An important new concept in our understanding of multiple myeloma traces its origins back to the great nineteenth century scientist, Charles Darwin.

In his writings, Darwin described how char­acter­is­tics of animal and plant species can change over time. Slight differences in inherited char­acter­is­tics within a species, combined with variations in the en­viron­ment, can lead to certain char­acter­is­tics becoming more common in en­viron­ments favorable to those char­acter­is­tics.

A good example of what Darwin described is the range of size and shapes of beaks seen on Galápagos finches. The different beaks allow the birds …