The Vertical Limit and Your Lungs

Even Lord Vader Needs Help Breathing

Differences in altitude can create a stress on humans that can disrupt the homeostasis. High altitude creates a stressor on the body by affecting the concentration of oxygen in the upper atmosphere. There is much less oxygen and thus makes it harder to properly perfuse all cells with less oxygen available for the body. In the short term adaptation, the body will increase perfusion with less available oxygen by increasing heart rate and respiratory rate to manage the proper oxygen saturation levels. From here, an individual will undergo a facultative adaptation and the beginning of acclimation causing the production of many more red blood cells to transport and hold oxygen. Additional capillaries to store blood and help perfuse the body will be created and the lung capacity will increase to allow for more

                                                                                  oxygen to be processed with each breath.

More Red Blood Cells

Lung Capacity Increases

             

With the lung capacity and adequate heart conditions being a survival necessity, any member of the population that cannot keep up with the body's demand will die out causing a developmental adaptation upon birth of the next population have better genetics for enlarged lung capacity and heart volume. Cultural adaptations for the stressor of altitude could include a change in clothing which would likely be very warm to ensure a warm core temperature, but also be extremely light weight to lighten the load of which one has to carry at such a high altitude. This would allow the body to put less stress on the heart while also maintaining required temperatures to function.

Light, Yet Warm Clothing

         The benefits of studying human variation along this perspective are of great magnitude in the understanding of how to improve oxygenation within the medical field as well as within the sporting world. The information from tests of high altitude training can allow athletes to find out the best ways in which to maximize their red blood cells and their oxygenation for peak performance. Medical understandings can change as to how best in increase the perfusion rate of a patient that has not been breathing or has inadequate perfusion to the body.

           

While race could prove as a somewhat helpful determining factor of someone who did live in a high altitude region, it is extremely inaccurate due to the ability of a person to migrate to a different location and live there for generations and lose any possible advantage that was previously held in the high altitude. I think that someone's current home is a much better indicator than race in the case of being adapted for high altitude simply because of the extreme short term effects. Genetic advantages may linger in someone who moves to a lower altitude, but the body will adjust once again to a lower altitude somewhat nullifying the effects in a very short time.

Miming and Microsoft Sam Are Bad Ways to Communicate

           During the first 15 minute segment, communication was extremely difficult. I also found myself using what I felt was a physical way to say something and very rarely did someone realize what I was trying to imitate or say to them. I found that one of the best ways to communicate was by having yes or no questions asked when the silent person simply nods his head. This was by far the most productive way to communicate. My brother actually slowed his voice down to try to help communicate which made me laugh quite a bit.

            In the case of multiple cultures meeting for the first time, I think that the language that is the simplest as a base has the advantage of communicating complex ideas. For instance, conjugation is an extremely difficult thing to learn when learning a new language. Mandarin might have an advantage to English for first time learners simply because Mandarin really does not have conjugation difficulties in the same sense. This makes mandarin simpler to adjust to. The speaking culture might find an easier and faster way communicating thoughts through speech as opposed to non symbolic language simply because speech helps to avoid confusion. The hard of hearing pose an issue to the verbal language simply because they cannot hear what someone is saying. The use of sign language is a wonderful change to interact with those people, but sign language is another language to learn and is quite difficult. 

           The latter 15 minutes reminds me of the Microsoft Sam monotone voice. I found it extremely hard to not change my tone of voice or gesture with my hands at all. Also, I found out that sarcasm does not work at all without an implied tone or quirky look. My brother also told me to try and tell a joke without being able to change my voice or gesture. That did not work very well at all. This experiment shows an amazing amount about the tone and physical gesturing that we use to try and tell but also show someone what we are saying. The non-speech factors of language are an important part especially in the department of humor.

            There certainly are people that cannot read body language. Anyone that has trouble seeing or even on the phone will not be able to read body language. The only benefit that I can see with not noting body language is that one might actually hear every part of what someone says and not see what they are trying to state. Listening without seeing drops a lot of the assumptions that are made by someone's physical appearance. The only situation that I can think of where not reading body language is a good thing is if the body language can be misinterpreted.  When people misinterpret things, fights and arguments happen. In that case, body language was an inadequate tool utilized that posed no benefit. 

The Piltdown Hoax

          The Piltdown hoax began with the discovery by Charles Dawson in the little town of Piltdown in southern England. This discovery setup a revolution as to the actual evolution of man throughout history. The discovery vouched for concepts brought about by Arthur Keith showing that the brain capacity developed before the upright walking did. The discovery also plagued the scientific community for nearly 40 years with its false proof. This completely false find shows that scientists are capable of being swayed by their own personal ambitions.

            This find, due to its assumed truth, caused nearly forty years of falsehood and supposed proof that humans developed advanced brains before walking upright as well as the location of the specimen itself. The scientific method with its additive process allowed for an initial idea that the Piltdown specimen was completely out of place. The specimen in Asia and Africa hundreds of thousands of years later still had relatively undeveloped brains, but walked upright. Then after World War II, the advancement of radiation based dating showed that the specimen was not nearly a million years old, it had to be less than even 100,000. With research now in full swing, the artifact was dated to be less than 100 years old and the teeth had been filed down and other placed had been cut with steel.The scientific method proved to weed out this false science.

Charles Dawson

            It is not possible to completely remove the human factor from science. The reason for this being that science is based on human discovery and human questions. Therein lies a contradiction. However, it is possible to remove the falsification and dishonesty in the community be following the scientific method and weeding out falsehoods. I do not want to remove humans from the process of science due to the nature of who is asking the questions. Also, science is not simply finding out answers, it is finding out what is not the answer and that may be the greatest part.

            The overall lesson from this story is do your homework, mark your sources, and do not trust people simply because they are recognized within a community. Most of all, questioning other people's findings is not disrespectful, it is science.

Comparing Dentition Patterns? I promise they won't bite...

  I will be using a notation for teeth that looks like 2/2 1/1 2/2 3/3. This notation indicates a set of 2 teeth on right and left sides of the mouth. Then a set of 1 on right and left. Another set of 2on right and left. And Finally a set of 3 on right and left. That total of 16 is then multiplied by 2 to get the total teeth top and bottom of 32.The formation for these teeth with be in incisor, canine, premolar, and molar order respectively.
Lemurs

Lemurs are native to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands and are herbivores or omnivores. They spend most of their time underground. The Lemur's Teeth consist of 2/2, 1/1, 3/3, 3/3 = 36. So the Lemur has 8 total incisors which are extremely close together for easier peeling ability, 4 total canine, 12 total premolar, and 12 total molar teeth. The lemur due to its mostly herbivore but sometimes omnivore diet shows the reason for this allocation of teeth. The incisors and canine provide a sharp enough surface to tear meat or rough plants and the molars and premolars provide the strength and size to grind down the rest of the plants.

Spider Monkeys 

The spider monkey is a very small little guy that live in the evergreen rainforests and usually thrive in the upper canopy of the rainforest. They mostly are herbivores. The new world spider monkey has a dental pattern of 2/2, 1/1, 2/2, 3/3= 32. The total of 8 incisors allow for the shredding of simple greens and rough plants. The 4 canine allow for slicing rough upper canopy plants. The 8 premolar and 12 molar teeth allow for the grinding of all other plant based food. This trait can be viewed as an adaptation to its environment because of the ability to thrive with its food in the upper canopy of the rainforest.

 Baboons

Baboons are normally found in many parts of Africa and in southern Europe. They are primarily herbivores, but will eat insects, fish, and rabbit. The makeup of their teeth is 2/2, 1/1, 2/2, 3/3 = 32. The total 8 incisors allow for simple breaking and shredding of plants and meat. The 4 canine are extremely large on the top to provide strength to grip and shred food. The 8 premolar and 12 molar teeth provide the ability to grind plants down for better food processing. This trait can be viewed as an adaptation because of their development of teeth to fit their diet.

 Gibbons

Gibbons are primarily found in Southeast Asia and are omnivores with fruit consisting of 75% of their diet. Their teeth are arranged 2/2, 1/1, 2/2, 3/3 = 32. The 8 incisors allow for the shredding of fruits and the various meats. The 4 enlarged canine allow for the ability to tear food. The 8 premolar and 12 molar teeth are once again used for grinding the numerous plants and fruits. The assortment of the teeth can be viewed as an adaptation because of the specialized ability of the mouth to consume plants and meats.

  

Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees are found primarily in Africa in the rainforests or wet Savannas. They are omnivores who eat mostly fruit with a small amount of fish or insects. Their teeth are 2/2, 1/1, 2/2, 3/3 = 32. The 8 incisors are used for shredding. The 4 canine are for tearing rough fruits and meats. The 8 premolar and 12 molar teeth are once again for grinding down the plant based diet. The adaptation can be seen in the teeth which are perfect for the high plant diet with a little meat as well.

Overall Analysis

Although many of the primates have extremely similar if not identical configuration, the actual size and shape of the teeth are quite different as one can tell in the photographs. The environment as well as the size of the animal itself appears to have had an influence on the physical traits of these 5 primates. Probably the most significant and obvious one is the expected diet which would be a telling sign for formation and use of the teeth.