Humans Evolve – Fast!

A new study says modern humans are in the evolutionary fast lane. Scientists say world
population growth is leading to beneficial genetic mutations. Chuck Quirmbach has
more:

Transcript

A new study says modern humans are in the evolutionary fast lane. Scientists say world
population growth is leading to beneficial genetic mutations. Chuck Quirmbach has
more:


Some scientists contend modern culture and conveniences have basically halted human
evolution. But anthropologist John Hawks says that’s not so. He’s been analyzing data
from an international gene-cataloguing study. He says many genes have rapidly changed
within the last 5-thousand years. For example, Hawks says one positive development is
that humans have more genes that fight off some diseases:


“Things that resist malaria, things that resist smallpox, things that are resistant to new
diseases that have emerged in the last 10,000 years.”


Hawks says there have also been changes related to what some groups can eat and drink,
for example, many northern Europeans can now drink milk their whole lives. The study
of genetic change is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


For the Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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Interview With Mark Plotkin

  • Plotkin is the president of the Amazon Conservation Team, a group working to preserve the cultures and species in the rainforests of Central and South America.

Last year Time magazine named researcher Mark Plotkin an
environmental "Hero for the Planet." Plotkin has spent nearly 20 years
in
the rain forests of Central and South America, and is working to save
not
only the forests, but also the tribes who live there. He’s just
finished a
new book entitled "Medicine Quest: In Search of Nature’s Healing
Secrets." In it he argues that many ancient tribes of the forests
understand
plants better than botanists. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester
Graham recently talked with Plotkin and asked about his work:

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