You might think that you're the pinnacle of human evolution, but Mother Nature's got other ideas. Despite the fact that many of us hide away from the natural world in nice little air-conditioned, tiger-proof boxes, the human race is still subject to evolutionary pressures. One of the most striking of these is disease resistance. There are many genes that have come out in humans over the last few thousand years related to fighting disease and many of these are involved in fighting malaria. Because malaria is so endemic in many African countries, the selection bias for people who are able to resist the disease is high. This isn't a perfect process, evident in the fact that the mutation responsible for Sickle Cell Anemia also confers malaria resistance. Now, obviously, having Sickle Cell Anemia isn't much better than having malaria, but there is a similar mutation developing that provides the protection without the disease. Evolution in action. Lactose tolerance is also a relatively new development, possibly in the last 3,000 years. Because it's actually a pretty weird thing to do to drink milk into adulthood, most animals' and a vast amount of humans' digestive systems can't handle it. However, the genetic mutation for digesting milk is now thought to have spread to 95% of Northern Europeans. Possibly, milk drinking is a good way to survive freezing cold winters due to its high fat content and the domestication of milk-producing animals is a big factor. Oh yeah, and our brains are getting smaller, can't forget about that one (until our brains get too small to retain memories). Want to write for WhatCulture Science? Click here to find out how you could get paid to write about what you love.There's plenty more science where that came from. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for more all the latest.
