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