Magnetic Fields, Solar Flares, and... Evolution?

[ImCoolBeans]

Today in my astronomy class we were discussing the Earth's magnetic field/poles. This magnetic field deflects harmful solar flares, which contain high levels of radiation, and may cause genetic mutations/abnormal cell growth. Throughout the Earth's history, the magnetic field has reversed itself many times, and when that happens the forcefield-like magnetic shield contracts inward, and goes away completely for about 500 years or so, until it begins to emerge again, and when it does, it has reversed its polarity.

The last time this happened, the era with no field lasted for about 14,000 years instead of about 500. This was about 1 million years ago, which was about the time when the first known humans began walking the Earth. My professor suggested that it is possible that the "missing link" in human evolution could be a genetic mutation caused by prolonged exposure to higher levels of radiation/solar flares. This would mean that humans beings are a product of genetic mutation propelling evolution to take a different course than nature had been going down.

What do you think about this?

[DeadEyes]

Mutation is part of the natural course of things, simple as that.

[Karkat]

Interesting. Science has never been all that big of a strong point for me, so I'm probably the worst person to comment on this, but from what I know about genetic mutation, it sounds plausible.

[Gigablue]

Missing link isn't really a meaningful term scientifically. The most signifanct find in human evolution that we are still missing would be our last common ancestor with chimpanzees, but we split from them about 8 million years ago, so the timelines don't match. Would accelerated mutations have played a role in human evolution? Yes, probably. Is it all that significant? Not really. Also, it would have affected all life on earth, not just humans.

[Miserabilia]

Missing link isn't really a meaningful term scientifically. The most signifanct find in human evolution that we are still missing would be our last common ancestor with chimpanzees, but we split from them about 8 million years ago, so the timelines don't match. Would accelerated mutations have played a role in human evolution? Yes, probably. Is it all that significant? Not really. Also, it would have affected all life on earth, not just humans.

This exaclty.

It's still a very interesting topic though. I remmeber hearing about it once and pretty much not beleiving it, but it's true about the shift.
It's interesting to think about an increased speed of mutation.

If it were very influential, we should see more "new" species or at least races arise in that time, right? That's interesting to think about.

[DeadEyes]

Also, it would have affected all life on earth, not just humans.

It doesn't necessarily mean it would have affected every life forms in the same way.