A study from the genetics firm deCODE in Reykjavik has exposed an evolving change in our brains characteristics and formation. Put it simply, those born in 1910 were more likely to stick with schooling for longer than those in 1975. And it's not just a matter of changing attitudes.
Humans Really Are Still Evolving, Study Finds
The gradual death of a cluster of genes is being held responsible for the slow but steady drop in IQ. At the researchers' point of view it was a genetic study and bank of database of more than 100,000 Icelandic citizens. They matched this against a set of 74 genes recognized early last year as being involved in brain progress during pregnancy.
Put it together, their presence - nor absence - could be used as an pointer for how long an individual was likely to spend going through the school and university. This is what the Icelandic researchers sought to test.
Their study, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month, uncovered the decline. "As a species, we are well-defined by the power of our brains," deCODE CEO Kari Stefansson said in a account. "Education is an exercise and refining of our mental capacities. Thus, it is mesmerizing to find that genetic factors linked to more time spent in schooling are becoming rarer in the gene pool."
It's a leak, if proven true, that has dire inferences, but it is supported contingent evidence. It's long been noted people who seek higher education tend to have fewer children. This, the scholars say, means Iceland's smarter population have been contributing less to the nation's gene pool. And it's beginning to show. "The rate of reduction is small per generation but marked on an evolutionary period," the paper reads.
The scholars argue that time spent in the schooling system itself does not appear to be to blame for the fall in fertility. It's all in the genes. Those inclined towards education appear also to have a tendency towards having children later in life.
"Despite the negative selection against these order variations, education levels have been increasing through the years," Dr. Stefansson notes. "Time will tell whether the decline of the genetic propensity for education will have a notable impact on human society."
How Will Evolution Alter Human Beings In The Future?
This sounds odd to many people, especially because the technological boom that we have seen now in modern times, but it is true. In fact, a Stanford University biology professor recently published two papers in which he spoken his conclusion that humans have been getting dumber for thousands of years...
Are humans today becoming smarter or stupider? Comparing in our modern lives and technology with that of any early generation, one might think we are becoming smarter. But, in two papers published in Trends in Genetics, Gerald R. Crabtree of Stanford University claims that we are losing mental dimensions and have been doing so for 2,000-6,000 years! The reason, Crabtree concludes, is due to genetic mutations-which are the mainstay of neo-Darwinian evolution.
