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A book review in the online Wall Street Journal (to which I was pointed by the wonderful site "Arts & Letters Daily") makes me interested in reading "The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution" by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending -- a book that refutes the commonly- held view that human evolution, for some reason, suddenly ended about 50,000 years ago.
To the contrary, the authors say, human evolution has instead accelerated lately. One incident they cite is lactose intolerance -- they argue that lactose intolerance was a universal trait in humans until 8,000 years ago, when a genetic mutation arose. Now, for people of northern European descent, lactose intolerance is actually unusual. Why would that be a beneficial mutation? Well, you can only eat a cow once, but if you can derive sustenance from the cow's milk, you can get far more from the same cow.
Anyway, this strikes me as one of those interesting 'research' books that will spark some thoughts which will eventually make their way into a story or two. I think I need to pick it up...
To the contrary, the authors say, human evolution has instead accelerated lately. One incident they cite is lactose intolerance -- they argue that lactose intolerance was a universal trait in humans until 8,000 years ago, when a genetic mutation arose. Now, for people of northern European descent, lactose intolerance is actually unusual. Why would that be a beneficial mutation? Well, you can only eat a cow once, but if you can derive sustenance from the cow's milk, you can get far more from the same cow.
Anyway, this strikes me as one of those interesting 'research' books that will spark some thoughts which will eventually make their way into a story or two. I think I need to pick it up...