Hope for the New Year: getting fitter boosts even the survival of the fattest

Citation

Hamilton DL (2015) Hope for the New Year: getting fitter boosts even the survival of the fattest. The Conversation. 01.01.2015. https://theconversation.com/hope-for-the-new-year-getting-fitter-boosts-even-the-survival-of-the-fattest-35793

Abstract
First paragraph: Like many high school students I completely misunderstood the philosopher Herbert Spencer’s phrase “survival of the fittest.” I interpreted it to mean that those animals of a species that were the most physically fit were most likely to survive and reproduce. What Spencer was actually proposing when he first coined the phrase in 1864 to explain Darwin’s theory of natural selection was that those organisms that best “fit” their environment are the most likely to survive and reproduce. Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/hope-for-the-new-year-getting-fitter-boosts-even-the-survival-of-the-fattest-35793