Humans are causing evolution on a grand scale and it is costing us hundreds of billions of dollars each year, says a Harvard University biologist. The sooner we realise it, he says, the sooner we can slow evolution down.
Every time a strain of bacteria becomes resistant to an antibiotic, or a weed mutates so it can thrive after being sprayed with a herbicide, there is a financial cost to humankind, Stephen Palumbi points out.
He thinks humans must implement strategies to slow evolution down as a matter of urgency.
Robert May of the Royal Society, London agrees. “So many of the triumphalist claims that we can eradicate something like infectious disease could only be made by someone who didn’t appreciate the moving nature of the target,” he told New Scientist.
Source: Andrea Graves, Cost of evolution runs into billions, New Scientist, September 7, 2001.
For more on Drug Research & Development http://www.ncpa.org/pi/health/hedex7d.html
FMF\25 September 2001
