Is evolution still happening (Is evolution true Part 5)

# Is evolution still happening? (Is evolution true? Part 5) ![[images/Still-Happening-Is-Evolution-True-Part-5.webp]] **Creator:** Joel is Curious · **Published:** 2026-10-09 · **Length:** 2:41 (YouTube Short) · [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c) > Caption source: **YouTube auto-generated English captions (en-orig)**, fetched with yt-dlp (android_vr client) on the first try. No TubeAlfred credits were used. Timestamps are from the captions. The short is a vertical talking-head take in front of a brick wall with burned-in captions and on-screen cards (the three ingredients, a mosquito grid, the lactase switch, a "Correction" card, "60 new typos... Kong et al. 2012," and a running "and that's just how it was" timeline). Screenshots are one about every 20 s. ## Summary Evolution "never stopped." Natural selection needs three things: a typo in DNA, kids who inherit it, and the typo sometimes making those kids slightly more likely to have kids of their own. **Mosquitoes:** they became resistant to insecticides, but "the spray didn't make them resistant." A few already carried a DNA change that let them survive; it began as one typo in one mosquito and passed to its children. The spray killed the rest. "The spray didn't create anything. It just applied pressure. It was like a filter." **Milk:** every mammal makes lactase, the enzyme that digests milk sugar, and it switches off after weaning. "One changed letter in that switch keeps it on," so some people can drink milk for life. He says the typo appeared more than 10,000 years ago in northern Europe and in a small part of eastern Africa; an on-screen **Correction** card says "where and when it first appeared isn't known; a different letter did the same in East Africa." Many people today still lack it. **Where typos come from:** "You were born with about 60 of them in your DNA that your parents didn't have," and so was everyone in every generation before (card: Kong et al. 2012). Each generation puts new letters in front of the filter, and the environment decides who leaves more children. **From the inside, "that's just how it was":** 10,000 years ago you couldn't drink milk, and before farming your jaw was longer; softer food made jaws shorter but not the teeth, which is why wisdom teeth get pulled. 200,000 years ago, no clothing. 1 to 1.5 million years ago, everything raw. 2 million years ago, a brain about two-thirds today's size. 10 million years ago you couldn't handle alcohol: "the enzyme that breaks down alcohol didn't work on alcohol yet." 25 million years ago, a tail; scientists put the human tail-gene change into mice "and the mice were born without tails." Further back, no red-green vision. 60 million years ago you made your own vitamin C. Every rung was an inherited typo that helped people have more children or stopped hurting them. "We have evolved, and we will continue to evolve." ## Outline ### 0:00 Never stopped; three ingredients - [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=0s) "Is evolution still happening, or did it stop with us? It's never stopped." - [0:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=3s) A typo in DNA, kids who inherit it, and kids "slightly more likely to have more kids of their own. That's it." ![[images/Still-Happening-Is-Evolution-True-Part-5-t0003.webp]] ### 0:13 Mosquitoes and the spray - [0:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=13s) "The spray didn't make them resistant. A few mosquitoes already carried a change in their DNA." - [0:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=22s) "One typo in one mosquito"; the spray killed the rest. "It was like a filter. And those small changes all add up." ![[images/Still-Happening-Is-Evolution-True-Part-5-t0023.webp]] ### 0:42 Lactase persistence - [0:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=42s) Lactase "switches off after weaning. One changed letter in that switch keeps it on." ![[images/Still-Happening-Is-Evolution-True-Part-5-t0043.webp]] ### 0:55 When and where (with an on-screen correction) - [0:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=55s) "That typo showed up more than 10,000 years ago... in northern Europe and also in small part of eastern Africa." Card: "Correction: where and when it first appeared isn't known; a different letter did the same in East Africa." ![[images/Still-Happening-Is-Evolution-True-Part-5-t0063.webp]] ### 1:04 About 60 new typos each - [1:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=64s) "You were born with about 60 of them... every generation puts new letters in front of the evolutionary filter." ![[images/Still-Happening-Is-Evolution-True-Part-5-t0083.webp]] ### 1:24 From the inside: milk, jaws, clothing, fire - [1:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=84s) "If you'd have been born 10,000 years ago, you couldn't drink milk. Nobody could." - [1:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=95s) Before farming "your jaw would have been longer... Jaws got shorter, but the teeth didn't... That's why wisdom teeth get pulled." - [1:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=104s) 200,000 years ago no clothing; 1 to 1.5 million years ago "you would have eaten everything raw." ![[images/Still-Happening-Is-Evolution-True-Part-5-t0103.webp]] ### 1:57 Brain, alcohol, tail - [1:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=117s) 2 million years ago "a brain about 2/3 of the size of the one today." - [2:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=123s) 10 million years ago "the enzyme that breaks down alcohol didn't work on alcohol yet." - [2:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=128s) 25 million years ago a tail; "Scientists put that change into a mouse, and the mice were born without tails." ![[images/Still-Happening-Is-Evolution-True-Part-5-t0123.webp]] ### 2:17 Color vision, vitamin C, and the conclusion - [2:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=137s) "Further back still, you couldn't have told the difference between red and green. 60 million years ago, you made your own vitamin C." - [2:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJc8CdHf_c&t=142s) Each change "slightly helped people have more children, or stopped hurting them." "We have evolved, and we will continue to evolve." A request to subscribe, like and share. ![[images/Still-Happening-Is-Evolution-True-Part-5-t0143.webp]] ## Anti-evolution argument *Stated fairly, from the creationist sources he is implicitly answering.* - **Resistance was already there, so nothing new evolved.** Answers in Genesis (1980): "regardless of the poison we pick... a percentage appear to be resistant before we start," so spraying only leaves "a nucleus of a population to breed only resistant organisms." "If the correct immunity response is not present in the genes of a population before it is exposed, it will not be present after exposure" [R12]. - **Beneficial mutations lose information.** Answers in Genesis (1998): the "good" mutations evolutionists cite "destroy information, or corrupt the way it can be expressed"; selection "involves getting rid of information"; adaptation examples are "without exception instances in which the net result is a loss of information" [R13]. CMI tells creationists *not* to say "there are no beneficial mutations" but instead that advantageous mutations "almost always cause *loss* of information" [R14]. - **So the change is "microevolution" within a kind,** not the molecules-to-man kind evolution needs. (CMI also advises against the slogan "creationists believe in microevolution but not macroevolution" [R14], preferring the information argument.) ## Answer *Point by point. Numbers refer to the References table.* ### 1. "The spray didn't create anything": the video already concedes the first creationist point - The creator's framing (pre-existing variant, the spray as filter) is exactly AiG's 1980 description [R12]. The disagreement is only over the word "evolution": in biology a heritable change in a population's gene frequencies *is* evolution, whether the variant arose last week or before the spraying. The description cites the National Academy of Sciences booklet for the mosquito example [R1] (the booklet's text wasn't re-checked here). - Selection in the wild can also be fast and measurable: guppies moved to a low-predation stream evolved age and size at maturity at rates "up to seven orders of magnitude greater than rates inferred from the paleontological record" [R2]. ### 2. Is every beneficial change a loss of information? - **Lactase persistence** doesn't break the lactase gene; the derived variants "significantly enhance transcription from the LCT promoter" [R4]. Creationists can call it a loss of a switch-off, but the enzyme and its function are kept, not lost. - **It happened more than once.** The East African variants "originated on different haplotype backgrounds from the European C/T-13910 SNP and from each other," a case of convergent evolution under a shared cultural pressure, milk drinking [R4]. Independent, repeated origins are what new mutation plus selection predicts. - **A new function in the lab.** In Lenski's *E. coli* experiment, a population evolved aerobic citrate use after 31,500 generations [R15], through "a tandem duplication that captured an aerobically expressed promoter for the expression of a previously silent citrate transporter" [R16]. That is a new regulatory arrangement making a new capability, not just a breakage (creationist writers argue it reuses an existing gene; that's true, and it's also how evolutionary novelty is expected to arise). - **The tail example cuts the other way.** Xia et al. found the change was an *insertion* of an Alu element in the TBXT gene, causing an alternative splice [R9]; tail loss came from added DNA, and also had a cost (neural tube defects in the mice) [R9]. ### 3. Where new variation comes from - Kong et al. measured a de novo mutation rate of 1.20 × 10⁻⁸ per nucleotide per generation at an average father's age of 29.7, with "about two mutations per year" of father's age [R5]. Applied to a diploid genome this is several dozen new mutations per child, consistent with "about 60." - The human-chimp catalogue is "approximately thirty-five million single-nucleotide changes" [R6]. The description's 30 million (about 60 a generation since the split) is a rough calculation that only works if you count both lineages; it is in the right range. ### 4. The "that's just how it was" timeline - **Milk, 10,000 years ago:** the European variant was "very rare or absent in early Neolithic central Europeans" and first underwent selection "around 7,500 years ago" between the central Balkans and central Europe [R3]; the East African sweep is "over the past approximately 7,000 years" [R4]. So "nobody could" 10,000 years ago is fair, but the spoken "showed up more than 10,000 years ago... in northern Europe" is not supported; the on-screen correction is right. - **Jaws and wisdom teeth:** hunter-gatherers have "consistently longer and narrower mandibles than agriculturalists," but the author explains this as a *developmental* response: softer food "causes the mandible to grow and develop differently" [R10]. So shorter jaws are mostly not genetic evolution, which weakens it as an example in a video about evolution. The description's "one person in five" born missing a wisdom tooth is accurate: the worldwide rate of third-molar agenesis is 22.63% [R11]. - **Clothing, 200,000 years ago:** clothing lice split from head lice "at least by 83,000 and possibly as early as 170,000 years ago" [R7]. Consistent. - **Raw food, 1-1.5 million years ago:** the earliest secure evidence of burning is about 1.0 million years ago at Wonderwerk Cave [R8]. Consistent. - **Brain two-thirds the size at 2 million years ago: generous.** The Smithsonian says that "over the course of human evolution, brain size tripled," and that from 6 to 2 million years ago it "increased, but only slightly," with most growth after 2 million years ago [R17]. That leaves brains around 2 million years ago well short of two-thirds of ours. - **Alcohol, 10 million years ago: overstated.** The digestive enzyme ADH4 of older ancestors "did not efficiently oxidize ethanol"; one gained "near the time that they began using the forest floor, about 10 million y ago" made it efficient [R18]. "Didn't work on alcohol yet" is too strong, and it is one enzyme, not "the" alcohol enzyme. - **Tail, 25 million years ago:** consistent with the hominoid ancestor in Xia et al.; but the mice showed "a complete absence of the tail or a shortened tail" depending on isoform levels [R9], not uniformly "born without tails." The description's "297-letter change" I didn't verify. - **Vitamin C, 60 million years ago:** the human GULO gene inactivation is dated to about 61 million years ago [R19]. Accurate. - **Red-green vision:** no date given in the video; not checked. ## Key takeaways - Natural selection needs variation, inheritance and differences in reproduction; the video's mosquito example matches even creationist descriptions of what happens. - The live dispute is whether mutations can add "information." Counterexamples include lactase persistence (enhanced transcription, evolved independently several times) and Lenski's citrate-using *E. coli* (a duplication that created a new regulatory arrangement). - Each person carries several dozen new mutations; the 35 million single-letter human-chimp differences are in the range those rates predict. - The timeline mostly checks out, but the jaw example is developmental rather than genetic, the brain and alcohol items are overstated, and the mice tails were absent *or* shortened. - The creator corrected his lactase origin claim on screen. ## Things mentioned ### Organisms and genes - Mosquitoes; lactase (LCT); ADH4; TBXT (tail gene); GULO (vitamin C); human and chimpanzee genomes; mice ### Ideas - Natural selection as a filter; de novo mutations; lactase persistence; convergent evolution; jaw shortening and dental crowding; third-molar agenesis; clothing; cooking and fire; brain size; trichromatic color vision ### Works (from the description) - National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine, *Science, Evolution, and Creationism* (2008); Reznick et al. 1997; Bersaglieri et al. 2004; Tishkoff et al. 2007; Kong et al. 2012; Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium 2005; Carter & Worthington 2015; Xia et al. 2024; Lachapelle & Drouin 2011 ### Links from the description - https://joeliscurious.com · https://www.instagram.com/joeliscurious/ · https://www.tiktok.com/@joeliscurious · https://x.com/JoelisCurious · https://www.youtube.com/@joeliscurious ## Claims check | Claim in the video | Verdict | Source or note | |---|---|---| | Natural selection needs variation, inheritance and a reproductive edge | **Accurate** | Standard textbook definition | | The spray didn't create resistance; it filtered pre-existing variants | **Accurate (often)** | Matches even [R12]; resistance can also arise from new mutations. | | One changed letter keeps lactase on | **Accurate** | [R3, R4] | | The lactase typo appeared more than 10,000 years ago in northern Europe | **Not supported; corrected on screen** | Selection began about 7,500 years ago, central Europe/Balkans [R3]; East Africa about 7,000 years [R4]. | | A different letter did the same in East Africa (on-screen) | **Accurate** | [R4] | | About 60 new mutations per person | **Accurate (approximate)** | [R5] | | 30 million vs 35 million letter differences (description) | **Roughly consistent** | 35 million [R6]; 30 million counts both lineages. | | Nobody could drink milk as an adult 10,000 years ago | **Accurate in broad terms** | [R3] | | Farming shortened jaws, so wisdom teeth don't fit | **Accurate, but mostly developmental, not genetic** | [R10] | | About one in five people lack at least one wisdom tooth (description) | **Accurate** | 22.63% [R11] | | No clothing 200,000 years ago | **Consistent** | 83,000-170,000 years [R7] | | Everything raw 1-1.5 million years ago | **Consistent** | Burning by about 1.0 Ma [R8] | | Brain about two-thirds today's size 2 million years ago | **Generous** | [R17] | | 10 million years ago the alcohol enzyme didn't work on alcohol | **Overstated** | ADH4 became efficient about 10 Mya [R18]. | | A tail 25 million years ago; mice with the change were born without tails | **Mostly accurate** | Absent *or shortened* [R9] | | 60 million years ago you made your own vitamin C | **Accurate** | About 61 Mya [R19] | | Earlier ancestors couldn't tell red from green | **Not checked** | No date given | ## References | # | Source | Exists? | Use in the video / role | Link | |---|---|---|---|---| | R1 | National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine, *Science, Evolution, and Creationism* (2008) | **Exists** (catalog page read) | Description source: mosquito resistance | [NAP](https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11876) | | R2 | Reznick, Shaw, Rodd & Shaw, "Evaluation of the Rate of Evolution in Natural Populations of Guppies," *Science* 275:1934-1937 (1997) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: evolution observed in the wild | [doi:10.1126/science.275.5308.1934](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.275.5308.1934) | | R3 | Itan et al., "The Origins of Lactase Persistence in Europe," *PLoS Computational Biology* 5:e1000491 (2009) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Added: about 7,500 years ago, central Europe/Balkans | [doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000491](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000491) | | R4 | Tishkoff et al., "Convergent adaptation of human lactase persistence in Africa and Europe," *Nature Genetics* 39:31-40 (2007) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: East African variants; convergent evolution | [doi:10.1038/ng1946](https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1946) | | R5 | Kong et al., "Rate of de novo mutations and the importance of father's age to disease risk," *Nature* 488:471-475 (2012) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description and on-screen source: about 60 new mutations | [doi:10.1038/nature11396](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11396) | | R6 | Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium, "Initial sequence of the chimpanzee genome and comparison with the human genome," *Nature* 437:69-87 (2005) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: about 35 million single-letter differences | [doi:10.1038/nature04072](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04072) | | R7 | Toups et al., "Origin of Clothing Lice Indicates Early Clothing Use by Anatomically Modern Humans in Africa," *Molecular Biology and Evolution* 28:29-32 (2011) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Added: clothing date | [doi:10.1093/molbev/msq234](https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msq234) | | R8 | Berna et al., "Microstratigraphic evidence of in situ fire in the Acheulean strata of Wonderwerk Cave," *PNAS* 109 (2012) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Added: fire by about 1.0 Ma | [doi:10.1073/pnas.1117620109](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1117620109) | | R9 | Xia et al., "On the genetic basis of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes," *Nature* 626:1042-1048 (2024) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: the tail gene and the mice | [doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07095-8](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07095-8) | | R10 | von Cramon-Taubadel, "Global human mandibular variation reflects differences in agricultural and hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies," *PNAS* 108:19546-19551 (2011) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Added: jaws and diet; developmental explanation | [doi:10.1073/pnas.1113050108](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1113050108) | | R11 | Carter & Worthington, "Morphologic and Demographic Predictors of Third Molar Agenesis," *Journal of Dental Research* 94:886-894 (2015) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: 22.63% worldwide | [doi:10.1177/0022034515581644](https://doi.org/10.1177/0022034515581644) | | R12 | "How Do Animals Become Resistant to Poisons?" Answers in Genesis (originally *Creation* 3(4):5-9, November 1980) | **Exists** (read) | Added: creationist argument; quotes accurate | [answersingenesis.org](https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/adaptation/how-do-animals-become-resistant-to-poisons/) | | R13 | "Has Evolution Really Been Observed?" Answers in Genesis (1998) | **Exists** (read) | Added: creationist information argument; quotes accurate | [answersingenesis.org](https://answersingenesis.org/theory-of-evolution/evidence/has-evolution-really-been-observed/) | | R14 | "Arguments we think creationists should NOT use," Creation Ministries International | **Exists** (read) | Added: CMI's advice on beneficial mutations and microevolution; quotes accurate | [creation.com](https://creation.com/arguments-we-think-creationists-should-not-use) | | R15 | Blount, Borland & Lenski, "Historical contingency and the evolution of a key innovation in an experimental population of *Escherichia coli*," *PNAS* 105:7899-7906 (2008) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Added: citrate use evolved by 31,500 generations | [doi:10.1073/pnas.0803151105](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0803151105) | | R16 | Blount et al., "Genomic analysis of a key innovation in an experimental *Escherichia coli* population," *Nature* 489:513-518 (2012) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Added: duplication and promoter capture | [doi:10.1038/nature11514](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11514) | | R17 | Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Human Origins Program, "Brains" | **Exists** (read) | Added: brain-size history | [humanorigins.si.edu](https://humanorigins.si.edu/human-characteristics/brains) | | R18 | Carrigan et al., "Hominids adapted to metabolize ethanol long before human-directed fermentation," *PNAS* 112:458-463 (2015) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Added: the 10-million-year alcohol claim | [doi:10.1073/pnas.1404167111](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1404167111) | | R19 | Lachapelle & Drouin, "Inactivation dates of the human and guinea pig vitamin C genes," *Genetica* 139:199-207 (2011) | **Exists** (Crossref) | Description source: about 61 million years | [doi:10.1007/s10709-010-9537-x](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-010-9537-x) | ### Not found or not checked - Bersaglieri et al. 2004 (doi:10.1086/421051), cited in the description, exists (abstract read) and shows strong recent selection at the lactase gene in northern European-derived populations; not otherwise used here. - The "297-letter change" in the description (the size of the inserted Alu element) was not verified. - A date for the origin of trichromatic (red-green) color vision was not checked. - Whether resistance in a particular mosquito population came from standing variation or new mutations wasn't looked up; the video gives no species. ## Added context - **Series:** Part 5 of "Is evolution true?" The previous part is [[Just a theory (Is evolution true Part 4)]]. ## Biographies ### Joel is Curious (the creator) YouTube channel **Joel is Curious**, 21 uploads (all Shorts) from 2026-10-04. In his own words (video description): "I'm Joel, a software developer and former tech executive who likes to learn stuff. Science, history, Buddhism, Stoicism, and the thinkers behind them." He lists his sources in each description. (Sources: the video and its description.) ### Richard Lenski (added context) American evolutionary biologist at Michigan State University who began the long-term *E. coli* evolution experiment in 1988 [R15]. Not named in the video.