[tt] NYT: Life as We Know It

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Life as We Know It
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/science/26timeline.html

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

NATURAL SELECTION 1858

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace both independently arrived
at the theory of evolution by natural selection. They first
presented their ideas together in 1858. In 1859 Darwin published his
monumental work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for
Life.

PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY 1866

Gregor Mendel published his research on peas, laying the foundation
for the study of genetics. The work, which would not be recognized
until the turn of the century, revealed how traits are passed from
generation to generation, providing a crucial missing piece of the
workings of evolution.

THE MODERN SYNTHESIS 1940s

A number of scientists, including Theodosius Dobzhansky, left,
brought together the young field of genetics, the historical view of
paleontology, and the theory of evolution by natural selection to
come up with a unified view of the evolutionary process. The modern
synthesis has since served as the basic framework for all of
evolutionary biology.

STRUCTURE OF DNA 1953

On April 25, 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published A
Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid in Nature. Their discovery
changed the science of biology at least as much as Darwin and
Wallaces theory of natural selection. From that discovery have come
the sequencing of entire genomes, including that of humans, and the
molecular biology revolution, which provided powerful tools for all
of biology evolutionary biology included.

CONTINENTAL DRIFT 1960s

In 1915, Alfred Wegener published the theory of continental drift,
which suggested that over time the continents had moved, an idea
that finally gained acceptance in the 1960s. The theory offered new
explanations for how the diversity of life came to colonize earths
various land masses.

EXTINCTION THEORY 1980

Luis Alvarez, a physicist, his son, Walter Alvarez, a geologist, and
other scientists discovered that an asteroid hit the earth 65
million years ago, right at the time of a mass extinction that
included the dinosaurs. Such mass extinctions cause evolutionary
upheavals.

LESSONS OF THE EYE 1995

Walter Gehring and colleagues showed that the Pax-6 gene was acting
as the master switch turning on the development of eyes in animals
as different as flies and humans. It was one of the earliest and
most striking indications that evolution proceeded much more by
tinkering with ancient genes and much less by outright invention
than had ever been guessed.