Science and Society
The Latest Developments in Science and Technology
Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
RECENT POSTS
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
'Western Man has Stopped Evolving'?
October 08, 2008 12:24 PM
J. Steve Jones, a geneticist at University College London, has set off a bit of a brush fire by suggesting that human beings in technologically-advanced societies have stopped evolving, no longer faced with the challenges to their survival that made survival of the fittest so important to Darwin.
"In ancient times half our children would have died by the age of 20. Now, in the Western world, 98 per cent of them are surviving to 21," he said in a lecture in London. He elaborates on it in a piece he wrote for London's Telegraph; find it HERE. He argues that we have benefited from modern medicine, agriculture, indoor plumbing, etc., making the notion of adapt-or-die less important than it used to be.
He offers another theory, on which he hangs more of his argument: in addition to the comforts of modern times, more men are having children at younger ages, reducing the chance of random genetic mutations. "Today's men start late, but stop early. In Cameroon, almost half the fathers are over 50, in Pakistan about a fifth, and in France only about one in twenty," he writes. "Young dads mean that the rate of mutation is going down rather than up, and less, not more, of evolution's raw material is being made."
Jones, something of a media figure in Britain, has brought up this theme before, and certainly has his share of detractors -- take a look at a CRITIQUE by John Wilkins of the University of Queensland in Australia: "Once and for all: evolution has not stopped. Not now nor ever."
There are a lot of complex, sometimes self-contradictory arguments here, and the whole thing brings a lot of attention to its instigator in Britain. But here in the U.S., at least, it's a bit less onerous than thinking about the economy.
October 8, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (135)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
McCain's pick for VP would be proof-positive that humans, in fact, are devolving!
Posted by: Deep Release | Oct 8, 2008 12:36:47 PM
we may not be evolving as much physically, but we will always continue to evolve mentally, morally, and emotionally (or de-evolve as the case may be!) LOL
Posted by: earthisnotflat | Oct 8, 2008 12:46:09 PM
I still believe we are evolving, albeit instead of biologically, we've shifted to electronic evolution. Looking at the advancement of the human race, instead of major breakthroughs happening every ten of thousands of years, it has shifted to nearly one every generation. There will still be evolution, just in a different sense.
And please keep cheap politics out of science. There's plenty of post already dealing with it elsewhere. No need to destroy the beauty of science with the bitterness of politics.
Posted by: Casey | Oct 8, 2008 1:19:42 PM
Is there anyone still believing the tale of evolution...? It is proved wrong, it goes against the scientific laws...! Come on kids...!
Posted by: Fabio Cruz | Oct 8, 2008 1:29:05 PM
kind of like joe biden he has absolutely stopped evolving.
Posted by: joseph | Oct 8, 2008 1:31:35 PM
"Evolution" never ends.
It is a long-standing assumption that selection pressure is not as strong as it was when we were being eaten by lions (fairly obvious, really).
Genetic drift will always occur, even if "men are having children at younger ages." It is an interesting theory that it might lower the mutation rate, however.
I assume Jones would probably agree with all that, if you pinned him down, but that woudn't get him as much attention.
Posted by: jock59801 | Oct 8, 2008 1:39:45 PM
No longer facing challenges to our survival? There are still plenty of obstacles to our survival... terrorists, global warming, polluted water and air, predatory lenders. It's still a jungle out there. What necessary characteristics must we "evolve" to survive the challenges of our modern day?
Posted by: prm | Oct 8, 2008 1:48:02 PM
raven: Thanks for supplying the URL - I needed a laugh at this point in my day. That report was clearly written to support a preconceived outcome. Every point it makes can be explained without the need to invoke some super-hot outside accelerant (note the strong but subtle suggestion of thermite). The author(s) overlook much simpler explanations, such as the spherical globules that can be formed when melted, but not boiling, lead is thrown skyward or has its base support suddenly removed.
As is often the case, when you set out to find "facts" to support your conclusion, rather than letting your conclusion flow from the facts, all manner of things are possible. I'm quite sure these same people firmly believe that the entire 9/11 episode was engineered by GeeDubya as a pretext for going into the Middle East to steal Arab oil.
Remarkable.
P.S. Have you noticed that the conspiracy buffs give GeeDubya credit for having enough intelligence to engineer the whole 9/11 attack, doing such a superb job that even now no one involved (there had to have been dozens in various occupations) has even hinted about the true cause. This presumes that not one of those involved has had second thoughts, or wanted his/her name in the news, or wanted to cash in on the most $$$$$$-worthy story in at least a thousand years!
P.P.S. These same people also tell us long and loud how stupid GeeDubya is. Which is it? Brilliant enough to stage this and get away with it, or too stupid to know which side is up? They can't have it both ways.
Posted by: Walker Evans | Oct 8, 2008 1:59:59 PM
Cant people understand that evolution is just gods will... this is how you make a bridge between science and god... this its his will. The difficult things that must happen for evolution to take place are unexplainable right now... a bit of order and a bit of chaos to have the right balance its what god has been doing!! Order, chaos, randomness, destiny, luck... all make reference to GOD!
Posted by: Benjalamelami | Oct 8, 2008 2:08:45 PM
Fools...there was never any such thing as evolution in the first place! Duh!!!
Posted by: ralph | Oct 8, 2008 2:10:48 PM
The theory of evolution has been repeatedly proven to be false. Loaded with fabricated evidence of missing links. It is still taught in schools because the only other alternative is creationism, which leads to fights as to what religion is correct. So they take the simple way out. No God no fight.
Posted by: Mr. Townsend | Oct 8, 2008 2:16:09 PM
I pity those who ridicule evolution. That one word explains the entire creation of our universe after the big bang. It explains the creation of our solar system, our planet, and all the lifeforms thereon. Evolution is the only theory we need.
Those who blindly believe the apocryphal bible are ignorant indeed.
Posted by: Diane Smith | Oct 8, 2008 2:18:47 PM
Ah gee, what timeless scientific principle supports the wildly stupid theory that all matter that is and ever was suddenly sprang from pure nothingness, hung out for a long, long time, then "came alive", crawled out of water and eventually became horses, beetles, eagles, zebras, bobcats, elephants, giraffes, gorillas, butterflies, llamas...I could go on and on. Any sensient human knows that evolution is a silly, terribly unscientific farce. Grow up people!
Posted by: evolved from what? | Oct 8, 2008 2:20:51 PM
Cue "if we came from monkeys, why do monkeys still exist?" in 5.... 4.... 3....
Posted by: diver | Oct 8, 2008 2:30:58 PM
evolved from what - "crawled out of water and eventually became horses, beetles, eagles, zebras, bobcats, elephants, giraffes, gorillas, butterflies, llamas...I could go on and on." I'm sure you could go on and on, but could you get them all on an ark in a few days time?
Posted by: wolf | Oct 8, 2008 2:31:04 PM
The real truth is that evolution is the best explanation to date. It doesnt bring the sillyness of creationism and doesnt harm any religion belief. And it does offer explanation for many things, it might be true or might not, or might need polishing... but it does explain a lot of things and much better than the bible... which I find that it tries to explain it on its own way... without any support!!! Now taht is silly
Posted by: Benjalamelami | Oct 8, 2008 2:31:29 PM
In the beginning God...
Posted by: Chad | Oct 8, 2008 2:32:37 PM
I can't believe people still believe in a Theory that has no proof what so ever. Humans didn't stop evolving because we never started in the first place. Name one solid fact or proof of evolution please, or are the facts still missing?
Posted by: Jim Huneycutt | Oct 8, 2008 2:33:21 PM
Jim Huneycutt - If by "missing" you mean "at your local library", then yes, the "facts" are still missing someone in that mysterious realm. Perhaps they're "missing" someone in the math and science section. I suggest you start your search there.
Posted by: wolf | Oct 8, 2008 2:40:03 PM
What were we gonna evolve to? Were we gonna sprout wings or grow gills? Stopped evolving...please! Let me guess, he was figuring this all out on public money...at least it was Englands money.
Posted by: samhiguchi | Oct 8, 2008 2:40:23 PM
Post a comment
