Are humans still evolving? Absolutely, says a new analysis of a long-term survey of human health
Although advances in medical care have improved standards of living over time, humans aren't entirely sheltered from the forces of natural selection, a new study shows. As part of a working group sponsored by NESCent, a team of researchers wanted to know if natural selection is still at work in humans today. To find out, they analyzed medical data from more than 2000 women in the Framingham Heart Study. The result? Human evolution hasn't ground to a halt. In fact, we're likely to evolve at roughly the same rates as other living things, findings suggest.
Their results appear in the In the Oct. 19 issue of PNAS.
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