The Progress of Humankind Via Evolution.
Humans emerged as species arguably about 200,000 years ago. the human population worldwide is about 7 billion, and the number is said to have an astronomical trend as the days go by. Humans are causes of problems as well as the only specie with the ability to deduce practical, workable solutions for the problems caused. The earth, as a planet, host millions of different species but only has been given the mandate to express dominance. Via humankind ability, intuitiveness, ingenuity as well as alertness, the humankind has been able to modify their various habitats all around the planet. Human ability has either been invested towards the destruction of the planet to meet individual demands, or the abilities have been implemented in the creation if a much better world. Humans are the biggest problem when it comes to various causes of pollution in the world as a result of their use of adverse knowledge to innovate the agricultural revolution, scientific revolution as well as the industrial revolution. Ultimately, all these activities have led to the disruption of climatic patterns resulting in periods of unusual flooding and drought, all of which have claimed a significant number of human lives.In a major way, humans continue to be the epitome of destruction on the planet earth (Emmott, 2018).
Progress of evolution from the 19th century to date.
cIts true to deduce that the increase in scientific observation and experimentation has played a huge role in the development of some evolution theories and contributed majorly to their emergence. The 19th century marked the introduction of another evolutionary theory by a French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck which was known as “The Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics.” This theory contributed a lot to the creation of awareness regarding the existence of biological evolution, which argued that organisms changed with time, and this led to modification if the descendants feature in either a morphological or physiological perspective. This, therefore, resulted in o the existence of differences between the ancestors and the descendants (Openlearn, 2019).
It was also in the 19th century that Charles Darwin presented his natural selection theory as to how evolution occurred. The difference in time passage from the 19th century to date has not been without major changes in the human’s anatomy and civilization. Humans have gotten taller and plumper with the advance of age to date. These transformations have been seen to occur within this short time frame as a result of the different developmental responses to the changed conditions. Humans have evolved from the 19th century to date in terms of their nutrition, food distribution, as well as healthcare and hygiene practices. natural selection has not affected humans in the ways it used to. Still, this evolutionary mechanism has aided in the shaping of the humankind as a species to what it is now.
People have grown taller, and this has been seen in all parts of the world. By doing a comparison of the soldier’s height in the 19th century and the current age, there is a significant change in the height increment of the modern soldier. This change in height is seen to be influenced by socio-economic conditions where a study showed that decline in mean height among South Africa’s blacks was as a result of the worse impoverished conditions they had to live in as compared to the present individuals living in the country after apartheid. additionally, a major evolution that has taken place is increasing body size. Humans have been seen to be getting more and more fatter as a result of their sedentary lifestyle evolution. Some of the cases of increment in obesity in the current age have been linked to the modification of the work industry as a result of technological advancements. People in the present age don’t have to work physical jobs and, as a result, have exercised less and at more. Epigenetics has also contributed to obesity, where epigenetic changes raised by environmental factors have affected how the body is storing excess energy from the food.Also, a major evolution has occurred in terms of the period that puberty commences. The menarche age from the 19th century has considerably fallen as time has elapsed. This has been attributed to better nutrition and health and economic conditions, which have increased in quality as time has gone by. additionally, a major evolution has occurred in the longevity aspect of humans. humans have been seen to live longer as time has gone by. Among the women, especially black women, life expectancy in the 20th century was found to be around thirty years, mainly linked to maternal mortality and slavery. In the 21st century, life expectancy has been seen to increase considerably to 85 years. This isn’t the end; more evolutionary characteristics will be captured as time advances (Blaszczak-Boxe, 2014).
How does eugenics help in unraveling the genetic makeup of human beings?
Through eugenics, people were able to get more valuable information regarding the existence of conditions e.g., albinism, which had, for years, been linked to superstition beliefs. eugenics dealt with seeking to find a way to ensure improvement to the quality of the human population, and eugenics, therefore, believed that selection of desirable traits like animal breeders occurs would aid in this. Eugenics, therefore, became a discipline advocated for by various professionals as the solution to the elimination of genetic conditions e.g., mental retardation, physical disabilities as well as psychiatric illnesses. However, this result due to the use of humans as test subjects and grew infamous and was used in the killing of adults and children with mental and physical disorders and was therefore discredited (Scitable, 2020).
REFERENCES
Blaszczak-Boxe, A. (2014, July 21). Taller, fatter, older: How humans have changed in 100 years. livescience.com. https://www.livescience.com/46894-how-humans-changed-in-100-years.html
Emmott, S. (2018, March 21). Humans – the real threat to life on earth. the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jun/30/stephen-emmott-ten-billion
Openlearn. (2019, August 30). A brief history of evolution. OpenLearn – Open University. https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/history-science-technology-and-medicine/history-science/brief-history-evolution
Scitable. (2020). HTTP://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search’q=cache://www.nature.com/Scitable/topicpage/human-testing-the-eugenics-movement-and-ribs-724/. Nature. https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/human-testing-the-eugenics-movement-and-irbs-724/