Berkeley, California, March, 2078, Wednesday…

Professor Janice Hatfield waited until the students settled down. It was a nice spring day, so it wasn't any wonder they were restless - she would rather be outside herself.

Biology 101 was left to the most popular of the department's professors. That select group included her. She had given it every other semester for the last four years and often wondered if her lectures were getting stale.

"Today we're going to take a look at the evolution of evolution," she said, flashing a cartoon up from the era of the famous Scopes trial. There were a few laughs. "For those into really old movies, check out 'Inherit the Wind.' Darwin was a visionary, but his vision was necessarily limited. I want to talk today about how his theory had to be modified by the developments at the turn of this century." She looked around the lecture hall. It wasn't a bad day -- she had the usual five per cent of students paying attention.

"Darwin couldn't have imagined the breakthroughs in genetics that occurred in and around the turn of the century. The Human Genome project was only the beginning. We now have concrete proof that about 98% of our genetic code is the same as a chimpanzee, a figure that would give even the participants in that Tennessee trial of long ago pause for thought. So in the process of evolving from our common ancestors to chimpanzees and humans how can there be so much in common in the genome and so little in common as far as physical characteristics, intelligence, and even behavior? For those that have read ahead, you know the answer." She saw a few of the better students nodding sagely. "For those that didn't, let me tell you." She flashed a picture of a young chimpanzee and a young boy on the screen.

"The answer is, except for that 2%, people didn't evolve new genes. They made different use of the ones they had. The key point is what kind of enzymes and proteins a gene turns on and off at particular times in the development of the organism. Research at the turn of the century suggested that complex adaptions, such as a bird's beak changing shape to better crack open seeds, as Darwin might have observed on the Galapagos Islands, happen simply with this mechanism."