Human Variation & Race

Cold weather can really make a negative impact when it comes to the survival of humans. In extreme cold weathers, humans cannot survive in such cold temperatures. In addition, all the little animals will be hiding because of the weather. That means it'll become hard to look for food. Humans will also have the trouble of maintaining their body heat.

The short term solution for the cold would be to find large animals (since they can survive in the cold more) and use their skin as a blanket for retain body heat.

The facultative solution would be to shiver to help the body warm up (in my genetics class, I learned that if the human body temperature were to drop one degree from 98 degrees, a body's natural reaction is to shiver).

A developmental solution would be that human skin gets thicker through time so that humans can keep all the heat stored in their bodies for much longer.

Being there wont be small animals roaming about in the cold, it will be hard to find food. Once a one finds food, they'll have to preserve it to make it last. A way of preserving food, is to keep it on ice- however if there isn't any ice around, one can use spices to preserve the meat. The poor in India still use this method today, they don't own anything to preserve the meat, so the douse the meat in different kinds of spices which is why Indian food is to be considered very spicy in general (we are just used to eating so much spice). Another way for finding food is to go on the ice and fish- fish can survive in cold water so one can have an option of fishing for food.

The benefits we gain from studying this is basic needs of survival. If we have no food, we can hunt. If we have no warmth, we hunt for animal skin. Hypothetically, if natural disasters would wipe out the city life, factories, and everything we humans have built, we would have to start over from scratch and learn how to survive without the advantage of having everything at your fingertips like we do today. 

One can use race to understand the different adaptations of human variation by knowing that each race is divided by region and how they survive. If one is in an area where everyone is working together and they all have a natural flow with one another when it comes to survival, we would know that there is a possibility that they belong to the same race. Knowing the environmental influences on adaptations is a better way to understand human variation because humans act according to their surroundings, no matter what race. 

Language!

Part 1:
I personally thought that this exercise was difficult. I never realized that understanding language also derives from tone of voice and body language. Doing this first part, I honestly thought that this part was much harder than the second because when trying to reply to questions asked by my family, I felt like all I could reply was a nod, a shake of the head, or a shrug of the shoulders. Being that was the only way I could reply, they were asking questions that were just yes or no answers like if I ate lunch, or if I completed my homework for the day. But what I did also realize is that facial expressions say a lot. At the time of working on this exercise, my family and I were about to prepare dinner, and my aunt asked me if I wanted chicken. I gave her a face of disgust because I felt like I've been eating chicken for lunch and dinner for the past week. Just by the look on my face, she already knew that chicken was not what I wanted.

I felt like that my family was the one initiating conversation, because if you cannot speak, it's pretty hard to start a conversation with just facial expressions or a nod of the head. I felt like they were the ones interviewing me and that all I could reply was a yes or a no. I did feel excluded from the conversation because they would only ask me questions that I can say yes or no to, then they would continue the conversation with the rest of my family that are able to say a complete thought. I felt like my family had the power of controlling the conversation because they can actually say a complete sentence that can spark a conversation whereas with myself, I could only have facial expressions.

I feel the culture who can explain a complete thought with words has a huge advantage with communication because they'll be able to express complex ideas. I feel like the culture who could explain a complete thought, will look down upon the other culture who can only converse through actions and expressions. They will probably feel like they cant converse because the other culture doesn't share the same quality of conversation through words; being they do not have the same quality, they will just exclude the culture of conversing through expression. When I was in high school, I worked in a group for my Rhetoric class which in the end we all had to present. We had a total of 4 people including me. One person out of the four of us was a exchange student from South Korea. The other people in my group felt that she'd be perfect for the very last part- which was only three sentences compared to the paragraphs the rest of the group had to present. Being that her main language is Korean, she had trouble pronouncing some words in the English language- completely understandable, however, not everyone thinks that way. When she stated the conclusion of our speech, I was looking around the classroom and it'd looked like no one was even paying attention to her- when everyone else was paying attention to the rest of my group. Everyone was looking down, or looking around the classroom, with faces of complete confusion.

Part 2: 
This part was pretty hard for me, but it was a lot easier than communicating with no words. I thought that this part was the most fun to me just by the reactions of my family. They were all confused, trying to figure out what I mean because I had no tone of voice. So my lovely family said that I sounded sarcastic and angry. They thought that I looked "sketchy" by having zero body language. My family knew what I was talking about, but they just didn't understand my feelings towards what I'm saying (whether I'm mad or angry, or even happy). They actually referred me to the TV show Dexter- a psychopath whose a serial killer and hides in plain sight by having a profession of a blood spatter analyst. He actually shows a good example of talking with no facial expression or body language to cover up what he is really thinking.

This part of the exercise really emphasized the importance of body language when it comes to partaking in conversation. Through body language and even tone of voice, we can tell what the person is feeling just by a simple smile or by a high-pitched tone of excitement. This shows that having different tones of voice and how you carry your body correlates to the mood that the person is in. I also feel that when one "reads" body language, you can also see some personality just by the way they sit (like how laid back people like to have their feet up or leaned back on the couch or chair or conservative people like to cross their legs).

Having the ability to read body language, you one can see if that person is trusting or not. Usually caring people have sympathetic voices when something wrong happens or a high pitched voice when they are trying to be nice and help someone out. For example, if a woman is approached by a random man, the first thing the woman looks at is the way a man carries himself. If he seems very quiet and really hard to read because he shows no emotion- it becomes a huge red flag. That usually means he is trying to hide his true intentions. If he seems very loose and answers/asks questions with enthusiasm, it shows that he is just interested in getting to know you.  By knowing how to read people, it can help a lot of people from being taken advantage of.

I do not know anyone personally who cannot identify body language due to how picky I am when it comes to getting close to someone. I don't feel like there is ever a situation where not reading body language is benefited. Having the ability to read ones body language is a huge plus for protecting yourself because there are crazy people out there, you just never know when one is sitting right next to you. So it gives one an upper hand to get out of situations where it could become dangerous. 

Piltdown Man Hoax

Charles Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward of the British Museum discovered to what is known as the Piltdown Man. The Piltdown Man was the skull like fragments and a jaw with two teeth that they found in the Piltdown gravel pit in Sussex, England. They believed that these bones can represent some sort of ancestor that lived 500,000-1 million years ago. They announced these findings on December 18, 1912 at a meeting of the U.K.'s geological society. This was a huge discovery for scientists, because not only is it known that humans have ancestors from a million years ago, but they actually have remains in front of them that can be considered as evidence and use it to learn more about our ancestors. Dawson and Woodward were amateur archaeologists when they discovered the remains. By finding the Piltdown man, it really raised the bar of status with Woodward and Dawson- being they found evidence that everyone can learn from and supplied the "missing link" from the relation between ape and man.

The human faults that came into play within this scenario is that they jumped the gun too quick when finalizing what the remains really are. As if they got too excited of the situation, they announced the findings before even studying the remains thoroughly.

What revealed the skull to be a fraud was closer examinations. Some scientists found that the jaw of the Piltdown Man originated from two different species- human and ape. A microscope showed that the teeth from the jaw was filed down to make it look like human teeth and many other pieces of the remains have seem to be manipulated. Through a microscope, it was also found that some of the remains were stained to look like they were that old.

The "human" factor of science will always be there. Even though scientists discover great findings and make themselves to what seems is as close to god himself, they will forever have the possibility of making mistakes when it comes to findings- scientists cannot run from the fact that they are human. If I could remove this factor completely from science, then I would. I feel like we could exert ourselves even more without feeling the doubt of findings, and without jumping the gun.

Life Lesson: Don't brag about anything unless you know for certain it is true.

Analogy/Homology

Homologous Traits: 
Two different species that posses the homologous trait are humans and cats. Both bone structures of the arms look very similar.

Looking at the arm bone structure of a cat vs. a human, it looks like cats have a radius and ulna. Cats even have phalanges in their paws, just like humans have in their hands. They are both looking very similar, but they are both used differently. Cats have the ability to jump very high, they use their front paws to land properly on their feet. With humans, we can't land so hard on our hands- something will break. The bone structure of cats allow them to land, there will be immense pressure when doing so- humans cannot handle that kind of pressure on their arms.

The last common ancestor of humans and cats is the Juramaia Sinensis. A recent fossil of this animal showed a good part of its arm- I saw phalanges and two bones what seemed to look like a radius and ulna.

Not only are cats and humans similar to one another, they share that same similarity with bats, horses, birds, and whales. 

Analogous Traits: 

Dolphins and sharks share numerous traits- however they are very far related. They are analogous because they both have fins in the same exact spots so they can swim in their environment. 

The color of dolphins and sharks are very similar- they are this color so it is easy to blend in with things in the ocean. Sharks and dolphins share the same structure of where the fins are located. They both use their fins to swim. However, they are both completely different species, sharks are fish and dolphins are mammals. 

Dolphins and sharks aren't really that similar but they are both analogous. They don't necessarily share a common ancestor, but they both have similarities to animals that are currently in the ocean today. We know they are analogous because other species in their environment share the same dorsal fins and structures like all the other types of fish out there.They get their dorsal fins and similar structures from convergent evolution. 

Can you guess my sentence?

G T T C T A C A C A T C T C A C G T C T G A A G T G G C T G G A T C C G T T 

Historical Influences on Darwin

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was a well-known French naturalist that brought on the idea that animals change through time. He then created the idea of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics which states that if an animal develops a trait through time, then it can be passed on to their children. However, this idea didn't turn out to be true. (online source)

The points that were directly affected by Lamarck's findings is in order for traits to evolve in time, it needs to be heritable. Meaning that in order for the trait to be passed on, it needs to be a trait that you are born with and not with traits you get environmentally. Lamarck helped with this point due to his theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics, which proved that any traits that are created environmentally cannot be passed to the offspring.

Darwin couldn't have done his theory without Lamarck's findings. Lamarck was the one who found out that only hereditary genes apply with evolution- through this, it narrowed down the possibilities for Darwin on what really applies when it comes to natural selection and inheritance of genes.

The church was not agreeing with Darwin and his theories. The church believed that everything that happens with evolution and gene inheritance has to do with God and the way God wants it. The church believes that everything happens in "God's image" meaning that God makes everything happen. Even though the church fought Darwin's theory, Darwin still didn't believe in that statement. He still continued on with his book and published his own beliefs.