Week7 Narration

My persuasive argument thesis is: Human is still evolving.

1. What do people already know about my topic?

Everyone knows that we are the adaptations of evolution. We all know that evolution plays important role in survival and reproduction. We can’t really notice whether evolution is truly ongoing. We can clearly recognize that our culture has developed significantly in comparison to that of our ancestors’ but we can’t easily catch out physical difference between them and us. So most people think that  evolution has stopped.

2. What research has already been done about my topic?

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/10-examples-natural-selection.htm

-I used this to explain readers about evolution and natural selection

http://unews.utah.edu/old/p/120607-1.html

-I’ll mention what 2007 research at Utah University has found about human evolution and I’ll quote Professor Henry Harpending’s word to reinforce my argument.

3. What are the implications of my argument (What if I'm right? What if I'm right and people ignore me?)

My argument will be able to resolve misconception about evolution that it is what only our ancestors had experienced. It is in progress but hard to notice. By knowing what factors humanity has adapted recently, we might predict what kind of features human being will have in future.

Before I start my confirmation, let's take a look at the history of evolution theory and what 'Natural Selection' is. Many people regard Charles Darwin as father of the theory of evolution. He can be called in this way as he systematized evolution at his book ‘On the Origin of Species’. However, the concept of evolution is much older. Ancient Greek philosopher Anaximander believed that man naturally evolved from an early animal species. And in 1809, biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck asserted ‘The Theory of Use and Disuse’, insisting the transformation of one species into another. But it was Darwin who introduced the concept of natural selection and forever changed the concept of evolution.

In natural selection, species is able to survive based on how well adapted it is to the environment. But natural selection doesn't generate new species. Mostly, the process simply allows a species to better adapt to its environment by changing the genetic makeup from one generation to the next. And the process is actually quite predictable. If a species lacks a certain trait which will allow it to survive, the species will die out or it will develop the missing trait.

Today, many researches on human evolution are proceeding. In 2007, Researchers of Utah University discovered genetic evidence that human evolution is speeding up and has not halted. 

"We used a new genomic technology to show that humans are evolving rapidly, and that the pace of change has accelerated a lot in the last 40,000 years, especially since the end of the Ice Age roughly 10,000 years ago," says research team leader Henry Harpending, a distinguished professor of anthropology at the University of Utah. He says there are provocative implications from the study.

"We aren't the same as people even 1,000 or 2,000 years ago. The dogma has been these are cultural fluctuations, but almost any Temperament trait you look at is under strong genetic influence. Human races are evolving away from each other. Genes are evolving fast in Europe, Asia and Africa, but almost all of these are unique to their continent of origin. We are getting less alike, not merging into a single, mixed humanity."

According to Harpending, the considerable increase in human population over the last 10,000 years has accelerated the occurrence of evolution. It’s because we were in new environments where we needed to adapt and with a larger population, more mutations came about. Therefore, thinking evolution is over due to its invisibility is obviously misconception

Week 3 Outline

Outline for First Draft

Intro

Attention grabber: nylon eating bacteria

Thesis: humans are still evolving.

Narration

History of evolution and Natural selection (not really necessary but readers can be curious about what is natural selection and it can be interesting)

Utah University’s research: to inform readers that human evolution is still ongoing and it’s even speeding up

Confirmation

i)              Lactose tolerance

ii)             Losing wisdom teeth

iii)            Brain shrinkage

iv)            Increased immunity toward diseases

Refutation and Concession

Sir David Attenborough: human evolution has stopped – NO!

Conclusion

Evolution is not a story of our ancestors anymore… 

Week 3 Articulation

1) My argument Write your argument in one sentence. Then, spend some time explaining it. 
I want to argue that the human brain is the most powerful computational tool in the Universe. We are obsessed with upgrading computers and talking about the technological developments that allow our cellphones, computers and even refrigerators to think quicker, and I want to emphasize that none of these technologies come close to the computational power of the human brain.

2) How I found my argument Explain how your research helped you find your argument. Or, in other words, how did your research evolve into your argument? Start with your research question.
My first research question was, when will my cellphone be smarter than my brain? It seems reasonable that eventually, as technology continues developing, our hand held devices will be smarter than our head held ones (Our brain). This article helped corroborate that theory. As I continued researching, it seemed obvious that everyone agreed that we were moving to a world where eventually humans would not be as smart as computers. I thought if I wrote an article saying the same thing, it would be boring. I started looking at the opposite perspective. How smart are people now? How amazing are our brains right now?Articles like this one helped me quantify the real power of our brain. Eventually I realized that even though neuroscientists think our brain is at its limits, it is still the most powerful tool out there. I think this is a fresh and interesting argument to make.

3) New research questions What do you still need to know? What is your research plan?
I have several questions that need to be resolved.
a) How can I compare the brain to a modern computer?
b) What areas are the brain objectively and obviously better at than computers?
c) What are the moral implications of possessing the most powerful "thought" apparatus in the world?
I'll continue browsing the internet and looking for interesting articles and keeping track of my research with blog posts.

4) Connections to the Harvard Sampler How is your argument connected to the Harvard Sampler? ANY CONNECTION IS VALID. Please focus on choosing a good argument first, then think about how it is related to the Harvard Sampler. I will help you think of the connection if necessary.
This argument has many connections to the Harvard Sampler. First, it obviously is directly related to the human mind. Second, it connects to medical detectives because there are lots of medical questions about the physical nature of our brain. It also relates to evolution because I can address how the power of the brain is what led to humans being the dominant species on the planet. Last, the internet is the most powerful product and playground of modern computing, so when comparing the mind to computers I will need to look at the mind versus the internet. NOTE: Here I connected the argument to all 4 Harvard Sampler topics. THIS IS NOT NECESSARY. You only need to connect it to one, but can connect it to more if you want.

Week 2 Research Proposal

What is my current topic?

 ‘Is human still evolving?’ is my current topic. My argument is that human is still evolving. I would like to persuade my argument to readers by showing them examples of products of evolution.

What are my guiding questions?

  What are natural selection and evolution? What are the evidences that we are still evolving? Why we had to adapt those evolutionary products? What are the recent changes to humans? In future, how would human being look like?  

What are my current thoughts?

 Like other species have showed evidence of recent evolution, human being would surely have experienced evolutionary process recently. I heard that humans are losing eyelids and hair. May be that can be related with evolution. I would like to emphasize to others that evolutionary process is not what have done but what is ongoing.

What is the opposition?
  

  Some people argue that humans have now stopped evolving in physical term as we overcame nature’s clutches. Sir David Attenborough says that “We stopped natural selection as soon as we started being able to rear 95–99 per cent of our babies that are born. We are the only species to have put a halt to natural selection, of its own free will, as it were.” He also insists that our evolutionary process will not be physical but cultural.   

  

Week 6 Introduction

When asked what evolution is, we may imagine primitive man like Australopithecus evolving into humans or dinosaurs which are believed to be ancestors of lizards or crocodiles. Most of us think of the evolution as a process that happened millions years ago. But this is a misconception we often make. In fact, evolution is still working today although the changes don’t appear significantly. Since nylon was invented in 1940s, nylon eating bacteria are nothing but new. The bacterium Pseudomonas can metabolize nylon due to certain enzymes it has. Surprisingly, however, same thing happens when you place non-nylon eating bacteria in an environment where the only type of food available is nylon. Whenever the experiment was tried, the bacteria would evolve until it was able to consume nylon. This example shows that most forms of life can adapt to their environment by evolving.
Then what about us; is human still evolving these days? My answer is yes: human being is also evolving and there are several evidences that support this

1. Attention grabber -
I attracted the audience by saying that primitive men or dinosaurs comes to our mind first when we think of evolution. Then I pointed out something what most of people ignore – that evolution is ongoing process.

2. Explains the topic -
In the attention grabber I introduce all the elements of my topic: evolution is ongoing process not only to bacteria and other wild species but also to human being

3. My thesis -
It is clear, direct and an argument. I thought the argument "Human being is still evolving" was too simple. So I used rhetorical question so that it can attract readers more.