How humans are still evolving

I should think this would be a no brainer... proving it, obviously, is the problem. But, animals with shorter life spans are obviously evolving, so why would we think humans would stop?

The findings below, though... It seems that there is so much more disease nowadays, that this seems incredible. And, sometimes human procreate before some of these negative traits are expressed... so how would that work? Unless a fertile female can smell it on a man....

Human evolution is often thought of as a process that ended millennia ago, when our ape-like ancestors morphed into Homo sapiens. But a new study has found that the process of natural selection continues, gradually weeding out life-shortening traits in modern humans, including genes that predispose people to heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and heavy smoking. Geneticists examined the genomes of 210,000 people of European descent in search of mutations associated with greater or lesser longevity. Natural selection—a basic mechanism of Darwin’s theory of evolution—is based on the principle that organisms best suited to their environments tend to survive longer, making it more likely that they’ll pass their genes on to future generations. The researchers found that the ApoE4 gene linked to Alzheimer’s is becoming less common, particularly among women. A gene mutation associated with a strong addiction to cigarette smoking in men is also on the decline, ScienceDaily​.com reports. “It may be that men who don’t carry these harmful mutations can have more children, or that men and women who live longer can help with their grandchildren, improving their chance of survival,” says the study’s co-author, Molly Przeworski. The analysis also reveals that genetic variants linked to heart disease, asthma, obesity, and high cholesterol all appear less frequently in people who live longer—an indication that humans may continue to adapt to a constantly changing environment.

Taken from the September 22, 2017 edition of The Week Magazine.

How elephants defy cancer

What about Asian elephants? How genetically similar are Asian and African elephants? If we share like 99% of our genetic code with mice, then they have to be very similar, don't they?

What does he mean that it's up to us because evolution had 55 million years to figure it out? Elephants got the gene, we didn't... maybe elephants are more important than we are... like Star Trek's whales.

Back to the discussion of evolution....

Photo and article taken from The Week Magazine - October 30, 2015

As the world’s largest land mammals, elephants should suffer one of the highest cancer rates—they simply have far more cells that could potentially mutate and become malignant. But new research reveals that elephants rarely get cancer—and the reason why may help in the search for human treatments, New Scientist reports. Only about 4.8 percent of elephants die from cancer, compared with up to 25 percent of humans. The key to the discrepancy, scientists say, is found in the genome of the African elephant. Elephants have 20 pairs of a gene called TP53, which produces a tumor-suppressing protein that prevents cells from dividing in an uncontrolled way. Humans, by contrast, have just one pair of this critical gene. Rather than repairing damage at a faster rate, elephants’ cells self-destruct to avoid passing along potentially harmful mutations. The researchers say their findings could lead to new developments in human cancer treatments. “Evolution has had 55 million years to figure out how to avoid cancer,” says the study’s leader, Joshua Schiffman. “Now I think it’s up to us to take a page out of nature’s playbook and learn how to take this information and apply it to those who need it most.”