6am blogging

BRAIN MAY STILL BE EVOLVING, STUDIES HINT
from The New York Times

Two genes involved in determining the size of the human brain have undergone substantial evolution in the last 60,000 years, researchers say, leading to the surprising suggestion that the brain is still undergoing rapid evolution.

The discovery adds weight to the view that human evolution is still a work in progress, since previous instances of recent genetic change have come to light in genes that defend against disease and confer the ability to digest milk in adulthood.

It had been widely assumed until recently that human evolution more or less stopped 50,000 years ago.

OK, I realize it's the 6 o'clock hour, and the only reason I'm up blogging at this hour is because we had an open bar social after our journal training last night, and thus everything I say should be taken with a grain of salt. But isn't it kind of presumptuous to think that humans had stopped evolving? I mean, on the whole, sure, humans have accomplished a lot, but look around, it ain't perfect. We use only a small percentage of our brains. We fuck everything up. I would hope to high heaven that after billions of years of evolution, our pathetic existence is NOT all that genetics and evolution could come up with. For crying out loud.