.

The game was created by Charlie "Flayra" Cleveland, who later founded the company Unknown Worlds Entertainment. Natural Selection v1 was first publicly released on Halloween 2002, and is now at version 3.2. Natural Selection 2 was released in late 2012.

The game features two teams: Kharaa ( alien species) and Frontiersmen (human space marines). The visible Kharaa "units" are actually simply the spawn of the real Kharaa ( aliens) which are microscopic life-forms according to the storyline.

The game was, in 2008, one of the ten most played Half-Life modifications in terms of players, according to GameSpy.

On January 22, 2014 Unknown Worlds released the source code for download on a github repository under GPLv3.

Natural Selection is Fuel's third album, released in 2003 on Epic Records. It features generally the same style as heard on the band's previous two efforts but didn't manage to match their commercial success.

Preceding the album's release " Won't Back Down" was featured as the lead single of the film soundtrack Daredevil: The Album. " Falls on Me" served as the first single of Natural Selection and received much airplay on MTV throughout the summer. The album also had a third marginally successful single in "Million Miles". The song Quarter was featured in the Need for Speed: Underground, NFL Street and NASCAR Thunder 2004.

Natural selection is the process by which individual organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce.

Natural Selection may also refer to:

• Natural Selection (film), a 2011 independent comedy/drama
• Natural Selection (Fuel album), 2003
• Natural Selection (Frank Gambale album), 2010
• Natural Selection (group), a music group, plus their self-titled album
• Natural Selection (manuscript), Charles Darwin's main work on evolution, on which he based his abstract On the Origin of Species
• "Natural Selection" (song), a song by Unkle
• Natural Selection (Sounds from the Ground album), 2003
• "Natural Selection" (The Spectacular Spider-Man), a 2008 episode of The Spectacular Spider-Man
• "Natural Selection" (The Unit), an episode of The Unit
• Natural Selection (video game), a 2002 modification for the computer game Half-Life
• Natural Selection 2, a 2012 sequel for the 2002 computer game,
• Teresa's Tattoo, a 1994 film also known as Natural Selection

"Natural Selection" is the third episode of the animated television series The Spectacular Spider-Man, which is based on the comic book character Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. In the episode, Spider-Man must face " The Lizard," who was a lab professor he was interning for until he was mutated by a serum designed to regrow his missing arm.

"Natural Selection" was written by Matt Wayne, known for his work on Justice League Unlimited, and was the first time he had done so for The Spectacular Spider-Man. David Bullock directed it. "Natural Selection" originally aired on March 15, 2008, on the Kids WB! block for The CW network, and met overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, who praise it for its action sequences, narrative direction, and the new design for Lizard.

Natural Selection is a manuscript written by Charles Darwin, in which he presented his theory of natural selection and its role in biological evolution. He did not publish the work while he was alive, but wrote an abstract, titled On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, which he published in 1859.

Darwin regarded Natural Selection as his main work, while On the Origin of Species was written for a wider audience. He always intended to finish Natural Selection, but because of frail health, the publicity and work involved in publishing six editions of On the Origin of Species, plus other research and publications, he never got around to finish it.

Natural Selection was transcribed after Darwin's death, and first published in 1975.