It means gradual, or slow changes in a system (in contrast to the word "revolution" for abrupt change).

So, more accurately would be to call it "survival of species favored by environmental (geological, astronomical, etc) changes". As long as we all understand that by "evolution of life" we mean survival of those mutations which are better suited to current environment.

(By the way, because change of environment is unpredictable, mutations should be random to supply flow of variety of features - who knows what feature can be an advantage tomorrow?)

But sometimes environment changes abruptly due to asteroids, volcanoes and other fast natural phenomena (which by the way are still called "acts of gods" in USA) and then life has no choice than to follow: "less fortunate" species die out, and others (better suited) take their "dinner seat" instead.

So, I agree with you about misusing the term "evolution" which does not indeed accurately describe how natural selection works yet is commonly used as a synonim of natural selection.

By the way, Yazir, if you were to use only one word for natural selection, what word would you use?

• Actually, I am not sure about that - ymateen - January 23, 2002 - 07:23 UTC