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The study of human evolution: a demonstration of the power of the scientific method

You are currently sitting at home, or maybe in a cafe, on the train or in line at the doctor and reading these words. A series of marks on a page convey to you the thoughts and ideas of us, the editors of Scientific American Israel, of the writers of the other articles and of the scientists described in them. You may be discussing this with your family members and friends - conveying your thoughts to them in a sophisticated sequence of sounds. You may be sharing the articles on an online social network or saving them for later reading. Few of you spend perhaps a brief moment thinking about how unique these actions are, that no other creature in the known universe is capable of performing like us.

How this uniqueness developed is the question at the center of this special issue in front of you that is special to the story of the human journey: the evolution of man.

This uniqueness has led us, humans, to see ourselves as the center of the universe. However, the theories of Copernicus and Darwin, known as the "Copernican revolutions", pushed us away from this imaginary place: no longer the tiara of creation, but just another animal, one of many, which happened to develop and become the most intelligent creature on the planet. Reading the first part of the issue, entitled "Where did we come from?" Further emphasizes the randomness and randomness of the human story: how a confluence of circumstances, genetics, climate and culture pushed an isolated group of human-like creatures onto an accelerated evolutionary path that brought us here.

The second part deals with the question "What makes us unique?" which seems obvious at first sight: language, culture, science, technology. However, the roots of this uniqueness are not self-evident: is it the ability to learn? renew? create a? Or maybe even have monogamous marital systems?

And the third part of the issue examines "Where are we headed?" Has human evolution reached an end in today's technological world? Or maybe, as Yanki Margalit suggests in his book "The Future of the Future" we are heading towards a new Copernican revolution, which will also remove us from the status of the only intelligent creature on the planet and pass the primacy to our robotic minions?

The issue in front of you is also an instructive lesson in the development of a scientific theory, and in the way the scientific method works. There is almost no scientific theory so publicly contested as human evolution. However, in the scientific field there is unanimity regarding its validity and truth. On the other hand, when we look at the details of the theory, we find a fascinating story of innovations and surprising evidence that undermines the opinion that prevailed until recently. No longer a direct route from an ape-like ancestor to modern man. Instead, a host of branching and intersecting paths of many human-like species, many of which became extinct and left no modern descendants. Some of them competed with modern man and succumbed to him, and only a minority of them brought us this far.

Anthropologists are no longer a strange group of fossil hunters in the deserts of Africa. The best genetic, forensic and climatological technologies combine in an attempt to decipher the story of the human journey.

Opponents of evolution, jump like the inventor of a lot of loot at every new finding that adds to the uncertainty and obscures our origin. However, a careful reading shows two things: however complex and confusing the findings may be, they all continue to confirm the evolutionary theory. The complexity and confusion arise precisely from its correctness: a struggle with many vicissitudes of natural selection. Moreover, the complexity, the debates and the updating of opinions are not a drawback of the scientific method but, on the contrary, a source of its strength and reliability. Not a frozen and conservative Torah but a powerful approach that constantly examines and updates itself.

have a fun read.

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