• Question: Could we ever evolve so that we could survive underwater or in space?

    Asked by 11sofdel to James, Marcus, Martin, Rob, Suzanne on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Suzanne McEndoo

      Suzanne McEndoo answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Well, we do have one example of a land animal evolving to return to the sea and evolving into whales and dolphins, etc. So it is possible to make that transition. Outer space would be harder. Unlike underwater, where we already had fish, we don’t have examples of complex life able to survive in space. We’d have to change a lot about how our bodies work, like at the very least surviving a long time without a source of oxygen, and surviving the radiation, and we have no idea if it’s even possible.

    • Photo: Marcus Gallagher-Jones

      Marcus Gallagher-Jones answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Not to mention the cold and toughening our bodies against the rapid expansion of all our internal gases into the vacuum of space. The big problem for many evolutionary biologists when considering if the human species will evolve is that we operate outside of natural selection. Evolution is a process of adapting to best fit your environment. At the moment we adapt our environment to fit us.

    • Photo: Martin Zaltz Austwick

      Martin Zaltz Austwick answered on 20 Mar 2012:

      I think that would be too hard for evolution to deal with, and would take millions of years even if it was possible. I suppose it’s possible that we could genetically engineer people to live in space – but that’s not my area, I might be wrong.

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