Are weBy u aoStill evolving?In Carles arwins rigin o pecies, e descries ow umans ave evolved trougNatural Selecon and ave ecome ow weare todayere is no ueson tat umans are uniuein te animal world – we ave developed language sills, tecnologies and metods tatimprove our lives signicantly suc as uilding long lasng ouses to selter us rom tearsness o te environment, maing oodsae and delicious or our taste udsammals and umans in parcular ave telargest rainsin te animalingdomrelave tote size oteir odies)Researc assown tat, in early mammals, te rain regions associated wit smell were muc largertan in more ‘premammal ancestorsResearcers elieve tat, te size o te rainregion associated wit smell, expanded ecause mammals proaly used teir eensense o smell to unt at nigt wic meanttey could avoid compeng ood resourceswit dinosaurs tat sared teir aitatsby?Proessor teve Jones, said ‘in aespearesme, only aout 1 in 3 Englis aies made itto e 1 All tose deats were raw materialor natural selecon, and many o tose idsdied ecause o te ‘less good genes tat teycarried But now aout 99% o all te aiesorn in developed countries mae it to tatagene may argue tat we are prevented romnatural selecon due to medical and otertecnological developments, as tey cure diseases, elp tose wo cant pass on genes topass teir genes, almost everyone lives longenoug to pass on teir genes, wit lile‘selecon or te eer genes o wat istere or natural selecon to act on?ome elieve tat we are sll evolving ut teprocess as sloweddownne example o arecent evoluon isow our metaolism as canged to
allow us to digest lactose, te sugar in mil,some 1, years ago, eore te umansstarted arming, no one could digest tis eyond a ew years o ageHowever today, most people can digest tissugar; it can e seen as an evidence o naturalselecon as te rate o lactose tolerance indifferent parts ote world is aclue to tedifferent istories o armingacross te gloeWile 99% oIris people aree structure o lactoselactose tolerant,in out EastAsia, were tere is very lile tradion o dairyarming, te gure is less tan %Being ale to digest mil is an advantage as tisis an extra source o ood, meaning eer adaptaon or te Iris and may e as eercances o survival so tis useul gene is passedon Were as in out East Asia, so lile mil isproduced rom dairy arms, te aility to digestlactose is irrelevant to te affecng te cances o survival, tereore tey didnt not avetis useul mutaon!n te oter and, interesngly, some elievesrater tan seltering us rom natural selecon,te advances in tecnology tat we ave developed may actually elp us increase te speed oevoluonWe see rapid evoluon wen tere's rapid environmental cange and te iggest part o ourenvironment is culture, and culture is exploding, says Pro tearnsWe are connuing to evolve, tat iology is going to cange wit te culture and it's ust amaer o not eing ale to see it ecause we'restuc rigt in te middle o te process rigtnowIn our world o advancing medical and genectecnologies, people ave more power to determine teir own lie coices tan ever eoree direcon o our uture evoluon is liely toe driven as muc ourselves as y nature It maye less aout ow te world canges us ut aout our growing ailityto cange te worldecnology may ave limited te impact oevoluonary orces suc as predaon and disease, ut tat does not mean umans avestopped evolvingKey wordsNatural Selecon: e process werey organisms wo ave ‘eer genes and ecome eer adapted to teir environment tend to survive and produce more offspring Wereas tose wo are not well adapted or teir environment,die eore tey reac te age to reproduce, so tese ‘ad genes are not passed onOrganism: an individual animal, plant, or singlecelled lie ormMutaon: a cange in te genec code, wic maes te organism uncon differently, eg A mutaon in te genecause modern people to ave te aility to digest lactose