Next human evolution??????

Question

When do you think the next step in human evolution will occur?

Answer 1

Evolution of a species occurs when the environment changes dramatically. I agree that HIV resistance will increase in certain populations, but the human species on the whole will not change considerably UNLESS the vast majority suddenly becomes infected and dies. This would be considered a "population bottleneck". And the remaining HIV resistant humans, with much less genetic diversity , could, over thousands of generations produce offspring that would be considerably different from today's humans. Another possibility is to consider the effects of global warming on earth's climate. If our climate should reach the point where it can no longer sustain the earth's population, and if space colonization becomes a reality, humans might have emigrate to space in order to survive. But most humans would find space flight physically intolerable. Only a small proportion of the population is immune to space-flight-induced nausea. Those individuals having anti-emetic (anti nausea) genes will produce a "founder effect" which can lead, again over thousands of generations, to the development of humans that are significantly different from humans today

Answer 2

as each day passes, humans along with other bengs evolve..they keep evolving every moment....but the thing is that the process of this evolution is so minute that it cannot be observed practically...

our dnas keep updating...amino acids keep changing... every cell of our body keeps growing... this is all a part of evolution...and finally there comes a time when the product of evolution is visible...then we can say that an evolution took place

Answer 3

I would bet that the next step in human evolution will be a genetic defense against HIV infection.  It is most likely to be seen in areas where HIV is very prevalent, such as sub-Saharan Africa.  This is an area where there a strong selective pressure to develop resistance to HIV.

We have precedents for development of genetic resistance to infectious agents in both humans and other species.  Humans developed a gene for hemoglobin S that rendered a carrier with only one copy relatively safe from malaria.  Unfortunately, if someone has two copies, he or she has sickle cell disease, which is really painful.  The gene mutation for hemoglobin S probably happened twice, once in southern Africa and another in the Mediterranean Sea area.  

Answer 4

happens all the time.

my favorite story along this line is:

"In 1980, a man from a small town called Limone Sul Garda in northern Italy went to a doctor for some problem, not heart related.

Testing of his blood showed very high levels of triglycerides, and very low levels of HDL, the good form of cholesterol.  By all rights, the man should have either been dead from, or in imminent danger of a heart attack.

But his arteries were clear.  Analysis of his blood showed he had a very special form of Protein, a type of HDL.  And further work with this particular type of Protein revealed astounding results.

of the forty or fifty people in that tiny Italian town, all descended from a man born in 1760, a man who had a small change in his genes, not a single one has yet to die from heart disease!"

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news...

http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Arch...

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Health/story?i...

here's another article on evolution, malaria, and sickle cell disease.  it's well worth reading.

http://sickle.bwh.harvard.edu/malaria_si...

considering all that, there isn't a "plan".

there isn't a "next step".

there are minor DNA changes frequently.

most have no effect at all.

some are bad, and are aborted.

some, like the cholesterol one above are good, but affect a relatively small group.

major changes happen, like the one above, to a single individual.

if they are sufficiently beneficial, then the offspring from that single individual gradually displace other family lines until eventually, the population consists only of offspring from the single individual in which the change first took place.

thus, maybe it's not a good idea to speculate on the next change.

it may mean that eventually, there will be no descendants from your DNA line.

Answer 5

I bet we lose our wisdom teeth permanently. Already it's pretty common to only have 2 or 3. (I only had 3, a cousin of mine only had 2...) Though I like that protein thing that the other person posted.