COOL: Population Of Humans Found To Have Adapted To Arsenic.

An isolated group of people living in the Andes have developed a tolerance to arsenic in their water supply. . . .

Senior author Karin Broberg of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute conducted a study of residents in the northern Argentinean town of San Antonio de los Cobres (SAC). The area is dry and volcanic eruptions have left an arsenic residue that has entered the local water supply. The residents have inadvertently responded by evolving the capacity to methylate arsenic, reducing its toxicity and making it easier to excrete. . . .

Most of the residents of SAC are Native Americans whose ancestors have been in the region for an estimated 11,000 years.