Is Evolution Over? | Earth Science
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- Are we still evolving? Have we stopped? How will we know? James May answers this burning question on evolution.
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James May's Q&A: With his own unique spin, James May asks and answers the oddball questions we've all wondered about from 'What Exactly Is One Second?' to 'Is Invisibility Possible?'
Here at BBC Earth Science we answer all your curious questions about science in the world around you. If there’s a question you have that we haven’t yet answered or an experiment you’d like us to try let us know in the comments on any of our videos and it could be answered by one of our Earth Science experts. 
Развлечения
Here's a thought. Who milked the first cow? And what the _hell_ were they thinking?
well maybe they wanted to know what cows milk tasted like and the human women didn't want to breast feed a grown man....
***** Dude. they looked a Calves and thought i also think that be good idea
What about cheese just let it sit for u a couple of months till it smells horrible and still eat it.
Yeah they’ll of realised that whatever is in it is nutritional enough to make a calve grow into a cow, so it should be more than adequate for sustaining human beings.
So, they actually probably thought about it first before wanking a cow off by its tits.. even though you would like to think it was the other way round.
They kept calves around as a future food source (having abducted them from their mothers or even more likely having killed and eaten their mothers). Some of these fat ,waiting around protein sources may have been mated by wild bulls ended up pregnant and thus began producing milk.
Eventually the food seeking humans cottoned on to the fact they could have milk before meat and the dairy industry was born.
1:42 'Or a stick insect that can disguise itself as a Stig.'
+ian1231100 he said stick
+Musicrafter | Music and Games Some say...
+Musicrafter | Music and Games top gear reference.
+ian1231100 Some say he disguised himself as an insect. -Top gear.
The Stig You're supposed to be silent, so you shut up.
When he said, "Some say," I thought for sure he was going to continue with something that ended with, "All we know for sure is, they call him The Stig."
Hah, I heard "insect that can disguise himself as a Stig" :D
Same here. I can't help it, when James says 'stick' he seems to be saying 'Stig'...
The x-factor remark at the end, almost wet myself :D Great stuff!
Humans are still evolving, we've just changed the game a bit. More than likely we will eventually begin manipulating our own evolution by altering genes directly but that is probably a ways off yet though certainly foreseeable. There are people around the world with mutation so incredible that if we put them all together we would essentially have a "super-human" with hyper dense bones and muscles, resilience to even the most devastating diseases, ability to see farther into each end of the light spectrum, and many others. All kinds of things that natural evolution has already introduced into our genome. All that is needed is to find out which genes are responsible in these individuals/families and see if they can be made compatible with others. I know how all this might sound but science fiction was so last decade, the more we learn about the universe we live in the more the word "impossible" is becoming irrelevant.
I feel vaguely offended by the premise that my parents have done the deed. My father was a sperm donor, so he and my mother never did... that bit.
No better way to explain things than a british gentelman
I love the part with the primitive dude with a rock axe and the old-days smart gentleman. XDDD when the other throws the hammer... LOL!
Whaat the hell, vsauce did an episode on it, can't believe I've missed a vsauce video, thank you!
Would we overpopulate out into space?
Your lactose comment is incorrect on a global scale. 95 percent of European people can digest lactose but somewhere down to 10 percent of African populations can and about 35 percent of Asians are lactose tolerant.
+August MacFarland This is so. Additionally, in order to produce lactase (which enables us to digest lactose) we have to continue to drink milk continuously during the period at about 18 months when humans stop producing lactase - we are forcing our bodies to keep producing it artificially extending our ability to do so. My understanding is that lactose intolerance is the global norm....the Western diet is the main factor.
Thank you. I hate watching these "informative" videos with such glaring misinformation.
"assuming we can find a willing partner"
>implying
We're certainly taller than we were. Looking at old houses (1700s), the doorways were tiny.
"Can we talk about evolution and creation?" - "Yes, we can!" - Proceeds to talk about evolution. I guess that goes back to "...but if it's too difficult, I'll ignore it."
Why do Humans think about things and do not just follow instincts?
I think because of our rapid growth of intelligence. We tend to rely on knowledge rather than instinct... Plus with all this new technology, (survival) instinct doesn't exactly play a role anymore...? It's a strange topic because I have friends that have no second thought on anything they do, they can simply do it, but as for me I'm constantly on the fence with things. For example I have friends that can throw themselves into a 180 backflip off a 2 meter high platform, and there's me... doing the recording.
I tend to think some are just born with a hard-head.
Because humans have the neocortex that other animals do not. Reptilian cortex only works ( instincts) when you shut down your neocortex. In that case, there would be no apparent discrepancy between an alligator and human:)
Because we would still be living in caves if we did so.
I agree with Sir David Attenborough that human evolution has effectively stopped. I would go even further by saying that I believe we are working to reverse it. Not only are less intelligent people more likely to reproduce, many otherwise intelligent people actively seeking out less intelligent mates because a hopeful failure is more interesting than a boring success.
It will keep going, just more like the panda and koala where they are fatally dependent on their unique food sources to survive, the majority of our species will perish if access to artificial insulin and antihistamines were interrupted by natural disaster.
Truly intelligent ppl wouldn't simply reproduce with someone dumb. " The more intelligent you become the more selective you are" Tesla
He said this because he was desperately trying to avoid the reality of racial differences. His statement was political, not scientific.
It was also a profoundly contemptible example of intellectual cowardice.
Although your conclusions are correct, your explanation is wrong. Or rather, it neglects an important field of science: Epigenetics. You, like many people, over value the role of random mutation. I could go on and on about the differences, but suffice to say that your body is capable of adapting to environmental conditions at a genetic level in real time. This is the only process of evolutionary science that has been directly proven by direct observation. In one example, scientists studied the different kinds of Finches of the Galapagos islands and found that the differences between the different "species" were not genetic at all, but rather they were Epigenetic. No mutation played a role in the changes. This idea is nothing new though. Back in the time of Darwin a competing theory had it that the Giraffe has a long neck simply because it stretched it out.
Now, don't get me wrong, mutation does play a role. At the point that humans broke away from apes a mutation developed in the jaw muscles significantly weakening while preventing the skull plates from fusing. All humans have this broken gene. However, when comparing all the differences that developed later between humans and apes the vast majority are epigenetic. Not only does this work on a long term scale, but it works in a single generation with a link between nature and nurture being explained. Many terminal cancers once thought to be the result of random mutation can be explained as an adverse epigenetic change which can be corrected via drugs that alter the methyl markers. The mind has also been found to have a role in how these changes form, showing a possible explanation for how individual belief in getting better can correct cancers that are the result of such changes.
Even more interesting is the role this process has in an Atavism and so-called "Junk DNA". Unused genetic traits don't simple "evolve away", they remain encoded - moved aside. The epigenome retains all of this information and can draw on it when circumstances require it. People may think of an Atavism as little more than an "evolutionary throwback", but if a trait helps the species survive it is moving forward.
The anthropological record fully supports this interpretation. Evolutionary scientists who use the mutation approach will tell us that it is the result of many tiny changes over a long period of time, but the Anthropological record shows that a given species will go mostly unchanged for sometimes hundreds of thousands of years and then in the span of a relatively shorter period of time coinciding with a dramatic environmental change the biology will change just as dramatically. This very observation is used by anti-evolution theorists to support their argument, which wouldn't be possible if scientists would be quicker to embrace new knowledge instead of holding onto outdated models.
This altogether is why humans continue to adapt to a changing set of conditions. Sickle cell anemia is an adaptation to avoid malaria, but comes with it's own problem. I myself never had an Appendix to begin with which is a great adaptation to the American diet which can lead to it being damaged, but as a consequence I don't have it as a safe house for beneficial bacteria and cannot as easily digest nuts and grains. I still have the genes for an Appendix, but those genes are turned off. I am "evolved" in the sense that I am adapted to a circumstance in the environment. My point is that you cannot fully understand evolutionary science or accurately explain it without including all of the relevant science.
I wish people like you would make use of new knowledge.
my brain hurts :[
If you can't explain it simply ,you don't understand it well enough.
Thanks for this!
It's actually extremely simple. Just read it. @@Velts125
Highest Ive heard of a cat falling and surviving is 19 stories from an apartment window. Its only injury was bruised lungs. I remember hearing that because of a cats weight to surface area ratio it doesn't accelerate as quickly as a human that's falling.They also kinda spread out their legs once they are oriented so it makes a kind of umbrella. Takes longer to hit terminal velocity.Then when it lands the force is spread between it's four feet, instead of us dividing the force between our 2 feet.
Wow. Just found this channel.Great knowledge packed in a small and easily understood form! Thanks for this and for the always so witty humor of James May
we are still evolving, the proof: im more intelligent than anyone i ever interacted with
there, i proved it :D
xGoodOldSmurfehx I hope you are actually not serious. You seem very, VERY dumb. Considering your grammar.
ThatGuyWithAVest
think i care about grammar in a youtube comment section? SERIOUSLY? XD
besides, i was just making fun of the "hardcore deniers"
i dont understand how you could NOT see the joke, that says alot about you tho :D
ps; on the sidenote, i LOVE when people think im stupid and dumb, that way when i hit them back they sink along with the ship :D
xGoodOldSmurfehx
Every intelligent person does. Thanks for proving my point.
xGoodOldSmurfehx
Says the guy with the name *xGoodOldSmurfehx* and a generic profile pic.
I have a good sense of humour. I joke most of the time actually. Sometimes maybe too much... I know you were likely joking. But it's the internet, you never know. I just pointed out you are actually not very bright. I did not say I'm intelligent. Although, most definitely more intelligent than you.
ThatGuyWithAVest
riiight, you know whos the most intelligent of us? me, because im walking away and letting you post more comments :D
Content Warning: This video makes you think of your parents having sex.
Heres a question, Why did you leave Top Gear?
+Nailman X ChuchuPLS Because Jeremy Clarkson left, and the trinity is broken. There's no way they are going to carry on without the complete trio.
For example, questions such as "Why do people in general have a conscience?", "Why do we ponder the meaning of life?", "Why is nature so soothing and enjoyable to us?" "Why can we enjoy and create art, such as music?", and "Why are our feelings so dynamic compared to any other animal?" remain unanswered when it comes to evolution. The idea of a creator makes so much more sense.
Existence of people like you, proves that we are still evolving. Thanks to your channel RUclips just got a thousand times better:) Thanks a lot, James and co!
The most interesting episode yet!!!
Could you do an episode on Quantum Physics, specifically the Uncertainty Principle? Love ya James
Correct, that's sometimes referred to as descent with medication. A much more compelling example would be to separate the litter of pups into two groups that never intermingle and over the course of many generations observe that the two groups look and act differently, despite the fact that they shared a common ancestor. Eventually, you'd have a situation like donkeys and mules, which can't produce fertile offspring, but are closely related and share a common ancestor.
the animations in these clips crack me up
Asking a question is not ignorance, quite often it leads to learning. Criticizing stupid questions creates ignorance because it leads to the fear of asking.
The best example of this is how now we can learn calculus or electronics since high school. And just the genius by the time it was invented understood it.
thanks that clears a lot.
This is fascinating to think about
I think you should do a video on what effects space travel has on the human body, and how living on Mars would affect a human growing up there
Very interesting. Thank you!
I have some questions: how do unconditioned reflexes work? how are animal instincts transmitted through generations? why do we cry? were ninjas really able to run on water?
i agree i believe we're still evolving. i like how you included different point of views though
This is like asking if the gradient between red and blue is complete when you have thousands of colors, it's almost impossible to complete because there isn't any real discernible moment where red becomes blue.
This is one of my favorite channels so thank you very much. My question is : why ants carry large objects that may be four or five of their size ?!!!!!!
May, can you make a video about computation, turing machines and the limits of modern computers (that sad "not everything is computable" thing), and here's the tricky part: Do you think that sometime down the line we'll have different kinds of computers capable of doing what integrated circuits cannot do? Things like bio computation will handle what our silicon chips can't compute? Non linear/heuristic stuff... Brain simulation?
Thanks for the videos, you're awesome!
Greetings from SP, Brazil
Very good. Evolution is fascinating.
James, You are the MAN! Easily my favourite T.V personality. I also love how you owned Gordon Ramsay on the F word lol. That was too good.
What?! Thats crazy! I've always thought about this. I have to taking chemistry next semester, and now I can't wait. Thank you so much for replying.
I suppose you are right in that respect, I certainly hadn't looked at it from that point of view before. You defiantly have some interesting points that are worth investigating however, and have peaked my interest. It seems I have some research to keep myself busy with for the time being.
James, You focused mostly on physical evolution, have you put much thought into the internet, social media, databases, communications. Individually we may not be evolving but as a society we are, one might consider the internet & its traffic a sort of hive mind. 'I don't need to have a big amazing brain, just access to everyone elses'
Thanks,
Daniel
Thank you for making that very important point : )
Mr. May, a question if I may: What makes one scent more pleasant than another?
Surely, by definition, evolution can never be complete, in the same sense that perfection can never be fully achieved
I would much rather enjoy my life to be narrated by you, Mr. May, than Morgan Freeman. Soothing, well articulated and intelligent sentences make me feel all warm inside.
Here's my question:
As the human population is increasing at a rapid rate, we exhaust all natural resources. So, at some point commuting and logistics might end up being so expensive, that motor transport will become too costly.
What is the energy source of the future? Solar, Hydrogen? Also, elaborate on hydrogen electrolysis.
i didn't know that thanks for teaching me something new
Lol! I have no wisdom teeth and when I asked my dentist why he said he same: "it's evolution, mate! No more eating of roots or raw meat. You're mutated."
It was so cool. It felt as if I were Wolverine.
Why are some people taller than others? Of all the common characteristics we share as humans, how come height is one of the most distinguishable? Why does it vary even with siblings. And more importantly why do the bones grow vertically or length wise, and why not width wise too?
Brilliant. Thank you.
Yami, the evolution for giraffe's are already pretty well documented. We do know the genes and the fitness would involve several things, access to more food/resources and (I think more significantly) the ability to see farther, to be more aware of predators and competition.
Question - Are colors the same for everyone? For example is my blue the same as your blue? Is it possible to even know this?
I want to smoke weed with you 😂
Captain Slow on RUclips! That's awesome!
That x factor joke gets me every time !
That was a very interesting question.
I JUST REALIZED THIS GUY IS JAMES MAY FROM TOPGEAR. AFTER LIKE 4 MONTHS OF WATCHING THIS AND 2 YEARS OF TOPGEAR. FML
... And a stick insect that can disguise itself as a stick. Very technical, James, well done :)
Question:
Are there wormholes and if so how do we find one and what requirements would we need to make a spaceship to go threw it?
It's what we call the 'Reward System'; the release of dopamine upon consumption of the things you listed causes us to enjoy it. In the case of things like drugs and alcohol, the physical and mental 'highness' are sought for again by the brain, resulting in more needing consumption, then dependence, and finally, addiction.
Okay!.... Well thanks for clearing this up for us Captain Slow....
About the wisdom teeth:
It’s not that people are being born without them (well technically they are but you know what I mean.) The basics are that people no longer hold their bodily or tongue posture correctly anymore which is actually vital for proper facial development.
If you don’t breath through the nose, the jaw and face become elongated instead of wide, hence a lot of overcrowding, as the adequate room for teeth simply hasn’t been developed, because the forces which develop it, from the cheeks, tongue lips whilst resting and swallowing, weren’t present.
This means that the jaw is too small, and therefore there simply isn’t space for the wisdom teeth to erupt. It’s not that they’ve been deleted from our genetic code or anything like that.
Also diet effects this, as we used to have a very hard, low calorie diet and now it’s a very soft, calorie dense diet. Our jaws/face aren’t doing nearly as much work as they used to.
Look at a skull from 12,000 plus years ago. They all have perfect teeth, and perfect cheekbones which project forward. Instead of shallow like most people of today. That’s because it was before farming was utilised and we still had our facial/bodily functions operating correctly and at full capacity.
It’s the same as how people’s bones are no longer bowed from muscle stress like is common to see from ancient bones. We’re simply not doing the same work we were, which we’re supposed to do to grow properly, and therefore we are not growing properly.
Head Squeeze, after this video. +1 sub
Interesting stuff, keep it up!
You can't understand a simple relative term yet you think you understand the science behind one of the most well supported answer in science that you can disprove it.
Is it better to have all the answers or all the questions? A day at the park.
I'm very interested about archaeology and ancient things including evolution, can you a video about an ancient interest?
It's really simple! It can float due to density and buoyancy. Boats displace the equivalent amount of water when they press down on the body of water, which meanwhile pushes up and keeps the boat afloat. This is why the bottoms of ships are hollow. Anything that is less dense than water can float.
I have a question that a lot of people are asking right now James: How will the radiation from the 2011 japanese tsunami affect the world ?
That's an example of an environmental pressure. What happens is that gradually those within the populations that developed a random mutation which counters this environmental pressure are able to out compete those that do not (in terms of survival and reproduction). There are neutral random mutations all the time, sometimes by accident these turn out to be beneficial for survival. This is also why most species that have ever lived go extinct, they weren't lucky enough to have the right genes.
This is something i've been pondering about for a while but never really got into the details. Because of the way a cat lands, we understand that a cat could die from a fall of the 2nd story of a building however survive 3rd as they have enough time to prepare them selves for landing, by this time the cat is traveling at terminal velocity; does this mean if you drop a cat from the each of the earth atmosphere, it would survive? then again, what is the highest a cat could be... and still survive?
I have a question here. Why is it we can taste things by smell sometimes, and how come an apple, potato, and onion are supposed to taste the same if you eat it with your nose plugged. Lastly why is it sent can make you feel nostalgic. Like bringing back a childhood feeling even if you can't remember exactly what that memory was.
P.S. I'm a size small maybe medium, (102lbs 5'4") please send me a T-Shirt!!
The astronomers monitor a star's brightness with the Hubble telescope, what they look for is minor dimming in the star's brightness, which indicates that a planet is passing it nearby, by the magnitude of the dimming they can calculate the radius of the planet but not much more.
Cycles (not frequency) per second is frequency which the unit is called a hertz. Usually measured from one peak to the next peak.
i just find the fact that animals CAN evolve is fascinating
Hey, James May, I have a question: How much energy (or what measures) would it take to stop earth from rotating?
You know why I can't except evolution as fact? Because of how 'perfect' everything turned out. I mean, not absolute perfection, but just how organized the earth is, and how organized he universe is. Think of all the mathematical laws which govern everything; I always thought that the concept of undirected events = chaos and directed events = organization was being overlooked when it came to evolution.
You vids are cool James
Well, I have a question: In case we find an intelligent alien life form, how would we talk to them? More specificly, in what language could we have a conversation? And what would we tell them?
Question - What is thought to happen when a person dies?
Here's a question James. At what size does something have to be to stop acting on a quantum level and start acting (normally) as you would expect. From like a tennis ball through to a quark.
This is getting strange i'm looking more at James in Head squeeze than in Top Gear. :P
I've got a question, Why do we worry and what's going on inside our body when we worry?
Hi Tom check out our Sci Guide on this! - 'Science behind falling in Love - Sci Guide (Ep 7) - Head Squeeze'
It's actually interesting; the giraffe's long neck came about not because of need for more food and to reach higher in a tree, but rather as a tool to attack other giraffes in order to fend off other males during the mating season. How badass :)
Awesome vid
hello James! How come our eye lids get heavy when we get sleepy?
Nice t-shirt :D. James May, could you tell how mirror neurons affected our evolution and, if this is related to, how it affected too the evolution of our cousins the chimpances and bonobos?
I don't think we would ever be missed. Who would miss us anyway?
5:11 shots fired!
We need only look at the last 500 years of our world. 500 years ago, the average hight of a person was, say 4.5 ft, now it's about 6 ft... thats a simple easy way of seeing, whilst we're still human, we ARE changing. No we might not be growing extra limbs, but we're growing bigger. Simple, evolution is constant, never ending.
Question: Since the Earth is spinning about its axis and, at the same time, hurtling around the sun, how do we stay in place on its surface?
The fusion was predicted BEFORE we found the chromosome. That was because we noticed, according to the morphological model, based on the fossil, chronological and structural evidence, that we should find molecular biological evidence supporting the model.
Further, we noticed that there was an entirely missing chromosome, so it must have gone somewhere. We found the chromosome, fused end-to-end, with it's centromere deactivated, and with it's telomeres embedded in the middle.
That's testability
Based on our current understanding of physics, yes there is a limit
they also didn't have the population we do. with the size of our population, we can have more people working toward a common goal, producing results much faster, unless they call themselves a think tank, in which case nothing will ever be done.
Over a long period of time yes, but the heat is not the main problem. The real situation is that the rise in temperature would cause large amounts of ice to melt, and the ocean levels to rise significantly and therefore rise above land close to sea level.
We would adapt to the heat rather than evolve, just as you adapt to the heat if you go and live in a warmer country.
Well the only interesting thing I have to add is... My daughter is half black and half white and is one of the a smartest children in her grade. She is a tag student and has always been really advanced. Most of the children she is in school with are white or not mixed race. She was the only tag student in her grade for the last two years. Now there are other tag students in her grade. Also she was the only 4th grader in the Geo bee (like a spelling bee but with Geography.) I have to say I am a proud mama. She is also very beautiful and one of my best friends. She is fun, funny and a good kid most of the time! I would and will protect her with my life!!!😉
A kid asked me this I couldnt answer it properly. Hope you can help make it clear to me and a ten year old.
"Why does an spacecraft need to reach escape velocity to leave the earth or any other large body? Isnt a tennis ball thrown up in the air leaving the earth till the force given to it is cancelled out by gravity?"
Thanks
Hey James, can you talk about stoichiometric ratios, in reference to cars maybe? And large exhaust pipes, which actually reduce power, right?