Human Variation and Race

1. Negatives on High altitude are:

• Alternating daily extremes of climate such as heat blazing days to cold freezing nights. 
• Strong winds with low humidity resulting in rapid dehydration 
• Low air pressure
• At high mountains our bodies develop an insufficient physiological response. These include responses such as breathing and heart rate double even while resting, this can be really bad for people with weak hearts. 
• High pressure makes it difficult for oxygen to enter our vascular systems. As a result of such high pressure can be Hypoxia; also known as oxygen deprivation. 
• Symptoms of hypoxia are fatigue after climbing a short amount of stairs.
• High altitude sickness includes lack of appetite, vomiting, head ache, distorted visions, difficulties with memory; trying to remember things, and thinking clearly. 
• Some serious cases include hemorrhaging in the lungs and  abnormal accumulation of fluid around the brain. This is an increase risk of heart failure due to the stress place on the lungs, heart, and arteries at high altitudes. All of this can result in death if not returned to normal air pressure levels. 
• Miscarriages are of high risk because the fetus receives a low amount of oxygen from their mother.  

2. Four ways in which humans have adapted to this stress
Short-term:

• The pulse rate and blood pressure go up at a high altitude as our hearts pump harder to get oxygen to the cells. 

 Faculative adaption:

• An example of this is, later a more efficient response is developed as acclimatization takes place, additional red blood cells and capillaries are produce to carry more oxygen. 

Development adaptations:

• the solution of people living in high altitudes are that people such as Bolivians and Peruvians have the potential to develop more hemoglobin to increase the size of their lugs. 

Cultural Adaptations: 

• Tibetans are known for living in high altitudes and they have a unique cuisine they eat to live in high altitudes.

        Their meals consists of:

  

• yak meat ( they do not eat fish) (Yak meat) 
• milk
• mutton

They try to intake as many protein foods as possible since their bodies need it to keep warm and help them fight the cold at high altitudes.

3. The benefits of studying human variations from this perspective is that people will be more informed about the consequences of certain actions. For example if a group goes hiking to mountains where there's a high altitude, and some one in the group has a weak heart. Along the the way up the person with the weak heart might just fall unconscious because his heart is having a hard time pumping due to the high elevation. Now had the leader of the group studied about human variation then he would have had some sort of understanding what the body will do when it is exposed to very high altitudes. That is just one example of the many that help express the importance of human variation across environmental clines. There are many more examples but another great purpose to why studying human variation is important is due to environmental changes our bodies change as well to try to acclimatize, and according to how the body acts it should be recorded on paper to have a better understanding of what is good and what is bad. Like how at carnivals they have a warning sign on rollercaoster entrances that the ride is not recommended to people with bad hearts or hears diseases, things like those will help prevents unwanted consequences. One example of how this information can be used in a productive way is athletes go to high elevated places to train and when they come down to normal levels their lungs have expanded at the high elevated place meaning that they have more stamina for a certain amount of time until their lungs go back to normal. This information is useful to help us because this way we will have a better understanding to why some people are different than others. For example people born in high altitudes tend to have bigger lungs due to the affect, and in some cycling competitions those people are excluded because it isn't fair for the normal elevation people. Since the persons with big lungs can endure longer they would most likely win all the time, therefore; they are removed from some cycling tournaments, not because of their race or any other thing it's just that they are to well prepared and leave everyone else at a disadvantage. 

4. One could use race to understand the variations of the adaptions by saying that Peruvian Indians are the race who best exemplify those traits which are listed on number 2. Race though has nothing to do with these changes, I mean what if these traits are seen in someone who isn't part of that race. Then what will happen? my guess is the researcher or scientist will have to start all over again. The study of  environmental influences on adaption is a better way to understand human variation than by the use of race because not all Peruvian Indians express those traits. The idea of race though makes no sense in my opinion when trying to explain human variation, because whats a persons race have to do anything with how they are acclimatized to the environment around them. They may live in the place they do because that's where their ancestors lived and they want to make sure their ancestors resting place isn't disturbed by others; things like that, and the studies are not always accurate because a race can vary. There fore the study of environmental influences on adaption is a better way to understand human variation because its universal and not looking at a certain race to come up with a conclusion. It takes a look at what the body does and why it does it no matter the persons race, most of our bodies are the same so the study will be more accurate and be used universally around the globe to help people prevent unwanted consequences. 

Piltdown Man Hoax

1. Begin by giving a brief synopsis of the Piltdown hoax, including when and where it was found, by whom, and varying affects this had on the scientific community. Also include how the hoax was discovered and the varying responses it received from the scientist(s) involved and in the related fields of human evolution.
 
    It started in a small village called Piltdown in Sussex. Charles Dawson found a piece of skull that he thought, might have belonged to an ancient human being. Later he continued to dig and found a few more remainings. Everyone was fascinated by it and called it the Piltdown Man. This though would prevent scientists from understanding the truth behind the real evolution of mankind for several decades. Scientist all wanted to believe that Piltdown man could be the missing link among humans and primates. Few though kept their skeptical views about Piltdown man to them selves.

2. Scientists are curious, creative and persistent by nature, but being human, they also have faults. What human faults come into play here in this scenario and how did these faults negatively impact the scientific process?

   The faults that came into play were pride and ambition. Once Charles Dawson made the discovery England was full of pride and called the Piltdown man the first English Man. The country swelled with pride by such discovery and may have believed that Piltdown man was the missing link. What was more astonishing to them is Piltdown Man had chosen to live in the lands of England. These Faults had a very negative impact on science because it lead to a false belief and   also lead scientists down the wrong path of evolution. 

3. What positive aspects of the scientific process were responsible for revealing the skull to be a fraud? Be specific about scientific tools, processes or methodologies that were involved in providing accurate information about the Piltdown skull.

     In 1949 scientist had discovered that by measuring the fluoride in fossils one could know how old they were. To their surprise when Piltdown Man was tested, the fossils were found to be rather recent ( around 100,000 years old) than ancient. In 1953 scientists launched a full scale reading of the fossils and they discovered that they were around a hundred years old. The artifacts were stained and when the teeth were observed under the microscope they found that they had been filed down and made to look like human teeth. 

  4. Is it possible to remove the “human” factor from science to reduce the chance of errors like this happening again? Would you want to remove the human factor from science?



 The human factor can be removed from science but it will not ensure that another scandal will once again be performed or discovered. By removing the human factor from science all that will happen is, the never discovery of human evolution. People would have to find interest in other things and would have to stop looking into human evolution. I would not like to remove the Human factor from science simply because there might be an explanation as to how we were able to become the way we are today. There might be explanations about evolution but what if there might be more factors and not just evolution. For example some people do not believe that we evolved from monkeys because if that were true then monkeys would soon be walking on their two feet and talking with us due to evolution. Maybe further studies may show exactly how it all happened. 

5. Life Lesson: What lesson can you take from this historical event regarding taking information at face value from unverified sources?

    I learned that scientist are not always neutral that they have faults just like normal people do. Of course they are humans and all human have mistakes, but one would believe that scientists do not always go with the idea of opinion rather with the idea of factual evidence to support their ideas. In this case Piltdown man was a fraud which was developed by pride in wanting to have evidence that England like many other countries also contained ancestral life. One should always verify where the sources are coming from and from who. In the early 1900 there were not many fossils which had been discovered and the technology was low on how to check the age of fossils.  

Homologous and Analogy

1. For your homologus traits provide the following information:

d. Provide an image of each species in this comparison.

 a. Briefly describe the two different species that possess the homologous trait.

A. The dog's leg is similar to the human arm. They both have carpals, a radius, and ulna as well as meta- carpals and digits.


b.Describe the homologus trait of each species, focusing on the differences in structure and
function of the trait.  Why do these homologus traits exhibit differences between the two
species?  Make sure your explanation is clear and complete.

A: The Homologus trait that I found interesting were the digits. Dogs seem to have 5 digits like we humans do. They do not have oposable thumbs and the fingers they have are meant to stand on as where we use our fingers to grasp things and make signs such as one, two, three, ect...


c. Who was (generally, not specifically) the common ancestor of these two species and how do
you know that ancestor possessed this homologus trait?

 A.  as far as research goes both have ancestral traces to whales.


2. For your analogous traits provide the following information.

d. Provide an image of each species in this comparison.







a. Briefly describe the two different species that possess the analogous trait.

A. Humans and Sharks are two different species that share some similarities when looking at the brain.
sharks are fish and humans are mammals of course. The cerebellum has the same function in sharks and humans. Sharks use it to their visionary advantage as well as their muscle movements. Where we use it for smooth body movements since it acts as a receptor that receives data from the spinal cord as well as sensory receptors to provide precise movement for the skeletal muscular system.



b. Describe the analogous trait of each species, focusing on the similarities in structure and
function of the trait.  Clearly explain why these analogous traits exhibit similarities between
the two species.

A. The cerebellum is similar among both brains and the cerebellum is the part of the brain that coordinates the actions of muscles and helps maintain balance. Even though humans and sharks are completely different the cerebellum has the same function. Since Sharks are mostly composed of muscles and cartilage, we on the other hand are muscles and bone but with the help of the cerebellum both sharks and humans can keep their balance.


c. All pairs of organisms share some common ancestor if you go back far enough in time.  Did
the common ancestor of these two species possess this analogous trait?

According to research I found that sharks have their own branch that derives from vertebrae as well as we humans do to. but they do not share a common ansestor

DNA strand

TAC CAA GAT GGT CCA TGC AGT GGA CTC ACG TTG ATC