Humans Never Stopped Evolving (2016)

I think it is a popular misconception that human evolution is a thing of the past. One reason for that is maybe that evolution has been explained as a matter of premature deaths, more than of relative number of descendants. The idea is sometimes articulated as "there are no predators anymore, and medicine saves also those who would otherwise die of illness and accidents"- but of course the opposite is probably true, the fact that we're pretty much all fed and cured is a major driver of evolution today. Another even more naive misconception about evolution is tied to the idea of "mutants", individuals possessing obvious and possibly extreme characteristics (and their notable absence as a proof of the missing evolution); while in fact evolution is mostly variation in the relative proportion of existing, very subtle differences.

Still you keep hearing people say this. Dad takes 5 pills every day, mother takes 3, kid needs 8. Complete bogus, and not only because sexual reproduction vents out genetic errors, there are a lot of other objections to such logic.

Even the introduction of birth control is likely to lead to or has already started to lead to evolution. Women allow men to procreate after much more time and stop anti-conception only when a man has proven himself (at least to a higher degree than say 100ths of years ago). This will probably lead to short term behavioral/cultural differences but it is fun to think what it may do in the long term. One can go on for a long time doing such though experiments.

People also often think evolution has some "forward" direction but if being short, ugly and smelly suddenly confers a reproductive advantage, natural selection will favor short, smelly, ugly people. It's all about niches and fitness in terms of "fitting".

Maybe: There is this "disorder" called Marfan Syndrome where your limbs, fingers etc become longer than usual. And it seems to help with physical and Musical performance, e.g. Phelps is suspected of having it, Paganini had it, and guitar virtuoso Paul Gilbert (who I'm very envious of) also does. Now the question is, does superior athletic and musical performance lead to higher reproduction? Also, Marfan's is linked with a risk of heart disease, so this might hinder progress. It's definitely an experiment that evolution currently performs.

Of course.

Strictly in the scientific definition of evolution.

Certain genes proliferate more effectively in their environments. Therefore the population evolves.

People imagine evolution to be faster/stronger/better/smarter. Sure, often it's related to that - but it is not necessary.