Human evolution has ended

Humans will not take another step in the evolutionary path because the impetus for it is disappearing, a leading UK genetic expert said.

In a lecture entitled " Human Evolution is Over ", Professor Steve Jones of University College London said that the rate of genetic change in humans is declining. strong.

"There are three factors that promote evolution: natural selection, genetic modification and random changes. All those factors are slowly disappearing or weakening , " Steve said.

According to Steve, the rate of human genetic change is sharply reduced due to social changes related to reproductive behavior, such as contraception and divorce. Although chemical pollution and nuclear radiation can mutate genes, the most important factor is the age of men.

"The rate of cell division in men increases with age. A mistake, like a gene mutation, is always possible when a cell divides. In a 29-year-old father's body, there are about 300 cell division in sperm, but for a 50-year-old father, that number is thousands, " explains Steve.

The transformation of human shape in evolution.(Photo: Times Online)

In old social forms, healthy, rich or powerful men in society often produce dozens, even hundreds, of children. Most of them give birth at age 60-70. But today, most men in developed societies only give birth to a few children in their twenties and thirties. The higher the age of fatherhood, the greater the number of mutations that men transmit to the next generation. Therefore, the rate of gene transformation in societies is decreasing.

The survival rate of newborns also increased significantly in most countries around the world, so natural selection pressure also decreased. In primitive and medieval social regimes, about half of the children on the planet die before the age of 20. But today, 98% of Western children live through the age of 21.

Random factor decline is the third reason. Thanks to agricultural activities, the human population has increased by ten thousand times compared to the reasonable figure in the animal world. Without farming, the world population today will only be about half a million.

When small communities live separately, human evolution will take place in a random manner because unusual genetic characteristics cannot be spread widely. Today, peoples are closer together thanks to the development of transport and migration flows. Unusual genetic characteristics are not " entrenched " in an isolated place like before, but spread throughout the planet, so the randomness decreases.

That's bad news for scientists. In the future, all species on Earth still need to continue to evolve to cope with new challenges in their environment. If the evolutionary history of humanity stops, our children and grandchildren can face the destruction of destruction.