WHAT MAKES US HUMAN?

There is a fascinating article in the May, 2009 issue of Scientific American that provides the latest details on discoveries taking place in genetic research. These discoveries not only show specifically how we are different from chimps, but perhaps more importantly, why we evolved into a different species and precisely WHICH aspects of our human genome are different. The article presents clear evidence of how our species is in the process of evolving still by offering some examples such as lactose intolerance in some humans but not in others. Chimps and all races of human primates were all lactose intolerant until as recently as 9,000 years ago. Our species is in the midst of becoming totally lactose tolerant and when this evolutionary step concludes, all humans will be lactose tolerant. The article also shows how the evolution of the genome is influenced heavily by the struggle to combat disease and how overcoming disease is a primary factor of natural selection. The fact that our medical science is injecting us with antiviral medications to help us survive infections therefore seems to be a double-edged sword because humans incapable of warding off disease they contract prior to child-bearing age would normally die and be eliminated from the gene pool. The fact that our science is allowing these individuals to survive is therefore inhibiting the natural selection process from doing its job in terms of our future evolution. It is easy to see how this could lead us down some complicated and negative paths in generations to come.

What I find really interesting however, is that the author of the article (Katherine S. Pollard, a biostatistician and Ph. D. researcher at the University of California, SF) seems to almost intentionally stop just short of proclaiming the obvious: that human science may be on the verge of being able to predict the direction human evolution is going and even manipulating the human genome to actually take that next evolutionary step. That may be some time off because there is still a lot to be learned about the large percentage of human DNA that may or may not turn out to be significant in the evolutionary process, but I am led to believe that all these questions will be answered before too much longer.

This may sound like an excellent plot for a great science fiction book but as we have come to realize ,science fiction is often only a few steps ahead of science fact.

Stand by.

Michael Jaquish