Zimmer, Carl. "An Unlikely Driver of Evolution:
Arsenic." The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Mar. 2015. Web.
15 Mar. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/science/an-unlikely-driver-of-evolution-arsenic.html?rref=science&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Space+%26+Cosmos&action=keypress®ion=FixedRight&pgtype=article>.
The
article, titled An Unlikely Driver of
Evolution: Arsenic, tells about natural selection in one of the driest
places on earth. The author, Carl
Zimmer, wrote about how in the Atacama Desert, there have been high levels of
arsenic in the geography. Arsenic is a
substance that can poison people through water, pollution, and pesticides. The article states that this was “the first documented
case of natural selection in humans for a defense against an environmental
poison.” A geneticist at Stanford
University named Jonathan Pritchard said that the results were “convincing.” He also stated that it was “a very small
number of known human selection signals.”
The liver of these people adapted by taking in larger amounts of carbon
and hydrogen, which made the arsenic atoms flow out through urination. After scientific testing, it has been proven
that it is a gene that has been passed down, through chromosome 10. Mattias Jakobsson, a professor of genetics at
Uppsala University and a co-author of the new study, claims that “It’s a
confirmation that this gene is really, really important for arsenic excretion.” Him and many other scientists took tests, and
stated that around 70% of the people who live in San Antonio de los Cobres are
resistant to arsenic. Dr. Jakobsson said
that they weren’t fully resistant, but the gene allows the consequences to be a
lot smaller.
Arsenic
poisoning threatens around 200 million people worldwide, and these findings
could be crucial to the current world by helping people research and reduce the
suffering of arsenic poisoning. These
findings also show a lot about how and why the process of natural selection
works. It starts as civilians having a
problem, and then their bodies adapt and change to benefit the civilization
through many generations. In this case,
the civilization lived in an area where there were very high levels of arsenic,
which is poisonous to humans. Over time,
these people adapted and created a resistance to the chemical. Also, this article showed how natural
selection and toxic chemicals could drive the evolution of humans. These finding could help us become more aware
and defend against arsenic poisoning.
The
author of this article, Carl Zimmer, did a good job writing this article and
proving the information that he had. One
downside to the article was that I think that he could have organized his
paragraphs and information in a better way throughout the article. I felt like he would make one point, move
onto another topic, and then make another point about the previous topic after that. It would make it easier for the reader, and
would also make them remember the information better. Otherwise, he used many facts from
scientists, and he also even stated what these findings meant for
humanity. I enjoyed reading this
article, and I would love to hear more about the topic.
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