Researchers Say Human Brain is Still Evolving

Oleg Alexandrov writes "Two genes involved in determining the size of the human brain have undergone substantial evolution in the last 60,000 years, researchers say, suggesting that the brain is still undergoing rapid evolution. The discovery adds further weight to the view that human evolution is still a work in progress, since previous instances of recent genetic change have come to light in genes that defend against disease and confer the ability to digest milk in adulthood."

Comments

confer?

[Hinkey]

"... since previous instances of recent genetic change have come to light in genes that defend against disease and confer the ability to digest milk in adulthood." i dont get it

Theory or God??

[John Seminal]

given the popularity of pseudoscience like "Intelligent Design"

Now that is a loaded statement.

Evolution is nothing but a theory. Ask any REAL biologist (like those with Ph.D.'s or those who work in colleges), and they will admit evolution is a theory. It is not fact. It is not a scientific law.

The cool thing Intelligent Design is we know God made us.

Think about how the world was made. Science has a theory called "Big Bang". It is a theory which states that in the start the mass was so dense, it exploded and everything flew away randomly, making stars and planets, and life.

For any people who know statistics, what is the probability of that happening? How many times would I have to flip a quarter and get heads in a row? 100,000,000,000 times? 100,000,000,000,000 times?

You would have a better chance at taking a watch, hitting it with a hammer until it was broken into 1000 peices, and then putting it in a bag, shaking the bag, and having the watch come back together out of the random movements.

God made life. It is called a soul.

Re:Theory or God??

[John Seminal]

Yes, I think you *should* consult a real scientist, and ask them what "theory" means in a scentific context, and then get them to explain to you the difference between a theory and a hypothesis, as you clearly haven't the faintest idea what you're blathering about.

A hypothesis is any idiots guess. A theory is the guess of a person with many letters behind their name. :p

For example, the bartender thinks the Patriots will beat the Raiders by 4 points. That is a hypothesis. The bookie says the Pats are getting 6 points, that is a theory.

Now a law, that is if Danny the Butcher talks with Tom Brady and has an understanding.

That my friend, is how the world works.

That is the education at The University of Hard Knocks. Byatch!

Re:Theory or God??

[John Seminal]

Wrong. If you don't understand the definition of "theory" in a scientific context, including the criteria that a given explanation must meet in order to be labelled a "theory", then you have no credibility when discussing science.

So you say that for anyone to have a discussion of evolution they must use your conventions of naming? I say bullshit.

You will learn more about evolution in the Bible than any PH.D. granting institution can teach you. And you will live a better life.

You should read "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Edwards.

How do you explain miricles? How do you explain the works of Mother Theresa? How do you explain it when modern medicine says a person will die, that there is nothing else that can be done, but a priest comes and the person wakes up?

Re:Theory or God??

[johnnyb]

"God made life. It is called a soul.

And the tooth fairy and santa claus exist too. Except that we stop believing in them as we realise what a crock they are. Some don't do the sam with these god myths though."

The difference is that material processes do not even have the potential to explain life and consciousness as we experience it. The best that neuroscience has ever been able to do is discover corrolaries of consciousness. But the gap between the event of consciousness and it having brain correlations is huge.

No amount of mechanical processes cause a machine to snap from being without consciousness to being with consciousness. Consciousness and subjectivity are simply outside the realm of material processes, and no amount of yammering from the metaphysically confused (like Dawkins) changes that fact.

In addition, if material processes could explain all of the universe, it would completely undermine reason. Let's say that person A is a lifelong republican. And person A then goes and says, "George Bush is a great guy". Most democrats would say that person A is not speaking from reason, but says that only because he is a Republican. What they are saying is that he is influenced by outside events, which prevent him from being rational. However, in the materialist view, ALL events are outside, deterministic or chance, events. Therefore, all reason, including the reasoning that says that all things are the result of material processes, is not reasonable but instead imposed on the subject from the outside.

Re:Sounds promising....

[$RANDOMLUSER]

> Any chance of speeding up the [evolutionary] process before the 2008 elections?

Yeah - cut it out with the "flamebait", asshole!

WRONGTHINKING WILL BE PUNISHED! CONFORM! CONFORM! CONFORM!

Re:Can someone explain...

[Anonymous Coward]

See...you're making the mistake of counting blacks and asians as people. They are not.

Re:Counter-evidence...

[Anonymous Coward]

"in this country" implies you are a citizen of the United States or a guest. Sorry you hate your country/host... How about the moon landing? The integrated circuit? But ya, we're only about bling and we don't like intelligence.

And for someone so stupid, Bush beats you gys alot doesn't he?

Re:Obviously

[DigiShaman]

To bad this topic is taboo because it'd be pretty interesting to study.

Here is my personal study based on observations in America. Birth statistics will very greatly depending on country and culture however.

African Americans = Violent and very athletic. They tend to have large families

Caucasians = Smarter then African Americans, but lack their superior athletic body. Caucasians however are very adaptable to differences in climatic change. They tend to have the moderate size families.

Asians = Highly Intelligent and cunning compaired to Caucasians and African American. They have the least athletic bodies. They tend to have the smallest size families.

Whether or not there is scientific data to back up my personal observations, I don't see one "race" having any advantage over the other. What I do notice however, is that nature loves to play around with different survival strategies with all life on Earth. As such, we not look at the Human species as an exception to this rule.

I Know MY Brain Is Still "Evolving"

[Master of Transhuman]

I'm not sure about the rest of you morons.

I take that back.

I AM sure about the rest of you morons.

Humans can't escape their own dys/eugenics

[Baldrson]

People talk a lot about taking responsible for the environmental effects of their decisions but when it comes to genes people go all haywire trying to ignore the fact that their decisions have dysgenic or eugenic consequences.

Yes, evolution is still going on, and no one wants to take responsibility for what their decisions are doing to distort evolution because to even think about it gets the Church Ladies of Political Correctness pursing their lips and asking "Could it be... HITLER!?!?!?!?"

So the Church Ladies of Political Correctness are dooming the world to a Hell where hypocrites thrive and spread their genes to the point that words become meaningless -- humanity slowly disappearing to be replaced by gibbering humanoid zombies that use words the way insects use pheromones.