Microevolution - what's next?

With the recent study on evolution identifying fairly significant changes in humans over the past couple of centuries, analysing the steps that brought them about may provide clues for what may be next.

The study highlighted a reduction in babies born with wisdom teeth and a rise in those born with an extra artery that increases blood flow to the hand. From an evolutionary stand point [and hindsight] it's logical that as the food we eat continues to be better prepared and raw ingredients are processed and portioned into more easily consumed bite-sized pieces there is no longer the need for as much grinding from our teeth. Also, as humans have developed more sophisticated tools and precision machines to assist myriad jobs, the importance of our hands in most every aspect of life is all too apparent - so it stands to reason that the evolutionary step to provide more blood to our important extremities.

As these changes are making their way into the population, what markers in our behaviours over the past decades, or even centuries might help identify biological changes that could be part of the next leap?

Hands undoubtedly have become even more important as we moved into the digital age. With a great majority of jobs both in work and at home requiring the precision of fingers on keyboards, phone screens, control panels or hand tools it is hard to imagine a world in which this precision would be reduced. Perhaps with the higher resolution displays on devices that are with us throughout the day the curse of "fat fingers" will being to decline as our digits are thinned down, maybe combined with elongation to provide better stability when holding larger form-factor devices or control panels that expand our abilities when moving around.

Eyes, another major factor in experiencing the world and while the frustration of parents in the 1980's that kids were spending "too much time in front of the screen" might be a battle - and war - that has been well and truly lost, the impact on health that prolonged screen time can have is definitely not something that has gone away. From blue light filter glasses, SAD lights and night-shift mode on computers and phones alike, it is clear that there are issues with the amount of screen time most of us are enduring. While these existing measures work to avoid lasting damage the need for screens is not going away, so it would certainly make sense for some kind of biological filter that could protect the eye from the glare and make it easier for us all to sleep better.

There are so many possibilities and while we may not see any of these things come to pass - at least in our lifetimes - it's exciting to think that human evolution is far from finished!