Study: Humans Still Rapidly Evolving..Wednesday, March 08, 2006

[IGBT]

Text

A comprehensive scan of the human genome finds that hundreds of our genes have undergone positive natural selection during the past 10,000 years of human evolution.



Researchers from the University of Chicago analyzed the genomes of 209 unrelated individuals from three distinct human populations: East Asians from Beijing and Tokyo, Utah residents of European descent and Yorubans from Nigeria.

Each population contained roughly 250 positively selected genes; however, most of the affected genes differed depending on the group.

"This study addresses the question 'Are humans still evolving?', and the answer is 'Absolutely,'" study team member Benjamin Voight told LiveScience.

Other studies have also reached the same conclusion.

 

[Fingolfin269]

When do I get my two additional chromosomes?

 

[BriGy86]

so what super powers am i going to get?

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: BriGy86
so what super powers am i going to get?

..yer cranium vault will double in size and all yer hair will go away.

 

[thraashman]

Originally posted by: BriGy86
so what super powers am i going to get?

I want Iceman's powers. We'll let you have the ability to optic blast, ok?

 

[JRich]

Utah huh? 🙂

 

[BriGy86]

Originally posted by: thraashman

Originally posted by: BriGy86
so what super powers am i going to get?

I want Iceman's powers. We'll let you have the ability to optic blast, ok?

i used to think cyclops was AWSOME when i was a kid, but looking back its just a beem shooting out of his head, whoopty do, i'd much rather have better healing power or something...

 

[Malak]

How can you tell a genome has evolved over the last 10k years when you don't even have any research on the genome even 100 years ago? Science is boring.

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: BriGy86

Originally posted by: thraashman

Originally posted by: BriGy86
so what super powers am i going to get?

I want Iceman's powers. We'll let you have the ability to optic blast, ok?

i used to think cyclops was AWSOME when i was a kid, but looking back its just a beem shooting out of his head, whoopty do, i'd much rather have better healing power or something...

..you might be on to something here. Mabe we'll grow an eye behind our head.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: Malak
How can you tell a genome has evolved over the last 10k years when you don't even have any research on the genome even 100 years ago? Science is boring.

😕

Shouldn't you be off thumping a bible or koran or something?

 

[Vic]

Hardly surprising, although I believe that human evolution is now far more focused on the behavioral than the physical. And I wonder how our brains can continue to increase in size. Babies can scarcely fit through the birth canal now as it is.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: Vic
Hardly surprising, although I believe that human evolution is now far more focused on the behavioral than the physical. And I wonder how our brains can continue to increase in size. Babies can scarcely fit through the birth canal now as it is.

I don't think you understand how evolution works. Brains don't just spontaneously get bigger from the passage of generations. If babies' brains are getting bigger it's because of better nutrition. You do realize that a person can be stupid or smart depending on his mother's diet while pregnant...

 

[Xylitol]

Oh no... the 24th chromosome... ZOMBIE!!!
Rawr

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: Xylitol
Oh no... the 24th chromosome... ZOMBIE!!!
Rawr

You're probably missing a chromosome if you say stuff like "rawr". lolhi2u

 

[Safeway]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe

Originally posted by: Vic
Hardly surprising, although I believe that human evolution is now far more focused on the behavioral than the physical. And I wonder how our brains can continue to increase in size. Babies can scarcely fit through the birth canal now as it is.

I don't think you understand how evolution works. Brains don't just spontaneously get bigger from the passage of generations. If babies' brains are getting bigger it's because of better nutrition. You do realize that a person can be stupid or smart depending on his mother's diet while pregnant...

Maybe you understand it either. There have been complications for the brain being too large and getting stuck. They ended up having to do an emergency C-Section.

Further, I have hear numerous times that our brains are indeed growing larger each generation, with the limiting factor being the birth canal. Don't know ideas that seem unrealistic but have factual backings.

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: Malak
How can you tell a genome has evolved over the last 10k years when you don't even have any research on the genome even 100 years ago? Science is boring.

😕

Shouldn't you be off thumping a bible or koran or something?

😕 How do you "thump" a bible?

Science does a lot of this "This is how it was a billion years ago even though we don't really know anything about even 200 years ago" crap, it's boring. Wasted time and money. They've been doing it for years, even got caught making stuff up on several occassions. It is unhelpful to mankind and isn't even worth making a thread about.

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: Malak

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: Malak
How can you tell a genome has evolved over the last 10k years when you don't even have any research on the genome even 100 years ago? Science is boring.

😕

Shouldn't you be off thumping a bible or koran or something?

😕 How do you "thump" a bible?

Science does a lot of this "This is how it was a billion years ago even though we don't really know anything about even 200 years ago" crap, it's boring. Wasted time and money. They've been doing it for years, even got caught making stuff up on several occassions. It is unhelpful to mankind and isn't even worth making a thread about.

..but certainly worth your time to read. 😉

 

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe

Originally posted by: Vic
Hardly surprising, although I believe that human evolution is now far more focused on the behavioral than the physical. And I wonder how our brains can continue to increase in size. Babies can scarcely fit through the birth canal now as it is.

I don't think you understand how evolution works. Brains don't just spontaneously get bigger from the passage of generations. If babies' brains are getting bigger it's because of better nutrition. You do realize that a person can be stupid or smart depending on his mother's diet while pregnant...

Maybe you understand it either. There have been complications for the brain being too large and getting stuck. They ended up having to do an emergency C-Section.

Further, I have hear numerous times that our brains are indeed growing larger each generation, with the limiting factor being the birth canal. Don't know ideas that seem unrealistic but have factual backings.

What I find interesting though is that through C-sections, we could get around the birth canal limitation for brain size. So in theory, we could continue to evolve using technology as a shortcut around the normal natural selection method that would select women with larger birth canals. It's essentially the same thing we do by curing diseases and such. Since humans are the first species capable of affecting their own evolution in some intelligent way, I wonder what will happen in the long run.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe

Originally posted by: Vic
Hardly surprising, although I believe that human evolution is now far more focused on the behavioral than the physical. And I wonder how our brains can continue to increase in size. Babies can scarcely fit through the birth canal now as it is.

I don't think you understand how evolution works. Brains don't just spontaneously get bigger from the passage of generations. If babies' brains are getting bigger it's because of better nutrition. You do realize that a person can be stupid or smart depending on his mother's diet while pregnant...

Maybe you understand it either. There have been complications for the brain being too large and getting stuck. They ended up having to do an emergency C-Section.

Further, I have hear numerous times that our brains are indeed growing larger each generation, with the limiting factor being the birth canal. Don't know ideas that seem unrealistic but have factual backings.

What I find interesting though is that through C-sections, we could get around the birth canal limitation for brain size. So in theory, we could continue to evolve using technology as a shortcut around the normal natural selection method that would select women with larger birth canals. It's essentially the same thing we do by curing diseases and such. Since humans are the first species capable of affecting their own evolution in some intelligent way, I wonder what will happen in the long run.

Which brings us back to my statement about humans evolving behaviorly more so than physically. Like the way tooth decay doesn't breed out well because it generally doesn't onset in a health-threatening manner until well after the individual has been capable of breeding, so we use our big brains to fix the problem ourselves.

BTW, I find it classic that I have been told, in perfect AT fashion, that I don't understand how evolution works by mercanucaribe while he credits an environmental factor for a genetic development. He must believe that he could teach calculus to a properly-fed horse :laugh:

 

[upsciLLion]

I wonder how many negative genetic changes there were. Is evolution defined as a forward progression, or is it genetic mutation in general?

 

[Nutdotnet]

Originally posted by: Malak

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: Malak
How can you tell a genome has evolved over the last 10k years when you don't even have any research on the genome even 100 years ago? Science is boring.

😕

Shouldn't you be off thumping a bible or koran or something?

😕 How do you "thump" a bible?

Science does a lot of this "This is how it was a billion years ago even though we don't really know anything about even 200 years ago" crap, it's boring. Wasted time and money. They've been doing it for years, even got caught making stuff up on several occassions. It is unhelpful to mankind and isn't even worth making a thread about.

Hahaha...

I'll take Scientific tests over some book written years and years ago anyday!

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg

Originally posted by: Safeway

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe

Originally posted by: Vic
Hardly surprising, although I believe that human evolution is now far more focused on the behavioral than the physical. And I wonder how our brains can continue to increase in size. Babies can scarcely fit through the birth canal now as it is.

I don't think you understand how evolution works. Brains don't just spontaneously get bigger from the passage of generations. If babies' brains are getting bigger it's because of better nutrition. You do realize that a person can be stupid or smart depending on his mother's diet while pregnant...

Maybe you understand it either. There have been complications for the brain being too large and getting stuck. They ended up having to do an emergency C-Section.

Further, I have hear numerous times that our brains are indeed growing larger each generation, with the limiting factor being the birth canal. Don't know ideas that seem unrealistic but have factual backings.

What I find interesting though is that through C-sections, we could get around the birth canal limitation for brain size. So in theory, we could continue to evolve using technology as a shortcut around the normal natural selection method that would select women with larger birth canals. It's essentially the same thing we do by curing diseases and such. Since humans are the first species capable of affecting their own evolution in some intelligent way, I wonder what will happen in the long run.

..how about intellectual stimulation?? Wouldn't that encourage/effect brain size??

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: Nutdotnet

Originally posted by: Malak

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: Malak
How can you tell a genome has evolved over the last 10k years when you don't even have any research on the genome even 100 years ago? Science is boring.

😕

Shouldn't you be off thumping a bible or koran or something?

😕 How do you "thump" a bible?

Science does a lot of this "This is how it was a billion years ago even though we don't really know anything about even 200 years ago" crap, it's boring. Wasted time and money. They've been doing it for years, even got caught making stuff up on several occassions. It is unhelpful to mankind and isn't even worth making a thread about.

Hahaha...

I'll take Scientific tests over some book written years and years ago anyday!

You'll take made up nonsense over eye witness reports? 😕

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: upsciLLion
I wonder how many negative genetic changes there were. Is evolution defined as a forward progression, or is it genetic mutation in general?

I am sure there have been countless negative genetic changes, most of which eventually die off prior to breeding.
Evolution is considered the forward progression.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: Malak

Originally posted by: Nutdotnet

Originally posted by: Malak

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: Malak
How can you tell a genome has evolved over the last 10k years when you don't even have any research on the genome even 100 years ago? Science is boring.

😕

Shouldn't you be off thumping a bible or koran or something?

😕 How do you "thump" a bible?

Science does a lot of this "This is how it was a billion years ago even though we don't really know anything about even 200 years ago" crap, it's boring. Wasted time and money. They've been doing it for years, even got caught making stuff up on several occassions. It is unhelpful to mankind and isn't even worth making a thread about.

Hahaha...

I'll take Scientific tests over some book written years and years ago anyday!

You'll take made up nonsense over eye witness reports? 😕

Science isn't nonsense, no matter how much you want to believe it is. And yes, I will take it over all the made up crap that's in the bible.