Scientists Talk About The End Of Evolution: Man Has No One To Fight For Existence, He Is Too Predictable

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Video: Scientists Talk About The End Of Evolution: Man Has No One To Fight For Existence, He Is Too Predictable

Video: Scientists Talk About The End Of Evolution: Man Has No One To Fight For Existence, He Is Too Predictable
Video: Four billion years of evolution in six minutes | Prosanta Chakrabarty 2024, March
Scientists Talk About The End Of Evolution: Man Has No One To Fight For Existence, He Is Too Predictable
Scientists Talk About The End Of Evolution: Man Has No One To Fight For Existence, He Is Too Predictable
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With fewer men becoming fathers at an older age, human evolution is heading towards an end, says a leading geneticist. According to Professor Steve Jones of University College London (UCL), men who have children after age 35 are more likely to pass on genotype changes to them

Professor Jones is giving a lecture at UCL today entitled "Human Evolution is Over." In it, he will show that there were three components of evolution: natural selection, mutation and random changes in the genotype. "All of a sudden, it turned out that due to changes in the pattern of sexual behavior, the intensity of human mutation has dropped," - said Professor Jones in an interview with The Times.

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"Changes in the social sphere often affect a person's genetic future," the scientist said, citing the marriage model and the phenomenon of contraception as an example. Although the genotype can also change under the influence of chemicals or radioactive contamination, one of the most important causes of mutation is the advanced age of men.

This is because cell division in men accelerates with age. “Whenever there is a cell division, there is a possibility of error, mutation, failure,” he said. which he himself identifies, there are about 300 differences, and each of them can cause errors. In the case of paternity at the age of 50, this figure significantly exceeds a thousand. Therefore, a decrease in the number of age fathers has a significant impact on the intensity of mutations."

Professor Jones added: "In the old days, a powerful man could have hundreds of children." He cited the example of the prolific ruler of Morocco, Moulay Ismail, who ended his days in the 18th century: he is said to have fathered 888 children. It is assumed that in order to accomplish this feat, Ismail had to copulate with an average of 1, 2 women per day for 60 years.

Another factor is the weakening of natural selection. "In ancient times, half of today's children would have died before they reached the age of twenty. Today, in the Western world, 98% of them live to be 21."

The decrease in the number of random changes also contributes to this trend. "People resemble each other 10 thousand times more than it should be, if we proceed from the laws of the animal world, and all this thanks to agriculture. If the cultivation of agricultural crops had not been mastered, the human population by now would probably have reached half a million individuals - that is, it would be approximately equal to the population of Glasgow. Small isolated populations can evolve in an arbitrary direction, because there is an accidental loss of genes. But internationally, all populations are interconnected, and the likelihood of random changes is reduced. History is made in bed, but these days, the beds are constantly converging. Mixing, we merge into a global mass, and our future will be tinged in brown tones."

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