Evolution's past is modern human's present. It appears that at least some interbreeding went on between humans and other hominid species in the past because their DNA is in modern humans today. It is possible that some of the genes that were picked up by archaic humans or other species of hominids could be beneficial to modern humans. These could be disease-resistant alleles, or other genetic sequences that led to adaptations in modern populations. These ancient genes could have many medical benefits in today's humans that we could never be able to discover without more research. However, more research means more funding. Understanding evolution is essential to the advancement of modern medicine. Studying human origins helps researchers understand genetic variation and how the diversifying genes impacts modern humans’ immune systems. Studying the evolution of genes that are likely to cause illness may benefit those suffering from hereditary diseases. Studying how past hominids evolved based off the environment could give us clues as to how humans will evolve in the future to fit our changing environment. Understanding and continuing to research human evolution is important for medical research and for learning what the Earth looked like in the past and how it may look in the future. It will also tell us how humans may adapt to the change in environment. People need to understand where our species came from in order to understand where we are going. There needs to be more funding put towards the study of human evolution so we are better able to understand not only our origins, but also our future.
i like how you link this with the data suggesting that interbreeding lead to advantageous alleles entering our genome. Clever to then bring in medicine and health since that is a clear 'gain' and something that can be seen as a direct result of research. Also thinking about the changing environment (though of course climate change is controversial). I wonder if there is more to say here. like could we think of ways to link this idea to global climate change and pandemics? What if funding agencies wanted to know how this will be seen by the general public as useful to fund? It is hard to show this but you do a nice job here!
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