What really distinguishes us from every other animal on the planet? How is it that no other animal on this planet or the planet's history has ever had the capability of exploring space or of nuking ourselves into oblivion? I found a listing of the 10 traits unique to humans.
Let's face it, opposable thumbs are pretty cool. Without that ability to have your thumb reach every finger, it would make screwing on the lid of a tooth paste tube very difficult. Even more unusual is our long life span beyond reproductive our years-yes there is life after kids. Most animal species come to a quick demise via being eaten by lion or strangled and eaten whole by a very large Boa Constrictor. Instead, our post-reproductive phase extends out for years and years, mostly consisting of loud Hawaiian shirts and constant complaining about high taxes.
On the other end of the spectrum, we also have long childhoods. Most animal species are kicked out of the house within the first few months of life, while we humans linger on well into our twenties. Suffice it to say, our long childhoods are result of our bigger brains. With evolution, there are always trade offs. The female human body isn't really designed for babies with large heads-just ask any women who has given birth. As a result, brain development continues after birth delaying maturation by more than a decade. Of course, there is no evolutionary explanation of why there are 25 years olds still living at home. Brain development at that point is pretty much on a downward trend of neural death via drunken nights at the pub.
Apparently, blushing is a unique human trait. The only other animal that comes close are female baboons, and it's not their face that turns red. Although we are mostly hairless, we still have as many hair follicles as other primates such as chimps and gorillas. (However, if you ever hang out in the men's shower at the Y, hairlessness is not necessarily the case.)
There are many more charactestics I could mention here. You can see that evolution doesn't necessarily breed perfection, instead it results in what works. What we do as a human race to use those unique characterstics is entirely our choice. After all, we are more than apes with car keys. Click link below for the top 10 human traits.
Top 10 Human Traits
Monday, February 15, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Top 10 Scientific Letdowns
On the eve of the New Year, I could not resist the temptation of doing some sort of top ten list. So, here it goes. I found a top ten list of Science let downs or disappointments. As much as I like to be a cheerleader for all things science, I decided this year to reign in expectations.
Let’s face it we still don’t hav...e flying cars, and we still haven’t colonized the moon yet. Of course, I shutter at the thought of giving everyone flying cars, people have a hard enough time with 2 dimensional space let alone 3.
Of the top ten let downs of this year or decade for me would be the climate change issue. There’s undeniable evidence from different disciplines within science that corroborate our impact on the earth’s climate. Yet, we still continue to increase our carbon footprint, largely due to the world’s 2 big emitters still remain unconvinced there is a problem. Not to mention the millions upon millions of dollars being exhausted in marketing and propaganda to cloud the issue of climate change in the average world citizen’s mind.
Convincing people seems to be a daunting task. Just think of the controversy over evolution. Even after 150 years after its publication, 61% of the American population still expresses a negative or neutral opinion on evolution. We certainly don’t have 150 years to argue over climate change, and it’s looking like this is the only planet we have (we still haven’t found any earth like planets within a stone's throw away from our solar system).
For the New Year and years to come, I hope we all will take better care of our little blue marble in the sky. Below is a link to the Scientific Americans top ten disappointments, enjoy the read!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=science-letdowns-decade
Let’s face it we still don’t hav...e flying cars, and we still haven’t colonized the moon yet. Of course, I shutter at the thought of giving everyone flying cars, people have a hard enough time with 2 dimensional space let alone 3.
Of the top ten let downs of this year or decade for me would be the climate change issue. There’s undeniable evidence from different disciplines within science that corroborate our impact on the earth’s climate. Yet, we still continue to increase our carbon footprint, largely due to the world’s 2 big emitters still remain unconvinced there is a problem. Not to mention the millions upon millions of dollars being exhausted in marketing and propaganda to cloud the issue of climate change in the average world citizen’s mind.
Convincing people seems to be a daunting task. Just think of the controversy over evolution. Even after 150 years after its publication, 61% of the American population still expresses a negative or neutral opinion on evolution. We certainly don’t have 150 years to argue over climate change, and it’s looking like this is the only planet we have (we still haven’t found any earth like planets within a stone's throw away from our solar system).
For the New Year and years to come, I hope we all will take better care of our little blue marble in the sky. Below is a link to the Scientific Americans top ten disappointments, enjoy the read!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=science-letdowns-decade
Brain Clutter Bytes Eats Your Brain
Eating human brains can be hazardous to your health, at least for most of us. A remote tribe in Papua New Guinea, practiced human cannibalism as part of a funeral rite. Yes, dead relatives would be eaten at funerals, something to do with absorbing the spirit of dearly departed loved one.
Unfortunately for this tribe, its population began to decline dramatically due to a strange disease that would afflict most of its population. The symptoms were similar to what is now known today as Creutzfeld-Jacob disease or what is commonly known as Mad Cow disease.
Upon further investigation, it was the consumption of human brains that would result in this very deadly disease known as Kuru. Scientists have recently discovered that not all of the people in this tribe succumbed to this disease. In fact, some had evolved an immunity to this disease. It is this immunity that scientist are looking into, to hopefully understand Mad Cow and will someday lead to a cure for both Creutzfeld-Jacob disease and Kuru. Although, if Kuru becomes a common disease, you will have other more pressing matters to worry about- Chianti anyone. Go to the podcast below for more on this research.
http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/09-10/qq-2010-01-23.html
Unfortunately for this tribe, its population began to decline dramatically due to a strange disease that would afflict most of its population. The symptoms were similar to what is now known today as Creutzfeld-Jacob disease or what is commonly known as Mad Cow disease.
Upon further investigation, it was the consumption of human brains that would result in this very deadly disease known as Kuru. Scientists have recently discovered that not all of the people in this tribe succumbed to this disease. In fact, some had evolved an immunity to this disease. It is this immunity that scientist are looking into, to hopefully understand Mad Cow and will someday lead to a cure for both Creutzfeld-Jacob disease and Kuru. Although, if Kuru becomes a common disease, you will have other more pressing matters to worry about- Chianti anyone. Go to the podcast below for more on this research.
http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/09-10/qq-2010-01-23.html
Are Marine Algae smarter than us??
Until now, there wasn't much to the lowly marine algae, just a simple ubiquitous marine plant existing passively, serving to feed other marine organisms higher up on the food chain. To the suprise of University of Toronto scientists, these algae have managed to leverage processes in quantum mechanics to efficiently convert light into biological energy to be stored and later used.
How long have they've been doing this you say- for around 2 billion years. To even further bend your brain, they do it in such a way that light has to traverse a multitude of paths at once. It's like going to work from home-you just don't take one path, you take all paths. Talk about being at 2 places at once. In the quantum world, light travels much more efficiently if it travels along a multitude of paths simultaneously.
How these organisms figured this out early on is a scientific wonder. It’s only in the latter half of the 20th century that the human race has even begun to understand these processes. Even great thinkers such as Albert Einstein doubted whether such processes existed. He referred to it as “Spooky action at a distance”.
Yet, here’s a simple marine algae doing it. Maybe, they are smarter than us. They’ve certainly been successful at it for 2 billion years. Do you think the human race will be as successful and prolific in 2 billion years??
See web site below for the article and podcast.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100203131356.htm
http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/09-10/qq-2010-02-06.html
How long have they've been doing this you say- for around 2 billion years. To even further bend your brain, they do it in such a way that light has to traverse a multitude of paths at once. It's like going to work from home-you just don't take one path, you take all paths. Talk about being at 2 places at once. In the quantum world, light travels much more efficiently if it travels along a multitude of paths simultaneously.
How these organisms figured this out early on is a scientific wonder. It’s only in the latter half of the 20th century that the human race has even begun to understand these processes. Even great thinkers such as Albert Einstein doubted whether such processes existed. He referred to it as “Spooky action at a distance”.
Yet, here’s a simple marine algae doing it. Maybe, they are smarter than us. They’ve certainly been successful at it for 2 billion years. Do you think the human race will be as successful and prolific in 2 billion years??
See web site below for the article and podcast.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100203131356.htm
http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/09-10/qq-2010-02-06.html
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