The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution
Move beyond basic survival of the fittest to understand the complex dance of life. Discover how genes shift, why weird traits persist, and how the history of the Earth is written in our own DNA.
Like Duolingo, but for The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
170 levels across 8 sections, about 340 minutes end to end, roughly 68 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Predicting the Next Generation, The Logic of Strange Features, The Social Side of Survival, Reading the Genetic Blueprint, The Birth of New Species, The Master Switches of Shape, Life on a Changing Planet, and The Deep Mechanics of Life. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution
- Traits are only passed to the next generation through offspring
- A long life provides more time to reproduce but isn't a substitute for it
- Dangerous traits can persist if they offer a reproductive advantage
- Evolutionary success is measured by genes passed on, not individual safety
- Why long life alone doesn't guarantee evolutionary success
- The tradeoff between individual safety and attracting mates
- Measuring fitness through different outcomes
- The process of a trait becoming common in a gene pool
- The gene pool is shaped only by those who successfully reproduce.
- Evolutionary success is a numbers game of descendants.
- Strength is 'lost' to the future if it isn't passed down.
- Other traits are only tools to reach the goal of reproduction.
- Consequences of the strongest individuals failing to reproduce
- The core metric of evolutionary 'winning'
- The parent's survival is secondary to the offspring's survival.
- Success is measured by the next generation's start in life.
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Imagine a bird with shimmering gold feathers that lives for decades but never has any chicks. What happens to that gold feather trait when the bird dies?
Get it right to open this lesson and 169 more in the app.
How to learn The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution, step by step
Go in order. 170 short levels across 8 sections, about 5 hours 40 minutes in all, five minutes a day.
- 1
Predicting the Next Generation
- Beyond Survival: The Math of Passing it On
- Why Some Traits Disappear by Chance
- The Hidden Variation in Every Population
- How Fast Can a Species Actually Change?
- 2
The Logic of Strange Features
- Flashy Feathers and the Cost of Attracting a Mate
- Why Evolution Doesn't Make Things Perfect
- Leftover Parts: Clues from the Past
- When Different Species Solve the Same Problem
- The Trade-off Between Speed and Accuracy
- 3
The Social Side of Survival
- Helping Others to Save Your Own Genes
- The Constant War Between Parasites and Hosts
- Cheating and Cooperation in the Wild
- 4
Reading the Genetic Blueprint
- How Mistakes in Copying Create New Worlds
- The Molecular Clock: Timing the Past
- Swapping Genes Without Having Babies
- Jumping Genes and Genomic Chaos
- Comparing Genomes to Find Common Ancestors
- The Role of Non-Coding DNA
- 5
The Birth of New Species
- Barriers That Turn One Group into Two
- Why Hybrids Usually Hit a Dead End
- Rapid Bursts of Change vs. Slow Drifts
- Island Life: Evolution in a Pressure Cooker
- 6
The Master Switches of Shape
- Small Genetic Changes, Massive Body Shifts
- How All Animals Use the Same Toolkit
- Turning Genes On and Off During Growth
- 7
Life on a Changing Planet
- The Five Times Life Almost Ended
- How Continents Moving Reshaped Biology
- The Rise of Oxygen and the First Complex Cells
- Co-evolution: When Two Species Shape Each Other
- Human Impact on Modern Selection
- 8
The Deep Mechanics of Life
- The Selfish Gene Perspective
- Epigenetics: How Environment Leaves a Mark
- The Limits of Adaptation
- The Future of Directed Evolution
8 sections · 34 units · 170 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Questions about The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution
How do I learn The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution?
Go in order: start with Predicting the Next Generation, then The Logic of Strange Features, then The Social Side of Survival, then Reading the Genetic Blueprint, and 4 more sections after that. On Tomo that's 170 short levels, about 5 hours 40 minutes in all, played five minutes a day. Start free and play the first level in under a minute.
Is there a Duolingo-style app for The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution?
Yes. Tomo works like Duolingo: short daily lessons, streaks and quick quizzes. The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution is one of its free courses, and you can type any other topic to get a course of your own.
Is The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution free?
Yes. The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution is playable on Tomo's free plan, which doesn't expire. No credit card, no waitlist. Download the app and start your first lesson.
How long does it take to learn The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution?
170 levels across 8 sections, about 5 hours 40 minutes of play in total. It's built for five minutes a day, so you finish it a little at a time instead of all at once.
Do I need any background to start The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution?
No. It's pitched at an intermediate level, so it starts where you are and builds up. If you can tap a phone, you can start.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution is taught in the Storyteller style: every lesson is a story. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution today.
Download Tomo, search The Living Puzzle: Mastering Evolution, and play your first lesson in under a minute.