Human Body – Page 76

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Haeckel Vindicated? Parathyroid Glands from Gills?

December 7, 2004

“Human gland evolved from gills” trumpeted a BBC News science article without apology.* It gives uncontested press to a team from King’s College that is claiming the human parathyroid glands evolved from gills. This is claimed on the basis that they have similar functions (calcium regulation) and are located in the neck region. Fish have […]

Human Body

Did Language Evolve by Natural Selection?

October 27, 2004

In the Oct 14 issue of Nature,1 Gary Marcus (Dept. of Psychology, New York University) appears conflicted about how human language arose. He wants to attribute it to a Darwinian process: If, as François Jacob famously argued, evolution is like a tinkerer who builds something new by using whatever is close at hand, then from […]

Amazing Facts

Disembodied Brain Flies Jet Aircraft

October 25, 2004

Researchers at University of Florida claim to have connected rat brains neurons in a dish to electrodes, which learned to run an F22 flight simulator. We can’t speak to the validity of this claim or its interpretation, but what stands out in the article is the awe over the computational abilities of the human brain: […]

Human Body

Your Brain Hums While Idling

October 11, 2004

Your brain is 100% occupied when watching and concentrating on things, and still processing at 80% in the dark when idle, say researchers at University of Rochester. Opening your eyes only adds 20% more brain activity to the 80% while in neutral. The amount of neural processing going on in idle mode surprised the researchers. […]

Amazing Facts

Burnt Bridges, Brownian Ratchets, and Self-Propelled Motors Keep Skin Young Looking

October 1, 2004

Rock climbers and cavers are familiar with mechanical devices called ascenders that enable them to climb ropes safely and easily. Ascenders slide up the rope in one direction, but latch onto it tightly when pulled the other direction. Now imagine the ascender by itself, hanging on the rope, in a flurry of winds blowing in […]

Amazing Facts

Your Eyes Have Automatic Light Meters

October 1, 2004

Every pupil knows that pupils constrict in bright light and dilate in dim light, but how? Physiologists had assumed the retina signalled the iris muscles, but now it appears there is an independent mechanism in the iris itself, at least in birds, and probably in mammals, too. A report in EurekAlert summarizes a finding from […]

Human Body

Natural Selection Demonstrated in European Heart-Disease Gene?

September 7, 2004

Stephen Wooding (U. of Utah) is elated. He sees an “exciting trend” in genetic research that might, finally, demonstrate positive natural selection acting on a gene with a clear phenotypic effect (measurable outward benefit). Writing in the Sept. 7 Current Biology,1 he mentions a few recent papers suggesting this connection, but focuses particularly on one […]

Bible and Theology

What Would a Man Born Blind See With New Eyes?

August 26, 2004

The Bible records an instance of a man born blind miraculously healed, who was immediately able to walk and recognize things. Scientists had doubted whether a blind person suddenly able to see would understand the world of vision at all, or be able to make any sense of his new sense. Then a real world […]

Birds

Humans Lose Some, Win Some in Animal Olympics

August 17, 2004

Imagine humans competing in Olympic events with animals. Astrobiology Magazine predicts we would lose many events, but excel in others: “In most cases of physical competition, the animals beat us at our own games,” says the website’s staff writer, Dr. David Noever. 100 Meter Sprint: Cheetah wins the gold at 3 seconds. Silver goes to […]

Amazing Facts

Inner Ear Hairs Provide Optimum Sensitivity

August 9, 2004

The inner ear cochlea is lined with hair cells that transduce mechanical vibrations into electrical signals for the auditory nerve. European scientists publishing in PNAS1 measured the sensitivity of inner ear hair cells to mechanical motion, and considering the noise caused by thermal motion, calculated that the ear operates at the optimum level. The ear […]

Amazing Facts

Your Brain Learned Physics and Calculus Before You Did

July 29, 2004

Tilt your head to the right while moving to the left. The neurons in your brain just solved Newton’s equations of motion, and performed complex vector calculus equations almost instantaneously. That’s what four neurologists Washington University of Medicine (St. Louis, MO) essentially claimed in Nature July 29,1 describing how your brain interprets the information coming […]

Human Body

Think Before You Speak

July 25, 2004

Children are capable of thoughts before they have the words to vocalize them, according to a study published in Nature July 221 (see also summary by Paul Bloom in the same issue2 and report on Science Now). This contradicts the postmodernist view that thought is conditioned by language, and instead suggests that humans are innately […]

Amazing Facts

You Have Motorized Sunscreens in Your Eyeballs

July 19, 2004

The pain of walking suddenly into a bright light sets up an amazing reaction, according to EurekAlert. An alarm is sent to the fire station in the retinal cell. There, protein firefighters hop onto a motorized shuttle on the molecular railway, and once firmly attached, are ferried swiftly to the scene of danger. There, they […]

Human Body

Blame Evolution

July 19, 2004

Men can’t help themselves. Evolution made them that way. That’s the gist of a science story on ABC news. Accompanied with a picture of rebel without a cause James Dean, it begins, “Research shows that simply being male means you’re more likely to die as a young adult. Why? Blame evolution…and pursuit of the opposite […]

Human Body

Haemoglobin More Complex than Thought: Regulates Blood Flow

July 16, 2004

Physiologists have long known that haemoglobin, the molecule that adds the redness to red blood cells and carries oxygen to the tissues, releases its oxygen as the blood vessels constrict. Now, increasing evidence shows that haemoglobin (composed of four complex proteins that surround a central iron atom) is not just a passive oxygen carrier. It […]

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