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How are we evolving?

How are we changing genetically to adapt to modern lifestyles, modern medicine and our environment? And how might humans evolve in the future?

Medical intervention has disrupted natural selection in humans as many more children survive into adulthood than did a few centuries ago. And as our DNA continues to evolve, in order to adapt to our environment, how might human beings of the future be different from us? Anand Jagatia explores how some humans, over just a few thousand years, have adapted genetically to live at high altitudes of the Tibetan Himalayas or in the cold climates of Inuit Greenland.

Several Crowdscience listeners got in touch to ask about the ways in which humans might evolve in future but understanding how we’re adapting to modern ways of living is much harder to measure. So what adaptions do evolutionary biologists expect for the human race? How will IVF, gene-editing, mass migration and our constantly changing culture affect how we evolve?

Presenter: Anand Jagatia. Produced by Dom Byrne and Melanie Brown for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service

(Photo: People in a crowded street. Credit: Getty Images)

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34 minutes

Last on

Mon 3 Jun 2019 17:32GMT

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  • Fri 31 May 2019 19:32GMT
  • Sat 1 Jun 2019 23:32GMT
  • Mon 3 Jun 2019 04:32GMT
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  • Mon 3 Jun 2019 17:32GMT

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