Posted on 09/08/2005 5:16:56 PM PDT by Mike Bates
The evolution of the human brain is not quite a done deal, say researchers who've uncovered genetic evidence that man's mysterious gray matter is still undergoing beneficial change.
The scientists make their claim based on the recent evolutionary history of two genes -- microcephalin and abnormal spindle-like microcephaly-associated (ASPM) -- which appear to regulate brain size.
Over thousands of years, both genes seem to be generating new and improved versions of themselves -- beneficial mutations that are spreading rapidly among the human population to reshape and strengthen brain capacity.
"I think a lot of people might consider humans to be at the pinnacle of evolutionary lineage -- that we have achieved an advanced state as a species, and we have basically become the end-game," said study co-author Bruce T. Lahn, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago. "But what we found indicates that the species -- particularly when it comes to the brain, which is perhaps our most defining feature -- is still evolving."
In the Sept. 9 issue of Science, Lahn and his colleagues report on the results of two genetic analyses -- the first conducted among 90 men and women and a chimpanzee, and the second among almost 1,200 men and women. The participant pools were drawn from 59 ethnic groups from all over the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
The problem with saying our brains are evolving is that the poor and under educated are doing the most procreating. In terms of serviving, the best of mankind are dying as soldiers, the intellectuals are having fewer children, and the stupid are breeding like rabbits for more welfare checks. That doesn't result in improvements in brain power.
And we may be left with no other choice than to poop in their parks.
If Hollyweird is lurking, there's sure to be a "Planet of the Pigeons" released soon...:)
Since orthodox secular science says that all life is always evolving, this would be a most un-noteworthy statement.
If we are looking to the kind of evolution that is guided by natural selection, however, it would seem that being predisposed to Islam is a great evolutionary boon. They have enough offspring to lose hundreds in suicide bombings and still pose a demographic threat to the world. Take from that what you will.
Actually the article has profound implications for TOE. If a "positive" mutation isn't limited to a single generation but can continue to advance over several generations as an inherited "good" then such a "mutation" can continue to advance the species for generations. This answers so many of the Creationist's arguments about the lack of "good" mutations that it is mind-boggling to anyone who doesn't yet have the gene (now who would fall into that category?)
How big do human brains have to be before they are no longer "sapiens" and are something else?
IOW maybe "WE" are the missing link.
Sorry, have to go now. ET phone home.
This evolution thingy must be stopped. Why, if it continues, our generation will, in a million or so years, be regarded as pin heads.
But don't you know that the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics has nothing to do with evolution? /sarcasm
I did a google search on it and you wouldn't BELIEVE what's out there on the subject both in quantity and quality. It's amazing how far people will distort facts to prove a point.
That would make it the one exception. Then it wouldn't be a law. If everything tends to go to a state of disorder, what is the force behind it coming together. Even if scientists recreate the conditions that they believe existed at that time, and I don't believe there is any way to verify what they were, then it's still life creating life.
Gee, is a "closed system" like a "closed mind" in the fantasy world you live in?
The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally kill themselves in really stupid ways. Of necessity, this honor is generally bestowed posthumously.
yeah...but into what?
Before I answer, tell me--please. What is the status of your faith in God, or lack there of?
Many thanks.
The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally kill themselves in really stupid ways. Of necessity, this honor is generally bestowed posthumously.
The Darwin Awards! Evolution in Action!
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