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17.
‘SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST’ REVISED.
TO THE BREEDERS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME
This time, when I looked at the numbers, lo and
behold! I saw Charles Darwin amidst 13 new
varieties of sweet sorghum, 13 survivors of
selection. Darling, I’m referring to the biologist who
revolutionized the world of thought by inventing
the concept of evolution, coming out in 1859 with such radical
thought in his book The Origin Of The Species By Means Of
Natural Selection. Darwin’s works were violently attacked in
those days (blupete.com); this article is another attack on another front today. How
time flies when you’re thinking of evolution!
‘Natural selection’ Darwin says; those who are the fittest to live are the ones who survive. The law of the jungle.
Well, today, we’re going to talk about un-natural selection, that is, man-made. The law of the juggle; let me explain
this one using theoretical, what-if data:
In India, the plant breeders of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) created
13 new varieties of sweet sorghum coded as follows: AA, BB, CC, DD, EE, FF, GG, HH, II, JJ, KK, LL, MM. Afterwards,
the Director General of ICRISAT, William Dar, a Filipino, brought seeds for trial-planting by the University of the
Philippines Los Baños (UP Los Baños), which promptly test-planted all 13 varieties in 13 regions of the Philippines.
(Remember, this is what-if data, every single data coming from me, an armchair researcher; I’m using the #13
deliberately, as I’m not afraid of numbers.) In 4 months, they had results, 100 days actually.