Why does evolution take so long?

Question

Is there any way we can boost human evolution a few million years to a point where we have stronger bones and more powerful brains?

I read somewhere that mutation from radiation is a form of evolution. Could we possibly use this?

Answer 1

Evolution may speed up beyond your wildest dreams...

It's just a matter of time before we can genetically select, if not downright engineer, what our offspring will be like. Parents will routinely give their babies perfect teeth, perfect eyesight and the like. Genetic diseases will become a thing of the past.

Give it a bit more time, and we'll be able to give our kids the bodies of athletes and minds of geniuses. Then we'll discover that genetics is only part of the equation; the environment also has a huge impact on how we turn out.

We won't be resorting to anything as crude as radiation in order to achieve random mutations. Why bother, when we'll have the technology to genetically engineer whatever traits we want? We're still a few generations away from being able to do that, but the time is coming, and I don't think anything short of nuclear war can stop it. No matter what laws we pass, there will be no shortage of rich parents who want to give their offspring every possible advantage - and where there's a demand, there will be a supply.

Answer 2

Evolution doesn't take nearly as long as most people suppose. 50,000 years ago a group of about 150 people migrated from Africa to Asia by crossing the Gulf of Tears, a narrow strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Today it is about twenty miles wide, but at the time it was narrower and probably contained islands because the sea level was lower due to the amount of water contained in glaciers and ice caps. I suspect they left Africa to get away from somebody. They became the ancestors of the Cro Magnons who probably had a lot to do with the extinction of the Neanderthals, who had stronger bones and bigger, but apparently less-capable brains. There is no evidence of interbreeding. Apparently it was impossible.

Their descendants went on to populate Asia, Europe, The Americas, Australia and Oceania. They evolved into races suited to these environments and speaking many different languages in 50,000 years.

We know this because the decoding of the human genome allows us to read the history of prehistory in our DNA. I highly recommend reading "Before the Dawn" by Nicholas Wade.

In plant breeding, radiation is routinely used to produce mutations by irradiating seeds, sometimes while they are still growing on the plant.

Answer 3

there is no way to boost the speed of natural evolution because it is a result of natural selection. mutation from radiation is just that, mutation, not natural evolution. with advancements in science and medicine, it is possible that we can figure out how to make the human body more efficient, but humans are not evolving naturally as fast as before because in order for natural selection to take place, individuals with stronger traits survive and reproduce, and the weaker traited individuals die off. over millions of years new, more advanced species are created from these strong traits. since we live in an advanced society, people with weaker traits do not simply just die, they live along with everyone else, and so evolution due to natural selection among humans is extremely slow, while in animals it is comparibly more rapid. Therefore genetic alterations that may be possible in the future, would not be considered evolution, as much as genetic advancement

Answer 4

We could use selective breeding like we do with animals. That method has a bad name because it has been used by racist like the Nazi's. Making mutations or even novel DNA is not the problem. The problem is selecting those that would be an improvement. Then adding that novel change to an embryo will probably be delayed, justifiably, by governments until such time that they decide that it is in our long term benefit to tinker. Maybe in a thousand years, that sort of manipulation will be common, but it is still only theoretical. I am sure that some fixes to genetic defects may be in the works. Novel changes wil take a while, if ever, to be implemented.

Answer 5

yes but the probability that a mutation is a positive one is vary rare...

but it is also the quickest method of evolution as long as it is passed on to its offspring and that there are not factors that would end up killing off that species.

for the most part mutations are negative and a lot make that individual sterile being unable to reproduce the mutation so technically not evolution...

Answer 6

There are two factors that affect the speed of evolution: Pressure to evolve and reproductive rate.

Predation, climate changes, and other factors pressure a species to evolve, because failure to do so will cause extinction. However, evolution works by incremental changes that occur over multiple generations. Hence, a species can only evolve as fast as it can reproduce.

Answer 7

It only takes long depending your perception of time. To us it might seem long since we last only 80+ years. But the universe is billions of years old. Compared to that, it's just the blink of an eye.

Answer 8

Maybe that's not the way we would evolve. Be careful here. You might get a world of short fat ugly stupid people instead. Or wierd things like kangaroos and aardvarks.

Answer 9

It's lost!

Answer 10

whats the hurry?