There are so many ways that humans today are continuing to evolve. The first way that humans are continuing to evolve is by Natural selection. Natural selection acts differently in different environments. A main example that I thought was interesting was natural selection on changing the nature of disease. As new diseases arise they have the potential to spread fast. The diseases reduce the population by killing some people and keeping the other alive. Another way that natural selection is acting on humans is through reproduction. Certain genes have prevented people to get fertile. This changes who is passing their genes onto the next generation and whos not. Natural selection causes these and many more big changes in the evolution of humans today.
When I was reading the article, ‘Evolution and the Origins of Disease’ I found another good example of a way humans are evolving. The example that was interesting to me was the mechanism of coughing and disease defence in general. The people who are unable to clear something from their lungs will end up dying. I thought the idea of coughing and pain was interesting. It said that coughing is important because it gives your body the capacity to feel pain. Without being able to feel pain you will be more likely to die. Another idea relating to your body keeping you alive is the idea of a fever. When your body knows there is a pathogen that can potentially kill you, your body increases in temperature to try and kill the pathogen. One part of this passage that I found very interesting was the mechanism behind morning sickness in pregnant women. The vomiting is a way to restrict the intake of harmful substances. The sentence I found most interesting said, “Profet tested this idea by examining pregnancy outcomes. Sure enough, women with more nausea were less likely to suffer miscarriages”. That is so cool how our bodies have evolved in ways to keep our child safe.
The last example that I found to be very interesting was also in the article, ‘Evolution and the Origins of Disease’. The last example is the evolution of virulence. The main cause for the evolution of disease has to do to modern medicine. Since medicine is so new in the world, they are still figuring out how resistance can lead to different diseases. This is known as antibiotic resistance and it’s a good example of natural selection. Certain bacteria had genes that can prosper through an antibiotic. Another example of virulence is the spread of disease throughs water or vectors. An example of this would be how better sanitation has led to the displacement of Shigella.
I think this lesson was my favorite. I really liked seeing everything coming together and relating to how it is still affecting humans today. I never thought about all the crazy examples that help humans survive like morning sickness and coughing. I always used to think of evolution as apes to humans, but after this class I know it is much deeper than that and there are many factors affecting it.
Hey!
This unit has taught me so much about how humans have evolved and just how much they have. Humans have evolved over millions and millions of years and continue to adapt and evolve to this very day. You are right, natural selection has played a huge role in this process. Natural selection allows species to choose and adapt traits that are best for living in the world. Natural selection allows species to get rid of traits and adapt new ones to better survive and stay alive. I think this process is so interesting because if you look where our ancestors started out to where we are and how we look today, it is absolutely incredible. Natural selection is the reason humans look completely different today and will in the future.
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Hi Natalie, I found your blog post to be very interesting as well as informative. I think that the points you highlighted about coughing and disease are very interesting things to look at in order to understand different things about evolution. I think it is also very interesting that morning sickness is a defense to restrict the intake of harmful substances. I think antibiotic resistance is very interesting as well and also wonder how it can lead to different diseases. I think that natural selection is a good lens to look at this through as well. Only the strongest bacteria survive the antibiotic, just like how only the best fit humans survived evolution. It is cool to see how natural selection applies to many different aspects.
Natalie, thank you so much for sharing that post. You brought to light things about evolution that most people are unaware of unlike the basics like bipedalism. I am right with you when you said all of this is interesting. I can’t believe all we have come from and how complex the human body is. Something as simple as morning sickness can be the key to determining who produces an offspring and who doesn’t. Someone who may throw up more may be putting things in their body they aren’t supposed to so in a way the body has its own brain protecting itself from the persons actions. Until taking this class i did not know some of the reasons our body does things like this. You talked about diseases and I think that is important because bacteria is something that keeps growing and getting smarter which makes it harder to defend ourselves against it. In the lectures it mentioned that diseases come and kill of the people who could not defend themselves and keep alive the people who can and not only does that allow the future generations to contain these genes but it kills off those in the population that do not belong. If we use the flu for instance- people have died from the flu every year but people who are smart to take precautions get the flu shot once a year which allows there body to be prepared. I could honestly talk about this topic all day because our bodies have so much to them.
Hi Natalie. You brought up a good point about natural selection and how genes tend to weed people out, but I think as technology and modern life also evolves, natural selection can also become more obvious. If people don’t know how think critically these days, natural selection takes it place. I was also surprised to read about morning sickness since I previously thought it was just because of hormones. Now knowing it is also a way that the body protects the fetus, it makes an awful burden more understandable. I became aware of antibiotic resistance a few years ago when for the first time a doctor refused to give me antibiotics when I was sick. I was confused and frustrated at the time, but then I understood after being educated. It’s a scary topic and one that doctors need to consider heavily.
Hello Natalie!
As I was reading your blog post I found it to be quite interesting. I found it interesting that you wrote about the origins of diseases. I loved that because I took a class that was about diseases. My favorite part in your blog post was when you talked about coughing. It is so odd and interesting to think of coughing as a positive. Because, like you said, without coughing you will die. Another part I found to be so interesting was how you said that when women puked more during their pregnancy, they were less likely to have a miscarriage. That is tremendously crazy to me but actually makes a lot of sense. Overall, this was a great read and I actually learned a tremendous amount.
I found a lot of interesting things in your discussion post. To begin with, it is true that humans today continue to evolve and one of the ways that this has taken place is through the natural selection process. I agree with you when you say that the natural selection process is something that acts differently in different environments. For instance, natural selection from what I also learned in the lecture notes and materials is something that can be experienced when it comes to the nature of a given disease. Natural selection has the potential to alter with a given population especially when people suffer from diseases that might spread fast hence changing the environment. I was also impressed by the fact that you gave examples from the articles that were available especially when you talked about evolution and the origins of disease. The article was also knowledgeable to me and I am impressed that you quoted it as well.