By Olly Bootle
URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12535647
Summary:
This article posted on the BBC's website questions whether or not humans are still evolving. After all, does natural selection even apply to us anymore? Technology and medicine have advanced to a point at which humans are no longer dying of predation, diseases, or starvation at the normal rate. How would we possibly be evolving if we are no longer dying fast enough to let "superior" traits become more common? Studies are showing that, even though we no longer die off at large rates because of "genetic inferiority" we are still evolving. Simple things, such as lactose intolerance, are ways the we progress as a species. What is startlingly revealed is that, now that humans actually have a choice whether or not to reproduce, and some people aren't reproducing, we may eliminate or genes by choice. It appears that natural selection has been replaced with conscious selection. Other studies mentioned say that we are getting shorter and heavier, though the causes are currently unknown. Also mentioned was the fact that humans may start evolving with culture. Our era as a global apex predator species has come to a critical point where the rules of evolution have not changed but have been warped.
Opinion/Reflection:
I find it amazing that, even in our age of basically not dying before learning to talk well, we have managed to keep evolving. We are able to change to fit artificial situations that we ourselves have created. We not only adapted to our primal situation by finding and farming edible plants as an emerging species, we have come to a point where we choose who lives, dies, or is even born. I suspect that humans will become the target of passive, non-invasive evolutionary studies, because we will be able to better understand how species develop in stable environments specifically tailored to them. We should test this with other species, non-endangered ones, to see how they evolve in an environment that is suited to them.
Thoughtful Questions:
1.What is in our genes that allows us to evolve without severe population drops?
2.Would observations on other species put into similar situations be "wrong," even considering the scientific data it could provide us might be invaluable?
3.Should everyone be forced to pass on genes? Why or why not?
4.What effects do you think mass produced chemicals and substances have on our evolution?
Opinion/Reflection:
ReplyDeleteThe article is a very in depth article. It is a detailed explanation of human evolution. They don't know if we are evolving or if evolution has slowed down. Evolution for us as humans is questionable. I believe we have reached a point in our species that unless something that drastically destroys comes then our population will keep growing. We have to many advances for our species to die as easily as others.
Response to a question:
1. In our genes is the mind to think and imagine and our bodies to create. No animal, as far as we know, has the ability to imagine and create like we can.Our bodies have limbs that allow us to use tools to create things. Our minds has the ability to think through problems and imagine ways to solve that problem. Medicine is a great example. We thought of the idea for medicine and using our body and mind we thought of a way to create medicines like vaccines. No other animal has medicine because they don't have the ability to create like us. If all animals were able to think and move like us then they would probably have more advances like us.
Opinion/ Reflection:
ReplyDeleteThe article seems to have two different paths going: evolution is slowing down or evolution is speeding up. Personally my take on the article is that evolution is actually slowing down. The height of people may not even be because of adapting, it may just be a lack of nutrition somewhere in recent eating habits. It even said "...there was no evidence to suggest the trend of people putting on weight and losing height would continue indefinitely..." meaning that they aren't even sure it's evolution. Also, I honestly don't understand too much on why this is important. If it's evolution then great... what does that even mean for us...
Response to Question:
1.What is in our genes that allows us to evolve without severe population drops?
It is not our genes that allow us to evolve without huge population drops, but more of a matter of our abilities. No other species has the ability to process thoughts the way we do. When you think about natural selection and evolution, you realize it is just a way to adapt. There are more ways to adapt than to grow limbs. Instead, we figure out solutions to problems that then allow us to adapt. Take for example birds. Overtime, a species needed to fly, so they grew wings. We just built planes. Because of our ability to think, we can skip biological adaptations for the most part. The biological adaptations occurs when we overlook something, and do not create an artificial solution or can't come up with one. An example of this would be the tolerance of lactose. There is no invention we can make to make people lactose tolerant, so we had to evolve. We can however come up with a solution to our lack of claws to kill predators, by creating the firearm.
Opinion/ Reflection:
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion our medical and technological advances have only allowed the humans with inferior genes live on to have offspring. It does not matter to me, but it does mean that natural selection can't take place. I also believe that the human species as a race has plateaued and even if there was no medicine or technology to help us survive, we would not evolve into anything but a healthier species.
Response to Question:
1. It is definitely not our genes that help us survive. It's our intelligence that helps us survive. We have created all of these medical and technological advances to put us on the top of the food chain, and I guess if you think intelligence is in your genes then I guess they do help us survive. After all, the only thing that really make us different than monkeys is our intelligence.
Opinion/Reflection:
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that humans have come so far in Medicine and Technology, and are still advancing today. With that being said, being able to control who lives to reproduce and who dies off is an enormous responsibility, and might even be disrupting nature itself. Some people may believe otherwise of course. I'm not saying we should stop curing people, but it is not unlikely that we will be able to cure even the most incurable diseases in the near future. Overpopulation will cause resources to diminish, and upset the balance of nature.
Response to Question:
2. I don't think it would necessarily be wrong, but it would be tremendously difficult to recreate conditions of "conscious selection". As stated in the article summary, we are the ones making these conscious decisions in which we choose to reproduce, or take medicine, or find a cure to a disease. There is a lot of Social science involved when you are talking about humans, and this is nearly impossible to recreate in other species that lack our intelligence.