Are humans not evolving?

Are humans still evolving? Many people think of evolution as a thing of the past, something that starts billions of years ago with single-celled organisms and ended with modern humans. But that couldn’t be further from the truth! Contrary to popular belief, humans haven’t stopped evolving. It is still happening and we are actively changing and it’s possible that it’s happening faster than ever! 

Let’s take a look at the scientific evidence for this. Let’s start with the human eye. Not the inner workings of the eye, though the evolutionary history there is fascinating. Let’s look at the color! Roughly 17% of the world's population has blue eyes that may not sound like a lot, but 10,000 years ago people with blue eyes were unheard of. 

Researchers believe that blue eyes came from a mutation in a single ancestor between 6,000-10,000 years ago when you recognize that modern humans have existed for much longer than that. It’s clear that evolution couldn't have stopped with the rise of humanity. 

And what about the brain? We think pretty highly of our brains, but it turns out brains have actually been shrinking over the past 30,000 years, the average volume of the human brain has decreased from 1.500 cubic centimeters to 1.350 cubic centimeters that’s a reduction in the size of about 10%! 

Oh, and what about our teeth? Wisdom teeth are the last set of molars in our mouths and they were helpful to our early ancestors who ate tough, uncooked foods that wore away their teeth. Today, thanks to cooking and cutlery, our food has become softer and easier to chew. As a result, our jaws have become much smaller and there is just not enough room left for the wisdom teeth anymore. According to some estimates, 35 percent of the population is born without wisdom teeth, and some researchers believe that wisdom teeth will eventually disappear altogether. those of us who still grow wisdom teeth often have to have them surgically removed. 

As evolution continues, it’s likely that the humans of the future will not have to deal with this painful struggle. Lucky them!. We can even see traces of human evolution in our lungs! Well, some of us, people who are native to Tibet are able to live in the Himalayan mountains with low oxygen levels, but it’s not that they’re just…used to it. Living with low oxygen levels over several generations has led to mutations in their genes. 

As a result of this genetic evolution, Tibetan peoples’ blood produces more of the oxygen-transporting protein called hemoglobin what is possibly more fascinating than all of this is that evolution in humans appears to be speeding up in the past 5,000 years, humans have evolved up to 100 times more quickly than at any time in 6 million years. The widespread assumption that human evolution has shown down because we’ve conquered nature is absolutely not true we haven’t conquered nature at all, we simply have developed ways to curate our surroundings and experiences to our liking. 

Researchers have analyzed data from the international haplotype map and analyzed genetic markers in 270 people from four groups, Han Chinese, Japanese, Africa’s Yoruba people, and northern Europeans. They found that at least 7% of human genes have undergone recent evolution, the changes include lighter skin and blue eyes in northern Europe, and partial resistance to disease such as malaria among some African populations. Some of the changes were traced back to just 5,000 years ago and today they are in 30 or 40% of people because they are an evolutionary advantage . for example, many Chines and African adults cannot digest lactose and milk. But across Europe, a lactose tolerance gene is now widespread. 

Another reason we are seeing an increase in evolutionary speeds is the rise in the global population. As the population grows, humans are reproducing more frequently, and that means mutations are able to be passed on. Evolution in humans probably won’t stop anytime soon. In fact, it will likely continue until humans become something else entirely. As Carl Sagan put it,” It will not be we who reach Alpha Centauri and the other nearby stars. It will be a species very much like us. But with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses.”