/////////////////AMIDOS-BTKAT-120+
///////////////MAY BE HYPER EXTENDED NECK-DIFF INTUBN-VIEW OK-DID PNTHX DRAIN,CANNULA,UAC
/////////////////AT LEAST UAC=B WTX3 +9
//////////////////789 TUBE DIAMTR
///////////////////
Thursday 30 April 2009
Monday 27 April 2009
WALKING SEAL FOSSIL
FOSSIL OF A WALKING SEAL FOUND
Remains of a previously unknown mammal could represent a missing link in pinniped evolution By Solmaz Barazesh Web edition : Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 Text Size
Enlarge
NEW BONESResearchers discovered remains of a previously unknown pinniped in the Canadian Arctic. (Inset shows bones that were found.) The fossilized skeleton was about 65 percent complete. (Illustration fills in the missing pieces.)Photo by Martin Lipman. Illustration by Alex Tirabasso, copyright Canadian Museum of Nature.
A fossilized skeleton of what researchers are calling a walking seal has been uncovered in the Canadian Arctic. The remains of this previously unknown mammal could shed light on the evolution of pinnipeds, the group that includes seals, sea lions and walruses, researchers report in the April 23 Nature.
The animal, named Puijila darwini, had a long tail and an otterlike body with webbed feet and legs like a terrestrial animal, the researchers report. But P. darwini also had a pinniped-like skull.
//////////////////
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
- William James
/////////////////////33 MN DOSES OF TAMIFLU STORED IN VK
//////////////////////10L PPL AIRBORNE IN WORLD ON ANY DAY
//////////////////////.........A thermodynamic basis for prebiotic amino acid synthesis and the nature of the first genetic code
Paul G. Higgs, Ralph E. Pudritz
(Submitted on 2 Apr 2009)
Of the twenty amino acids used in proteins, ten were formed in Miller's atmospheric discharge experiments. The two other major proposed sources of prebiotic amino acid synthesis include formation in hydrothermal vents and delivery to Earth via meteorites. We combine observational and experimental data of amino acid frequencies formed by these diverse mechanisms and show that, regardless of the source, these ten early amino acids can be ranked in order of decreasing abundance in prebiotic contexts. This order can be predicted by thermodynamics. The relative abundances of the early amino acids were most likely reflected in the composition of the first proteins at the time the genetic code originated. The remaining amino acids were incorporated into proteins after pathways for their biochemical synthesis evolved. This is consistent with theories of the evolution of the genetic code by stepwise addition of new amino acids. These are hints that key aspects of early biochemistry may be universal.
//////////////It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him."
– John Steinbeck
//////////////////
Statin Use Linked to Reduced Risk for Prostate Cancer
Men who use statins may be at lower risk for prostate cancer, according to an industry-supported study presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association.
Researchers in Minnesota enrolled some 2400 men between the ages of 40 and 79 and without histories of prostate cancer; about one fourth were using statins at baseline.
During 14 years' follow-up, prostate cancer was diagnosed in 5% of statin users — corresponding to a 60% risk reduction compared with those not using the drugs. Statin users were also less likely to have elevated prostate-specific antigen levels or to undergo prostate biopsy.
The researchers "cautioned that [the results] are from an observational study and not robust enough to recommend statin therapy to aid in prevention of prostate cancer," the Wall Street Journal reports.
///////////////////////Chapter XIV: The Yoga of the Division of the Three Qualities of Nature
XIV.11. SARVADWAARESHU DEHE'SMIN PRAKAASHA UPAJAAYATE;
JNAANAM YADAA TADAA VIDYAA DVIVRIDDHAM SATTWAMITYUTA.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
When, through every gate (sense) in this body, the wisdom-light
shines, then it may be known that Sattwa is predominant.
XIV.12. LOBHAH PRAVRITTIR AARAMBHAH KARMANAAM ASHAMAH SPRIHAA;
RAJASYETAANI JAAYANTE VIVRIDDHE BHARATARSHABHA.
Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, restlessness,
longing-these arise when Rajas is predominant, O Arjuna!
XIV.13. APRAKAASHO'PRAVRITTISHCHA PRAMAADO MOHA EVA CHA;
TAMASYETAANI JAAYANTE VIVRIDDHE KURUNANDANA.
Darkness, inertness, heedlessness and delusion-these arise when
Tamas is predominant, O Arjuna!
////////////////////
Remains of a previously unknown mammal could represent a missing link in pinniped evolution By Solmaz Barazesh Web edition : Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 Text Size
Enlarge
NEW BONESResearchers discovered remains of a previously unknown pinniped in the Canadian Arctic. (Inset shows bones that were found.) The fossilized skeleton was about 65 percent complete. (Illustration fills in the missing pieces.)Photo by Martin Lipman. Illustration by Alex Tirabasso, copyright Canadian Museum of Nature.
A fossilized skeleton of what researchers are calling a walking seal has been uncovered in the Canadian Arctic. The remains of this previously unknown mammal could shed light on the evolution of pinnipeds, the group that includes seals, sea lions and walruses, researchers report in the April 23 Nature.
The animal, named Puijila darwini, had a long tail and an otterlike body with webbed feet and legs like a terrestrial animal, the researchers report. But P. darwini also had a pinniped-like skull.
//////////////////
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
- William James
/////////////////////33 MN DOSES OF TAMIFLU STORED IN VK
//////////////////////10L PPL AIRBORNE IN WORLD ON ANY DAY
//////////////////////.........A thermodynamic basis for prebiotic amino acid synthesis and the nature of the first genetic code
Paul G. Higgs, Ralph E. Pudritz
(Submitted on 2 Apr 2009)
Of the twenty amino acids used in proteins, ten were formed in Miller's atmospheric discharge experiments. The two other major proposed sources of prebiotic amino acid synthesis include formation in hydrothermal vents and delivery to Earth via meteorites. We combine observational and experimental data of amino acid frequencies formed by these diverse mechanisms and show that, regardless of the source, these ten early amino acids can be ranked in order of decreasing abundance in prebiotic contexts. This order can be predicted by thermodynamics. The relative abundances of the early amino acids were most likely reflected in the composition of the first proteins at the time the genetic code originated. The remaining amino acids were incorporated into proteins after pathways for their biochemical synthesis evolved. This is consistent with theories of the evolution of the genetic code by stepwise addition of new amino acids. These are hints that key aspects of early biochemistry may be universal.
//////////////It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him."
– John Steinbeck
//////////////////
Statin Use Linked to Reduced Risk for Prostate Cancer
Men who use statins may be at lower risk for prostate cancer, according to an industry-supported study presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association.
Researchers in Minnesota enrolled some 2400 men between the ages of 40 and 79 and without histories of prostate cancer; about one fourth were using statins at baseline.
During 14 years' follow-up, prostate cancer was diagnosed in 5% of statin users — corresponding to a 60% risk reduction compared with those not using the drugs. Statin users were also less likely to have elevated prostate-specific antigen levels or to undergo prostate biopsy.
The researchers "cautioned that [the results] are from an observational study and not robust enough to recommend statin therapy to aid in prevention of prostate cancer," the Wall Street Journal reports.
///////////////////////Chapter XIV: The Yoga of the Division of the Three Qualities of Nature
XIV.11. SARVADWAARESHU DEHE'SMIN PRAKAASHA UPAJAAYATE;
JNAANAM YADAA TADAA VIDYAA DVIVRIDDHAM SATTWAMITYUTA.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
When, through every gate (sense) in this body, the wisdom-light
shines, then it may be known that Sattwa is predominant.
XIV.12. LOBHAH PRAVRITTIR AARAMBHAH KARMANAAM ASHAMAH SPRIHAA;
RAJASYETAANI JAAYANTE VIVRIDDHE BHARATARSHABHA.
Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, restlessness,
longing-these arise when Rajas is predominant, O Arjuna!
XIV.13. APRAKAASHO'PRAVRITTISHCHA PRAMAADO MOHA EVA CHA;
TAMASYETAANI JAAYANTE VIVRIDDHE KURUNANDANA.
Darkness, inertness, heedlessness and delusion-these arise when
Tamas is predominant, O Arjuna!
////////////////////
SN NYIKA SNGBAD
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to
fill the world with fools.
--Herbert Spencer
///////////////////"God will not have his work made manifest by cowards." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
As Emerson teaches us, "Always, always, always, always, always do what you are afraid to do." He also advises, "Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.
////////////////ELECTIVE SUICD BY TRMNL SEDN
/////////////////
fill the world with fools.
--Herbert Spencer
///////////////////"God will not have his work made manifest by cowards." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
As Emerson teaches us, "Always, always, always, always, always do what you are afraid to do." He also advises, "Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.
////////////////ELECTIVE SUICD BY TRMNL SEDN
/////////////////
Sunday 26 April 2009
ENGLSH PT SEEN
/////////////////////PAPER ANNIVERSARY
////////////////////Most Distant Detection Of Water In The Universe
ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2009) — Astronomers have found the most distant signs of water in the Universe to date. The water vapour is thought to be contained in a jet ejected from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy, named MG J0414+0534
See also:
Space & Time
Black Holes
Cosmology
Astrophysics
Galaxies
Astronomy
Big Bang
Reference
Quasar
Stellar evolution
Gamma ray burst
Astrophysics
Dr John McKean of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) will be presenting the discovery at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science in Hatfield on Wednesday 22nd April.
The water emission is seen as a maser, where molecules in the gas amplify and emit beams of microwave radiation in much the same way as a laser emits beams of light. The faint signal is only detectable by using a technique called gravitational lensing, where the gravity of a massive galaxy in the foreground acts as a cosmic telescope, bending and magnifying light from the distant galaxy to make a clover-leaf pattern of four images of MG J0414+0534. The water maser was only detectable in the brightest two of these images.
Dr McKean said, "We have been observing the water maser every month since the detection and seen a steady signal with no apparent change in the velocity of the water vapour in the data we've obtained so far. This backs up our prediction that the water is found in the jet from the supermassive black hole, rather than the rotating disc of gas that surrounds it."
The radiation from the water maser was emitted when the Universe was only about 2.5 billion years old, a fifth of its current age.
"The radiation that we detected has taken 11.1 billion years to reach the Earth. However, because the Universe has expanded like an inflating balloon in that time, stretching out the distances between points, the galaxy in which the water was detected is about 19.8 billion light year
////////////////////////............Blarney (noun)
Pronunciation: ['blahr-nee]
Definition: (1) The gift of eloquent speech; (2) empty words, double-talk, fabrication, nonsense.
Usage: The first meaning of today's word has all but faded. To express this sentiment it is better to say that someone is 'blessed with the gift of the Blarney Stone.' "Blarney" is used today most often to refer to deceptive flattery or exaggerated fabrication.
////////////////SUICD IN HEDONIC ISLAND
/////////////////A sapper is an individual engineer soldier usually in British Army or Commonwealth military service.
Considered the most elite combat engineer soldiers in the United States Army[1], a Pionier in the German Army and a sapeur in the French Army, a sapper/combat engineer may perform any of a variety of combat engineering duties. Such tasks typically include bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, demolitions, field defences as well as building, road and airfield construction and repair.
In other words, a modern sapper's tasks involve facilitating movement and logistics of allied forces and impeding that of enemies.
///////////////////////
The character is loosely based on a historical László Almásy, who was indeed a well-known desert explorer in 1930s Egypt and who did help the German side in the WWII fighting; but he did not get burned or die in Italy, but survived the war and lived until 1951, and is not known to have had an affair with Katharine Clifton - who was also a historical figure, but died long before the war and not in the circumstances depicted. The book (and the film based upon it) never made any claim to historical veracity, but rather made use of actual persons and situations and considerably changed them to fit with the needs of the storyline.
/////////////////////
////////////////////Most Distant Detection Of Water In The Universe
ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2009) — Astronomers have found the most distant signs of water in the Universe to date. The water vapour is thought to be contained in a jet ejected from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy, named MG J0414+0534
See also:
Space & Time
Black Holes
Cosmology
Astrophysics
Galaxies
Astronomy
Big Bang
Reference
Quasar
Stellar evolution
Gamma ray burst
Astrophysics
Dr John McKean of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) will be presenting the discovery at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science in Hatfield on Wednesday 22nd April.
The water emission is seen as a maser, where molecules in the gas amplify and emit beams of microwave radiation in much the same way as a laser emits beams of light. The faint signal is only detectable by using a technique called gravitational lensing, where the gravity of a massive galaxy in the foreground acts as a cosmic telescope, bending and magnifying light from the distant galaxy to make a clover-leaf pattern of four images of MG J0414+0534. The water maser was only detectable in the brightest two of these images.
Dr McKean said, "We have been observing the water maser every month since the detection and seen a steady signal with no apparent change in the velocity of the water vapour in the data we've obtained so far. This backs up our prediction that the water is found in the jet from the supermassive black hole, rather than the rotating disc of gas that surrounds it."
The radiation from the water maser was emitted when the Universe was only about 2.5 billion years old, a fifth of its current age.
"The radiation that we detected has taken 11.1 billion years to reach the Earth. However, because the Universe has expanded like an inflating balloon in that time, stretching out the distances between points, the galaxy in which the water was detected is about 19.8 billion light year
////////////////////////............Blarney (noun)
Pronunciation: ['blahr-nee]
Definition: (1) The gift of eloquent speech; (2) empty words, double-talk, fabrication, nonsense.
Usage: The first meaning of today's word has all but faded. To express this sentiment it is better to say that someone is 'blessed with the gift of the Blarney Stone.' "Blarney" is used today most often to refer to deceptive flattery or exaggerated fabrication.
////////////////SUICD IN HEDONIC ISLAND
/////////////////A sapper is an individual engineer soldier usually in British Army or Commonwealth military service.
Considered the most elite combat engineer soldiers in the United States Army[1], a Pionier in the German Army and a sapeur in the French Army, a sapper/combat engineer may perform any of a variety of combat engineering duties. Such tasks typically include bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, demolitions, field defences as well as building, road and airfield construction and repair.
In other words, a modern sapper's tasks involve facilitating movement and logistics of allied forces and impeding that of enemies.
///////////////////////
The character is loosely based on a historical László Almásy, who was indeed a well-known desert explorer in 1930s Egypt and who did help the German side in the WWII fighting; but he did not get burned or die in Italy, but survived the war and lived until 1951, and is not known to have had an affair with Katharine Clifton - who was also a historical figure, but died long before the war and not in the circumstances depicted. The book (and the film based upon it) never made any claim to historical veracity, but rather made use of actual persons and situations and considerably changed them to fit with the needs of the storyline.
/////////////////////
Friday 24 April 2009
E BOOK
How the E-Book Will Change the Way We Read and Write
Author Steven Johnson outlines a future with more books, more distractions -- and the end of reading alone
By STEVEN JOHNSON
Every genuinely revolutionary technology implants some kind of "aha" moment in your memory -- the moment where you flip a switch and something magical happens, something that tells you in an instant that the rules have changed forever.
I still have vivid memories of many such moments: clicking on my first Web hyperlink in 1994 and instantly transporting to a page hosted on a server in Australia; using Google Earth to zoom in from space directly to the satellite image of my house; watching my 14-month-old master the page-flipping gesture on the iPhone's touch interface.
The latest such moment came courtesy of the Kindle, Amazon.com Inc.'s e-book reader. A few weeks after I bought the device, I was sitting alone in a restaurant in Austin, Texas, dutifully working my way through an e-book about business and technology, when I was hit with a sudden desire to read a novel. After a few taps on the Kindle, I was browsing the Amazon store, and within a minute or two I'd bought and downloaded Zadie Smith's novel "On Beauty." By the time the check arrived, I'd finished the first chapter.
//////////////////WSJ=
///////////////////
Author Steven Johnson outlines a future with more books, more distractions -- and the end of reading alone
By STEVEN JOHNSON
Every genuinely revolutionary technology implants some kind of "aha" moment in your memory -- the moment where you flip a switch and something magical happens, something that tells you in an instant that the rules have changed forever.
I still have vivid memories of many such moments: clicking on my first Web hyperlink in 1994 and instantly transporting to a page hosted on a server in Australia; using Google Earth to zoom in from space directly to the satellite image of my house; watching my 14-month-old master the page-flipping gesture on the iPhone's touch interface.
The latest such moment came courtesy of the Kindle, Amazon.com Inc.'s e-book reader. A few weeks after I bought the device, I was sitting alone in a restaurant in Austin, Texas, dutifully working my way through an e-book about business and technology, when I was hit with a sudden desire to read a novel. After a few taps on the Kindle, I was browsing the Amazon store, and within a minute or two I'd bought and downloaded Zadie Smith's novel "On Beauty." By the time the check arrived, I'd finished the first chapter.
//////////////////WSJ=
///////////////////
CDS 240409-EMPATHISING WTH PT BUT CLINICAL DETACHMENT
//////////////CBTAR-I AM LEGEND
/////////////Science is the greatest achievement of human history so far. I say that as a huge admirer of the Renaissance and Renaissance art, music and literature, but the world-transforming power of science and the tremendous insights that we've gained show that this is an enterprise, a wonderful collective enterprise, that is a great achievement of humanity. How are we going to make more people party to that? That's a pressing question for our century.
PRESSING QUESTIONS FOR OUR CENTURY [4.16.09]
A Talk With AC Grayling
//////////////////////QUANTUM-GENETICS PERIOD
///////////////////NYT=
From Studying Chimps, a Theory on Cooking
SIGN IN TO E-MAIL
PRINT
REPRINTS
SHARE
By CLAUDIA DREIFUS
Published: April 20, 2009
Richard Wrangham, a primatologist and anthropologist, has spent four decades observing wild chimpanzees in Africa to see what their behavior might tell us about prehistoric humans. Dr. Wrangham, 60, was born in Britain and since 1989 has been at Harvard, where he is a professor of biological anthropology. His book, “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human,” will be published in late May. He was interviewed over a vegetarian lunch at last winter’s American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago and again later by telephone. An edited version of the two conversations follows.
Enlarge This Image
Rick Friedman for The New York Times
RSS Feed
Get Science News From The New York Times »
Q. In your new book, you suggest that cooking was what facilitated our evolution from ape to human. Until now scientists have theorized that tool making and meat eating set the conditions for the ascent of man. Why do you argue that cooking was the main factor?
A. All that you mention were drivers of the evolution of our species. However, our large brain and the shape of our bodies are the product of a rich diet that was only available to us after we began cooking our foods. It was cooking that provided our bodies with more energy than we’d previously obtained as foraging animals eating raw food.
I have followed wild chimpanzees and studied what, and how, they eat. Modern chimps are likely to take the same kinds of foods as our early ancestors. In the wild, they’ll be lucky to find a fruit as delicious as a raspberry. More often they locate a patch of fruits as dry and strong-tasting as rose hips, which they’ll masticate for a full hour. Chimps spend most of their day finding and chewing extremely fibrous foods. Their diet is very unsatisfying to humans. But once our ancestors began eating cooked foods — approximately 1.8 million years ago — their diet became softer, safer and far more nutritious.
And that’s what fueled the development of the upright body and large brain that we associate with modern humans. Earlier ancestors had a relatively big gut and apelike proportions. Homo erectus, our more immediate ancestor, has long legs and a lean, striding body. In fact, he could walk into a Fifth Avenue shop today and buy a suit right off a peg.
Our ancestors were able to evolve because cooked foods were richer, healthier and required less eating time.
Q. To cook, you need fire. How did early humans get it?
A. The austrolopithicines, the predecessors of our prehuman ancestors, lived in savannahs with dry uplands. They would often have encountered natural fires and food improved by those fires. Moreover, we know from cut marks on old bones that our distant ancestor Homo habilis ate meat. They certainly made hammers from stones, which they may have used to tenderize it. We know that sparks fly when you hammer stone. It’s reasonable to imagine that our ancestors ate food warmed by the fires they ignited when they prepared their meat.
Now, once you had communal fires and cooking and a higher-calorie diet, the social world of our ancestors changed, too. Once individuals were drawn to a specific attractive location that had a fire, they spent a lot of time around it together. This was clearly a very different system from wandering around chimpanzee-style, sleeping wherever you wanted, always able to leave a group if there was any kind of social conflict.
We had to be able to look each other in the eye. We couldn’t react with impulsivity. Once you are sitting around the fire, you need to suppress reactive emotions that would otherwise lead to social chaos. Around that fire, we became tamer.
Q. Your critics say you have a nice theory, but no proof. They say that there’s no evidence of fireplaces 1.8 million years ago. How do you answer them?
A. Yes, there are those who say we need archaeological proof that we made fires 1.8 million years ago. And yes, thus far, none have been found. There is evidence from Israel showing the control of fire at about 800,000 years ago. I’d love to see older archaeological signals. At some point, we’ll get them.
But for the meanwhile, we have strong biological evidence. Our teeth and our gut became small at 1.8 million years. This change can only be explained by the fact that our ancestors were getting more nutrition and softer foods. And this could only have happened because they were cooking. The foraging diet that we see in modern chimps just wasn’t enough to fuel it.
Q. I understand that you once embarked on a chimpanzee diet. What was that like?
A. In 1972, when I was studying chimpanzee behaviors in Tanzania, I thought it would be interesting to see how well I could survive on what chimps ate. I asked Jane Goodall, the director of the project, if it I could live like a chimp for a bit. She said O.K. Now I wanted to be really natural and truly be a part of the bush and so I added, “I’d like to do it naked.” There, she put her foot down: “You’ll wear at least a loincloth!”
In the end, I never did the full experiment. However, there were times when I went off without eating in the mornings and tried living off whatever I found. It left me extremely hungry.
Q. What do you usually eat?
A. Oh, ordinary Western industrialized food. I won’t eat an animal I’m not prepared to kill myself. I haven’t eaten a mammal in about 30 years, except a couple of times during the 1990s, when I ate some raw monkey the chimps had killed and left behind.
I wanted to see what it tasted like. The black and white Colobus monkey is very tough and unpleasant. The red Colobus is sweeter. The chimps prefer it for good reason.
Q. You ate raw monkey for science?
A. Yes. I feel that by getting under the skin of a chimpanzee, you get insights that you don’t otherwise get. That’s how I came to this understanding about the role of cooking.
Q. Since you believe that the raw fare of prehistory would leave a modern person starving, does that mean we are adapted to the foods that we currently eat — McDonald’s, pizza?
A. I think we’re adapted to our diet. It’s that our lifestyle is not. We’re adapted in the sense that our bodies are designed to maximize the amount of energy we get from our foods. So we are very good at selecting the foods that produce a lot of energy. However, we take in far more than we need. That’s not adaptive.
/////////////////////
////////////////////
/////////////////////
/////////////Science is the greatest achievement of human history so far. I say that as a huge admirer of the Renaissance and Renaissance art, music and literature, but the world-transforming power of science and the tremendous insights that we've gained show that this is an enterprise, a wonderful collective enterprise, that is a great achievement of humanity. How are we going to make more people party to that? That's a pressing question for our century.
PRESSING QUESTIONS FOR OUR CENTURY [4.16.09]
A Talk With AC Grayling
//////////////////////QUANTUM-GENETICS PERIOD
///////////////////NYT=
From Studying Chimps, a Theory on Cooking
SIGN IN TO E-MAIL
REPRINTS
SHARE
By CLAUDIA DREIFUS
Published: April 20, 2009
Richard Wrangham, a primatologist and anthropologist, has spent four decades observing wild chimpanzees in Africa to see what their behavior might tell us about prehistoric humans. Dr. Wrangham, 60, was born in Britain and since 1989 has been at Harvard, where he is a professor of biological anthropology. His book, “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human,” will be published in late May. He was interviewed over a vegetarian lunch at last winter’s American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago and again later by telephone. An edited version of the two conversations follows.
Enlarge This Image
Rick Friedman for The New York Times
RSS Feed
Get Science News From The New York Times »
Q. In your new book, you suggest that cooking was what facilitated our evolution from ape to human. Until now scientists have theorized that tool making and meat eating set the conditions for the ascent of man. Why do you argue that cooking was the main factor?
A. All that you mention were drivers of the evolution of our species. However, our large brain and the shape of our bodies are the product of a rich diet that was only available to us after we began cooking our foods. It was cooking that provided our bodies with more energy than we’d previously obtained as foraging animals eating raw food.
I have followed wild chimpanzees and studied what, and how, they eat. Modern chimps are likely to take the same kinds of foods as our early ancestors. In the wild, they’ll be lucky to find a fruit as delicious as a raspberry. More often they locate a patch of fruits as dry and strong-tasting as rose hips, which they’ll masticate for a full hour. Chimps spend most of their day finding and chewing extremely fibrous foods. Their diet is very unsatisfying to humans. But once our ancestors began eating cooked foods — approximately 1.8 million years ago — their diet became softer, safer and far more nutritious.
And that’s what fueled the development of the upright body and large brain that we associate with modern humans. Earlier ancestors had a relatively big gut and apelike proportions. Homo erectus, our more immediate ancestor, has long legs and a lean, striding body. In fact, he could walk into a Fifth Avenue shop today and buy a suit right off a peg.
Our ancestors were able to evolve because cooked foods were richer, healthier and required less eating time.
Q. To cook, you need fire. How did early humans get it?
A. The austrolopithicines, the predecessors of our prehuman ancestors, lived in savannahs with dry uplands. They would often have encountered natural fires and food improved by those fires. Moreover, we know from cut marks on old bones that our distant ancestor Homo habilis ate meat. They certainly made hammers from stones, which they may have used to tenderize it. We know that sparks fly when you hammer stone. It’s reasonable to imagine that our ancestors ate food warmed by the fires they ignited when they prepared their meat.
Now, once you had communal fires and cooking and a higher-calorie diet, the social world of our ancestors changed, too. Once individuals were drawn to a specific attractive location that had a fire, they spent a lot of time around it together. This was clearly a very different system from wandering around chimpanzee-style, sleeping wherever you wanted, always able to leave a group if there was any kind of social conflict.
We had to be able to look each other in the eye. We couldn’t react with impulsivity. Once you are sitting around the fire, you need to suppress reactive emotions that would otherwise lead to social chaos. Around that fire, we became tamer.
Q. Your critics say you have a nice theory, but no proof. They say that there’s no evidence of fireplaces 1.8 million years ago. How do you answer them?
A. Yes, there are those who say we need archaeological proof that we made fires 1.8 million years ago. And yes, thus far, none have been found. There is evidence from Israel showing the control of fire at about 800,000 years ago. I’d love to see older archaeological signals. At some point, we’ll get them.
But for the meanwhile, we have strong biological evidence. Our teeth and our gut became small at 1.8 million years. This change can only be explained by the fact that our ancestors were getting more nutrition and softer foods. And this could only have happened because they were cooking. The foraging diet that we see in modern chimps just wasn’t enough to fuel it.
Q. I understand that you once embarked on a chimpanzee diet. What was that like?
A. In 1972, when I was studying chimpanzee behaviors in Tanzania, I thought it would be interesting to see how well I could survive on what chimps ate. I asked Jane Goodall, the director of the project, if it I could live like a chimp for a bit. She said O.K. Now I wanted to be really natural and truly be a part of the bush and so I added, “I’d like to do it naked.” There, she put her foot down: “You’ll wear at least a loincloth!”
In the end, I never did the full experiment. However, there were times when I went off without eating in the mornings and tried living off whatever I found. It left me extremely hungry.
Q. What do you usually eat?
A. Oh, ordinary Western industrialized food. I won’t eat an animal I’m not prepared to kill myself. I haven’t eaten a mammal in about 30 years, except a couple of times during the 1990s, when I ate some raw monkey the chimps had killed and left behind.
I wanted to see what it tasted like. The black and white Colobus monkey is very tough and unpleasant. The red Colobus is sweeter. The chimps prefer it for good reason.
Q. You ate raw monkey for science?
A. Yes. I feel that by getting under the skin of a chimpanzee, you get insights that you don’t otherwise get. That’s how I came to this understanding about the role of cooking.
Q. Since you believe that the raw fare of prehistory would leave a modern person starving, does that mean we are adapted to the foods that we currently eat — McDonald’s, pizza?
A. I think we’re adapted to our diet. It’s that our lifestyle is not. We’re adapted in the sense that our bodies are designed to maximize the amount of energy we get from our foods. So we are very good at selecting the foods that produce a lot of energy. However, we take in far more than we need. That’s not adaptive.
/////////////////////
////////////////////
/////////////////////
Thursday 23 April 2009
CDS 220409-BC OR MLTDWN?
//////////////TO BE NOBODY BUT YOURSELF
/////////////Anorexia linked to 'autistic' thinking
22 April 2009 by Linda Geddes
Magazine issue 2705. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
For similar stories, visit the Mental Health Topic Guide
A GROWING appreciation of the links between anorexia and autism spectrum disorders has uncovered new opportunities for treating the eating disorder.
Mental health professionals are now attempting to train the brains of people with anorexia to be more flexible and to see the big picture as well as fine details. In doing so, they hope patients will be less inclined to obsess about body weight and calories and be better equipped to overcome their eating disorder in the long term, as well as gaining weight more immediately.
NS=
/////////////////////Sibling worlds may be wettest and lightest known
15:49 21 April 2009 by Stephen Battersby, Hatfield
Magazine issue 2705. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
For similar stories, visit the Astrobiology Topic Guide
Video: Water world discovered
A planet orbiting a red dwarf star 20 light years away could be the first known water world, entirely covered by a deep ocean.
The planet, named Gliese 581d, is not a new discovery, but astronomers have now revised its orbit inwards, putting it within the "habitable zone" where liquid water could exist on the surface. "It is the only low-mass planet known inside the habitable zone", says Michel Mayor of Geneva Observatory.
NS=
//////////////////HOMININ AUSTRALOPETHICUS-OUR ANCESTORS=Dunbar and his Oxford colleague Caroline Bettridge are now applying what they have learned about chimps to our early ancestors the australopithecines. This group of hominins, consisting of around half a dozen species, lived in Africa between 3.5 and 1.8 million years ago, when the climate was generally warmer than now. Dunbar and Bettridge's study is based on 68 sites at which fossilised remains have been found. Information about climate at these sites - and hence likely group size - can be gleaned from geological formations and the fossilised plants and animals they contain. Another indicator of group size comes from measuring the cranial volume of the fossils: larger brains seem to correlate with bigger group size, reflecting the cognitive capacity required to maintain complex social networks. Based on fossil remains, australopithecines probably had the brainpower to live in groups of up to 70 individuals.
We are now applying what we have learned about chimps to our early ancestors
With this information, the researchers have started to make educated guesses about australopithecine behaviour. It seems unlikely that they roamed and foraged in the same way as modern chimps. "If their ecology had been like that of chimpanzees, they would have been hard pressed to survive in most of the places that we know from the fossil record they did in fact occupy," Dunbar says. In their hot open homelands, they would have had to spend too much time on the move to feed themselves. "We can then ask which parameter values need to be tweaked to 'get them to live' in the habitats we know they lived in, and not in those we know they didn't."
NS=
........The fossil record indicates that around 6 million years ago, just after the split with chimp ancestors, the size difference between male and female human ancestors was substantial: greater than that seen in modern chimpanzees, though less than in gorillas. Size dimorphism then gradually decreased as females became larger while males stayed around the same size, until modern size differences appeared with Homo erectus around 2 million years ago. This, Plavcan says, suggests something interesting was going on. In most primate groups, when females get bigger, males tend to follow suit. Why didn't our ancestors follow this pattern?
Plavcan points out that size dimorphism can only persist if the biggest males can monopolise females and so pass on their genes at the expense of smaller males. That cycle can be broken if females change their behaviour in a way that makes it more difficult for a single male to monopolise them. If that happens, more males become able to pass on their genes, reducing competition for females and removing some of the pressure to be big, leading to a reduction in size dimorphism. The decreasing size differences of our ancestors "tells us that the way females behave is changing", Plavcan says.
..............Big brains have benefits, but they come at a price. They are metabolically expensive to run, and building them demands not only a lot of energy but also significant nurturing. These costs hit where it hurts: in the currency of reproductive success. Another comparative analysis drives home the point. When Karin Isler and Carel van Schaik from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, surveyed 1247 animal species, including some primates, they found that in general the bigger the brain relative to body size, the less fecund the species.
This leaves humans in an odd position. Human babies are helpless when born, take a long time to grow and reach independence, and demand massive parental investment. Yet humans are highly fecund: in hunter-gatherer societies without modern birth control, the interval between births is around two to three years, compared with five years in chimps and eight in orang-utans.
Babies are helpless when born and demand massive parental investment, yet humans are highly fecund
There are other exceptions to the rule that big brains equal low fecundity. Large-brained birds such as owls and woodpeckers are often blind when they hatch and always require lots of nurturing, yet produce chicks as frequently as their smaller-brained relatives (Biology Letters, vol 5, p 125). The same combination of large brains and high fecundity is also found in wolves, foxes, coyotes and jackals. The common factor is allomaternal care, where mothers raising young can call on help from others, including fathers, older offspring or even unrelated individuals.
.............So when did the hominin brain become so large that shared care was essential if high fecundity was to be maintained? Isler and van Schaik calculate that for australopithecines 3 million years ago the inter-birth interval was around 6.5 years, decreasing to around 4.5 years by 2 million years ago as H. erectus was emerging, and to something comparable to today's hunter-gatherer societies from about 1 million years ago. "We calculated that allomaternal care is required once adult brain size reaches about 1000 cubic centimetres, or about Homo erectus size," says Isler. Above this size, ape-like caring systems cannot sustain reproductive output at a level to keep the species viable, and it would be likely to die out, she argues.
So can we now be confident that allomaternal care emerged in our ancestors somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million years ago? Not quite. "Our calculations of inter-birth intervals are rather rough," Isler admits. "And the estimate of a 'grey ceiling' of 1000 cubic centimetres, beyond which a traditional ape-like childcare style would not be feasible, is based on some assumptions that are not easy to test, such as infant mortality rates in extinct species." Plavcan is even more cautious, given that the deductions made from studying living primates have yet to be corroborated with fossil evidence. "The fossil record is thin on this issue," he says. While there could well be a link between brain size, child care and dimorphism, he recognises that we cannot be sure about the chronology without stronger evidence of the cranial capacity of H. erectus.
................
////////////////DTH BY CA OR AXDNT EQVLNT COPING MECHANISM
///////////////////////BUYING 2ND HAND FURNITURE IS GREEN
////////////////////CHLDHOOD DDDY LATE SYNDROME-ADLT WF LATE SYNDROME
////////////////XIV.6. TATRA SATTWAM NIRMALATWAAT PRAKAASHAKAM ANAAMAYAM;
SUKHASANGENA BADHNAATI JNAANASANGENA CHAANAGHA.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
Of these, Sattwa, which from its stainlessness is luminous and
healthy, binds by attachment to knowledge and to happiness, O
sinless one!
XIV.7. RAJO RAAGAATMAKAM VIDDHI TRISHNAASANGASAMUDBHAVAM;
TANNIBADHNAATI KAUNTEYA KARMASANGENA DEHINAM.
Know thou Rajas to be of the nature of passion, the source of
thirst (for sensual enjoyment) and attachment; it binds fast, O
Arjuna, the embodied one by attachment to action!
XIV.8. TAMASTWAJNAANAJAM VIDDHI MOHANAM SARVADEHINAAM;
PRAMAADAALASYANIDRAABHIS TANNIBADHNAATI BHAARATA.
But know thou Tamas to be born of ignorance, deluding all embodied
beings; it binds fast, O Arjuna, by heedlessness, sleep and
indolence!
//////////////////A WORLD WITHOUT RELIGN DOES NOT HAVE A PRAYER
//////////////////////QUOTE MINING-DAWKINS
///////////////////UNBUDGABLE VERACITY OF 2ND LOTD
///////////////////EDDINGTON CONCESSION
/////////////////////POETIC MYSTERY OF UNKNOWN-EINSTEINS GD
////////////////////////WHY DID U TAKE SUCH PAINS TO HIDE YOURSELF?
////////////////////DIRECTED PANSPERMIA IS BEST SHOT FOR ID
///////////////////PRINCIPLE OF MEDIOCRITY
///////////FERMI- WHERE IS EVERYBODY?
///////////////ORIGIN OF TECHNOLOGICAL LIFE
/////////////////////TECHNOLOGICAL LIFE BLOWS ITSELF UP QUICKLY
//////////////////EVOLN AS CRANE NOT A SKY HOOK
///////////////////ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE-PLANETARY AND COSMIC VIEWPOINTS
/////////////////
/////////////Anorexia linked to 'autistic' thinking
22 April 2009 by Linda Geddes
Magazine issue 2705. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
For similar stories, visit the Mental Health Topic Guide
A GROWING appreciation of the links between anorexia and autism spectrum disorders has uncovered new opportunities for treating the eating disorder.
Mental health professionals are now attempting to train the brains of people with anorexia to be more flexible and to see the big picture as well as fine details. In doing so, they hope patients will be less inclined to obsess about body weight and calories and be better equipped to overcome their eating disorder in the long term, as well as gaining weight more immediately.
NS=
/////////////////////Sibling worlds may be wettest and lightest known
15:49 21 April 2009 by Stephen Battersby, Hatfield
Magazine issue 2705. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
For similar stories, visit the Astrobiology Topic Guide
Video: Water world discovered
A planet orbiting a red dwarf star 20 light years away could be the first known water world, entirely covered by a deep ocean.
The planet, named Gliese 581d, is not a new discovery, but astronomers have now revised its orbit inwards, putting it within the "habitable zone" where liquid water could exist on the surface. "It is the only low-mass planet known inside the habitable zone", says Michel Mayor of Geneva Observatory.
NS=
//////////////////HOMININ AUSTRALOPETHICUS-OUR ANCESTORS=Dunbar and his Oxford colleague Caroline Bettridge are now applying what they have learned about chimps to our early ancestors the australopithecines. This group of hominins, consisting of around half a dozen species, lived in Africa between 3.5 and 1.8 million years ago, when the climate was generally warmer than now. Dunbar and Bettridge's study is based on 68 sites at which fossilised remains have been found. Information about climate at these sites - and hence likely group size - can be gleaned from geological formations and the fossilised plants and animals they contain. Another indicator of group size comes from measuring the cranial volume of the fossils: larger brains seem to correlate with bigger group size, reflecting the cognitive capacity required to maintain complex social networks. Based on fossil remains, australopithecines probably had the brainpower to live in groups of up to 70 individuals.
We are now applying what we have learned about chimps to our early ancestors
With this information, the researchers have started to make educated guesses about australopithecine behaviour. It seems unlikely that they roamed and foraged in the same way as modern chimps. "If their ecology had been like that of chimpanzees, they would have been hard pressed to survive in most of the places that we know from the fossil record they did in fact occupy," Dunbar says. In their hot open homelands, they would have had to spend too much time on the move to feed themselves. "We can then ask which parameter values need to be tweaked to 'get them to live' in the habitats we know they lived in, and not in those we know they didn't."
NS=
........The fossil record indicates that around 6 million years ago, just after the split with chimp ancestors, the size difference between male and female human ancestors was substantial: greater than that seen in modern chimpanzees, though less than in gorillas. Size dimorphism then gradually decreased as females became larger while males stayed around the same size, until modern size differences appeared with Homo erectus around 2 million years ago. This, Plavcan says, suggests something interesting was going on. In most primate groups, when females get bigger, males tend to follow suit. Why didn't our ancestors follow this pattern?
Plavcan points out that size dimorphism can only persist if the biggest males can monopolise females and so pass on their genes at the expense of smaller males. That cycle can be broken if females change their behaviour in a way that makes it more difficult for a single male to monopolise them. If that happens, more males become able to pass on their genes, reducing competition for females and removing some of the pressure to be big, leading to a reduction in size dimorphism. The decreasing size differences of our ancestors "tells us that the way females behave is changing", Plavcan says.
..............Big brains have benefits, but they come at a price. They are metabolically expensive to run, and building them demands not only a lot of energy but also significant nurturing. These costs hit where it hurts: in the currency of reproductive success. Another comparative analysis drives home the point. When Karin Isler and Carel van Schaik from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, surveyed 1247 animal species, including some primates, they found that in general the bigger the brain relative to body size, the less fecund the species.
This leaves humans in an odd position. Human babies are helpless when born, take a long time to grow and reach independence, and demand massive parental investment. Yet humans are highly fecund: in hunter-gatherer societies without modern birth control, the interval between births is around two to three years, compared with five years in chimps and eight in orang-utans.
Babies are helpless when born and demand massive parental investment, yet humans are highly fecund
There are other exceptions to the rule that big brains equal low fecundity. Large-brained birds such as owls and woodpeckers are often blind when they hatch and always require lots of nurturing, yet produce chicks as frequently as their smaller-brained relatives (Biology Letters, vol 5, p 125). The same combination of large brains and high fecundity is also found in wolves, foxes, coyotes and jackals. The common factor is allomaternal care, where mothers raising young can call on help from others, including fathers, older offspring or even unrelated individuals.
.............So when did the hominin brain become so large that shared care was essential if high fecundity was to be maintained? Isler and van Schaik calculate that for australopithecines 3 million years ago the inter-birth interval was around 6.5 years, decreasing to around 4.5 years by 2 million years ago as H. erectus was emerging, and to something comparable to today's hunter-gatherer societies from about 1 million years ago. "We calculated that allomaternal care is required once adult brain size reaches about 1000 cubic centimetres, or about Homo erectus size," says Isler. Above this size, ape-like caring systems cannot sustain reproductive output at a level to keep the species viable, and it would be likely to die out, she argues.
So can we now be confident that allomaternal care emerged in our ancestors somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million years ago? Not quite. "Our calculations of inter-birth intervals are rather rough," Isler admits. "And the estimate of a 'grey ceiling' of 1000 cubic centimetres, beyond which a traditional ape-like childcare style would not be feasible, is based on some assumptions that are not easy to test, such as infant mortality rates in extinct species." Plavcan is even more cautious, given that the deductions made from studying living primates have yet to be corroborated with fossil evidence. "The fossil record is thin on this issue," he says. While there could well be a link between brain size, child care and dimorphism, he recognises that we cannot be sure about the chronology without stronger evidence of the cranial capacity of H. erectus.
................
////////////////DTH BY CA OR AXDNT EQVLNT COPING MECHANISM
///////////////////////BUYING 2ND HAND FURNITURE IS GREEN
////////////////////CHLDHOOD DDDY LATE SYNDROME-ADLT WF LATE SYNDROME
////////////////XIV.6. TATRA SATTWAM NIRMALATWAAT PRAKAASHAKAM ANAAMAYAM;
SUKHASANGENA BADHNAATI JNAANASANGENA CHAANAGHA.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
Of these, Sattwa, which from its stainlessness is luminous and
healthy, binds by attachment to knowledge and to happiness, O
sinless one!
XIV.7. RAJO RAAGAATMAKAM VIDDHI TRISHNAASANGASAMUDBHAVAM;
TANNIBADHNAATI KAUNTEYA KARMASANGENA DEHINAM.
Know thou Rajas to be of the nature of passion, the source of
thirst (for sensual enjoyment) and attachment; it binds fast, O
Arjuna, the embodied one by attachment to action!
XIV.8. TAMASTWAJNAANAJAM VIDDHI MOHANAM SARVADEHINAAM;
PRAMAADAALASYANIDRAABHIS TANNIBADHNAATI BHAARATA.
But know thou Tamas to be born of ignorance, deluding all embodied
beings; it binds fast, O Arjuna, by heedlessness, sleep and
indolence!
//////////////////A WORLD WITHOUT RELIGN DOES NOT HAVE A PRAYER
//////////////////////QUOTE MINING-DAWKINS
///////////////////UNBUDGABLE VERACITY OF 2ND LOTD
///////////////////EDDINGTON CONCESSION
/////////////////////POETIC MYSTERY OF UNKNOWN-EINSTEINS GD
////////////////////////WHY DID U TAKE SUCH PAINS TO HIDE YOURSELF?
////////////////////DIRECTED PANSPERMIA IS BEST SHOT FOR ID
///////////////////PRINCIPLE OF MEDIOCRITY
///////////FERMI- WHERE IS EVERYBODY?
///////////////ORIGIN OF TECHNOLOGICAL LIFE
/////////////////////TECHNOLOGICAL LIFE BLOWS ITSELF UP QUICKLY
//////////////////EVOLN AS CRANE NOT A SKY HOOK
///////////////////ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE-PLANETARY AND COSMIC VIEWPOINTS
/////////////////
Wednesday 22 April 2009
CDS 220409-BC OR MLTDWN?
//////////////TO BE NOBODY BUT YOURSELF
/////////////Anorexia linked to 'autistic' thinking
22 April 2009 by Linda Geddes
Magazine issue 2705. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
For similar stories, visit the Mental Health Topic Guide
A GROWING appreciation of the links between anorexia and autism spectrum disorders has uncovered new opportunities for treating the eating disorder.
Mental health professionals are now attempting to train the brains of people with anorexia to be more flexible and to see the big picture as well as fine details. In doing so, they hope patients will be less inclined to obsess about body weight and calories and be better equipped to overcome their eating disorder in the long term, as well as gaining weight more immediately.
NS=
/////////////////////Sibling worlds may be wettest and lightest known
15:49 21 April 2009 by Stephen Battersby, Hatfield
Magazine issue 2705. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
For similar stories, visit the Astrobiology Topic Guide
Video: Water world discovered
A planet orbiting a red dwarf star 20 light years away could be the first known water world, entirely covered by a deep ocean.
The planet, named Gliese 581d, is not a new discovery, but astronomers have now revised its orbit inwards, putting it within the "habitable zone" where liquid water could exist on the surface. "It is the only low-mass planet known inside the habitable zone", says Michel Mayor of Geneva Observatory.
NS=
//////////////////HOMININ AUSTRALOPETHICUS-OUR ANCESTORS=Dunbar and his Oxford colleague Caroline Bettridge are now applying what they have learned about chimps to our early ancestors the australopithecines. This group of hominins, consisting of around half a dozen species, lived in Africa between 3.5 and 1.8 million years ago, when the climate was generally warmer than now. Dunbar and Bettridge's study is based on 68 sites at which fossilised remains have been found. Information about climate at these sites - and hence likely group size - can be gleaned from geological formations and the fossilised plants and animals they contain. Another indicator of group size comes from measuring the cranial volume of the fossils: larger brains seem to correlate with bigger group size, reflecting the cognitive capacity required to maintain complex social networks. Based on fossil remains, australopithecines probably had the brainpower to live in groups of up to 70 individuals.
We are now applying what we have learned about chimps to our early ancestors
With this information, the researchers have started to make educated guesses about australopithecine behaviour. It seems unlikely that they roamed and foraged in the same way as modern chimps. "If their ecology had been like that of chimpanzees, they would have been hard pressed to survive in most of the places that we know from the fossil record they did in fact occupy," Dunbar says. In their hot open homelands, they would have had to spend too much time on the move to feed themselves. "We can then ask which parameter values need to be tweaked to 'get them to live' in the habitats we know they lived in, and not in those we know they didn't."
NS=
........The fossil record indicates that around 6 million years ago, just after the split with chimp ancestors, the size difference between male and female human ancestors was substantial: greater than that seen in modern chimpanzees, though less than in gorillas. Size dimorphism then gradually decreased as females became larger while males stayed around the same size, until modern size differences appeared with Homo erectus around 2 million years ago. This, Plavcan says, suggests something interesting was going on. In most primate groups, when females get bigger, males tend to follow suit. Why didn't our ancestors follow this pattern?
Plavcan points out that size dimorphism can only persist if the biggest males can monopolise females and so pass on their genes at the expense of smaller males. That cycle can be broken if females change their behaviour in a way that makes it more difficult for a single male to monopolise them. If that happens, more males become able to pass on their genes, reducing competition for females and removing some of the pressure to be big, leading to a reduction in size dimorphism. The decreasing size differences of our ancestors "tells us that the way females behave is changing", Plavcan says.
..............Big brains have benefits, but they come at a price. They are metabolically expensive to run, and building them demands not only a lot of energy but also significant nurturing. These costs hit where it hurts: in the currency of reproductive success. Another comparative analysis drives home the point. When Karin Isler and Carel van Schaik from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, surveyed 1247 animal species, including some primates, they found that in general the bigger the brain relative to body size, the less fecund the species.
This leaves humans in an odd position. Human babies are helpless when born, take a long time to grow and reach independence, and demand massive parental investment. Yet humans are highly fecund: in hunter-gatherer societies without modern birth control, the interval between births is around two to three years, compared with five years in chimps and eight in orang-utans.
Babies are helpless when born and demand massive parental investment, yet humans are highly fecund
There are other exceptions to the rule that big brains equal low fecundity. Large-brained birds such as owls and woodpeckers are often blind when they hatch and always require lots of nurturing, yet produce chicks as frequently as their smaller-brained relatives (Biology Letters, vol 5, p 125). The same combination of large brains and high fecundity is also found in wolves, foxes, coyotes and jackals. The common factor is allomaternal care, where mothers raising young can call on help from others, including fathers, older offspring or even unrelated individuals.
.............So when did the hominin brain become so large that shared care was essential if high fecundity was to be maintained? Isler and van Schaik calculate that for australopithecines 3 million years ago the inter-birth interval was around 6.5 years, decreasing to around 4.5 years by 2 million years ago as H. erectus was emerging, and to something comparable to today's hunter-gatherer societies from about 1 million years ago. "We calculated that allomaternal care is required once adult brain size reaches about 1000 cubic centimetres, or about Homo erectus size," says Isler. Above this size, ape-like caring systems cannot sustain reproductive output at a level to keep the species viable, and it would be likely to die out, she argues.
So can we now be confident that allomaternal care emerged in our ancestors somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million years ago? Not quite. "Our calculations of inter-birth intervals are rather rough," Isler admits. "And the estimate of a 'grey ceiling' of 1000 cubic centimetres, beyond which a traditional ape-like childcare style would not be feasible, is based on some assumptions that are not easy to test, such as infant mortality rates in extinct species." Plavcan is even more cautious, given that the deductions made from studying living primates have yet to be corroborated with fossil evidence. "The fossil record is thin on this issue," he says. While there could well be a link between brain size, child care and dimorphism, he recognises that we cannot be sure about the chronology without stronger evidence of the cranial capacity of H. erectus.
................
////////////////DTH BY CA OR AXDNT EQVLNT COPING MECHANISM
///////////////////////BUYING 2ND HAND FURNITURE IS GREEN
////////////////////CHLDHOOD DDDY LATE SYNDROME-ADLT WF LATE SYNDROME
////////////////XIV.6. TATRA SATTWAM NIRMALATWAAT PRAKAASHAKAM ANAAMAYAM;
SUKHASANGENA BADHNAATI JNAANASANGENA CHAANAGHA.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
Of these, Sattwa, which from its stainlessness is luminous and
healthy, binds by attachment to knowledge and to happiness, O
sinless one!
XIV.7. RAJO RAAGAATMAKAM VIDDHI TRISHNAASANGASAMUDBHAVAM;
TANNIBADHNAATI KAUNTEYA KARMASANGENA DEHINAM.
Know thou Rajas to be of the nature of passion, the source of
thirst (for sensual enjoyment) and attachment; it binds fast, O
Arjuna, the embodied one by attachment to action!
XIV.8. TAMASTWAJNAANAJAM VIDDHI MOHANAM SARVADEHINAAM;
PRAMAADAALASYANIDRAABHIS TANNIBADHNAATI BHAARATA.
But know thou Tamas to be born of ignorance, deluding all embodied
beings; it binds fast, O Arjuna, by heedlessness, sleep and
indolence!
//////////////////A WORLD WITHOUT RELIGN DOES NOT HAVE A PRAYER
//////////////////////QUOTE MINING-DAWKINS
///////////////////UNBUDGABLE VERACITY OF 2ND LOTD
///////////////////EDDINGTON CONCESSION
/////////////////////POETIC MYSTERY OF UNKNOWN-EINSTEINS GD
////////////////////////WHY DID U TAKE SUCH PAINS TO HIDE YOURSELF?
////////////////////DIRECTED PANSPERMIA IS BEST SHOT FOR ID
///////////////////PRINCIPLE OF MEDIOCRITY
///////////FERMI- WHERE IS EVERYBODY?
///////////////ORIGIN OF TECHNOLOGICAL LIFE
/////////////////////TECHNOLOGICAL LIFE BLOWS ITSELF UP QUICKLY
//////////////////EVOLN AS CRANE NOT A SKY HOOK
///////////////////ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE-PLANETARY AND COSMIC VIEWPOINTS
/////////////////
/////////////Anorexia linked to 'autistic' thinking
22 April 2009 by Linda Geddes
Magazine issue 2705. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
For similar stories, visit the Mental Health Topic Guide
A GROWING appreciation of the links between anorexia and autism spectrum disorders has uncovered new opportunities for treating the eating disorder.
Mental health professionals are now attempting to train the brains of people with anorexia to be more flexible and to see the big picture as well as fine details. In doing so, they hope patients will be less inclined to obsess about body weight and calories and be better equipped to overcome their eating disorder in the long term, as well as gaining weight more immediately.
NS=
/////////////////////Sibling worlds may be wettest and lightest known
15:49 21 April 2009 by Stephen Battersby, Hatfield
Magazine issue 2705. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
For similar stories, visit the Astrobiology Topic Guide
Video: Water world discovered
A planet orbiting a red dwarf star 20 light years away could be the first known water world, entirely covered by a deep ocean.
The planet, named Gliese 581d, is not a new discovery, but astronomers have now revised its orbit inwards, putting it within the "habitable zone" where liquid water could exist on the surface. "It is the only low-mass planet known inside the habitable zone", says Michel Mayor of Geneva Observatory.
NS=
//////////////////HOMININ AUSTRALOPETHICUS-OUR ANCESTORS=Dunbar and his Oxford colleague Caroline Bettridge are now applying what they have learned about chimps to our early ancestors the australopithecines. This group of hominins, consisting of around half a dozen species, lived in Africa between 3.5 and 1.8 million years ago, when the climate was generally warmer than now. Dunbar and Bettridge's study is based on 68 sites at which fossilised remains have been found. Information about climate at these sites - and hence likely group size - can be gleaned from geological formations and the fossilised plants and animals they contain. Another indicator of group size comes from measuring the cranial volume of the fossils: larger brains seem to correlate with bigger group size, reflecting the cognitive capacity required to maintain complex social networks. Based on fossil remains, australopithecines probably had the brainpower to live in groups of up to 70 individuals.
We are now applying what we have learned about chimps to our early ancestors
With this information, the researchers have started to make educated guesses about australopithecine behaviour. It seems unlikely that they roamed and foraged in the same way as modern chimps. "If their ecology had been like that of chimpanzees, they would have been hard pressed to survive in most of the places that we know from the fossil record they did in fact occupy," Dunbar says. In their hot open homelands, they would have had to spend too much time on the move to feed themselves. "We can then ask which parameter values need to be tweaked to 'get them to live' in the habitats we know they lived in, and not in those we know they didn't."
NS=
........The fossil record indicates that around 6 million years ago, just after the split with chimp ancestors, the size difference between male and female human ancestors was substantial: greater than that seen in modern chimpanzees, though less than in gorillas. Size dimorphism then gradually decreased as females became larger while males stayed around the same size, until modern size differences appeared with Homo erectus around 2 million years ago. This, Plavcan says, suggests something interesting was going on. In most primate groups, when females get bigger, males tend to follow suit. Why didn't our ancestors follow this pattern?
Plavcan points out that size dimorphism can only persist if the biggest males can monopolise females and so pass on their genes at the expense of smaller males. That cycle can be broken if females change their behaviour in a way that makes it more difficult for a single male to monopolise them. If that happens, more males become able to pass on their genes, reducing competition for females and removing some of the pressure to be big, leading to a reduction in size dimorphism. The decreasing size differences of our ancestors "tells us that the way females behave is changing", Plavcan says.
..............Big brains have benefits, but they come at a price. They are metabolically expensive to run, and building them demands not only a lot of energy but also significant nurturing. These costs hit where it hurts: in the currency of reproductive success. Another comparative analysis drives home the point. When Karin Isler and Carel van Schaik from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, surveyed 1247 animal species, including some primates, they found that in general the bigger the brain relative to body size, the less fecund the species.
This leaves humans in an odd position. Human babies are helpless when born, take a long time to grow and reach independence, and demand massive parental investment. Yet humans are highly fecund: in hunter-gatherer societies without modern birth control, the interval between births is around two to three years, compared with five years in chimps and eight in orang-utans.
Babies are helpless when born and demand massive parental investment, yet humans are highly fecund
There are other exceptions to the rule that big brains equal low fecundity. Large-brained birds such as owls and woodpeckers are often blind when they hatch and always require lots of nurturing, yet produce chicks as frequently as their smaller-brained relatives (Biology Letters, vol 5, p 125). The same combination of large brains and high fecundity is also found in wolves, foxes, coyotes and jackals. The common factor is allomaternal care, where mothers raising young can call on help from others, including fathers, older offspring or even unrelated individuals.
.............So when did the hominin brain become so large that shared care was essential if high fecundity was to be maintained? Isler and van Schaik calculate that for australopithecines 3 million years ago the inter-birth interval was around 6.5 years, decreasing to around 4.5 years by 2 million years ago as H. erectus was emerging, and to something comparable to today's hunter-gatherer societies from about 1 million years ago. "We calculated that allomaternal care is required once adult brain size reaches about 1000 cubic centimetres, or about Homo erectus size," says Isler. Above this size, ape-like caring systems cannot sustain reproductive output at a level to keep the species viable, and it would be likely to die out, she argues.
So can we now be confident that allomaternal care emerged in our ancestors somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million years ago? Not quite. "Our calculations of inter-birth intervals are rather rough," Isler admits. "And the estimate of a 'grey ceiling' of 1000 cubic centimetres, beyond which a traditional ape-like childcare style would not be feasible, is based on some assumptions that are not easy to test, such as infant mortality rates in extinct species." Plavcan is even more cautious, given that the deductions made from studying living primates have yet to be corroborated with fossil evidence. "The fossil record is thin on this issue," he says. While there could well be a link between brain size, child care and dimorphism, he recognises that we cannot be sure about the chronology without stronger evidence of the cranial capacity of H. erectus.
................
////////////////DTH BY CA OR AXDNT EQVLNT COPING MECHANISM
///////////////////////BUYING 2ND HAND FURNITURE IS GREEN
////////////////////CHLDHOOD DDDY LATE SYNDROME-ADLT WF LATE SYNDROME
////////////////XIV.6. TATRA SATTWAM NIRMALATWAAT PRAKAASHAKAM ANAAMAYAM;
SUKHASANGENA BADHNAATI JNAANASANGENA CHAANAGHA.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
Of these, Sattwa, which from its stainlessness is luminous and
healthy, binds by attachment to knowledge and to happiness, O
sinless one!
XIV.7. RAJO RAAGAATMAKAM VIDDHI TRISHNAASANGASAMUDBHAVAM;
TANNIBADHNAATI KAUNTEYA KARMASANGENA DEHINAM.
Know thou Rajas to be of the nature of passion, the source of
thirst (for sensual enjoyment) and attachment; it binds fast, O
Arjuna, the embodied one by attachment to action!
XIV.8. TAMASTWAJNAANAJAM VIDDHI MOHANAM SARVADEHINAAM;
PRAMAADAALASYANIDRAABHIS TANNIBADHNAATI BHAARATA.
But know thou Tamas to be born of ignorance, deluding all embodied
beings; it binds fast, O Arjuna, by heedlessness, sleep and
indolence!
//////////////////A WORLD WITHOUT RELIGN DOES NOT HAVE A PRAYER
//////////////////////QUOTE MINING-DAWKINS
///////////////////UNBUDGABLE VERACITY OF 2ND LOTD
///////////////////EDDINGTON CONCESSION
/////////////////////POETIC MYSTERY OF UNKNOWN-EINSTEINS GD
////////////////////////WHY DID U TAKE SUCH PAINS TO HIDE YOURSELF?
////////////////////DIRECTED PANSPERMIA IS BEST SHOT FOR ID
///////////////////PRINCIPLE OF MEDIOCRITY
///////////FERMI- WHERE IS EVERYBODY?
///////////////ORIGIN OF TECHNOLOGICAL LIFE
/////////////////////TECHNOLOGICAL LIFE BLOWS ITSELF UP QUICKLY
//////////////////EVOLN AS CRANE NOT A SKY HOOK
///////////////////ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE-PLANETARY AND COSMIC VIEWPOINTS
/////////////////
Tuesday 21 April 2009
2 is the only even prime.
/////////////FK IT WAY
////////////Anabasis (noun)
Pronunciation: [ê-'næ-bê-sis]
Definition: A movement upward or forward, as a military advance or the advance of disease in the body; the antonym of "retreat."
Usage: Today's word comes from the title of a book by the Greek historian Xenophon about a Greek mercenary expedition across Asia Minor in 401 B.C. It was unsuccessful and turned into a retreat, making the title of Xenophon's book possibly one of the earliest examples of warspeak. The plural of today's word is "anabases," just as the plural of "basis" is "bases." The adjective is "anabatic," as in the anabatic wind currents that flow up a mountainside
//////////////////Talents are best nurtured in solitude, but character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
Posted: 21 Apr 2009 04:00 AM PDT
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
///////////////Work hard to improve your mind and body. Nourish your spirit. Do the things you fear.
―Robin S. Sharma
///////////////Language, memory and cognition are all related intimately. When
Romans used their numerals to represent numbers, such ordinary
operations as multiplication were insanely difficult to most people
- let alone extraction of square roots and cube roots. Although
"in principle if explained properly and clearly anyone could
understand it".
With the invention of decimal place-value notation, the 'pen
became smarter than the hand that wielded it'.
a
/////////////////DHRMIC /ABRHMC- NVR THE TWAIN SHALL MEET
/////////////////
there are words in our part of the world, which cannot find true
translations. like 'Lobha, Dosa and Moha'. even if we find English words
for them, how about 'Alobha, Adosa and Amoha'?. Or words like 'Thanha
and Dukka'
about the gender issue, there are many names which are common. in fact i
used the idea in on of my novels to ask if the Future Buddha' could be a
woman, because the next Buddha has the name 'Maithree'.
we are all prisoners within barriers created by ourselves, which
probably began when man turned from hunter/gathe
D
////////////////WAR IS A GREAT BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
//////////////THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE NOT THINGS
//////////////el writes: "Our curiosity and propensity to wonder are what makes our world
interesting. When you look at other species you don't see them fawning over
nature, you just see them living in it. We are the only ones I know of that
are fascinated by our world."
Cel, think about the difference between a dog in a cage and a dog
wandering through the woods. Obviously, all symbolic concepts are human
concepts, but I still feel comfortable saying that a dog typically finds
the woods more interesting than the cage. But I think you correctly
identify that Dyson's comment (and Whitehead's also) are rather
anthropocentric views. But then, what other kind of view can we human's
have but anthropocentric ones?
P.S. I've seen deer fawning over nature :-) .
T
////////////////////////And contrary to our sensibilities, a dog finds a walk down an alley with garbage cans full to brimming much more interesting than a walk in the woods. At least my dogs do.
I don't know if a sated dog still finds the odors of an alley intriguing, or if it can experience reverence. I think it will be quite some time before somebody devises an experiment that will begin to answer that question. In the meantime, I like to think that my dogs are sharing my experience of it when I take them for a walk in the woods.
We may or may not be the only species to go ga-ga over nature. But even if we are alone, I don't think it is a bad thing.
J
///////////////////////I don't remember how this conversation began, about humans being the only species to be fascinated by our world. We're also, I believe, the only species who ponders the world without us in it, who thinks about our death not only in terms of avoiding it, but in what the world will be like after we leave it.
b
////////////////////
////////////Anabasis (noun)
Pronunciation: [ê-'næ-bê-sis]
Definition: A movement upward or forward, as a military advance or the advance of disease in the body; the antonym of "retreat."
Usage: Today's word comes from the title of a book by the Greek historian Xenophon about a Greek mercenary expedition across Asia Minor in 401 B.C. It was unsuccessful and turned into a retreat, making the title of Xenophon's book possibly one of the earliest examples of warspeak. The plural of today's word is "anabases," just as the plural of "basis" is "bases." The adjective is "anabatic," as in the anabatic wind currents that flow up a mountainside
//////////////////Talents are best nurtured in solitude, but character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
Posted: 21 Apr 2009 04:00 AM PDT
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
///////////////Work hard to improve your mind and body. Nourish your spirit. Do the things you fear.
―Robin S. Sharma
///////////////Language, memory and cognition are all related intimately. When
Romans used their numerals to represent numbers, such ordinary
operations as multiplication were insanely difficult to most people
- let alone extraction of square roots and cube roots. Although
"in principle if explained properly and clearly anyone could
understand it".
With the invention of decimal place-value notation, the 'pen
became smarter than the hand that wielded it'.
a
/////////////////DHRMIC /ABRHMC- NVR THE TWAIN SHALL MEET
/////////////////
there are words in our part of the world, which cannot find true
translations. like 'Lobha, Dosa and Moha'. even if we find English words
for them, how about 'Alobha, Adosa and Amoha'?. Or words like 'Thanha
and Dukka'
about the gender issue, there are many names which are common. in fact i
used the idea in on of my novels to ask if the Future Buddha' could be a
woman, because the next Buddha has the name 'Maithree'.
we are all prisoners within barriers created by ourselves, which
probably began when man turned from hunter/gathe
D
////////////////WAR IS A GREAT BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
//////////////THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE NOT THINGS
//////////////el writes: "Our curiosity and propensity to wonder are what makes our world
interesting. When you look at other species you don't see them fawning over
nature, you just see them living in it. We are the only ones I know of that
are fascinated by our world."
Cel, think about the difference between a dog in a cage and a dog
wandering through the woods. Obviously, all symbolic concepts are human
concepts, but I still feel comfortable saying that a dog typically finds
the woods more interesting than the cage. But I think you correctly
identify that Dyson's comment (and Whitehead's also) are rather
anthropocentric views. But then, what other kind of view can we human's
have but anthropocentric ones?
P.S. I've seen deer fawning over nature :-) .
T
////////////////////////And contrary to our sensibilities, a dog finds a walk down an alley with garbage cans full to brimming much more interesting than a walk in the woods. At least my dogs do.
I don't know if a sated dog still finds the odors of an alley intriguing, or if it can experience reverence. I think it will be quite some time before somebody devises an experiment that will begin to answer that question. In the meantime, I like to think that my dogs are sharing my experience of it when I take them for a walk in the woods.
We may or may not be the only species to go ga-ga over nature. But even if we are alone, I don't think it is a bad thing.
J
///////////////////////I don't remember how this conversation began, about humans being the only species to be fascinated by our world. We're also, I believe, the only species who ponders the world without us in it, who thinks about our death not only in terms of avoiding it, but in what the world will be like after we leave it.
b
////////////////////
PRVNTING STROKE
///////////////Acetaminophen, Cholesterol Drugs May Help Fight Stroke
Statins could help prevent attack, while painkiller might minimize damage, studies find
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Related Encyclopedia
• Alzheimer's Disease
• Aneurysms
• Angina Pectoris
• Angiogram
More...
Related Healthscout Videos
The On-X Valve PROACT Trial
The On-X Heart Valve: Longevity With Less Reliance on Coumadin
Tissue Valves vs. Mechanical Valves
What is the difference between heart valve repair and replacement?
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• Alzheimer's Disease Video Animation
• Angioplasty
• Coronary Bypass Surgery
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• Accupril
• Actonel
• Altace
• Avapro
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Related News Articles
• Jet Lag Upsets Brain's Internal Clocks
• Death Certificates Incomplete for Suicide Victims
• Secondhand Smoke Quickly Affects Blood Vessels
• NIH May Ease Some, But Not All, Stem Cell Restrictions
More...
TUESDAY, April 14 (HealthDay News) -- Two new studies find that acetaminophen and statins can be of great benefit in either preventing or treating stroke.
In the first study, statin use seemed to be correlated with a lower risk of having a first stroke, according to a group of French researchers.
Text Continues Below
Meanwhile, another team in the Netherlands found that patients with a body temperature ranging from normal (98.6 F) to 102.2 F who received acetaminophen soon after the onset of a stroke fared better than patients who did not receive the drug.
Both studies are in the May issue of Lancet Neurology.
Prior studies have suggested that the use of cholesterol-lowering statins -- which include the blockbusters Crestor, Lipitor and Zocor -- can cut the risk of stroke for certain patients.
in the new study, French researchers reviewed 24 studies involving more than 165,000 patients. They found that for every 1 millimole per liter decrease in LDL ("bad") cholesterol brought about by using statins, the risk of stroke fell by about 21 percent, compared to people who did not take these drugs.
The data also suggests that statin use slows the formation of blockages in the carotid arteries, which lead from the heart to the brain.
"It crystallizes the fact that there's a direct relationship between lowering LDL and lowering the risk of stroke," said Dr. Jonathan Friedman, an associate professor of surgery and of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. "It's not just a matter of putting patients at risk for stroke on a statin and considering that a success, but actually being aggressive about lowering LDL and monitoring and making sure the response is as significant as you can expect. The amount that you lower the LDL actually matters. That wasn't so obvious to a lot of us," he said.
////////////////
Statins could help prevent attack, while painkiller might minimize damage, studies find
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Related Encyclopedia
• Alzheimer's Disease
• Aneurysms
• Angina Pectoris
• Angiogram
More...
Related Healthscout Videos
The On-X Valve PROACT Trial
The On-X Heart Valve: Longevity With Less Reliance on Coumadin
Tissue Valves vs. Mechanical Valves
What is the difference between heart valve repair and replacement?
More...
Related Animations
• Alzheimer's Disease Video Animation
• Angioplasty
• Coronary Bypass Surgery
• Erectile Dysfunction
More...
Related Drug Information
• Accupril
• Actonel
• Altace
• Avapro
More...
Related News Articles
• Jet Lag Upsets Brain's Internal Clocks
• Death Certificates Incomplete for Suicide Victims
• Secondhand Smoke Quickly Affects Blood Vessels
• NIH May Ease Some, But Not All, Stem Cell Restrictions
More...
TUESDAY, April 14 (HealthDay News) -- Two new studies find that acetaminophen and statins can be of great benefit in either preventing or treating stroke.
In the first study, statin use seemed to be correlated with a lower risk of having a first stroke, according to a group of French researchers.
Text Continues Below
Meanwhile, another team in the Netherlands found that patients with a body temperature ranging from normal (98.6 F) to 102.2 F who received acetaminophen soon after the onset of a stroke fared better than patients who did not receive the drug.
Both studies are in the May issue of Lancet Neurology.
Prior studies have suggested that the use of cholesterol-lowering statins -- which include the blockbusters Crestor, Lipitor and Zocor -- can cut the risk of stroke for certain patients.
in the new study, French researchers reviewed 24 studies involving more than 165,000 patients. They found that for every 1 millimole per liter decrease in LDL ("bad") cholesterol brought about by using statins, the risk of stroke fell by about 21 percent, compared to people who did not take these drugs.
The data also suggests that statin use slows the formation of blockages in the carotid arteries, which lead from the heart to the brain.
"It crystallizes the fact that there's a direct relationship between lowering LDL and lowering the risk of stroke," said Dr. Jonathan Friedman, an associate professor of surgery and of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. "It's not just a matter of putting patients at risk for stroke on a statin and considering that a success, but actually being aggressive about lowering LDL and monitoring and making sure the response is as significant as you can expect. The amount that you lower the LDL actually matters. That wasn't so obvious to a lot of us," he said.
////////////////
Sunday 19 April 2009
AD SPRNG VLLY IVW FLR CRSS
/////////TATA-TILL LBMUK
///////////PNRMA-LF AFTR WOOLIES
////////////CBTAR-CNMA-AFTERMATH
///////////HEALTH AND CARE PROFESSN RECESSN PROOF?
/////////////////
///////////PNRMA-LF AFTR WOOLIES
////////////CBTAR-CNMA-AFTERMATH
///////////HEALTH AND CARE PROFESSN RECESSN PROOF?
/////////////////
Friday 17 April 2009
FELUDA ONLINE MUSEUM
Feluda fan society creates Online museum
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, April 11: For the first time in the city's history, an Online museum on Feluda has been set up.
Feluda, alias Pradosh C Mitter, is the private investigator and protagonist in Satyajit Ray's detective series. He first made his appearance in Badsahi Angti, published in the late 1960s. Feluda has been translated into English and French.
Feluda Inc, an international Feluda fan society, has created the "virtual museum" with the help of three city-based web designers. The Online museum can be found at http://felumuseum.tripod.com.
The virtual museum contains pictures of various articles referred to Pradosh C Mitter (better known as Feluda), as well as images of various places that feature in the detective stories. Visitors will find pictures of Golakdham, an old building at Ballygunge (mentioned in Golakdham Rohosshyo), Sir Thomas Godwin's tomb (figured in Gorasthane Shabdhan), and the nine stamps (appearing in Chhinnomostar Obhishaap). Mr Soumit Dasgupta, a UK-based consultant otoneurologist and member of the Feluda society, found in a recent study that Feluda is one of the characters that has the broadest appeal among people of all age groups. Like Sherlock Holmes and Hercules Poirot, Feluda has taken on the guise of a real-life character. So people from across the world want to know more about the detective. Mr Dasgupta said that he was inspired to create a public resource on Feluda after visiting the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London. He collected most of the pictures with the help of his friend, Mr Surojoy Bhowmick. Later, they urged Mr Soumendu Dasmunshi, a city-based web designer, to design the webpage along with his associates. The core members of the society also persuaded more than 27,000 members of the Feluda society on Orkut to contribute their collections on the character. The members of the society are also planning to persuade the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and dignitaries in the city to take the initiative to set up a museum at 21A, Rajani Sen Road (see photograph) ~ the character's residence in Satyajit Ray's immortal series.
/////////////////////Kiss and make up―but too much makeup has ruined many a kiss.
―Mae West
////////////////////RAAG VS ABHIMAAN
///////////////////GREEK FTHR SON MOVIE-WHAT IS IT?A SPARROW-DIARY-SON ASKED 21 TIMES,HUGGED EACH TIME
//////////////////////CAST AWAY- FOLLOWING A FRACTURE
///////////////////SX=INEBRIATED EXCHANGE OF BODILY FLUIDS
///////////////////SCIENCE
Reading This Will Change Your Brain
A leading neuroscientist says processing digital information can rewire your circuits. But is it evolution?
By Jeneen Interlandi | NEWSWEEK
Published Oct 14, 2008
* From the Editors (2)
* Nancy Andrews on Women in Medicine
* Begley: Why Polling Can Go Wrong
See All
* Recommended (6)
* iBrain: How the Internet Is Changing Our Minds
* iBrain: How The Internet Is Changing Our Brains
* Rick Smith Interviews Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer
* Forbes: The World's Cleanest Countries
* Is Obama Ignoring Basic Economics?
* Q&A: Columnist Tom Friedman on Climate Change
See All
* Topics (1)
* Gary Small
See All
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Is technology changing our brains? A new study by UCLA neuroscientist Gary Small adds to a growing body of research that says it is. And according to Small's new book, "iBRAIN: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind," a dramatic shift in how we gather information and communicate with one another has touched off an era of rapid evolution that may ultimately change the human brain as we know it. "Perhaps not since early man first discovered how to use a tool has the human brain been affected so quickly and so dramatically," he writes. "As the brain evolves and shifts its focus towards new technological skills, it drifts away from fundamental social skills."
The impact of technology on our circuitry should not come as a surprise. The brain's plasticity—it's ability to change in response to different stimuli—is well known. Professional musicians have more gray matter in brain regions responsible for planning finger movements. And athletes' brains are bulkier in areas that control hand-eye coordination. That's because the more time you devote to a specific activity, the stronger the neural pathways responsible for executing that activity become. So it makes sense that people who process a constant stream of digital information would have more neurons dedicated to filtering that information. Still, that's not the same thing as evolution.
To see how the Internet might be rewiring us, Small and colleagues monitored the brains of 24 adults as they performed a simulated Web search, and again as they read a page of text. During the Web search, those who reported using the Internet regularly in their everyday lives showed twice as much signaling in brain regions responsible for decision-making and complex reasoning, compared with those who had limited Internet exposure. The findings, to be published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, suggest that Internet use enhances the brain's capacity to be stimulated, and that Internet reading activates more brain regions than printed words. The research adds to previous studies that have shown that the tech-savvy among us possess greater working memory (meaning they can store and retrieve more bits of information in the short term), are more adept at perceptual learning (that is, adjusting their perception of the world in response to changing information), and have better motor skills.
Quantcast
Small says these differences are likely to be even more profound across generations, because younger people are exposed to more technology from an earlier age than older people. He refers to this as the brain gap. On one side, what he calls digital natives—those who have never known a world without e-mail and text messaging—use their superior cognitive abilities to make snap decisions and juggle multiple sources of sensory input. On the other side, digital immigrants—those who witnessed the advent of modern technology long after their brains had been hardwired—are better at reading facial expressions than they are at navigating cyberspace. "The typical immigrant's brain was trained in completely different ways of socializing and learning, taking things step-by-step and addressing one task at a time," he says. "Immigrants learn more methodically and tend to execute tasks more precisely."
But whether natural selection will favor one skill set over the other remains to be seen. For starters, there's no reason to believe the two behaviors are mutually exclusive. In fact, a 2005 Kaiser study found that young people who spent the most time engaged with high-technology also spent the most time interacting face-to-face, with friends and family. And as Small himself points out, digital natives and digital immigrants can direct their own neural circuitry—reaping the cognitive benefits of modern technology while preserving traditional social skills—simply by making time for both.
In the meantime, modern technology, and the skills it fosters, is evolving even faster than we are. There's no telling whether future iterations of computer games, online communities and the like will require more or less of the traditional social skills and learning strategies that we've spent so many eons cultivating. "Too many people write about this as if kids are in one country and adults are in another," says James Gee, a linguistics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. What the future brain will look like is still anybody's guess.
NWSWEEK=
/////////////////////////
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, April 11: For the first time in the city's history, an Online museum on Feluda has been set up.
Feluda, alias Pradosh C Mitter, is the private investigator and protagonist in Satyajit Ray's detective series. He first made his appearance in Badsahi Angti, published in the late 1960s. Feluda has been translated into English and French.
Feluda Inc, an international Feluda fan society, has created the "virtual museum" with the help of three city-based web designers. The Online museum can be found at http://felumuseum.tripod.com.
The virtual museum contains pictures of various articles referred to Pradosh C Mitter (better known as Feluda), as well as images of various places that feature in the detective stories. Visitors will find pictures of Golakdham, an old building at Ballygunge (mentioned in Golakdham Rohosshyo), Sir Thomas Godwin's tomb (figured in Gorasthane Shabdhan), and the nine stamps (appearing in Chhinnomostar Obhishaap). Mr Soumit Dasgupta, a UK-based consultant otoneurologist and member of the Feluda society, found in a recent study that Feluda is one of the characters that has the broadest appeal among people of all age groups. Like Sherlock Holmes and Hercules Poirot, Feluda has taken on the guise of a real-life character. So people from across the world want to know more about the detective. Mr Dasgupta said that he was inspired to create a public resource on Feluda after visiting the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London. He collected most of the pictures with the help of his friend, Mr Surojoy Bhowmick. Later, they urged Mr Soumendu Dasmunshi, a city-based web designer, to design the webpage along with his associates. The core members of the society also persuaded more than 27,000 members of the Feluda society on Orkut to contribute their collections on the character. The members of the society are also planning to persuade the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and dignitaries in the city to take the initiative to set up a museum at 21A, Rajani Sen Road (see photograph) ~ the character's residence in Satyajit Ray's immortal series.
/////////////////////Kiss and make up―but too much makeup has ruined many a kiss.
―Mae West
////////////////////RAAG VS ABHIMAAN
///////////////////GREEK FTHR SON MOVIE-WHAT IS IT?A SPARROW-DIARY-SON ASKED 21 TIMES,HUGGED EACH TIME
//////////////////////CAST AWAY- FOLLOWING A FRACTURE
///////////////////SX=INEBRIATED EXCHANGE OF BODILY FLUIDS
///////////////////SCIENCE
Reading This Will Change Your Brain
A leading neuroscientist says processing digital information can rewire your circuits. But is it evolution?
By Jeneen Interlandi | NEWSWEEK
Published Oct 14, 2008
* From the Editors (2)
* Nancy Andrews on Women in Medicine
* Begley: Why Polling Can Go Wrong
See All
* Recommended (6)
* iBrain: How the Internet Is Changing Our Minds
* iBrain: How The Internet Is Changing Our Brains
* Rick Smith Interviews Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer
* Forbes: The World's Cleanest Countries
* Is Obama Ignoring Basic Economics?
* Q&A: Columnist Tom Friedman on Climate Change
See All
* Topics (1)
* Gary Small
See All
* 76 Comments
* Add Yours
* Share:
* digg it
*
* Buzz up! (3)
* Type Size
* RSS
* Links to this article
Sponsored by
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
Your Email Address
Recipient's Email Address
Separate multiple addresses with commas
Is technology changing our brains? A new study by UCLA neuroscientist Gary Small adds to a growing body of research that says it is. And according to Small's new book, "iBRAIN: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind," a dramatic shift in how we gather information and communicate with one another has touched off an era of rapid evolution that may ultimately change the human brain as we know it. "Perhaps not since early man first discovered how to use a tool has the human brain been affected so quickly and so dramatically," he writes. "As the brain evolves and shifts its focus towards new technological skills, it drifts away from fundamental social skills."
The impact of technology on our circuitry should not come as a surprise. The brain's plasticity—it's ability to change in response to different stimuli—is well known. Professional musicians have more gray matter in brain regions responsible for planning finger movements. And athletes' brains are bulkier in areas that control hand-eye coordination. That's because the more time you devote to a specific activity, the stronger the neural pathways responsible for executing that activity become. So it makes sense that people who process a constant stream of digital information would have more neurons dedicated to filtering that information. Still, that's not the same thing as evolution.
To see how the Internet might be rewiring us, Small and colleagues monitored the brains of 24 adults as they performed a simulated Web search, and again as they read a page of text. During the Web search, those who reported using the Internet regularly in their everyday lives showed twice as much signaling in brain regions responsible for decision-making and complex reasoning, compared with those who had limited Internet exposure. The findings, to be published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, suggest that Internet use enhances the brain's capacity to be stimulated, and that Internet reading activates more brain regions than printed words. The research adds to previous studies that have shown that the tech-savvy among us possess greater working memory (meaning they can store and retrieve more bits of information in the short term), are more adept at perceptual learning (that is, adjusting their perception of the world in response to changing information), and have better motor skills.
Quantcast
Small says these differences are likely to be even more profound across generations, because younger people are exposed to more technology from an earlier age than older people. He refers to this as the brain gap. On one side, what he calls digital natives—those who have never known a world without e-mail and text messaging—use their superior cognitive abilities to make snap decisions and juggle multiple sources of sensory input. On the other side, digital immigrants—those who witnessed the advent of modern technology long after their brains had been hardwired—are better at reading facial expressions than they are at navigating cyberspace. "The typical immigrant's brain was trained in completely different ways of socializing and learning, taking things step-by-step and addressing one task at a time," he says. "Immigrants learn more methodically and tend to execute tasks more precisely."
But whether natural selection will favor one skill set over the other remains to be seen. For starters, there's no reason to believe the two behaviors are mutually exclusive. In fact, a 2005 Kaiser study found that young people who spent the most time engaged with high-technology also spent the most time interacting face-to-face, with friends and family. And as Small himself points out, digital natives and digital immigrants can direct their own neural circuitry—reaping the cognitive benefits of modern technology while preserving traditional social skills—simply by making time for both.
In the meantime, modern technology, and the skills it fosters, is evolving even faster than we are. There's no telling whether future iterations of computer games, online communities and the like will require more or less of the traditional social skills and learning strategies that we've spent so many eons cultivating. "Too many people write about this as if kids are in one country and adults are in another," says James Gee, a linguistics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. What the future brain will look like is still anybody's guess.
NWSWEEK=
/////////////////////////
YAM DOOT-MAKAN KHALI KARO
///////////////////BUDDHA DTH MUSTARD STORY
//////////////////25K DAYS OF LVNG
///////////////////Man bites snake
NAIROBI, April 16: If you find yourself bound by a giant python, what should you do?
According to Mr Ben Nyaumbe, the answer is to bite back. The Kenyan farm manager was preparing a meal of maize porridge when a snake coiled itself around his feet. He was soon being dragged towards a tree. With nothing else to fight with, he resorted to his teeth. “I had to bite it as I struggled," he said.
n The Independent
///////////////////''GURU TUMI CHHILEY BOLEY AMRA ACCHI'' - Felu
http://felumuseum.tripod.com./index.html
//////////////////25K DAYS OF LVNG
///////////////////Man bites snake
NAIROBI, April 16: If you find yourself bound by a giant python, what should you do?
According to Mr Ben Nyaumbe, the answer is to bite back. The Kenyan farm manager was preparing a meal of maize porridge when a snake coiled itself around his feet. He was soon being dragged towards a tree. With nothing else to fight with, he resorted to his teeth. “I had to bite it as I struggled," he said.
n The Independent
///////////////////''GURU TUMI CHHILEY BOLEY AMRA ACCHI'' - Felu
http://felumuseum.tripod.com./index.html
PANTHEISM-LOST IN WONDER
DHARMIC SNIPPETS OF PHILOSOPHY
/////////////////NEVER ENDING DAYS OF BEING DD-NIRMOHA LF
/////////////////Early Humans Settled India Before Europe, Study Suggests
Brian Vastag
for National Geographic News
November 14, 2005
Modern humans migrated out of Africa and into India much earlier than once believed, driving older hominids in present-day India to extinction and creating some of the earliest art and architecture, a new study suggests.
The research places modern humans in India tens of thousands of years before their arrival in Europe.
University of Cambridge researchers Michael Petraglia and Hannah James developed the new theory after analyzing decades' worth of existing fieldwork in India. They outline their research in the journal Current Anthropology.
"He's putting all the pieces together, which no one has done before," Sheela Athreya, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University, said of Petraglia.
Modern humans arrived in Europe around 40,000 years ago, leaving behind cave paintings, jewelry, and evidence that they drove the Neandertals to extinction.
Petraglia and James argue that similar events took place in India when modern humans arrived there about 70,000 years ago.
The Indian subcontinent was once home to Homo heidelbergensis, a hominid species that left Africa about 800,000 years ago, Petraglia explained.
"I realized that, my god, modern humans might have wiped out Homo heidelbergensis in India," he said. "Modern humans may have been responsible for wiping out all sorts of ancestors around the world."
"Our model of India is talking about that entire wave of dispersal," he added. "[T]hat's a huge implication for paleoanthropology and human evolution."
A New Model
Petraglia and James reached their conclusions by pulling together fossils, artifacts, and genetic data.
The evidence points to an early human migration through the Middle East and into India, arriving in Australia by 45,000 to 60,000 years ago, they say.
Their model begins about 250,000 years ago, when Homo heidelbergensis arrived in India toting crude stone tools. Digs in central India in the 1980s turned up skeletal remains of the species, and other sites revealed almond-shaped hand axes chipped from stone.
Meanwhile in Africa modern humans arose about 190,000 years ago, most archaeologists believe. These humans too developed stone tools.
Scattered evidence, such as red ochre—perhaps used as body paint—suggests early African humans also dabbled in the creative arts.
The new theory posits that as much as 70,000 years ago, a group of these modern humans migrated east, arriving in India with technology comparable to that developed by Homo heidelbergensis.
"The tools were not so different," Petraglia says. "The technology that the moderns had wasn't of a great advantage over what [Homo heidelbergensis] were using."
But modern humans outcompeted the natives, slowly but inexorably driving them to extinction, Petraglia says. "It's just like the story in Western Europe, where [modern humans] drove Neandertals to extinction," he says.
The modern humans who colonized India may also have been responsible for the disappearance of the so-called Hobbits, whose fossilized bones were discovered recently on the Indonesian island of Flores.
But Athreya of Texas A&M argues that the evidence for such a "replacement event" in India remains weak.
"You have to explain the reasons for the replacement, [such as] technical superiority," she said.
"The genetic evidence shows there were multiple migrations out of Africa, so there would have been multiple migrations into [India]. But I think these migrating populations didn't completely replace the indigenous group."
Early Art
Petraglia and James's report presents evidence of creativity and culture in India starting about 45,000 years ago. Sophisticated stone blades arrive first, along with rudimentary stone architecture.
Beads, red ochre paint, ostrich shell jewelry, and perhaps even shrines to long-lost gods—the hallmarks of an early symbolic culture—appear by 28,500 years ago.
This slow change is in contrast to what many scientists believe played out in Europe. Modern humans blew through the continent like a storm about 40,000 years ago, and Neandertals quickly disappeared.
The switch happened so rapidly—as evidenced by the sudden arrival of advanced stone tools and an explosion of cave painting and other art—that anthropologists call it the "human revolution."
"What we have is a much patchier, very slow and gradual accumulation of what we call modern human behavior in South Asia," Petraglia says.
"And that just simply means that culture developed in a slightly different way in South Asia than it did in Western Europe."
A dearth of fossils and artifacts in India makes Petraglia and James's research even more valuable, writes Robin Dennell, professor of archeology at the University of Sheffield, in a comment accompanying the study.
The subcontinent has produced just one set of early Homo sapiens fossils, found in a cave in Sri Lanka and dated to about 36,000 years ago.
Despite this, Petraglia hopes his analysis throws new light onto early human history in India.
"We're trying to give a wake up call to anthropologists … saying that we have to be looking at all parts of the world," he says.
"If we really want to tell the story of human evolution we've got to bring all parts of the world into the story."
//////////////////WIKI=Homo heidelbergensis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Homo heidelbergensis
Fossil range: Pleistocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Genus: Homo
Species: H. heidelbergensis
Binomial name
Homo heidelbergensis
Schoetensack, 1908
Homo heidelbergensis ("Heidelberg Man") is an extinct species of the genus Homo which may be the direct ancestor of Homo neanderthalensis in Europe. The best evidence found for these hominins date between 600,000 and 400,000 years ago. H. heidelbergensis stone tool technology was considerably close to that of the Acheulean tools used by Homo erectus.
Contents [hide]
1 Morphology and interpretations
1.1 RAO hypothesis
1.2 Social behavior
1.3 Language
1.4 Evidence of hunting
2 Discovery
2.1 Boxgrove Man
2.2 Sima de los Huesos
3 Extinction or evolution
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
[edit]Morphology and interpretations
Reconstruction of Homo heidelbergensis
Both H. antecessor and H. heidelbergensis are likely descended from the morphologically very similar Homo ergaster from Africa. But because H. heidelbergensis had a larger brain-case with a typical cranial average of modern humans and had more advanced tools and had more behavior, it has been given a separate species classification. The species was 1.8 meters tall on average, and more muscular than modern humans.
[edit]RAO hypothesis
According to the "Recent Out of Africa" theory, similar "Archaic Homo sapiens" found in Africa (ie. Homo sapiens idaltu only 160,000 years old), existing in Africa as a part of the operation of the Saharan pump, and not the European forms of Homo heidelbergensis, are thought to be direct ancestors of modern Homo sapiens.
[edit]Social behavior
In theory recent findings in Atapuerca also suggest that H. heidelbergensis may have been the first species of the Homo genus to bury their dead, but that is contested at this time. Some experts believe that H. heidelbergensis, like its descendant H. neanderthalensis acquired a primitive form of language. No forms of art or sophisticated artifacts other than stone tools have been uncovered, although red ochre, a mineral that can be used to create a red pigment which is useful as a paint, has been found at Terra Amata excavations in the south of France.
[edit]Language
Homo heidelbergensis skull replica
The morphology of the outer and middle ear suggests they had an auditory sensitivity similar to modern humans and very different from chimpanzees. They were probably able to differentiate between many different sounds.[1]
[edit]Evidence of hunting
Cut marks found on wild deer, elephants, rhinos and horses demonstrate that they were butchered, some of the animals weighed as much as 700 kg (1,500 lb) or possibly larger. During this era, now-extinct wild animals such as mammoths, European lions and Irish elk roamed the European continent.
Moreover, a number of 400,000 year old wooden projectile spears were found at Schöningen in northern Germany. These are thought to have been made by Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis. Generally, projectile weapons are more commonly associated with H. sapiens. The lack of projectile weaponry is an indication of different sustenance methods, rather than inferior technology or abilities. The situation is identical to that of native New Zealand Maori - modern Homo sapiens, who also rarely threw objects, but used spears and clubs instead.[2]
[edit]Discovery
Replica of the type specimen from Mauer
The first fossil discovery of this species was made on October 21, 1907 and came from Mauer where the workman Daniel Hartmann spotted a jaw in a sandpit. The jaw (Mauer 1) was in good condition except for the missing premolar teeth, which were eventually found near the jaw. The workman gave it to professor Otto Schoetensack from the University of Heidelberg, who identified and named the fossil.
The next Homo heidelbergensis remains were found in Steinheim an der Murr, Germany (the Steinheim Skull, 350kya), Arago, France (Arago 21), Petralona, Greece and Ciampate del Diavolo, Italy.
[edit]Boxgrove Man
In 1994 British scientists had unearthed a lower hominin tibia bone just a few kilometres away from the English Channel including hundreds of ancient hand axes at the Boxgrove Quarry site. A partial leg bone is dated to 478,000 and 524,000 years old. Homo heidelbergensis was the early proto-human species that occupied both France and Great Britain at that time; both locales were connected by a landmass during that epoch. Prior to Gran Dolina, Boxgrove offered the earliest hominid occupants in Europe.
The tibia had been gnawed by a large carnivore, suggesting that he had been killed by a lion or wolf or that his unburied corpse had been scavenged after death [3].
[edit]Sima de los Huesos
Beginning in 1997, a Spanish team has located more than 5,500 human bones dated to an age of at least 350,000 years old in the Sima de los Huesos site in the Sierra de Atapuerca in northern Spain. The pit contains fossils of perhaps 28 individuals together with remains of Ursus deningeri and other carnivores and a biface called Excalibur. It is hypothesized that this Acheulean axe made of red quartzite was some kind of ritual offering for a funeral. Ninety percent of the known Homo heidelbergensis remains has been obtained from this site. The fossil pit bones include:
A complete cranium (Skull 5), nicknamed Miguelón, and fragments of other craniums, as Skull 4, nicknamed Agamenón and skull 6, nicknamed Rui (from El Cid, a local hero).
A complete pelvis (Pelvis 1), nicknamed Elvis, in remembrance of Elvis Presley.
Mandibles, teeth, a lot of postcranial bones (femurs, hand and foot bones, vertebrae, ribs, etc.)
Indeed, nearby sites contain the only known and controversial Homo antecessor fossils.
[edit]Extinction or evolution
Some believe that H. heidelbergensis is an extinct species, some that is a cladistic ancestor to other Homo forms sometimes improperly linked to distinct species in terms of populational genetics.
Some scenarios of survival include
H heidelbergensis > H. neanderthalensis > H sapiens sapiens
H. heidelbergensis > H. rhodesiensis > H. idaltu > H sapiens sapiens
Those supporting multiregional origin of modern humans envise fertile reproduction between many evolutionary stages; Homo walking[4], or gene transfer between adjacent populations due to gene passage and spreading in successive generations.
[edit]See also
List of fossil sites (with link directory)
List of hominina (hominid) fossils (with images)
Saldanha man
Altamura man
/////////////////
Wednesday 15 April 2009
BIOLF HAS LT HNDD BIAS
why life has a bias to the left
9
04
2009
As the faux conservative pundit Stephen Colbert warned President Bush, reality has a bias to the left. And interestingly enough, so does all life on Earth. We’ve know that all amino acids, the essential components for any terrestrial organism, have left-handed chiralities. Or to translate from science-speak, their molecules wind to the left. This is why genetic engineering experiments can splice genes from very different species in a lab. The molecules will line up and assemble correctly because they’re all wound in the same direction.
But for many years, there’s been a nagging problem. Why does all life on our planet have these left-handed amino acids? You could very easily wind them to the right and they’d work just as well. In fact, you could get an identical biosphere with a different chirality. Of course you would have a very hard time finding a viable organism with both chiralities since the molecules it had to produce couldn’t match up. It would be like fitting together two different jigsaw puzzles and that means somewhere along the line, there had to be a process which resulted in our present day left-hand chirality gaining dominance over its rightward-wound counterparts. Could it be one the earliest cases of natural selection at work? Actually, it seems that primordial chemistry in the vacuum of space played a major role in what life could evolve on our world.
This is the conclusion of NASA astrobiologists Daniel Garvin and Jason Dworkin who examined meteorites rich in carbon to find the amino acid isovaline. Since isovaline isn’t actively used by living things on Earth and maintains the same chirality over billions of years, scientists can use it to take a look back at the dawn of the solar system and determine the ratio of left-handed to right-handed molecules without the threat of biological contamination. As it turns out, when a meteorite is rich with water, it has up to 18% more left-handed isovaline so when meteors with disproportionate amounts of left-handed amino acids fell to Earth and deposited their organic cargo, they would’ve created a bias towards organisms with our current chirality.
/////////////////OLDEST AD I RMMBR-WSHNG PWDR NRMA
////////////////PLYWOOD-CHALTA RAHE CHALTA RAHE
/////////////////
9
04
2009
As the faux conservative pundit Stephen Colbert warned President Bush, reality has a bias to the left. And interestingly enough, so does all life on Earth. We’ve know that all amino acids, the essential components for any terrestrial organism, have left-handed chiralities. Or to translate from science-speak, their molecules wind to the left. This is why genetic engineering experiments can splice genes from very different species in a lab. The molecules will line up and assemble correctly because they’re all wound in the same direction.
But for many years, there’s been a nagging problem. Why does all life on our planet have these left-handed amino acids? You could very easily wind them to the right and they’d work just as well. In fact, you could get an identical biosphere with a different chirality. Of course you would have a very hard time finding a viable organism with both chiralities since the molecules it had to produce couldn’t match up. It would be like fitting together two different jigsaw puzzles and that means somewhere along the line, there had to be a process which resulted in our present day left-hand chirality gaining dominance over its rightward-wound counterparts. Could it be one the earliest cases of natural selection at work? Actually, it seems that primordial chemistry in the vacuum of space played a major role in what life could evolve on our world.
This is the conclusion of NASA astrobiologists Daniel Garvin and Jason Dworkin who examined meteorites rich in carbon to find the amino acid isovaline. Since isovaline isn’t actively used by living things on Earth and maintains the same chirality over billions of years, scientists can use it to take a look back at the dawn of the solar system and determine the ratio of left-handed to right-handed molecules without the threat of biological contamination. As it turns out, when a meteorite is rich with water, it has up to 18% more left-handed isovaline so when meteors with disproportionate amounts of left-handed amino acids fell to Earth and deposited their organic cargo, they would’ve created a bias towards organisms with our current chirality.
/////////////////OLDEST AD I RMMBR-WSHNG PWDR NRMA
////////////////PLYWOOD-CHALTA RAHE CHALTA RAHE
/////////////////
Tuesday 14 April 2009
CDS 140409-NGGNG WF RLCTNT DTR-NWRD
//////////////////JNDRA STAY COSTS 500 GBP
////////////////MUTEST MN
//////////////Antimacassar (noun)
Pronunciation: [æn-ti-mê-'kæ-sê(r)]
Definition: A covering originally thrown over the backs and arms of sofas and chairs to protect them from the hair oil worn by men of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries. Currently these covers, usually crocheted, are used for mere decoration.
Usage: Today's word is an odd lexical orphan, mixing a regular prefix with the name of a commercial product. Converting a proper commercial name into a common noun is not unusual, however, as the Etymology shows.
///////////////////JBCTS CRSS
/////////////////AR GENE-TRANSXUALISM
Scientists discover 'transsexual gene' that makes men feel like women
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:30 AM on 27th October 2008
* Comments (0)
* Add to My Stories
Transsexual men who 'feel' female are likely to have an unusual version of a gene that affects the male sex hormone testosterone, a study has shown.
The discovery was made by scientists who examined DNA from 112 male-to-female transsexuals.
Israeli singer Dana International: Recent research shows that transsexuals like Dana are likely to have an unusual version of a gene that affects the hormone testosterone
Israeli singer Dana International: Recent research shows that transsexuals like Dana are likely to have an unusual version of a gene that affects the hormone testosterone
In many cases there was a longer version of a gene known to modify the action of testosterone.
The alteration may 'under-masculinise' the brain during its development in the womb, the researchers believe.
Study leader Dr Vincent Harley, from Prince Henry's Institute in Clayton, Australia, said:'There is a social stigma that transsexualism is simply a lifestyle choice; however, our findings support a biological basis of how gender identity develops.
'As with all genetic association studies it will be important to replicate these findings in other populations.'
The findings are published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
Professor Andrew Sinclair, from the University of Melbourne, said: 'This research suggests that extra long copies of the Androgen Receptor gene potentially affect testosterone function in the brains of male-to-female transsexuals.
'These defective copies of the AR gene could severely reduce normal testosterone levels, resulting in a more female-like brain. Consequently, male-to-female transsexuals might be expected to have a more feminised brain and are therefore likely to display a female gender identity.
'This supports the notion that transsexualism has a biological (genetic) basis rather than being due to psychosocial factors in early childhood.
'However, this finding does not explain all male-to-female transsexuals suggesting that multiple genetic factors are involved.'
/////////////////
////////////////MUTEST MN
//////////////Antimacassar (noun)
Pronunciation: [æn-ti-mê-'kæ-sê(r)]
Definition: A covering originally thrown over the backs and arms of sofas and chairs to protect them from the hair oil worn by men of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries. Currently these covers, usually crocheted, are used for mere decoration.
Usage: Today's word is an odd lexical orphan, mixing a regular prefix with the name of a commercial product. Converting a proper commercial name into a common noun is not unusual, however, as the Etymology shows.
///////////////////JBCTS CRSS
/////////////////AR GENE-TRANSXUALISM
Scientists discover 'transsexual gene' that makes men feel like women
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:30 AM on 27th October 2008
* Comments (0)
* Add to My Stories
Transsexual men who 'feel' female are likely to have an unusual version of a gene that affects the male sex hormone testosterone, a study has shown.
The discovery was made by scientists who examined DNA from 112 male-to-female transsexuals.
Israeli singer Dana International: Recent research shows that transsexuals like Dana are likely to have an unusual version of a gene that affects the hormone testosterone
Israeli singer Dana International: Recent research shows that transsexuals like Dana are likely to have an unusual version of a gene that affects the hormone testosterone
In many cases there was a longer version of a gene known to modify the action of testosterone.
The alteration may 'under-masculinise' the brain during its development in the womb, the researchers believe.
Study leader Dr Vincent Harley, from Prince Henry's Institute in Clayton, Australia, said:'There is a social stigma that transsexualism is simply a lifestyle choice; however, our findings support a biological basis of how gender identity develops.
'As with all genetic association studies it will be important to replicate these findings in other populations.'
The findings are published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
Professor Andrew Sinclair, from the University of Melbourne, said: 'This research suggests that extra long copies of the Androgen Receptor gene potentially affect testosterone function in the brains of male-to-female transsexuals.
'These defective copies of the AR gene could severely reduce normal testosterone levels, resulting in a more female-like brain. Consequently, male-to-female transsexuals might be expected to have a more feminised brain and are therefore likely to display a female gender identity.
'This supports the notion that transsexualism has a biological (genetic) basis rather than being due to psychosocial factors in early childhood.
'However, this finding does not explain all male-to-female transsexuals suggesting that multiple genetic factors are involved.'
/////////////////
Tuesday 7 April 2009
CDS 070409-FEVER BY NICE IS 38 C
/////////////////BIOLOGY IS FROZEN HX,MAKES SENSE ONLY IN LIGHT OF EVOLN
//////////GENES MK US VULNERABLE TO DISEASE
/////////WE HAVE NOT EVOLVED FAST ENOUGH FOR 10 K YRS OF CIVILISATION
/////////HUMAN BODY BOTH FRAGILE AND ROBUST
/////////////BDY IS A BUNDLE OF COMPROMISES ,PROVIDING SOME ADVANTAGES
/////////WE NEED A DEVEX PARA OF EACH CHAPTER OF MEDICAL BOOK
/////////////LONGER LIVED LIFE SPAN,HIGHER IS SE URIC ACID LEVEL
///////////
//////////GENES MK US VULNERABLE TO DISEASE
/////////WE HAVE NOT EVOLVED FAST ENOUGH FOR 10 K YRS OF CIVILISATION
/////////HUMAN BODY BOTH FRAGILE AND ROBUST
/////////////BDY IS A BUNDLE OF COMPROMISES ,PROVIDING SOME ADVANTAGES
/////////WE NEED A DEVEX PARA OF EACH CHAPTER OF MEDICAL BOOK
/////////////LONGER LIVED LIFE SPAN,HIGHER IS SE URIC ACID LEVEL
///////////
Sunday 5 April 2009
CDS-050409-ADAM-SNDAY EVNNG DPRSSN
/////////////////DEVEX OF SADNESS-TO STOP,GV UP AND MV ON
/////////////////////One Tree Hill? the scene whereby Peyton drives again and again through the red light but never gets hit, and she wonders why her mother died and not her. not to forget her famous drawing of traffic lights changing, and the quote “everybody leaves”.
////////////////////////////// DEPRESSN DEVEX=IF OUTDO BOSSES,PROTECTIVE MECH TO KEEP LOW PROFILE
////////////////////
/////////////////////One Tree Hill? the scene whereby Peyton drives again and again through the red light but never gets hit, and she wonders why her mother died and not her. not to forget her famous drawing of traffic lights changing, and the quote “everybody leaves”.
////////////////////////////// DEPRESSN DEVEX=IF OUTDO BOSSES,PROTECTIVE MECH TO KEEP LOW PROFILE
////////////////////
CDS 050409-STORY OF DADRUBAHAN AND HIS COPPER COIN
//////////////DISTNT PRNTS
/////////////POMPEI AND VESUVIUS
//////////////////Sleep May Help Clear Brain For New Learning
ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2009) — A new theory about sleep's benefits for the brain gets a boost from fruit flies in the journal Science. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found evidence that sleep, already recognized as a promoter of long-term memories, also helps clear room in the brain for new learning.
The critical question: How many synapses, or junctures where nerve cells communicate with each other, are modified by sleep? Neurologists believe creation of new synapses is one key way the brain encodes memories and learning, but this cannot continue unabated and may be where sleep comes in.
/////////////////////XIII.8. AMAANITWAM ADAMBHITWAM AHIMSAA KSHAANTIRAARJAVAM;
AACHAARYOPAASANAM SHAUCHAM STHAIRYAMAATMAVINIGRAHAH.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna of the characteristics of knowledge)
Humility, unpretentiousness, non-injury, forgiveness, uprightness,
service of the teacher, purity, steadfastness, self-control,
XIII.9. INDRIYAARTHESHU VAIRAAGYAMANAHANKAARA EVA CHA;
JANMAMRITYUJARAAVYAADHI DUHKHADOSHAANU DARSHANAM.
Indifference to the objects of the senses, also absence of egoism,
perception of (or reflection on) the evil in birth, death, old
age, sickness and pain,
///////////////////BPSOD
/////////////////SIDS-DEVEX=COBEDDING WITH MUM HAS SLEEP CYCLES COORDINATED FOR BABY TO AROUSAL TO COVER FOR RISKY RESP PAUSES
/////////////////EACH EMOTION IS A SPLISED TRAIT THAT ADJUSTS COGNITION,PHYSIOLOGY,SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE,BEHAVIOUR AND HELP REACT TO A PARTICULAR SITUATION
//////////////WALTER CANNON-1929-FLIGHT OR FRIGHT
ANXIETY IN FACE OF PERCEIVED THREAT
////////////////NATURAL SELECTION CARES ABT OUR REPRODUCTIVE FITNESS NOT OUR COMFORT
//////////////EMERGENCY KIT OF FLIGHT OR FRIGHT
//////////////HYPOPHOBIA
/////////////POMPEI AND VESUVIUS
//////////////////Sleep May Help Clear Brain For New Learning
ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2009) — A new theory about sleep's benefits for the brain gets a boost from fruit flies in the journal Science. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found evidence that sleep, already recognized as a promoter of long-term memories, also helps clear room in the brain for new learning.
The critical question: How many synapses, or junctures where nerve cells communicate with each other, are modified by sleep? Neurologists believe creation of new synapses is one key way the brain encodes memories and learning, but this cannot continue unabated and may be where sleep comes in.
/////////////////////XIII.8. AMAANITWAM ADAMBHITWAM AHIMSAA KSHAANTIRAARJAVAM;
AACHAARYOPAASANAM SHAUCHAM STHAIRYAMAATMAVINIGRAHAH.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna of the characteristics of knowledge)
Humility, unpretentiousness, non-injury, forgiveness, uprightness,
service of the teacher, purity, steadfastness, self-control,
XIII.9. INDRIYAARTHESHU VAIRAAGYAMANAHANKAARA EVA CHA;
JANMAMRITYUJARAAVYAADHI DUHKHADOSHAANU DARSHANAM.
Indifference to the objects of the senses, also absence of egoism,
perception of (or reflection on) the evil in birth, death, old
age, sickness and pain,
///////////////////BPSOD
/////////////////SIDS-DEVEX=COBEDDING WITH MUM HAS SLEEP CYCLES COORDINATED FOR BABY TO AROUSAL TO COVER FOR RISKY RESP PAUSES
/////////////////EACH EMOTION IS A SPLISED TRAIT THAT ADJUSTS COGNITION,PHYSIOLOGY,SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE,BEHAVIOUR AND HELP REACT TO A PARTICULAR SITUATION
//////////////WALTER CANNON-1929-FLIGHT OR FRIGHT
ANXIETY IN FACE OF PERCEIVED THREAT
////////////////NATURAL SELECTION CARES ABT OUR REPRODUCTIVE FITNESS NOT OUR COMFORT
//////////////EMERGENCY KIT OF FLIGHT OR FRIGHT
//////////////HYPOPHOBIA
Saturday 4 April 2009
RSV
Respiratory infection] Healthy but not RSV-infected lung epithelial cells profoundly inhibit T cell activation
by Wang, H, Su, Z, Schwarze, J
Background:
Respiratory viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), can cause asthma exacerbations and bronchiolitis. Both conditions are associated with enhanced cognate immune responses and inflammation and reduced immune regulation. Lung epithelial cells (LECs) can contribute to antiviral and allergic immune responses while gut epithelial cells can inhibit effector T cell responses. A study was performed to determine whether healthy LECs regulate antigen-specific T cell responses and if this regulation is lost during RSV infection.
//////////////////known association between genetic variants on chromosome 17q21 and the development of asthma.
////////////////ELISpot as a predictor for development of TB in children with TB contact
///////////////////Longer duration of TV viewing in children with no symptoms of wheeze at 3.5 years of age was associated with the development of asthma in later childhood.
///////////////////WST=MORE CONVENIENT,LESS WARMTH
///////////////TO SAVE A MOCKING BIRD
/////////////////Peter Ubel: Irrationality is responsible for the economic mess we find ourselves in
right now—irrationality plus greed, of course, and a sub stan tial dose of ignorance. Let us start with ignorance. I am sad to say that many Americans have a difficult time with even simple math—around a third of American adults cannot calculate 10 percent of 1,000. People who struggle with concepts such as percents have an extremely difficult time with more complicated ideas, such as compounding of savings and, very relevant to our cur rent crisis, adjustable-rate mortgages.
To make matters worse, most of us are hardwired for optimism. Ask us how we rate as drivers, and the vast majority of us are convinced we are above average—even those of us who have gotten into multiple car accidents. As a result of our unrealistic optimism, we are convinced that our incomes will rise fast enough to keep up with our outsized mortgage, or that our adjustable rate will not rise, or that our house’s value will indefinitely outpace inflation. We are social beings, too, and frequently judge our own decisions by seeing what other people are doing. If my neighbor added on a new kitchen with a home equity loan, I might assume that is a good idea for me, even if a more rational weighing of my finances would suggest otherwise. Even savvy financiers can get caught up in irrational impulses. If a competitor’s firm makes huge profits on risky loans, it is easy for me to push aside my fears about such risks: if he took those risks and was rewarded, maybe I overestimated the risks!
/////////////////POST WF DTH-LNLY LF
///////////////////////////The article ends with Vanity Fair astrologer Michael Lutin saying that he will consider the newcomers, but remains skeptical of their influence over our daily affairs due to their location at the outer reaches of the solar system: "UB313 is never going to tell you whether Wednesday is good for romance." Actually, neither will anything else in the sky, unless it's an asteroid headed toward Earth, scheduled to hit on Wednesday.
Please tell your children to stay in school.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
//////////////////SCIAM=A magician tosses a ball into the air once, twice, three times. Suddenly, the ball vanishes in mid-flight. What happened?
Don’t worry, the laws of physics haven’t been broken. Magicians do not have supernatural powers; rather, they are masters of exploiting nuances of human perception, attention, and awareness. In light of this, a recent Nature Reviews Neuroscience paper, coauthored by a combination of neuroscientists (Stephen L. Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde, both at the Barrows Neurological Institute) and magicians (Mac King, James Randi, Apollo Robbins, Teller, John Thompson), describes various ways magicians manipulate our perceptions, and proposes that these methods should inform and aid the neuroscientific study of attention and awareness.
//////////////////Distorted Body Images: A Quick and Easy Way to Reduce Pain
The body image is a mental representation of one's physical appearance, constructed by the brain from past experiences and present sensations. It is an essential component of self-identity, which, when altered, can have dramatic effects on how one perceives oneself. For example, a small proportion of migraine sufferers experience visual hallucinations just before the onset of a headache, in which the body parts appear larger or smaller than they actually are. Lewis Carroll, who is known to have suffered from migraines, documented such hallucinations in Alice in Wonderland.
These body image distortions can have bizarre consequences. Otherwise healthy people report that they have always percived a part of their body as feeling "wrong," and opt to have it removed by amputation; some brain-damaged or psychiatric patients experience alien hand syndrome, in which they deny ownership of a limb, and insist that it is under the control of external forces.
//////////////////SORROW NOT DEPRESSION
////////////////////FUZZINESS OF MEMORY
////////////////Why Calories Taste Delicious: Eating and the Brain
The obesity epidemic has led to increased scientific interest in how the brain controls human feeding behavior. Why do we get hungry? What biological mechanisms tell us what to eat and when to stop eating?
It’s long been assumed that two neurobiological mechanisms largely govern food intake: one that controls the need to eat and one that controls the desire to eat. The hypothalamus in the brain regulates the homeostatic control of food intake by receiving, coordinating and responding to metabolic cues and signals from the digestive system. By integrating these metabolic signals, the hypothalamus tells us when we need to eat to maintain a body weight “set point,” much like a thermostat set on a specific temperature. It is clear, however, that higher brain centers that control the desire to eat also substantially influence our food consumption. The dopamine reward system is one such brain center. (When you covet a bowl of chocolate ice cream after dinner, a food that you don’t need to eat for hunger but want to eat, it is your dopamine reward system that gets excited.) In many situations, this desire to eat can override the need to eat, leading people to consume tasty foods even when they’re not hungry. Our inability to forego these rewarding aspects of food intake override long-term homeostatic control, contributing to obesity.
DOPAMINE REWARD SYSTEM FOR THAT EXTRA ICE CREAM
////////////////// that those tiny drips from faucets could amount to like one trillion gallons of water wasted each year in US homes alone
////////////////Blattella germanica and Periplaneta americana are cockroaches. They aren't the only cockroach species. In fact there are an estimated 4000 different kinds of cockroach, many of them living in fields, forests or jungles
//////////////////DOWNS OR IITENGR CHLD-AWAY FRM PRNT
///////////////////
by Wang, H, Su, Z, Schwarze, J
Background:
Respiratory viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), can cause asthma exacerbations and bronchiolitis. Both conditions are associated with enhanced cognate immune responses and inflammation and reduced immune regulation. Lung epithelial cells (LECs) can contribute to antiviral and allergic immune responses while gut epithelial cells can inhibit effector T cell responses. A study was performed to determine whether healthy LECs regulate antigen-specific T cell responses and if this regulation is lost during RSV infection.
//////////////////known association between genetic variants on chromosome 17q21 and the development of asthma.
////////////////ELISpot as a predictor for development of TB in children with TB contact
///////////////////Longer duration of TV viewing in children with no symptoms of wheeze at 3.5 years of age was associated with the development of asthma in later childhood.
///////////////////WST=MORE CONVENIENT,LESS WARMTH
///////////////TO SAVE A MOCKING BIRD
/////////////////Peter Ubel: Irrationality is responsible for the economic mess we find ourselves in
right now—irrationality plus greed, of course, and a sub stan tial dose of ignorance. Let us start with ignorance. I am sad to say that many Americans have a difficult time with even simple math—around a third of American adults cannot calculate 10 percent of 1,000. People who struggle with concepts such as percents have an extremely difficult time with more complicated ideas, such as compounding of savings and, very relevant to our cur rent crisis, adjustable-rate mortgages.
To make matters worse, most of us are hardwired for optimism. Ask us how we rate as drivers, and the vast majority of us are convinced we are above average—even those of us who have gotten into multiple car accidents. As a result of our unrealistic optimism, we are convinced that our incomes will rise fast enough to keep up with our outsized mortgage, or that our adjustable rate will not rise, or that our house’s value will indefinitely outpace inflation. We are social beings, too, and frequently judge our own decisions by seeing what other people are doing. If my neighbor added on a new kitchen with a home equity loan, I might assume that is a good idea for me, even if a more rational weighing of my finances would suggest otherwise. Even savvy financiers can get caught up in irrational impulses. If a competitor’s firm makes huge profits on risky loans, it is easy for me to push aside my fears about such risks: if he took those risks and was rewarded, maybe I overestimated the risks!
/////////////////POST WF DTH-LNLY LF
///////////////////////////The article ends with Vanity Fair astrologer Michael Lutin saying that he will consider the newcomers, but remains skeptical of their influence over our daily affairs due to their location at the outer reaches of the solar system: "UB313 is never going to tell you whether Wednesday is good for romance." Actually, neither will anything else in the sky, unless it's an asteroid headed toward Earth, scheduled to hit on Wednesday.
Please tell your children to stay in school.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
//////////////////SCIAM=A magician tosses a ball into the air once, twice, three times. Suddenly, the ball vanishes in mid-flight. What happened?
Don’t worry, the laws of physics haven’t been broken. Magicians do not have supernatural powers; rather, they are masters of exploiting nuances of human perception, attention, and awareness. In light of this, a recent Nature Reviews Neuroscience paper, coauthored by a combination of neuroscientists (Stephen L. Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde, both at the Barrows Neurological Institute) and magicians (Mac King, James Randi, Apollo Robbins, Teller, John Thompson), describes various ways magicians manipulate our perceptions, and proposes that these methods should inform and aid the neuroscientific study of attention and awareness.
//////////////////Distorted Body Images: A Quick and Easy Way to Reduce Pain
The body image is a mental representation of one's physical appearance, constructed by the brain from past experiences and present sensations. It is an essential component of self-identity, which, when altered, can have dramatic effects on how one perceives oneself. For example, a small proportion of migraine sufferers experience visual hallucinations just before the onset of a headache, in which the body parts appear larger or smaller than they actually are. Lewis Carroll, who is known to have suffered from migraines, documented such hallucinations in Alice in Wonderland.
These body image distortions can have bizarre consequences. Otherwise healthy people report that they have always percived a part of their body as feeling "wrong," and opt to have it removed by amputation; some brain-damaged or psychiatric patients experience alien hand syndrome, in which they deny ownership of a limb, and insist that it is under the control of external forces.
//////////////////SORROW NOT DEPRESSION
////////////////////FUZZINESS OF MEMORY
////////////////Why Calories Taste Delicious: Eating and the Brain
The obesity epidemic has led to increased scientific interest in how the brain controls human feeding behavior. Why do we get hungry? What biological mechanisms tell us what to eat and when to stop eating?
It’s long been assumed that two neurobiological mechanisms largely govern food intake: one that controls the need to eat and one that controls the desire to eat. The hypothalamus in the brain regulates the homeostatic control of food intake by receiving, coordinating and responding to metabolic cues and signals from the digestive system. By integrating these metabolic signals, the hypothalamus tells us when we need to eat to maintain a body weight “set point,” much like a thermostat set on a specific temperature. It is clear, however, that higher brain centers that control the desire to eat also substantially influence our food consumption. The dopamine reward system is one such brain center. (When you covet a bowl of chocolate ice cream after dinner, a food that you don’t need to eat for hunger but want to eat, it is your dopamine reward system that gets excited.) In many situations, this desire to eat can override the need to eat, leading people to consume tasty foods even when they’re not hungry. Our inability to forego these rewarding aspects of food intake override long-term homeostatic control, contributing to obesity.
DOPAMINE REWARD SYSTEM FOR THAT EXTRA ICE CREAM
////////////////// that those tiny drips from faucets could amount to like one trillion gallons of water wasted each year in US homes alone
////////////////Blattella germanica and Periplaneta americana are cockroaches. They aren't the only cockroach species. In fact there are an estimated 4000 different kinds of cockroach, many of them living in fields, forests or jungles
//////////////////DOWNS OR IITENGR CHLD-AWAY FRM PRNT
///////////////////
LINCOLNIC AMBGTY
If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
- Lincoln, Abraham
////////////////////Sad people have more sober reflections.
- Dye, James
//////////////////////It is better to be safe than sorry.
- Proverb, American
STS
//////////////////Committee--a group of men who keep minutes and waste hours.
- Berle, Milton
/////////////////////DNA emerges as the fleeting physical instantiation of immortal information; thermodynamics is a universal tendency to disorder; and much of physics itself a logical corollary of pure geometry.
//////////////////////PANCHA BHUTA-AT LEAST A TRIAL IN CLASSIFICN
//////////////////EVOLN EXPLANTN OF INFANT CRYING-TO PROMOTE BONDING
///////////////////POSSETES MAY DEVEX=TOO MUCH FEEDS cf STONE AGE BABIES
//////////////////DARWINIAN EVOLN EXPLANATIN=DEVEX
//////////////////
- Lincoln, Abraham
////////////////////Sad people have more sober reflections.
- Dye, James
//////////////////////It is better to be safe than sorry.
- Proverb, American
STS
//////////////////Committee--a group of men who keep minutes and waste hours.
- Berle, Milton
/////////////////////DNA emerges as the fleeting physical instantiation of immortal information; thermodynamics is a universal tendency to disorder; and much of physics itself a logical corollary of pure geometry.
//////////////////////PANCHA BHUTA-AT LEAST A TRIAL IN CLASSIFICN
//////////////////EVOLN EXPLANTN OF INFANT CRYING-TO PROMOTE BONDING
///////////////////POSSETES MAY DEVEX=TOO MUCH FEEDS cf STONE AGE BABIES
//////////////////DARWINIAN EVOLN EXPLANATIN=DEVEX
//////////////////
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