Editor's pick: Survival of the tamest
Colin Barras compares the loss of wild traits in our species to that seen in domesticated animals (24 February, p 28) and discusses what led to domestication of humans.
A hypothesis that fits with some of the ideas suggested is that of primatologist Christopher Boehm in his book Hierarchy in the Forest: The evolution of egalitarian behavior, in which he explores the process by which our ancestors rejected despotic alpha-male behaviour characteristic of chimps and gorillas.
By successfully overthrowing the alpha males, and establishing a highly egalitarian ethos that has been observed in hunter-gatherer groups around the world, with strong sanctions against those who try to dominate, they would have deprived the alpha males of their breeding monopoly, and given everyone a chance to breed.
In this way, the more aggressive genes of the alpha males were displaced by tamer genes, and, as a result, we engineered our own domestication.
Trying to find some beauty in the uglyverse (1)
Your discussion of inelegance in fundamental physics (3 March, p 30) once again deals with those in retreat from the idea that the laws of nature should be sublime rather than arbitrary 鈥� known as “naturalness” 鈥� as they dance warily around alternatives. They seem unwilling to grant the anthropic principle and the multiverse hypothesis credibility.
But what’s the problem? What if all but one of the uncountable incipient universes generated at the big bang collapsed within the first millisecond of expansion because for each, their random mix of fundamental constants rendered them not fit for purpose?
What if the only one that continued to develop was the one whose mix was “just right” and that is the one we have evolved to live in and apparently to almost comprehend? The reason we don’t quite yet 鈥� and why our current models generate values for some fundamental constants that don’t seem right 鈥� is because we don’t understand what process made that successful mix “just right”.
But I’m fairly sure we will eventually. Even if we don’t, the point is that there is nothing wrong with the concept of the anthropic principle when in harness with the concept of uncountable multiverses collapsing almost instantly, except for one 鈥� this one.
Trying to find some beauty in the uglyverse (2)
I was struck by one suggestion in your look at resistance to “ugly” cosmological physics: that the surprisingly small mass of the Higgs boson is the net result of a large positive number (its “interaction” mass) and a slightly smaller negative number (its “inherent” mass).
This seems parallel to another cosmological oddity 鈥� the large amount of normal matter and the slightly smaller amount of antimatter thought to have been created in the big bang. With mutual annihilation converting most of the former and all of the latter into energy, we are left with the matter you and I (and the rest of the universe) are made of. Of course, “parallel to” doesn’t imply cause and effect… or does it?
Trying to find some beauty in the uglyverse (3)
If only chemistry coveted beauty as much as fundamental physics. In 1952, starting chemistry at school, I was repelled by the lop-sided conventional periodic table, which helped to turn me away from science. The fact this version persists when more elegant ones are available suggests that chemists do not want beauty.
First class post – 31 March 2018
“Finally! I can look like Ashton Kutcher!”
celebrates the news that faking faces using artificial intelligence is going to change our world (17 March, p24)
Interruptions 鈥� more tips for the resistance (1)
May I report a highly effective way to counter interruptions while talking, to add to those offered in your article (10 March, p 34).
In the 1980s, I sat on the council of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs trade union. Meetings were always attended by the extrovert and voluble general secretary Clive Jenkins. He would frequently interrupt speakers during what were otherwise disciplined and strictly non-interrupted meetings in order, as he put it, “to be helpful and progress business”.
One member, who seemed to be interrupted more than others, developed the technique of instantly stopping speaking and waiting in silence until Clive, with his usual sweet smile of acknowledgement, had finished.
She would then immediately continue speaking at precisely the same point in the sentence she had been delivering as when interrupted. There was never any loss of sense, grammar or syntax. It was as if the interruption had never occurred. This was so effective that it eventually cured Jenkins of his habit.
It is a very difficult trick to carry off, but it can be devastating.
Interruptions 鈥� more tips for the resistance (2)
When I taught medical students I passed on several tips when it comes to interruption. I told them it is grossly impolite to do so mid-sentence. If you must interrupt, do so while the speaker is taking a breath at the end of a sentence. That is why politicians are trained to take breaths mid-sentence 鈥� Margaret Thatcher used this a lot and was hardly ever interrupted.
Interruptions 鈥� more tips for the resistance (3)
What particularly infuriates me 鈥� and was missing from your examples of interruptions 鈥� is people butting in to counter a point I haven’t even made.
Wash your way to the Anthropocene
Having read your article on the pollution linked to making and washing clothing (24 February, p 36), I feel good knowing that the microfibres from my laundry are being flushed through my septic tank and out into a weeping bed. There they are added to the sediment 60 centimetres below the surface. With time – 10 million years should do it – those fibres will be part of the sedimentary rock and their ions may even migrate to form new, hopefully inert, minerals.
Even with less muscle we are endurance champs
Colin Barras reports a study suggesting primates, which includes us, sacrificed slow-twitch muscle to provide energy for bigger brains (10 March, p 10).
However, this clashes with the idea that early humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers, a way of life for which slow-twitch muscle is essential. With the advent of farming, humans would again rely on slow-twitch muscle when spending all day in the fields tending livestock or ploughing, sowing and so on.
As a personal trainer, I know that humans have an outstanding capacity for endurance. What we lack is the strength and explosive power that results from fast-twitch muscle.
Turks had the scoop on dice that were fair
Following on from your article on fairer dice emerging in northern Europe about 600 years ago (27 January, p 14), I have a pair of antique dice from Turkey, of the variety with opposite sides that always add up to seven. I find that the number 1 face has a scoop with a diameter of 3.6 millimetres whereas the number 6 has six scoops with a diameter of 2 millimetres each.
I find that the sum of the volumes of the scoops on any face is equal on all sides of the dice. A modern dice has equal-sized scoops and therefore the side with six scoops will be lighter than the opposite face with one scoop. In this case, has anyone found that the six is more likely to be facing up?
Medical care means more survive modern wars
One factor may be missed when comparing war severity between 1823 and 2003 using fatalities, as in the study questioning if we are in a new era of peace (3 March, p 15). Recent wars have had fewer fatalities, but perhaps not because they were less severe. Weapons are increasingly potent but trauma care has improved a lot, and hence the lethality of war has decreased over time. A similar bias can be seen with the murder rate.
Saving our secrets will be a monumental task
What an exemplary article on cryptography Michael Brooks presented to us (3 March, p 40). As we seek algorithms to ensure security against code-cracking quantum computers, surely we ought to be considering how such security will be rolled out across the myriad of devices that will no-doubt be in use for years to come and made vulnerable by quantum code cracking?
We are already challenged by people putting themselves, data and systems at risk, for example by not installing upgrades from software developers in time to counteract a careless click. So, how we take on the wide-scale upgrade to root and branch security in a quantum computing era is a problem that will need technologists, psychologists, management scientists et al. to solve.
Game theory could also fight superbugs
An algorithm that guides the sparing use of treatments to prevent the evolution of drug resistance in prostate cancer is interesting (10 March, p 4). It struck me that it might be possible to use the same strategy to prevent the evolution of microbes that survive the use of antibiotics.
How did we ever manage to live together?
I had a good laugh when reading that a common trait in those who support authoritarian leaders is a hatred of bad body odours (10 March, p 17). Seriously though, getting sniffy about out-groups must have been a problem older than our species. One wonders how we ever managed to conglomerate into large societies at all.