Nothing in the natural world makes sense - except when seen in the light of evolution
Interpretation
This quote suggests that understanding evolution provides clarity to the complexities of the natural world.
David Attenborough's quote emphasizes the importance of evolutionary theory in making sense of the vast and often perplexing natural phenomena we observe. It implies that without the lens of evolution to guide us, many aspects of nature can seem chaotic and meaningless, but when viewed through the context of evolutionary development, a coherent narrative emerges, highlighting the interconnectedness of all living things.
In practice
In a lecture about environmental science, one might quote this to emphasize the significance of evolution in understanding biodiversity.
I don't think we are going to become extinct. We're very clever and extremely resourceful - and we will find ways of preserving ourselves, of that I'm sure. But whether our lives will be as rich as they are now is another question.
I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage.
I would be absolutely astounded if population growth and industrialisation and all the stuff we are pumping into the atmosphere hadn't changed the climatic balance. Of course it has. There is no valid argument for denial.
There's a small worm called Loa Loa Filariasis. This parasite can survive in one environment exclusively- namely, underneath the skin and inside the eyes of human beings. Children and the elderly in tropical regions (usually the poorest) are the most widely affected. A painful, slow death is virtually certain. The worm can actually live in the host for 17 years before the host finally dies.
The fundamental issue is the moral issue.
It is vital that there is a narrator figure whom people believe. That's why I never do commercials. If I started saying that margarine was the same as motherhood, people would think I was a liar.
'Closed timelike curve' is the jargon for time travel. It means you go out, come back and meet yourself in the past.
You have that one basic string, but it can vibrate in many ways. But we're trying to get a lot of particles because experimental physicists have discovered a lot of particles.
When, as we must often do, we fear science, we really fear ourselves.
Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense-experience correspond to a logically uniform system of thought.
If any human being earnestly desire to push on to new discoveries instead of just retaining and using the old; to win victories over Nature as a worker rather than over hostile critics as a disputant; to attain, in fact, clear and demonstrative knowlegde instead of attractive and probable theory; we invite him as a true son of Science to join our ranks.
Now, a living organism is nothing but a wonderful machine endowed with the most marvellous properties and set going by means of the most complex and delicate mechanism.
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