Humans Are Still Evolving, Study

[HuckleB]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167915.php

"Researchers in the US studying two generations of contemporary women found evidence of natural selection among humans that showed we are still evolving despite advances in medical care and standards of living: they predicted that the women's descendents will be slightly shorter and chubbier, have lower blood pressure and cholesterol and will have their first children earlier in life.

..."


Who knew?

[joeybee12]

1. As long as life contnues, evolution continues...

...it would be interesting to be able to come back in a couple thousand years and see the differences.

[Delphinus]

3. I agree,

but when will intelligence or consciousness evolve? I'm thinking of some of the same things we've been dealing with forever, war and ideologies, or Republicanism, to name just a few.

[Johonny]

14. might not notice any change

The fossil record is one of species coming into existence, persisting for millions of years and then going extinct. Evolution on the genetic level appears to never stop, however on the macroscopic level it's effects don't appear all that dramatic.

[kestrel91316]

2. I think we are devolving. Intelligence is no longer a competitive advantage,

but ability to breed at an earlier and earlier age is, as is the lack of wits to control one's fertility.

[ZombieHorde]

7. Humans becoming dumber as a species would be an evolutionary change.

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. No - 'devolution' is still evolution. What I see is a species split -

red state/blue state divisions are not confined to the US. Every society is dividing between the intelligence based humans and the fecundity based humans as members of each group self-select to breed with their own kind.

Only question is, which will become the Eloi and which, the Morlocks?

[Oregone]

9. Genetically llinked asthetics are not even a competitive advantage

All women have to do these days is raise enough money to afford implants and enhancements. Is it becoming about wealth? :)

[Posteritatis]

11. There's no such thing as "devolution." (nt)

[Nihil]

13. Don't agree with the word used but you're right with the content.

> I think we are devolving.

The species is changing = evolving. It only appears to be "devolving"
from the perspective of the diminishing ("losing") characteristic so
although I agree with your feeling, it is still evolving.
(Much in the same way that the panda has been evolving towards a
complete dead-end, stagnation and extinction.)

> Intelligence is no longer a competitive advantage,
> but ability to breed at an earlier and earlier age is,
> as is the lack of wits to control one's fertility.

100%. :applause: :applause: :applause: + :cry:

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. anyone care to plot conservatives/progressives on the evolutionary graph?!

... as in moving from X to Y, where X = GOP/conservative POV, Y = Liberal/progressive thinkers, for example?

[ZombieHorde]

6. Evolution is about producing fit offspring and changes in a species.

The X's and Y's would be in the exact same coordinates.

[kenny blankenship]

5. I think there was a movie about that a couple years back

Everybody thought it was a joke though.

[damntexdem]

10. Just too slowly to be apparent.

;-)

Hey, a few centuries of global warming may favor human development of gills -- if any humans survive that long.

[rayofreason]

12. Old news.

The spread of lactose tolerance in dairy cultures is only one of the recent evolutionary adaptions by humans.

http://www.bioquest.org/summer2007/sessionA/ng1263.pdf
http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2008/01/was-lactose-tolerance-inevitable.php