MORE ON GENETICS, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND FORENSICS
How do we know we evolved from the ape family millions of years ago, and did not just appear exactly as we are now, 6,600 years ago as Creationists believe?
The question, Where did we come from? must bother many more people than myself. I first began thinking about it when I was eleven years old, and my grandmother (not a particularly intelligent nor educated woman) gave me a two-volume set about sociology. It was an old book, published in about 1914, I think. Certainly the information in it was dated, which I could see when I first started reading it but didn’t have enough education to know how poorly it was written. But when I started to read it, I saw ideas and concepts I’d had absolutely no idea existed.
Aside from my grandmother having only a fourth- or fifth-grade education, my parents were both quite under-educated. My father was very intelligent, and could talk to anyone about nearly anything, but he only finished high school until after leaving the Navy. Since he’d been a Chief Petty Officer and a Pharmacist’s Mate there, he’d had a little bit of an education in medical terminology and first aid, along with his leadership skills, but not much else. When he left the Navy, he had decided to be a chiropractor, and he spent two years studying physical therapy, and then was grandfathered in to receive a certificate. My mother also finished high school, but had no interest in further formal education.
I’d like to share some of the ways in which I believe the study of evolution may impact people’s lives today.
The study of genetic variations in human populations has provided forensic science with the capability of understanding DNA, thereby expanding the field of criminal investigation, as the study of fingerprinting once did. Genetic research can now be used to assist in forensics, the science of clues, so to speak. One thing we might learn from genetic research is what makes a psychopath or sociopath kill.
Understanding genetic growth and variation may help us with decisions about conservation and the environment, including current concepts and information about global warming and/or climate change. Genetic research may tell us a great deal about how global warming, or climate change, works. We may learn just what changes might occur if a new Ice Age overtakes us.
Medical research in genetics can help us to understand diseases such as Huntington’s Chorea, AIDS, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. We may also learn to develop powerful new drugs and chemical compounds to treat diseases, and to track pathogens in disease control. We can hope to learn who might be potentially subject to genetic malformations, and it may be possible in the near future to live to age 100 in good health.
The study of evolution is allowing us to make improvements in the sciences of agriculture and animal husbandry as well, so as to ensure an adequate food supply for us and our children in the future. As another result of the study of evolution, scientists are now capable of designing robotic biosensors for military and defensive needs. This may someday result in the creation of the “perfect soldier.” .