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GET THIS BOOK Steering Committee on Science and Creationism, National Academy of Sciences
SUGGESTED CITATION
National Academy of Sciences 1999. Science and Creationism: A View from the
National Academy of Sciences, Second Edition. Washington, DC: The National
Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/6024.
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T
he term “evolution” usually refers to the biological evolution of living things.
But the processes by which planets, stars, galaxies, and the universe form and
change over time are also types of “evolution.” In all of these cases there is
change over time, although the processes involved are quite different.
In the late 1920s the American astronomer Edwin Hubble made a very interest-
ing and important discovery. Hubble made observations that he interpreted as
showing that distant stars and galaxies are receding from Earth in every direction.
Moreover, the velocities of recession increase in proportion with distance, a discov-
ery that has been confirmed by numerous and repeated measurements since
Hubble’s time. The implication of these findings is that the universe is expanding.
Hubble’s hypothesis of an expanding universe leads to certain deductions. One
is that the universe was more condensed at a previous time. From this deduction
came the suggestion that all the currently observed matter and energy in the uni-
verse were initially condensed in a very small and infinitely hot mass. A huge explo-
sion, known as the Big Bang, then sent matter and energy expanding in all directions.
Astronomer Edwin
Hubble discovered that
the Milky Way is just one
of many galaxies in the
universe and that the
universe is expanding.
RNA, below, like the related molecule DNA, on the left, consists of subunits called
nucleotides (this computer-generated model of an RNA strand has six nucleotides).
Because RNA molecules can catalyze chemical reactions as well as carry genetic
information, they may have played an important role in the early evolution of life.