home1.gif (2214 bytes)

We Didn't Start the Theory
Dave Williams

(Sung to the tune of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire")

James Hutton, Georges Buffon, looked at what was going on
Saw the earth just had to be incredibly old
Charles Lyell, saw it well, looked at what the rocks could tell,
Saw that current theories were just covered in mold

We didn't start the theory,
'bout how life is changing, just by rearranging,
We didnt' start the theory,
But it's goin' on, and on, and on...

Jean Baptiste Lamarck, took a shot but missed the mark,
Claimed that life forms tended to display some progress,
Then Georges Cuvier, took a shot but went astray,
Claimed that God was really good at cleaning up his mess

We didn't start the theory,
'bout how life is changing, just by rearranging,
We didnt' start the theory,
But it's goin' on, and on, and on...

Charles Darwin took a trip, 'round the world aboard a ship,
Took a lot of specimens and brought them all home,
Looked at all his finches, measured them in inches,
Realized they all came from a common genome

We didn't start the theory,
'bout how life is changing, just by rearranging,
We didnt' start the theory,
But it's goin' on, and on, and on...

Wallace, Alfred Russel, had ambition, lots of hustle,
Took his own trip 'round the world but then got shipwrecked,
Got back to England, took a ship out again,
Saw that life was biogeographically correct

We didn't start the theory,
'bout how life is changing, just by rearranging,
We didnt' start the theory,
But it's goin' on, and on, and on...

Chromosomes, DNA,
Thought they'd found a brand new way,
Then they saw genetics just supported Darwin
Scientists saw all this, built the modern synthesis,
Darwin and genetics and development all in.

We didn't start the theory,
'bout how life is changing, just by rearranging,
We didnt' start the theory,
But it's goin' on, and on, and on...

Point mutation, translocation, allopatric speciation,
Epistasis, neutralism, founder effect
Polyploid hybridization, selfish genes, punctuation,
Endosymbiosis and the Gaia concept

We didn't start the theory,
'bout how life is changing, just by rearranging,
We didnt' start the theory,
But it's goin' on, and on, and on...

home1.gif (2214 bytes)