Tag Science

Cooking and evolution

From The Economist: Richard Wrangham, an anthropologist at Harvard, believes that it was the development of cooking, and the extra calories that enables us to take in with each meal, that was “the evolutionary change that underpins all of the other—and subsequent—changes that have made people such unusual animals.”

It is not just you who are what you eat, but the entire human species. And with Homo sapiens, what makes the species unique in Dr Wrangham’s opinion is that its food is so often cooked.

Cooking is a human universal. No society is without it. No one other than a few faddists tries to survive on raw food alone. And the consumption of a cooked meal in the evening, usually in the company of family and friends, is normal in every known society. Moreover, without cooking, the human brain (which consumes 20-25% of the body’s energy) could not keep running. Dr Wrangham thus believes that cooking and humanity are coeval.

Link [via].

Science and nature and pets

The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Cesar’s Way? Amazon has a very strange idea on what the category of Science & Nature should include.

 Amazon science & nature bestsellers

By the way, has anybody actually read IEE Wiring Regulations 17th Edition (BS 7671: 2008)? It’s a bestseller for a reason: it is a classic!

Firefox was invented by aliens and other important news

It’s been a good week for Internet-related nonsense in British newspapers. From The Sun, we had ‘Atlantis’ spotted on ocean floor off Africa, in which a grid-like pattern on Google Earth was attributed to the remains of an ancient civilization 3½ miles below somehow causing perfectly straight lines to be created on the ocean above. It’s obviously not just an imaging artifact: that just seems too implausible.

Bernie, 38, of Chester, said: “It looks like an aerial map of Milton Keynes. It must be man-made.”

It would be great if Atlantis was found and did actually resemble Milton Keynes. Maybe that city should be hidden underwater never to be found again as well?

ScreenShot008

This story was also picked up by the Telegraph, who appear to be attempting to take the crown of ‘most scientifically illiterate newspaper’ from the Daily Mail.

Not to be outdone in this contest, however, the Mail gave us How using Facebook could raise your risk of cancer. This is of course as stupid as it seems on first glance, but tell that to the users of the paper’s website, who are sick and tired of the advice of “experts”:

I’m not at all shocked by this! Under "Brown’s Britain", street crime has soared and so its no surprise that kids would choose to stay at home and use facebook rather than go out and get stabbed.

This is what happens when our so-called government decide to give every kid a computer – the kids learn violence from the terrible computer games and when they do eventually go out, they enact what they’ve seen on screen.

What’s wrong with promoting sports and playing outside? Oh… I know… its because the computer companies give Mr. Darling loads of money to make sure we keep promoting them!

- Matt, London, UK, 19/2/2009 4:39

The so called "experts" you want us to listen to are just a bunch of depressive pessimistic idiots who find danger in everything they study,it’s only THEIR opinions, not ours. Experts have been proved wrong on so many occasions, why bother listening to their views. I am an expert on experts and they are rubbish, believe me.

- LYN, London, 19/2/2009 11:26

Oh please……….. for the love of God……… these ‘Experts’ seem to pop up all over with unsubstaniated rubbish… maybe they’re trying to justify keeping their jobs in this present currant economic crisis.

- Graeme, Oakwood, Cheshire, 19/2/2009 1:44

Perhaps this will discourage any scientists with actual health advice from bothering Daily Mail readers with it in the future. They’re had enough!

I didn’t. I probably couldn’t.

I don’t know what it is about engineers and “PhD science graduates” that makes Maximuscle feel they should be the particular focus of their “I did. You can.” campaign for their bodybuilding nutritional supplements:

Russell Lee – Engineer – Built a six-pack.

I always wanted a lean and defined body but I had a busy job on the road as an Engineer and lived on fast food – my size just ballooned. Then my life changed. I started a new job and got advice from a friend to start training properly and use Maximuscle. Within two weeks I started to lose fat and had the energy to juggle a job, decorate my house and go to the gym a couple of times a week.

I used Promax protein drinks to support my muscle development and Thermobol to help break down the fat I’d put on. I quickly lost 2½ stone and achieved the six-pack I always dreamt of. There are no gimmicks with Maximuscle products, they’re safe and really do what they say. Now I’ve started my own company, changed my life and my body. Believe me, if I can do it, so can you.

Alex Swales – PhD Science Graduate – Built lean muscle.

Four years ago, thanks to a university lifestyle of drinking, junk food and partying I was 18½ stone and fat. I was trapped in a fat suit that wouldn’t allow me to do the things I loved. Then I got a wake up call. My doctor told me that I was heading for an early grave, and to top it off, I broke up with my girlfriend.

So in 2007 I revolutionised my life. I tried lots of stuff but only one thing worked. Maximuscle. I am living proof that these products do what they say. I started taking the gym seriously and used Cyclone all-in-one to build muscle and strength and get myself in top shape. Now I’ve taken up rock climbing and kite boarding, and best of all, I’ve lost 5 stone! I now know why Maximuscle is number one and would recommend it to anyone.

After all, I remember pretty much everybody from my physics degree course looking a bit like this.

Link

Darwin’s words

I cannot resist a combination of Charles Darwin and the OED so, despite the over-Darwinification of this site lately, I have to point you in the direction of a blog post by Ben Zimmer of the Visual Thesaurus, in which he points out that Darwin is the first cited author for 144 different words in that dictionary including (unsurprisingly) natural selection and (more surprisingly) rodeo.

As Zimmer concedes, this number is subject to revision: Darwin didn’t actually coin most of these words, but his is just the first recorded use currently in the dictionary. His status as first cited author for so many words is more of a result of the limited number of publications read for the original OED, rather than any unusual neological ability on his part. Most of these entries could probably easily be antedated with modern databases: for example, it only takes a few seconds on Google Book Search to find an English use of rodeo from 1820, easily beating Darwin’s 1834 quote.

Still, I won’t begrudge the man his 144 words: it is his 200th birthday, after all. Hence, today is either Darwin Day (if you like science) or Academic Freedom Day, (if you like nonsense). Google has decided to commemorate Darwin Day using a special logo:

Google Dawrin Day Logo

At least, they have in the UK: the logo in the US is the standard one. Too controversial over there? Update: apparently it is being shown on the US Google as well. Just not for me. How strange.

Finally in Darwin(ish) news, the Open University has a fun but probably entirely inaccurate webapp in which you upload a photo and see how you might look if you devolved to 3.5 million years in the past. Hint: you’d look pretty ugly.

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