Tag Archives: Darwinian

Evolution at work

While I never found it difficult to test for bacterial micro-evolution (like in the already famous 2009 E coli paper) I have considerable problems to see this also in contemporary human populations. As an epidemiologist I am now attracted by a new PNAS paper that addresses this problem (for the first time?).

Our aims were to demonstrate that natural selection is operating on contemporary humans … To do so, we measured the strength of selection, estimated genetic variation and covariation, and predicted the response to selection for women in the Framingham Heart Study … We found that natural selection is acting to cause slow, gradual evolutionary change. The descendants of these women are predicted to be on average slightly shorter and stouter, to have lower total cholesterol levels and systolic blood pressure, to have their first child earlier, and to reach menopause later than they would in the absence of evolution.

Athough the abstract is quite clear, Continue reading Evolution at work