“Evolution is not just real but is actually happening to human beings right now”

"Stephen Jay Gould would have been pleased.  No, not about his mug shot at the endpoint of evolution in the illustration above, but about the growing evidence that evolution is not just real but is actually happening to human beings right now. …  Europeans seem to be adapting to the increased availability of dairy products, with genetic changes that allow the enzyme lactase, which breaks down lactose in milk, to be available throughout life, not just in infancy. Similarly, East Asians show genetic changes that affect the metabolism of the sugar sucrose, while the Yoruba people in sub-Saharan Africa show genetic changes that alter how they metabolize the sugar mannose."   Shankar Vedantam, And the Evolutionary Beat Goes On . . ., Washington Post, Jul. 24, 2006, p. A07.