Evolution has allowed the simplest organisms to become creatures that can fly, change their color or shape on cue, discharge blasts of electricity, and paint-by-numbers.

If you’re the paint-by-numbers type of animal, however, don’t expect to sprout wings overnight. Evolution doesn’t work like that; evolving takes time, lots of time.

Each generation, genes change a tiny bit. Your genes are a little different from either of your parents’ genes. This is because their genes have combined in you to make something new, and because of genetic mutation.

Genetic mutation happens when DNA accidentally changes as it reproduces. Most of the changes are very small, and they are either harmful, or have no significant effect. But every now and again, a mutation occurs that is beneficial. It may only cause a very tiny change in the organism it occurred in, like a slightly thicker coat of hair, or the ability to more skillfully paint by numbers, but if the change is helpful to that organism’s chance of surviving and reproducing, the new gene can be passed on to its offspring. Every generation continues to evolve, slowly, slowly changing its DNA…

It can take millions of years for recognizable changes to appear, but the process never stops, and something new is always being formed.

The genes of this yellow moss rose mutated in its offspring. The changed genes manifest in a different-colored flower. Most genetic mutations are harmful, or so small that they have no obvious affect.