Ali Akbari
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- Dwarkesh Patel2h 14m
David Reich – Bronze Age shock, the Neanderthal puzzle, & the sudden spread of farming
Harvard geneticist David Reich presents a preprint study analyzing 16,000 ancient genomes which overturns the assumption that human natural selection has been dormant for hundreds of thousands of years. The research identifies a dramatic intensification of directional selection during the Bronze Age, particularly driving rapid adaptation in immune and metabolic traits due to urbanization and livestock interaction, while simultaneously proposing a new model for the complex relationships between modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans. By isolating selection signals from population migration and drift, the study demonstrates that modern humans possessed the genetic variation necessary for rapid adaptation long before the development of agriculture or complex societies.