Which scientist is associated with the idea that nature selects the best-adapted individuals to survive?

• A. Charles Darwin
• B. Gregor Mendel
• C. Alfred Russel Wallace
• D. Louis Pasteur

Answer: (A)

Natural selection is the process by which traits that help individuals survive and reproduce become more common in a population over generations. Charles Darwin is the scientist most closely associated with this idea because he proposed natural selection as the mechanism driving evolution and supported it with extensive evidence from observation, reasoning, and his research. The notion that nature “selects” the best-adapted individuals to survive captures the essence of how advantageous traits spread through populations over time. While Alfred Russel Wallace independently conceived a theory of natural selection and the two scientists discussed it, Darwin’s extensive work and his subsequent publications solidified the association of this idea with his name. Mendel’s work on how traits are inherited explains transmission of traits but not the selective process itself, and Pasteur’s focus on germ theory and microbes lies outside this mechanism.