Natural Selection was a beer produced by the Darwin Brewery in collaboration with the Centre for Life. It was available during 2009 at selected Darwin200 events. It has been on sale during Newcastle Sciencefest. Source: Darwin Newsletter, Published by the Centre for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

The immense diversity of living world could be seen as that of the human languages. Human language is based on about 30 letters, while the diversity of living creatures is based on a vocabulary of 4 words: DNA has only four letters that are combined into words. These words are nothing but genes.

The term evolution refers strictly to the change in time. The stars and languages evolve, but this change does not occur in the same way as biological evolution.

Originally the term referred to the unrolling of a papyrus in ancient times.

The theory of evolution does not deal with the origin of life. Evolution refers to changing of living creatures and their diversification in time.

Altough biological evolution takes place over long periods of time, we can track evolutionary changes even in our lifetime. For example, influenza virus evolves from one year to another, and therefore need each year a new vaccine.

The human genome has about 23,000 genes, of which only about 1.5% encodes proteins? The remaining DNA has no informational role. This was a surprise to researchers, who expected a much larger number. The fruit fly, for comparison, has about half of human genes.

Rats are multiplying so quickly that in 18 months, one pair may generate more than 1 million survivors. The territory would be invaded by these survivors if there were no competition for resources. This competition ultimately leads to natural selection: those most adapted will survive.

Birds have different beaks to suit the food available. The Galapagos finches evolved to occupy different niches of the islands by developing different beak shapes.

The animal with the largest brain in relation to its body is the ant. The living beings variate enormously regarding the shape and size of the body. The great majority of those differences are a result of adaptation to the environment.