9. The future of human evolution

2019 ◽  
pp. 120-126
Author(s):  
Bernard Wood
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
New Taxa ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Fossil Evidence ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Locations ◽  
New Evidence

What are the next few decades likely to bring in terms of new evidence about human evolution? Are modern humans still evolving, and if so, what changes are we likely to see? ‘The future of human evolution’ considers both of these questions. It explains that researchers will continue to look for additional fossil evidence, at existing fossil sites as well as in new locations. Both will provide valuable evidence. It considers the chances of finding new taxa and how more evidence can be squeezed out of the existing fossil record through improved molecular biology and imaging techniques. Finally, it looks at contemporary human evolution and what is likely to influence the future of our species.

A Story of Us

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Newson ◽  
Peter Richerson
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Evolutionary Path ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Science Book ◽  
Early Humans ◽  
Last Ice Age ◽  
New Evidence

It’s time for a new story of our origins. One reason is that there a great deal of new evidence about what humans are like and the conditions that shaped human evolution. Another is that the thinking on human evolution has shifted. Evolutionists recognize that humans are very different from other animals, and they have been working to explain the different evolutionary path that humans took. There are still many gaps in the story, but this book describes seven points in our ancestors’ tale and explains the evidence behind these descriptions. The story begins seven million years ago, with the life of our ape ancestors, which were also the ancestors of today’s chimpanzees and bonobos. The second point is three million years ago with an ape that walked upright and lived outside the forest. Then follows a description of the life of early humans who lived one and a half million years ago. At the fourth point, 100,000 years ago, humans lived in Africa who were physically very similar to modern humans. The fifth is 30,000 years ago, during the last ice age, when our ancestors had evolved more complex cultures. The sixth is the period of accelerating cultural evolution that began as the planet started to recover from this ice age. Finally, beginning in the 1700s, there is the transformational period we are in now, which we call “modern times.” The style of this book is unusual for a science book because it has narrative sections that illustrate the lives of our ancestors and the problems they faced.

Hermann Joseph Muller, 1890-1967

1968 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 348-389 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Public Mind ◽  
The Public ◽  
Publication Number ◽  
The Future ◽  
Ionizing Radiations ◽  
Mutagenic Effects ◽  
Heart Condition

Hermann Joseph Muller died on 5 April 1967, at the age of 76, after several years of struggle with a heart condition. Biology has lost one of its outstanding pioneers and leaders. His decisive contributions—both in theory and in experiments, many of them in advance of his time—opened and marked step by step the trail from the Mendelism of the 1910’s to the molecular biology of the 1960’s. His last two papers—prepared in 1965 and 1966—‘The gene material as the initiator and the organizing basis of life’ (369) * and ‘What genetic course will man steer?’ (372)—give a grand view of that trail, of where it has led and of which biological issues the knowledge so acquired presents to mankind. In the public mind Muller’s eminence is based on his vast and profound contributions to experimental genetics, his discovery of the mutagenic effects of ionizing radiations—which motivated the award of the Nobel Prize in 1946—and his efforts to make the genetic hazards of radiations understood and to limit these hazards. There is a widespread tendency to dismiss his concern for the future course of human evolution, and in particular his practical proposals for voluntary germinal choice, as senile deviations, amusing if they were not fraught with danger. Two facts show how wrong is this belief. * Numbers in parentheses refer to publication number in list of published works. Sentences in inverted commas without numbers are from two autobiographical manuscripts of 1936 and 1941, respectively.

The early Mesozoic radiation of dinoflagellates

Paleobiology ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Fensome ◽  
R. A. MacRae ◽  
J. M. Moldowan ◽  
F. J. R. Taylor ◽  
G. L. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
The Past ◽  
Early Mesozoic ◽  
Fossil Evidence ◽  
Evolutionary Radiation ◽  
Molecular Phylogenetic ◽  
Sudden Appearance ◽  
New Evidence

Dinoflagellates are a major component of the marine microplankton and, from fossil evidence, appear to have been so for the past 200 million years. In contrast, the pre-Triassic record contains only equivocal occurrences of dinoflagellates, despite the fact that comparative ultrastructural and molecular phylogenetic evidence indicates a Precambrian origin for the lineage. Thus, it has often been assumed that the dearth of Paleozoic fossil dinoflagellates was due to a lack of preservation or recognition and that the relatively sudden appearance of dinoflagellates in the Mesozoic is an artifact of the record. However, new evidence from a detailed analysis of the fossil record and from the biogeochemical record indicates that dinoflagellates did indeed undergo a major evolutionary radiation in the early Mesozoic.

scholarly journals Temporal Orders and Y Chromosome Futures: Of Mice, Monkeys, and Men

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Sam Taylor-Alexander ◽  
Sharyn Davies
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Y Chromosome ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Theories ◽  
The Future ◽  
Crisis Of Masculinity ◽  
Y Chromosome Degeneration

We bring together conceptual readings of time and temporality to discuss evolutionary theories of Y chromosome degeneration as they are spoken about in scientific and popular forums. In doing so, we suggest that debates over Y chromosome degeneration involve a form of abduction – tacking back and forth between different pasts, presents, futures – that frames templates for producing and securing sexed and gendered presents. Here we are using ‘sexed’ as a way of talking about physical bodies and ‘gendered’ as social ways of constructing those sexed bodies. We suggest that arguments over Y chromosome degeneration are as important for current debates surrounding sex, gender, science, molecular biology and a “crisis of masculinity” as they are for (ascertaining) the future of human evolution.

2. Finding our place

2019 ◽  
pp. 7-23
Author(s):  
Bernard Wood
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common

When did the process of using reason to try and understand human origins begin, and how did it develop? When was the scientific method first applied to the study of human evolution? ‘Finding our place’ begins by reviewing the history of how first philosophers and then scientists came to realize that modern humans are part of the natural world. It then explains why, using advances in molecular biology, scientists think chimpanzees and bonobos are more closely related to modern humans than they are to gorillas, and why they think the common ancestor of the chimpanzee/bonobo and modern human clades lived between six and eight million years ago.

THE FUTURE FOSSIL RECORD OF THE ANTHROPOCENE

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy E. Plotnick ◽  
◽  
Karen A. Koy
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
The Future

scholarly journals On imaging, speed, and the future of lymphocyte signaling

2005 ◽  
Vol 201 (4) ◽  
pp. 505-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Tarakhovsky
Keyword(s):  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Roundtable Discussion ◽  
Advanced Imaging ◽  
The Future ◽  
Personal Perspectives ◽  
Imaging Speed

During a recent roundtable discussion, we captured some personal perspectives on the new insight that advanced imaging techniques promise to bring to the study of lymphocyte signaling. The experts present their views on the power of imaging, the problems that need to be overcome, and the potential of the technology.

Molecular Oncology for the Head and Neck Surgeon

1995 ◽  
Vol 112 (5) ◽  
pp. P88-P89
Author(s):  
Norris K. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Head And Neck Cancer ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Cancer Treatment ◽  
Head And Neck ◽  
Neck Cancer ◽  
Cancer Model ◽  
Educational Objectives ◽  
Molecular Oncology ◽  
The Future ◽  
Biological Concepts

Educational objectives: To understand basic molecular biological concepts and breakthroughs as they apply to the head and neck cancer model and to envision the future of head and neck cancer treatment, within the context of molecular biology.

Policing for Peace

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Nanes
Keyword(s):  
Police Officer ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Crime Victimization ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Evidence

In communities plagued by conflict along ethnic, racial, and religious lines, how does the representation of previously-marginalized groups in the police affect crime and security? Drawing on new evidence from policing in Iraq and Israel, Policing for Peace shows that an inclusive police force provides better services and reduces conflict, but not in the ways we might assume. Including members of marginalized groups in the police improves civilians' expectations of how the police and government will treat them, both now and in the future. These expectations are enhanced when officers are organized into mixed rather than homogeneous patrols. Iraqis indicate feeling most secure when policed by mixed officers, even more secure than they feel when policed by members of their own group. In Israel, increases in police officer diversity are associated with lower crime victimization for both Arab and Jewish citizens. In many cases, inclusive policing benefits all citizens, not just those from marginalized groups.

A new species and genus of Alienopteridae (Blattodea) from mid-Cretaceous amber of northern Myanmar

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4941 (4) ◽  
pp. 580-586
Author(s):  
XIN-YU CHEN ◽  
HUA-CHUAN ZHANG ◽  
XIAOXIAO SHI
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Posterior Part ◽  
Batesian Mimicry ◽  
Burmese Amber ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
A New Species

Eminespina burma gen. et sp. nov., is described and illustrated based on a female embedded in Cretaceous Burmese amber of Cenomanian age. Autapomorphic are three unique spines distributed anterior quarter of pronotum from longer posterior part. The new evidence of Batesian mimicry in the insect fossil record is briefly discussed. 

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