• Question: whats hyper evolution

    Asked by lowkey to Vera, Steve, Sam, Katie, Ed on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Katie Marriott

      Katie Marriott answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I think it is when something evolves really fast although I am not sure.

    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I think you are right Katie. The speed of evolution is controlled by many things such as the genetics of a species, the size of a population, and the average length of an organism’s life. In the case of something like a bacteria this means evolution can happen really fast – as has happened in bacteria evolving immunity to antibiotics, for example, which is why we have MRSA now – it didn’t exist in the past.

    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      As Sam says, MRSA is a great example of evolution in action in the modern age. It is a real problem that soon we could run our of antibiotics to treat these superbugs with, which could lead to untreatable infections. This is an example of evolution overcoming extreme selection pressures to find a way to survive.

    • Photo: Vera Weisbecker

      Vera Weisbecker answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Sounds plausible – I’ve never heard of the word…

    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I’ve never heard of it either. Sorry,

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