The Hunchback of 3000 AD

Sometimes, it is very difficult to pass up a headline. This story posted on Yahoo today is just about as fantastical as it gets... or is it?

Two distinct species of humans? Surely, we are immune to such savage changes? Ah, but we are not. Stuff like this interests me to no end, especially since I have a degree in biology. Evolution is real, and it happens all over the world. It doesn't happen quickly, and I think that is the difficult part of the equation to grasp for many people. If you believe in intelligent design theory, you might as well click out of this blog and dig a hole in the ground for your head that believes the Earth is flat. This blog is not for you, but this PBS special is something you should watch.

I'm not saying this guy has it right. There are all kinds of possibilities for what humans will become. Perhaps we will change very little. It would take longer than 1,000 years for humans to become two species, me thinks. However, I know a few people who already look like Morlocks, so perhaps there is a grain of truth in the matter... heheh.

We are already screwing with the world so much that changes are destined to happen. Much of the work that I did back in my molecular biologist days involved bacteria and yeast. They are the tiny organisms that do so much work in a search for answers inside the DNA of so many higher species. I worked with human DNA in diabetes research, as well as related research using monkey cells and hamster cells. I also manipulated the poor cells of plants, particularly that of Arabidopsis thaliana. In all of these studies, bacteria were my friends, especially that old so-and-so, E. coli.

Anyone who does the kind of work I did is apt to see evidence of evolution at their fingertips. Manipulations can be and have been made. Some are man-made, such as what I did. Some are pushed along by man, such as evidence of genetically-engineered corn spreading its pollen to non-altered corn fields (it has happened, believe me). Nature has a way, and it is not against accepting a helping hand.

One of the things we are doing to aid the evolution of humans right now is to advance the evolution of bacteria. There are so many antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the world now that they are spawning these so-called super diseases. Denver had a taste of this recently as we hosted two people who have super-resistant tuberculosis strains. Remember the idiot ambulance-chasing lawyer who hopscotched across the world while potentially exposing people to his newly-wedded sputum? Yeah. That guy was in Denver for treatment. Let's call him Tuberculosis Andy, which is not quite as catchy (pun intended) as Typhoid Mary, but it'll do. He may have recently been shown to not be carrying the infectious version of the drug-resistant TB, but I believe the other man from Arizona, treated in Denver, DID have it. We'll call him Tuberculosis Bobby (again, not quite as catchy). These resistant strains of bacteria can evolve over a slow period of time without interference, but they evolved quickly in this instance because of human interference and the overuse of antibiotics, among other things.

When you pretend to be a creator, your hand can be burned.

So, perhaps we will not become Eloi and Morlock quite so soon, but we could be changing ourselves for the worse by manipulating our environment. Just unleash a few more Tuberculosis Boys or Bird Flu Flos, or perhaps a handful of Cholera Chucks and Ebola Ednas. H. G. Wells wasn't writing a word-for-word truth about the blueprint of humankind, but he had an inkling of what can happen. Survival of the fittest is real, and it is brutal. And sometimes, it involves bleeding from your ass.

Ah, to have a seat to watch the world in 3000 AD...