Comments on Science In Action: Are Humans Still Evolving?

I wrote this based on a number of sources, probabl...

2007-11-16T03:26:00.000Z

I wrote this based on a number of sources, probably starting with WikiPedia as I usually do. You might pursue the sources for the supporting table, Robert D. McCracken, "Lactase Deficiency: An Example of Dietary Evolution," Current Anthropology 12 (Oct.-Dec. 1971, pp. 479-517), Norman Kretchner, "Lactose and Lactase," Scientific American 277 (Oct. 1972, pp. 71-78), and others. Largely lifted from this site.

Hi, I stumbled across this article and thought it ...

2007-11-16T03:01:00.000Z

Hi, I stumbled across this article and thought it was really interesting, and I was wondering if you could tell me where you found this information because I'm interested in reading more about it. Thanks!

Anonymous #1, you're wrong. Domestic animals can c...

2007-10-02T22:31:00.000Z

Anonymous #1, you're wrong. Domestic animals can consume all sorts of foods that will not nourish humans. See how long you can live chewing grass. Livestock can be quite healthy at the same time in the same area where there is little food for humans. Why do think they make so much goat milk in the Mediterranean? Before organized agriculture (that means you are at peace with your neighbors, and you have a home), goats could survive in the arid places of Greece, Italy, and the Middle East, and would yield milk as food, when there was little else. Milk was survival food, and the ability to digest it most definitely conferred a survival advantage.

I can understand that evolution won't stop but sur...

2006-12-15T13:27:00.000Z

I can understand that evolution won't stop but surely its now changed in humans. What I mean is, humans in modern society are no longer under the, 'be strong or die' law that darwin suggested. Back in the day, a hunter gatherer would die if he couldn't catch food, so we evolved to be fast and strong. However, today, if you're lactose intolerant, you're not going to die due to readily available non-dairy food and massive medical advances. Also, bad eyesight is being corrected and so surely people will stop evolving with good eyesight as they may have done in the past. Its interesting. I can understand how evolving to be resistant to disease still occurs, especially the diseases that are currently near untreatable, i.e. HIV and cancer. Any thoughts?

While i believe humans are still evolving (how cou...

2006-03-09T08:59:00.000Z

While i believe humans are still evolving (how could they not be?), this seems like a weak argument.

First is the assumption the gene (being turned on after infancy)wasn’t widespread prior to the herding of animals. The argument we had no need for it does not prove it wasn’t around anyhow. Likewise the argument that this is the way it works in other mammals proves nothing. Humans, unlike almost all other mammals, cannot manufacture vitamin C (an essential nutrient for life). If we were like other mammals in this regard, our bodies would produce it.

Besides, in order for natural selection in favor a genetic expression, it must confer some survival advantage. While milk as an adult food source may have added to food availability, it is unlikely to have added a survival advantage to anyone because if milk was available as a food option, then other food sources would have been plentiful too (if livestock isn’t well nourished, they’ll dry up, so the presence of a milk supply implies conditions favorable to other food sources as well). Milk as a food choice, therefore, would confer no added survival advantage.

Although the dairy industry would like us to believe otherwise, milk is hardly a health food for non-infants. So it has little to offer in terms of additional nutrition, which might have conferred a survival advantage.