Thread: Evolution question

Now that Middle East is forever blessed with DU, how about the possibility of beneficial mutation for the next breed of human?

Depleted uranium isn't radioactive - or at least, its radioactivity is so low that its perfactly safe to work with and live around without causing any sort of mutation, cancer, etc.

It's dangerous because it's a toxic heavy metal, like lead.

mutations would happen more if there was mild radiation in the area, but whenever significant amounts of radiation, the risk of losing your ability to reproduce (due to the radiation) is much higher. So if there is too much radiation, then you're going to kill off the local population in a few generations. The mutations that do happen, more likely than not, will be either silent or bad. In the unlikely event that a new allele does show up which is beneficial, the problem would be recognizing it and trying to preserve it in the genome (which implies the use of eugenics...a bit controvercial)...

I guess if a beneficial mutation happened and the mutated allele was dominant and did not cause death, and managed to get out of the radiation area within a few generations so that all the allele carriers can actually pass it on, I guess it is possible.

Whenever humans create radiation in an area, however, the pattern so far has been towards too much radiation to allow beneficial mutations, should they happen, to actually persist in the genome.

-Ajain

:? with less than 50 mcu/year there was never any proof of any damage/mutations... mild radiation would be around 20 mcu/year.

Beneficial mutations aren't likely happen due to mild radiation. Because of the reproduction cell's that won't be the fastest to the egg then..

Most times they occur in the embryo itself after the fertilisation. But any radiational change would kill the embryo.

Ofcourse it is possible... but i bet, it has not happened due to radiation..

I would figure that if any beneficial mutation would come about it wouldn't be due to radiation. Hollywood likes to make radiation seem like it can do amazing things but typically radiation just destroys things, such as DNA structure, too such a point that the body can't pick up on the damage or keep up with clean up and the result is cancer (Which actually brings up a good point, the DNA code for stable cell growth must be really really fragile because radiation, in high doses, seems to be able to cause cancer quite easily.)

If you want beneficial mutations then you cross your fingers and hope that evolution does what it is suppose to do, except that it won't. Thats the problem with the human animal today. Most first world citizens have trumped evolution/natural selection, does it still occur? Ya but not like it should, thanks to technology and science we can keep people, that would have normally never even made it to the "reproductive phase", alive and capable of reproducing and passing on any defects (and benefits if they have any) that nature would have sorted out in the wild. Not complaining of course, since you could argue that technology is an evolution in its self.

But don't fret, beneficial mutations happen, though no where near the Middle East, try South Africa. I do believe if you dig around you'll find a few cases where people are born with immunity to HIV. Now, THAT is evolution/Natural selection at work. And I'm sure you can find examples else where as well.

Hmm, the problem is, people who are immune to HIV have a lowered (different than others) immune system to begin with.

the HIV virus just can't infect any T-helper cel's because they function different from normal ones (normal humans) how i don't know yet..

It is SOMETIMES a beneficial mutation... but just if you get infected by HIV..

Originally Posted by vix

Most first world citizens have trumped evolution/natural selection, does it still occur? Ya but not like it should, thanks to technology and science we can keep people, that would have normally never even made it to the "reproductive phase", alive and capable of reproducing and passing on any defects (and benefits if they have any) that nature would have sorted out in the wild.

I disagree. Natural selection works on preferentially selecting the fittest to survive. However, the fittest vary from environment to environment. (Blondes are better adapted to high latitudes, since there low pigmentation level facilitates the generation of Vitamin D. Not so beneficial in the tropics though.)
Your First World citizens have simply changed their environment and thereby changed which attributes determine fitness. Natural Selection remains alive and well, as ever.