Biology is the science. Evolution is the concept that makes

“Biology is the science. Evolution is the concept that makes biology unique.” Thus speaks Jared Diamond, the scholar who has walked both the jungles of New Guinea and the halls of academia, a man who has sought to unite the story of life with the destiny of mankind. In this short but mighty phrase, he reveals the heartbeat of all living knowledge. Biology is the study of life—its forms, its patterns, its intricate machinery. But what makes this study unlike any other is not merely the cataloging of creatures, nor the dissection of their parts. It is evolution, the grand and unifying truth, that explains how life changes, adapts, and unfolds over the vast canvas of time.

Without evolution, biology would be but a book of curiosities, a collection of disconnected facts. One could memorize the feathers of birds, the scales of fish, the organs of mammals—but these would remain isolated wonders, marvels without connection. With evolution, however, these fragments join into a single tapestry, bound by the thread of descent and transformation. The wing of a bat, the fin of a whale, the hand of a man—these are no longer separate, but variations of one ancient design, sculpted by survival. Here is the uniqueness that Diamond exalts: evolution is the story that makes sense of life’s diversity, the lamp that lights the path of biology.

The origin of this truth rests with Charles Darwin, who in the 19th century dared to proclaim that all species share common ancestors, that natural selection guides their fate. His journey on the HMS Beagle and his reflections on the finches of the Galápagos opened his eyes to this law of transformation. For centuries, men had studied life, but it was Darwin who gave it unity, who revealed that biology is not only about what lives now, but about how the living world came to be and how it will yet change. He did not destroy wonder; he deepened it, showing that every creature carries within its body the story of its ancestors.

History gives us countless examples of how evolution has become the guiding star of biology. The discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick revealed the very script of life, but it was through the lens of evolution that this script could be understood as both record and instruction. The battles against disease, too, are fought with evolutionary wisdom—for bacteria evolve resistance, viruses mutate, and only by grasping this eternal law of change can medicine endure. Thus, evolution is not only the key to the past but the weapon of the future.

The ancients, though they knew not the word, glimpsed fragments of this truth. Heraclitus said, “All things flow,” meaning that nothing remains unchanged. The philosophers of India spoke of the cycle of birth and rebirth, of transformation through time. These were shadows of the insight that Darwin and his heirs would bring into the light: that life itself is motion, that species are not fixed, but ever-flowing, ever-adapting. In Diamond’s words, we hear the modern echo of that eternal truth.

Let us not miss the deeper lesson: to understand evolution is to understand ourselves. We are not apart from nature, but part of it, kin to the ape, the fish, even the worm. Our strengths and our flaws alike are written in the long journey of survival. To ignore evolution is to blind ourselves to our origins and to our future. To embrace it is to walk humbly, knowing that life is not our possession but our inheritance, a gift billions of years in the making.

So, O listener, carry this teaching in your heart: cherish biology as the study of life, but honor evolution as its soul. In your own days, do not think of yourself as fixed or unchanging. Remember that you, too, are evolving—growing, adapting, shaped by trials into something new. Study the living world with awe, see the kinship of all creatures, and let this vision guide you to compassion and wisdom. For as Diamond has shown, biology is the science, but it is evolution that gives it unity, meaning, and power.