Ariel Fernandez Ariel Fernandez Ariel Fernandez is Distinguished
Investigator at the Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison,
Wisconsin. Human evolution: No easy fix Last Modified: 13 Oct
2011 14:44 Unlike other species, humans can modify their
environment to cope with decreasing fitness levels [GALLO/GETTY]
Humans are undeniably complex, and proud of it. No case, we
believe, needs to be made for our biological superiority.  Our
biological functions are exquisitely regulated and resilient to
external variations, owing to complicated webs of interactions.
Unlike other species, we seem to be endowed with willpower and
intellect, hence we are capable of modifying the environment to
buffer the effects of our decreasing fitness.  Be that as it
may, we may be doomed as a species precisely because of the way
in which our complexity arose.  Paraphrasing the science writer
Philip Ball, nature seems to have activated a time bomb, and our
complexity is only a short-term fix.  To grasp the nature of the
problem, we