Tim wrote:

"Am I mistaken in thinking that "ethics" or moral behaviour by humans is just evolution and our means of survival passed down through the ages in practice".

Ah, you're getting it now Tim. Ethics, like everything else, certainly evolves. You are not quite correct when you add, "therefore being an applied science but not a pure science". Science would come in through studying the evidence to help us understand the evolution of ethics and examining whether it is somehow hard-wired into our DNA. Just using 'ethics' without examining its origin and source is not science.