16 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Human Fetuses Develop Useless Hair
One of my favorite cases of embryological evidence for evolution is
the furry human fetus. We are famously known as “naked apes” because,
unlike other primates, we don’t have a thick coat of hair. But in fact
for one brief period we do—as embryos. Around sixth months after conception, we become completely covered with a fine, downy coat of
hair called lanugo. Lanugo is usually shed about a month before birth,
when it’s replaced by the more sparsely distributed hair with which we’re
born. (Pre... 1 
notes
notesThat appears at the same time in development as it does in Chimpanzees, but then vanishes.
27 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Why the Brain Takes So Much Time and Effort
The brain’s chief job description—yours, mine, and your hopelessly adorable children’s—is to help our bodies survive another day. The reason for survival is as old as Darwin and as young as sexting: so we can project our genes into the next generation. Will a human willingly overcome self-interest to ensure the survival of his or her family’s genes into the next generation? Apparently, yes. Enough of us did hundreds of thousands of years ago that we grew up to take over the Serengeti, then...
1 Babies must be born before they are ready to prevent killing the mother, thus parenting became an evolutionary strategy in humans.
29 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
The Importance of the Mother-Infant Bond
In the 1960s a slow revolution in birthing practices began in Western culture. As a result of the influence of John Bowlby's attachment theory and Harry Harlow's infant monkey experiments, the medical establishment realized the importance of physical proximity on the bonding process and babies were not necessarily removed to the nursery. The feminist movement in the 1970s, which helped women assert their wishes, furthered that revolution as it gave female nurses and mothers the support to dem...Mothers separated from their babies are more likely to abuse them, while bonded infants are more responsive.
29 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Martin Cooney's Invention of the Incubator
In 1896, inventor Martin Cooney designed the incubator, a device veloped to aid premature babies. Cooney was the first to advocate separation of infants from their mothers as a medical procedure for the health of the child. In a bizarre combination of medicine and sideshow. Cooney gathered hundreds of premature babies (they were easy to obtain because doctors assumed premature infants would die), put them into incubators, and exhibited them at various expositions and fairs in Amer¬ ica and Eu... 1 notes
notesHe displayed the premature babies in a sideshow to prove its effectiveness in keeping them alive, but also kicked off the practice of separating Mothers from babies at birth.
