the evolving mind

There are no banana leaves where I’m now at.  I’m looking out a window at a huge maple tree and, behind it down a small hill, a rapidly flowing stream — I can hear it from a distance.  The green-brown stream water is broken with patches of white.  No whitewater in Florida.  No mountainous terrain and rock obstacles to make it roil and froth.

It’s a nice change for my eyes.  But the Internet connection is relatively horse-and-buggy.  Clicking from one site to another takes not a second, or even three.  More like ten.

How do people live like this?!  Will I need to go fetch drinking water from that stream?

I’m on vacation.  Maybe it’s time to put my intellect in low gear.  To focus on socializing and recreating and relaxing.  Man, it’s going to be tough.  But the slow-crawl internet connection will actually help.  If I don’t put my brain in low gear, I may just go crazy.

This is where I’m going later today. But not the final destination. I almost wish the jet would stop when in the clouds so I could get out and walk around. Take a picture. Breathe the air . . . Hey! where did all the air go! If I did get out I’d likely suffocate, depending on the altitude.

Save for a few vertical miles on Earth, there aren’t many places habitable by us lung-breathers. Any spacecraft is a bit like a scuba tank you ride in. And breathe from.

New research out of the University Fertility Center, Leuven University, Belgium, has found that -

Chromosomal problems affect nearly all human embryos.

My gosh. What is “nearly all”?

chromosomal abnormalities are present in more than 90% of IVF embryos, even those produced by young, fertile couples [IVF = couples using an in vitro fertilization procedure]

Could it be just the procedure? According to Ms Evelyne Vanneste:

Although in vitro culture conditions are known to have a limited influence on the rate of chromosomal imbalances in IVF/ICSI embryos, it is probable that the chromosome instability observed in vitro also occurs in spontaneous pregnancies since, at most, 30% of human conceptions result in a live birth and more than 50% of spontaneous abortions carry chromosomal aberrations. The high rate of chromosomal abnormalities is almost certainly responsible for the low fecundity of humans compared with other mammals.

Spontaneous abortions, or miscarriages, are very common. Seems now we better know why. Thanks to an imperfect human “design” the bodies of mothers around the world must naturally abort millions of post-conception “babies” each year.

Somebody ought to bomb the Designer. That ruthless killer.

By the way, I only advocate violence against nonexistent entities.

The count-down has begun. Tomorrow afternoon I am going to strap myself to a chair bolted to the aluminum housing of a jet-powered space craft. The thing will climb to over 5 miles into the atmosphere. Above the clouds. And I will come down in a different spot on planet Earth. Cool!

I never get tired of flying. And exploring this planet. Okay, I don’t nearly get the bragging rights I would if I were to fly to the moon. But who cares about bragging rights? And, frankly, where I’m going the food is much better.

[photo thanks to NASA]

I have a few gray hairs. A couple years ago, when they first became obvious to others, a 20 year-old nephew said to me, “Wow, you’re going gray — what has been stressing you out?” If I did answer, it was something along the lines of “nothing out of the ordinary.” I didn’t challenge the assertion that emotional stress–as implied–causes hair to go gray.

Does stress make your hair go gray? How’s this answer, provided by the ScienceDaily article and right in the title: Stress Makes Your Hair Go Gray. But here’s the thing–researchers discovered that “genotoxic” stress is the trigger. And what is that? Things like “mutagenic chemicals, ultraviolet light and ionizing radiation.” These things damage the DNA of hair cells. And the damage accumulates. Of course, there are very likely other genetic and perhaps even environmental factors involved. But psychological factors? While I wouldn’t rule them out (as potential co-factors) I also wouldn’t pencil them in without good evidence.

To some, I can be such a skeptical fuddy-duddy. And while I doubt my skepticism adds gray to my hair, it does successfully keep bologna out of my mind.

Pretty. Wild. But those passion vines climbing our backyard pine tree — are they EVIL? Were I a tree (that could think), I might believe that the vine was cheating: using all the hard growth I had attained to pull its relatively flimsy self up on. Those damn free-loaders!

If you abstain from taking sides, could you say the vine’s strategy in the struggle for existence is instead brilliant?

Where do babies come from? The stork brings ‘em. As for where baby storks come from — I have no idea.

More seriously, the “birds and bees” of human reproduction just got more complicated. Why? Because we know more; we have more precise instruments of exploration and measurement. In an article over at Eurekalert, with this subtitle — New study explores dad’s role in shaping a healthy baby — I read:

The new research shows that in sperm, these genes are wrapped in special packaging materials called ‘modified histones.’ These modified histones appear to be key factors in ensuring genes are activated or repressed at the right level, place and time, which helps the fertilized egg develop properly.

Funny, my parents didn’t mention that part when they taught me the “facts of life.” Theirs was an introductory lecture, I guess.

On a nit-picking note, can you guess what about the following sentence makes me groan?

During fetal development, certain [sperm] genes make decisions about organ and tissue development.

Man, those are some brilliant bees!

Is the above a building block of life? The raw materials may be made of that, but its human use would be considered more of helping to make the octane of life.

Hint: You’ve already had a couple hints. x200. Answer and another pic below the fold.

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In the article referenced yesterday about new thoughts on bird evolution, I found this interesting tidbit:

Warm-blooded birds need about 20 times more oxygen than cold-blooded reptiles, and have evolved a unique lung structure that allows for a high rate of gas exchange and high activity level.

Wow. Personally, whenever I watch cooking and travel shows, and see all the human eating going on, I marvel at the incredible about of calories we must stuff into our pie-holes just to ride around in automobiles, walk from there to there, chat with others, and navigate a computer mouse.

Also . . . lungs! What wild and fantastic organs. They are a bit like a cross between a radiator and a catalytic converter. Except we needn’t be in continual locomotion to send air across their surfaces. Instead, we constantly employ muscles tissue to “bellow” the air in and out. Which burns a lot of energy.

Another piece of a pie, anyone?

While religious beliefs tend to typify stasis and maintain a cognitive status quo, science is truly revolutionary. It survives challenge and thrives because of it. This progress comes at a cost: energy and a willingness to put ideas on the chopping block of test and debate.

Thanks to science, our understanding of the universe has changed, is changing and will change. But not as one would change clothes. Science is not as arbitrary and whimsical as post-modernists claim. Today’s science grows out of yesterday’s. Even where there is a dramatic paradigm-shift, this shift comes thanks to the methods of science and to the recently outdated model which most likely served as a stepping stone to the new model.

Reflecting this theme, researchers from Oregon State University have made a discovery that is causing “New Doubts About Dinosaur-bird Links.” Birds may not be as closely related to ancient carnivorous dinosaurs as previously thought.

According to zoology professor John Ruben,

This discovery probably means that birds evolved on a parallel path alongside dinosaurs, starting that process before most dinosaur species even existed.

Cool. This could be a semi-major breakthrough in our understanding of evolution. Bird evolution. Providing the idea proves to have merit, it will be welcome. But first must come the tests and debate.