Sat 9 Sep 2006
In the past two days, I read a couple of articles that are related in some way and made me think about us humans.
First, an article about a new study that says men over 40 are much more likely to have autistic children, in fact, the chances are six times those of fathers below 30!
The second article is about the British Fertility Society recommending that women put their fresh young eggs on ice at 30 to improve their chances of conceiving at 40-plus, another reason why conceiving earlier is better.
So both are saying that people should have children earlier….and that at 40 your body is telling you that its a bit too late.
My question is….how long will that last?? I mean evolution is part of nature, and the definition of evolution according to the Encyclopedia Britannica is -
“..theory in biology postulating that the various types of plants, animals, and other living things on Earth have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations.”
Modifications in successive generations is what I’m interested in. Humans now are very different than humans 400, or even 100 years ago! Unlike our predecessors, we do not live according to what nature has provided us, for example, in the past, the day started with the break of dawn and ended at sunset. Now we have electricity and therefore have enough light to stay up during the night, to the point that many of us have became nocturnal beings, living in the night! This has to be a radical change in our biological systems, but will this change us eventually?? Will our grand-grand-grand-children evolve to have better night vision for example??
Another example of how we abandoned nature is the relation between women’s menstural period and the moon. I read this somewhere before but don’t remember where, that women’s periods are affected by the cycle of the moon, and that back in the day, it was a practical thing because when the moon was at its fullest, the men used to go hunting or whatever and leave their women behind, and it was during that specific time that women went through their period. Its pretty interesting, but irrelevent now! That has to be some sort of evolution process.
Now we come to the two articles above. Nowadays, it is common for people to marry in their late twenties and mid-thirties, and consequently, have children at around that age. Compare this to how things were back in the day, not so far back, even to the time of our grandparents, when they used to get married early in their teens, and have children at around 16 or 17 if not younger. Biologically, this is probably how it should happen, since both bodies are able, but socially, it is unacceptable in our age! We are having children at an older age than before because of work and career and so on (I am talking worldwide, not just us), so will our bodies adapt to this as time moves on??
Very philosophical topic today, but I think its interesting
Also, how would you like to evolve?
6 Responses to “Human evolution”
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September 9th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
cool topic.
I remember a 7adeeth that described 3omar ibn il5a6aab and another 9a7aabe that I forgot his name, that when they were mounted on horses, their toes could scrape the sand. I’m not sure about how “9a7ee7″ that 7adeeth is, should check it out.. but there’s also another 7adeeth that says that when we enter heaven we’ll be as tall as sayedna Adam 3alaih essalam that he was 60 theraa3 in height.
So I guess the trend is that we’re getting shorter and shorter.
I guess with more technology available we’re able to make life easier and easier for ourselves. so from an evolutionary p.o.v, we’ll become weaker and weaker, since we don’t have to endure what we had to before?
September 9th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
me, evolve?
September 10th, 2006 at 5:44 am
Do u beleive in Evolution ?!
comma onnnn
any way thanx
September 11th, 2006 at 11:05 am
[…] After my failed attempt in writing about the evolution of humans, I will now turn your attention to the evolution of clothes! […]
September 11th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Oh boy, what did I miss! Anyhow, here is a quick comment:
Archeology provides us with a good idea about the previous generations of mankind and their lives. Today, people are better fed than those who lived before and advances in modern medicine helped to reduce infant mortality and prolonged the average human life. Such advances also reflect on the size of the human body, but to a limit: the average height and size of modern humans are slightly larger than those who lived before us – we are fatter too! There is no guarantee that evolution always favors the stronger and the smarter: evidence seems to suggest that Neanderthals had brains larger than the brain of modern man, but they also had stronger and more robust bodies. Natural selection (the main mechanism for evolution) became ineffective with the emergence of intelligence. While this means no drastic differences in the human anatomy, we must also take into account the universality of todays culture: boys don’t marry the girl-next-door anymore, an Inuit can marry a Pygmy producing offsprings with traits from both parents. The whole world now is a melting pot.
September 11th, 2006 at 7:09 pm
I’d like to be able to fly with my own wings. I’d also like to be able to sleep with a push button.