Alright for some: A gene variant makes drinking alcohol an unpleasant experience for some people in Asia and Africa Westend61/Getty

Humans are still evolving, and alcohol may be helping to drive the process in some places. A variant of a gene that protects us against alcohol addiction, possibly by making boozing intolerable, seems to be favoured by evolution. So are several other gene variants.

Novel gene variants are known to have arisen and spread among humans in the recent past. One allows some people to tolerate the lactose in cow’s milk, so they can digest dairy produce. Other …