Still Evolving

Still Evolving, Human Genes Tell New Story - New York Times:

Providing the strongest evidence yet that humans are still evolving, researchers have detected some 700 regions of the human genome where genes appear to have been reshaped by natural selection, a principal force of evolution, within the last 5,000 to 15,000 years.

Find the gene that prevents yanks from hooting like gibbons and invading sandy countries, or maybe the one that has us falling for any shyster with a salvation story and a song-and-dance, and we may just see world peace.

The genes that show this evolutionary change include some responsible for the senses of taste and smell, digestion, bone structure, skin color and brain function.

Okay, seriously. This article is pretty cool; shows we're not yet done getting better at the more esoteric stuff, now that we - mostly - don't need to defend ourselves from maurauding yanks or tyrannosaurs.

Is George Clooney the UberMan? Homo Sapiens MetroSapiens?

The finding adds substantially to the evidence that human evolution did not grind to a halt in the distant past, as is tacitly assumed by many social scientists. Even evolutionary psychologists, who interpret human behavior in terms of what the brain evolved to do, hold that the work of natural selection in shaping the human mind was completed in the pre-agricultural past, more than 10,000 years ago.

I can only hope that the appearance of intelligence - geekiness in all its forms - will soon begin to become apparent as a major factor in natural selection. Considering the rate at which superstitious morons and toothless yokels seem to breed, though, I shudder to consider just which genes may be actively under the radar.