Are We Still Evolving?

[Daos]

Dr Alice Roberts asks one of the great questions about our species: are we still evolving?

There's no doubt that we're a product of millions of years of evolution.

But thanks to modern technology and medicine, did we escape Darwin's law of the survival of the fittest?

Alice follows a trail of clues from ancient human bones to studies of remarkable people living in the most inhospitable parts of the planet and the frontiers of genetic research, to discover if we are still evolving - and where we might be heading.

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[Birka]

Yes, but not that you'd notice.

[Eldritch]

Humanity is devolving. Evolution happens when different populations of the same species become isolated from each other, and then adapt to the environment they live in. What's happening now is the reverse, populations that before lived apart are now mixing together.

[Curtis24]

Of course we're still evolving, since different people have different reproductive success. In fact, in the coming decades, we will evolve even more intensely, as a significant portion of the younger generations will not reproduce at all!

[Gaztelu]

That is a stupid question. Humans are always evolving. However, thanks to miscegenation, population growth, and less isolation, the rate at which humans evolve is slowing down.

[Loddfafner]

Large populations in American cities are evolving so as to be able to digest 'meals' from McDonalds.

[Aemma]

Large populations in American cities are evolving so as to be able to digest 'meals' from McDonalds.

You say this probably more so tongue-in-cheek than not. But the sad fact is what with the genetically-modified foods and pumped in antibiotics in meats, and long-term use of pesticides and herbicides in produce agriculture and what-have-you, there is bound to be some biological impact as to human evolutionary plans. How can there not be?

Maybe survival of the fittest means our genes having to mutate to develop a better liver to digest the garbage that we eat, a better pancreas to breakdown the added sugars via corn products that we constantly ingest and so on and so forth?

Sad but probably most realistic. And never mind the impact of the multibillion dollar psychopharmacology industry and its ingestibles on human development and evolution as well.

[Bloodeagle]

Large populations in American cities are evolving so as to be able to digest 'meals' from McDonalds.

I wonder if they carry the Blood Type M, which was recently patented by Monsanto, to ease the digestion of their GMO soy beans.

[anonymaus]

DNA still mutates; humans still breed; mutated DNA still spreads--stupid questions are still asked.

[Aemma]

I wonder if they carry the Blood Type M, which was recently patented by Monsanto, to ease the digestion of their GMO soy beans.

Gah! My point exactly!!

Got any good links or articles to share about this Sourdough? I'd love to read up on it.

Bionic people. Who knew we wouldn't be pretending to be Steve Austin or Jaime Summers one day.