Throughout this course we saw the physical changes that evolution has provided us with that have allowed us as humans to survive. From the biological standpoint down to our genes and DNA that make up human variability, biological traits provide a contribution to evolution. Our genetic make up is something that differentiates us from ancestors but only in minor ways. The majority of our make up as humans is the same, but there are a couple differences between us and our ancestors. One reason for these differences are resulting from mutations, mutations provide us with new traits that have not been seen before. Mutations allow for some advantages between groups and although mutations don’t occur in populations rapidly, over time mutations can become a key role in evolution. A mutation is present in a population and as reproduction in this population continues, the mutation can be passed from one individual to the next. Happening over and over, this mutation can then become present in large amounts and evolution makes this a normal trait present in new populations. 

Studying human biology while aspiring to study medicine, there was a part of this course that I found very interesting and that I believe is a large part of evolution. It’s something we can see made a profound change in history and that continues to change in today’s modern day world. Like said in this week’s wrapping up lecture “Biology affects culture and culture affects biology” Natural selection, acts on many aspects of our population. The biggest thing that sticks out to me was the Pandemic Flu of 1918, it was a typical influenza that went around and wiped out thousands of people. But natural selection played upon our immune system, this pandemic of a flu killed around an estimated 500 million people world wide. This flu did not kill those who you would expect, such as the young or the elderly: This flu killed healthy adults ages I believe was around 18-35. This flu triggered an immune system response that was deadly, killing many of the healthy adults and those who didn’t die, adapted. Pandemics such as the 1918 flu, is a way of natural selection that continue to play a role in the continuum of humans evolving. 

An aspect that I did not think of as a contribution to human evolution that was brought up in this weeks lecture was a natural selection type that is food resources. Our ancestors used to rely on food resources, and luckily in the United States food resources are not really limited. Food resources do not really have a limited in the United States due to our genetic engineering of seeds. Allowing us to grow crops and food that with have the ability to survive environmental changes that they would not normally survive. We have the ability to genetically modify crops so food resources will not be a determining factor of natural selection in the US. Unfortunately this is not the case in other parts of the world, less developed countries do not have this ability. It is something that saddens me greatly because we have the technology and knowledge to change this, but in less developed countries people are starving. This in an environmental trait that will continue to contribute to the struggling populations evolution.