This book became the base of the evolutional theory, according to which, natural selection and adaptation are the main engines of speciation. Later such phenomena as genetic drift and flow as well as mutations were also marked as the mechanizms of evolution.
In different periods of the world’s history, the theory was criticized and reinterpreted in various ways. In the Soviet Union the theory by Friedrich Engels was considered as the main one. The idea of his manual called "the Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man" was that labor is the strongest driver for the evolution of humans.
Contemporary Theories
According to the results of latter generic research, the "Out-of-Africa" theory of human origin is considered as the right one. There, scientists found the common ancestors of all people — the "mitochondrial Eve" and "Y-chromosomal Adam."
A theory based on the belief that all of us are descendants of Neanderthals has been disproved. According to genetic tests made in the recent decade, modern people have only 1−4% of Neanderthal genes.
As of now, science constantly offers new views on the evolution process, as things that influenced this before, become negligible nowadays.
Contemporary natural selection
It may seem that humans stopped transforming by natural selection forces. However, it is not true. According to the latter research, biological evolution still exists. Among other genetic "benefits" today we have lactose acceptability, infections resistance and prolonged childbearing period.
In the past, the process of selection was provided by natural and random processes. Now technologies and cultural phenomena contribute to the evolution. For instance, when vaccines were invented, lots of diseases stopped being fatal.
According to Meredith Small, anthropologist and associate professor at Cornell University, today people are not seized by smallpox — they don’t die but instead stay alive, and contribute to the gene bank by having children. Another important peculiarity of the modern evolution is that birth rate in developed countries is lower in comparison with developing ones. As of now, Asia, Latin America and Africa are regions with the highest birth rate. It means that they contribute more than others to the gene bank and the further generations will be descendants of these nations as opposed to inhabitants of developed countries.
Tech-based evolution
We are at the turn of a new epoch, as we can use technologies to affect our genes without waiting for results of the natural selection.
"Scientists need to understand how to change working of body systems and correct mistakes that appeared during evolution. Then, we will be able to create a new type of humans," noted Yuri Baulin, PhD student at the Faculty of Natural Sciences.
Among other scientific news we can see a report about a kid who had genes of three parents. An oocyte of his mother, a women suffering from a rare genetic disease, was transplanted to a donor woman, whose ovum was fertilized with sperm cell of the husband of the first woman. Then an embryo was transplanted to the natural mother. It means that the genetic material of this kid consists of parent’s genes (98%) and the donor mother (2%). The scientists affected the processes of natural selections so as to create more viable posterity.
Credit: kakprosto.ru, corhelp.ru
