How did we get here? There are some strange things going on, when it comes to evolution: Viceroy butterflies protect themselves from predators by looking just like Monarchs (which are toxic to birds). Is this an accident or some kind of “intention?”
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Next step is machine intelligence – Quantum physicist Stephen Hawking says humans have entered a new phase of evolution, one that will be continued by our creation of intelligent machines. Evolution is one of the topics discussed in the Lloyd Pye subscriber interview this week.
Evolution used to proceed slowly, over millions of years of natural selection from random mutations. But now evolution has speeded up, and Hawking predicts that major changes will take place every 50 years.
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Things are definitely starting to heat up again, and global warming may speed up the pace of evolution in mammals. Will we get smarter in order to save ourselves?
In warmer climates, the cells that eventually develop into sperm and eggs divide more frequently. In BBC News, Victoria Gill quotes researcher Len Gillman as saying, “An increase in cell division provides more opportunities for mutations in the population over a given time. This increases the probability of advantageous mutations that are selected for within the species.”
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Despite the comments of some of the political candidates now running for office, Evolution is real and it’s still going on–in fact, we’re evolving faster than ever. Scientists USED to think that human evolution was all over. What’s causing this acceleration?
In BBC News, Anna-Marie Lever reports that in the past 5,000 years (a blink of the eye in geologic time), human beings have changed genetically 100 times more than in any other period of history. What?s happening?
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