Telegram developer Pavel Durov published an article in which he stated that human DNA is outdated and has ceased to develop. Head of the Genome Analysis Laboratory at the Institute of General Genetics named after N. I. Vavilov Russian Academy of Sciences Svetlana Borinskaya, in a conversation with the Daily Storm, refuted the words of the multimillionaire, noting that natural selection is still operating in the human population.
«He apparently means that [DNA] stopped evolving. No, it’s not like that. Natural selection in the human population continues to operate. Although there have been works that the effect of natural selection in humans is weakened, but it has been modified. For example, now culture acts as a selection factor», - said Borinskaya.
At the same time, the doctor of biological sciences agreed with Durov's words that "our bodies still expect us to live in a pristine environment full of green forests and clean lakes."
«The human body cannot evolve so quickly. For millions of years, man has led the same hunter-gatherer lifestyle. As a species, man stood out 200 thousand - 300 thousand years ago, but he continued to lead the same way of life. Only 10 thousand years ago he switched to agriculture, which dramatically changed the living conditions. But compare 10 thousand and five million … What has been accumulated for these five million has not gone anywhere.», - said Borinskaya.
According to her, what was useful in the past can be harmful to a modern person. For example, eating salt.
Earlier on December 4, Pavel Durov published an article “Consume Less. Create more. It will be more fun”, in which he stated that human DNA is outdated. “Human DNA, our equipment, is outdated. She stopped her development about 10,000 - 20,000 years ago, when we were still living in small hunter-gatherer communities, - wrote Durov. - Back then, every tidbit and every piece of information was extremely valuable. Now we live in metropolitan areas, surrounded by tons of cheap sugar, but our DNA does not know this. .
He also noted that "our bodies still expect us to live in the pristine environment we had 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, full of green forests and clean lakes."
