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Humans Evolving 100 Times Faster Than Ever
John Hawks writes "A new genomics study in PNAS shows that humans have been evolving new adaptive genes during the past 10,000 years much faster than ever before. The study says that evolution has sped up because of population growth, making people adapt faster to new diseases, new diets, and social changes like cities. Oh, and I'm the lead author. I've been reading Slashdot for a long time, and let me just say that our study doesn't necessarily apply to trolls."
First of all, the sickle cell / malaria evolution happened many thousands of years ago so it has nothing to do with what happens today.
Secondly, there are things that have to happen for evolution to take place, both of which are equally important. The first is genetic diversity, which as you point out is very good with our large population. But the second is *competition* among that diversity - and this is where humanity now falls flat on it's face. Technology has progressed to the state that, given equal access to technology, no one person on the planet really has a genetic advantage over another. A person with the sickle-cell gene can live just as long as anyone else given proper treatment. Similarly, someone who contracts malaria will also survive given proper treatment.
If evolution was still allowed to take it's proper course, people who were born with congenital heart defects and brain defects would all die at a very early age. Instead, they are allowed to live full lives in modern society, possibly passing their defective genes along in the pool.