Week 8: Human Variation

The one environmental stress that I chose was HEAT. When one reaches over 105 degrees in body temperature, they could potentially die. Human bodies must be at a certain temperature for a reason and when one becomes overall hot, they can be at risk for many health problems.  This negatively impacts the survival of humans through homeostasis by creating a very hot climate for humans and the eventually cannot take it anymore. Even in the sun, we get tan and become darker in skin tone, which may be a factor in the color of one's skin. Racism is still here today, we see people and judge them on their appearances. This shows that when dealing with environmental stresses such as the heat, we must protect ourselves and ultimately respect each other as a whole to prevent this stress from happening.

SHORT TERM
The environmental stress, heat can have a short term affect by feeling hot all over and sweating when one feels hot. It tells us our body is over heated and reacts by sweating. We can sweat from being in the sun or exercising, just to name a few ways. When we do not sweat, our body is saying we are not hot. When air temperature, one can feel uncomfortable and try anything to make the feeling of being "hot", go away. When under heat, like the sun or even when exercising, we tend to feel weak, because our body is not used to this kind of high body temperature.



FACULTATIVE
One example of facultative adaptation is vasodilation. It opens the capillaries and then becomes closer to the skin. Basically the blood vessels get bigger. When you work out a lot, you are more prone to getting big mussels but veins pop out and its saying your body is in overdrive and sweat a lot and your are extremely hot.



DEVELOPMENTAL
A developmental adaptation to the heat is an example that skinnier people are prone to the heat and usually live in areas where there is heat, where as a large sized person is better off in the cold, due to the body mass of the larger person. This can be evidence from Bergmann's Rule.

CULTURAL
A cultural adaptation to heat can be clothes. When it is hot outside, most people tend to wear shorts and a loose t-shirt or tank shirt with sandals. We do not want to be covered up with jackets otherwise we are even hotter, so we tend to like to wear loose and comfortable short clothes so we do not feel as hot when we wear jeans or jackets. We even wear hats. When the temperature is usually over 80 or 90 degrees we rather wear clothing that shows more skin, so a small breeze can come through and we are less hot, that is why people wear bathing suits in the beach, so they can swim and be comfortable in more open clothes.

Some benefits of studying human variation through environmental stresses can teach us to not judge someone by the way they look, they can be a certain way because of the environment. Racism can be prevented if we seek to judge based on their character not on appearances. We also get the chance to prevent racism but learning some reasons why people are different. We can use this information to teach younger generations why people are the way they are and see how people before us dealt with the stresses from the environment. This information is very good because we can always look back at this and understand the differential variation.

To understand race through heat, we can make an assumption that the color of your skin can be determined by how much sunlight you get, saying the darker skin color you are, the more you are outside under the heat of the sun. That can be a reason on race and their skin tone, i do not agree with that. I believe a person is a certain race because of where they were from and what was around them that made them who they are. To better understand the human variation we can learn about where they came from and the culture they were put in with their surroundings and what they did to survive. The adaptations can show how one must have lived through, like we do now and know we share the same things as our ancestors. We can even stop racism, by showing people what people went through.

Week 7: Language Experiment

PART 1:
My partner for this experiment was my Dad. My Dad usually can talk for hours to any one, so when i asked him to talk to me about anything for 15 minutes, he said "Sure!" Me on the other hand, i knew i would be bored and i was. I wanted to say something back just so he wouldn't be the one speaking this whole time, but i almost did. I held myself back. I even wrote on a post it note, "Don't talk" because i knew i would forget about the experiment. I was listening the whole time while he was blabbing and i was waiting until this was over! This assignment was difficult because i normally would want to respond and say something i would want to talk about, but i couldn't, so that was hard. My dad did not alter anything because i couldn't talk, he just kept on speaking and speaking. Occasionally though, i would smile and try to look interested, but after a while i didn't remember what he was talking about.
My dad was definitely in control of the conversation, he never gets the chance to speak this much and he took advantage of it. He didn't even stop or take a breather and he didn't look at me like if i was going to speak. He talked the whole time and i think i didn't do the experiment right, but this was the results. He would change topics, talking about work to sports to the neighbors. At one point, he did ask me some questions like yes or no and he kind of answered for me, when some of the answers were wrong. He asked and i answered. If i did this experiment with more people i would be excluded, they wouldn't even know i am there and they would not ask me anything. My partner had the power because i did not speak as much as he did and he asked me questions were i just said a simple answer.
The spoken language people would have the advantage because they can talk and say anything and make things happen were as the silent ones cannot say their feeling and we would not know what they like or dislike. It is like they are not apart of this. The spoken language can say anything even complex messages to other people and they would understand even if the citizens cannot talk, the other ones can. That is why we need some to listen and some to speak, so things would not be chaotic and i think that is why they did that so they can work well together and eventually get to know each other to understand each other. The attitudes the speaking language can have is they can be frustrated and can feel awkward at times, because they don't know if something is right because the other cannot speak. It is hard sometimes to communicate when one cannot speak back and we do not know what they feel and can hurt the whole culture. A modern situation can be a mother and baby. The mother speaks to her child as if he talks, but the baby does not speak words only cries and that is a sign they want something otherwise she does not know what the baby wants and probably does a million things to make a baby happy when it cries.


PART 2:

In the second experiment me and my dad did it and it was hard. I usually speak with my hands and a couple of times i almost raised my hands and i then stopped myself. It is weird to think why do i use my hands. i do not even need them. I do not understand why i talk and use hand gestures, it is just weird. It wasn't hard for my dad, he just crossed his arms the whole time and i was trying to put my hands under my legs but for some reason i almost took them out the talk and explain things, but i do not need hands too to talk! My dad even said why are you wanting to use your hands, you are talking to me. He was shocked and thought i was weird, he doesn't need his hands, maybe he is older and knows he does not need them but it is natural for him, i guess. My dad understood me, i looked in her eyes when i spoke and i felt like he was not listening and watching TV. I think he would have thought i was a freak if i used hand movements. He understood me though.
Non speech language i think is important to understand and it can be difficult, because it can be misread, but we need this because some cannot speak and can be an alternative to speaking. We can use it for secret messaging and decoding our own movements. Some even use movements when they talk because they want to explain something with hands to fulfill some need. We should have movements as something so clear as speaking to help us all. Types of information a person gets through movement can be a help, yes or no or things that are simple that anyone can comprehend. It is hard to communicate with movement but some things we can understand if we are in certain situations, one can understand you because they are actually thinking and knowing what they would do in their situation.
Benefits in reading body movement is when someone is in danger and they read someone by their hand gestures and then you get it because you use common sense. It can be another form of talking when someone you know cannot speak at all and maybe point at things or create things that they will understand. Ultimately we can learn many things from using it an we will defintely use these movements in the future. When one reads body language it can help someone by being able to use movement as communication instead of speaking, which maybe in a certain situation they cannot speak. For example if i was trapped by someone and im tied up and i see someone i know i would use my eyes or try to send them a message with hands or legs and really my eyes and they should be able to read me to save me. We may need this in the future, it can really resourceful and can be taught and learned.
So many people do have problems understanding body movements, some people in harsh situations freak out and just do not know what you are talking about because fear can talk over. Some people can do hand gestures and another person may not understand it because they do not know that persona and interpret this movement as many meanings. An example can be if someone was is danger like if a robber was in the house and the person was under a table and sees the neighbor come in, the person under the table will use his hands to tell her something like the robber is behind you with her hands pointed at the neighbor and the neighbor takes this as press something or there is something on your face. They can misinterpret and can potentially be in huge danger. So we must use our brains and understand the body movements and using the resources around us to figure this out, we may need to use this in times of need.

Week 5: Piltdown Hoax

       The Piltdown hoax was an archaeological area in England, in the years of 1908 and 1912 where a man, ape and other mammal fossil were discovered together in the same site. This hoax was in a little town called Sussex, in Southeast England in the early 1900s. The hoax was found at a nearby site and seen to have found a skull of an ancient human and jawbone of an ape.  Charles Dawson, an archaeologist claimed to have found these remains. He said a small piece of the skull was given to him by a workman. The effects on the community thought this would be a great way to better understand science. This hoax was a great way to show human evolution and the length of time that it had elapsed. This was known as the greatest hoax in the history of science.
       In 1953, the piltdown remains were said to be a hoax and the remains came from a museum in London. Till this day no one knows who planted these bones and why they did it.
       
       Faults scientists can have is they can believe one thing and it can end being the total opposite. It can ruin an experiment if there educated guess is completely wrong. There needs to be evidence to anything you make into a hypothesis. There needs to be a scientific method when making these assumptions. Scientists can make many mistakes, even the simplest of things where they can mix up bones that don't go together. Things need to be carefully done in order to make an honest belief.
When the scientists heard of the remains from piltdown, they tested the remains in a process in order to clarify the remains and they cannot make assumptions. Scientists want to be the first ones to discover something and they do it fast in order to be the first one to have discovered these bones. They end up doing the analysis wrong, resulting in delayed work and a bad reputation on that scientists. That's why the hoax man went to far in his lie, because scientists just assumed that the brain for example was preceding the modern omnivorous diet. Scientists got the chance to learn more about the fossil, which made them very eager to work on this.
     The positive aspect of revealing this skull being a fraud was that they tested and checked the bones. This hoax helped scientists to the belief that the human brain grew larger in size before the law got used to the new foods eaten. Scientists had a false idea of evolution all because of this hoax and ruined this idea, making it difficult to spot.There was other hoaxes done by other scientists, in which they had to make sure this wasn't another one.
     We can take out the human aspect for this to not be an error, we can live without the human remains. We can use so many other living things instead of a human and we should. We can possibly learn more without the human. It can be done in so many ways, BUT i think that human remains are so helpful and the humans are such unique species, we would want to use them. I would not want to remove the human remains.
      A lesson we can take away from this is that the theory of evolution is not a problem, We are still learning about evolution and the Piltdown hoax helped us learn that we don't know much about evolution and we can make many mistakes before finding the truth. This is the meaning of science, to learn and discover, we need mistakes done in order to grow. We can take away that we must really understand something before making accusations, we should test things to make sure they are real. We need to think behind the surface in order to get somewhere in science.

Week 4: Comparative Primate

a. A thorough description of the environment in which the primates lives.
b. A description of your specified character trait for that primate.
c. A discussion on how the primate’s trait expression has been influenced by its environment, i.e., how can the trait be viewed as an adaptation to the primate’s environment.
 d. An image of that primate, preferably displaying the trait you are studying, if possible.

Lemurs (Prosimians/Strepsirhini) 
Lemurs are found in Madagascar, in which they look like a cat mixed with a squirrel and a dog. Lemurs were isolated from evolutionary changes of this world and were put into many large islands with no predation. They share the same structures as monkeys. Lemurs live in tress called arboreal and live in groups with about 17 others.
Lemur's diet in which they eat is nuts and fruit, which is very easy to find in their habitat (Trees) and they eat even insects and small animals when fruits arent growing yet.
The lemurs spend most of their time on top of the trees in the rainforest. They are awake during the day and asleep at night. Lemurs live all over, depending on what type of lemur, they can live in hot and cool areas. This affects their environment because when there is no fruit that is growing, there main source, they have to eat animals or insects instead of the fruit. They usually move around to secure their food. They also move to different places when sleeping, in which they want to stay away from predators.




Spider Monkey (New World Monkey/Platyrrhini) 
Spider monkeys are primitives of the monkeys in the new world. They usually live in central or south america or northern areas of mexico. They live in dense and wet tropical rainforests. They are also arboreal animals, they live in trees in the rainforest. There is no competition with them or other animals.
Spider monkeys diet is they are omnivorous, they eat mainly fruits and seeds, called fruigivorous. They sometimes will eat on leaves that are young, flowers, roots, sometimes bark and honey, insects and even bird eggs. They also can eat while they are hanging or even climbing.
In the spider monkey's environment, they live and move from tree to tree. They live in groups and females take a leading role then the male monkeys because they find food better.


Baboon (Old World Monkey/Cercopithecidae) 

Baboon lives in both Asia and Africa and live in tropical areas. They can also be found in dry areas as well. They spend most of their rime on trees and sometimes on land and any kind of change in weather doesn't seem to affect or bother them.
The baboon's diet includes many different plants and leaves and are even slow eaters, it can take hours for them to be finished with their meals in a day. They can also eat insects and small animals if needed. They try to eat as much as they can to store fat and keep them going.
Their diet can be an adaptation to their environment because when living in rainforests like these, you usually find so many plants and that is what they eat because of where they live. They usually do whatever they want. They live in groups so things wont be chaotic and usually there is fights between them because of the many groups and baboons living in their habitat. They are very similar to humans and usually sit on their butts.


Gibbon (Lesser ape/Hylobatidae)
Gibbons' live in either Northeast india, indonesia, southern china. And can be in living areas such as sub tropical or tropical regions. They prefer warmer weather, in which there is more food and shelter and lie on trees.
Their diet includes their favorite, fruit. They can eat many foods and will even move to find any food they want. 60% of food consumes is fruit and eat simple things they live with like; twigs, figs, leaves and flowers and insects.
Gibbons are said to swing from tree to tree to find food and this affects their environment because all they live near is trees, in which includes figs, insects and flowers and they eat that because it is in their niche. They are very much like monkeys, themselves. they are very aggressive when it comes to securing their food, they will be very vocal so no one touches their space.



Chimpanzee (Great ape/Hominidae) 
Chimpanzees live in the grassland and woodland of central and west Africa. They live in the rain forest on trees. They live in communities and can take care of themselves. They spend most of their time on the ground.
Their diet consists of eating mainly fruits and plants. They even eat animals that are small, like monkeys. They also enjoy eating leaves, flowers, seeds and nuts. They like to hunt and eat many meat.
If anyone destroys their habitat, the population will decrease and this would be a big threat to Chimpanzees. Chimpanzees' environment is in the rain forest with tree and they climb back and forth on them to collect and gather food for them and live in groups with their families. Their diet is based on where they live and have to live in that area because food is there, but they can migrate somewhere else just to get food and shelter.




Summarize your findings, evaluating the level of influence the environment has on the expression of physical and behavioral traits. (15 pts)
All these primitives are very similar when it comes to what they eat, all mainly eating fruits and plants and insects when needed. They all usually live in trees in the rain forest and climb and sleep or do whatever they please. They all same same characteristics but look different. They do behave the same, where they are so simply that all they basically do is eat and sleep. They are all also arboreal.