Category: Primatology

The Reasons Public Bathroom Stalls Do Not Touch the Ground

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The reason commercial and industrial buildings have bathroom stalls which do not reach the floor is multifaceted. The design of doors which do not touch the ground provides a myriad of benefits including being easier to clean for custodial staff (e.g. reaching all areas with mop and bucket or pressure washer etc.), providing emergency access for first responders (e.g. elderly person who is unfamiliar and becomes confused thus falling down, an unconscious person who has suffered a health issue, wanted person hiding from law enforcement etc.), acting as a deterrent for unintended uses (e.g. using illicit drugs, consuming alcohol underage, sexual intercourse etc.), providing better air circulation between stalls so that odors do not linger, and limiting the spread of bacteria which reside upon the floor. In addition to these main reasons, it is additionally more cost effective as less material is used and the same door size fits and can be used for virtually all establishments, it is easier to escape from if a lock jams occurs, and toilet paper can be shared between stalls

Botulism Toxin (Botox) Disabling Portions of the Human Brain Related to Emotion

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Because human beings interpret emotions by mirroring one another, botulism toxin, more commonly referred to by the brand name “Botox”, when injected into the forehead, alters brain activity connected with various emotional states. The temporary paralysis of facial muscles from the use of Botox disables a person’s ability to mirror the person(s) they are interacting with. It also hinders their ability to read and interpret the facial expressions of others. Surprisingly, this information is being leveraged within studies of depression and patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, as it is believed that temporary paralysis of the forehead may help aid those who are experiencing clinical depression and/or a borderline personality disorder

The Argument Against Stem Cell Research and Why This Will No Longer be a Problem in the Future

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The reason stem cell research is controversial for some is because it is viewed as damaging and harvesting from one life to help another. This argument may be obsolete in the future as scientists are now discovering ways to create stem cells from cells within the body (e.g. skin cells etc.). The traditional method to create a stem cell was to take a skin cell, remove the deoxyribonucleic acid from its nucleus, placing it into an egg which does not have deoxyribonucleic acid but is capable of changing deoxyribonucleic acid, turning it into a stem cell which has the patients genome ascribed unto it. The new method involves placing 4 genes into the nucleus of the skin cell and allowing time to pass, as the genes reorganize the deoxyribonucleic acid so that it begins to appear as stem cell deoxyribonucleic acid, which changes the skin cell and causes it to shrink, losing its outside, converting it into an embryonic stem cell with the only difference between this method and traditional embryonic stem cell creation method being that this technique contains the deoxyribonucleic acid of the patient it is being inserted into. The 4 genes inserted into the cell create 4 proteins which exist naturally within an egg. These proteins trigger the skin cell deoxyribonucleic acid to arrange itself identically to how it would within an embryonic stem cell. Scientists refer to this type of cell as “induced pluripotent stem cells”, commonly abbreviated as “IPS cells”. Ideally, scientists want induced pluripotent stem cells to function identically to natural embryonic stem cells, avoiding the creation of unwanted cells which can lead to cancer. Researchers have discovered that some laboratory created stem cells fail to carry out the task provided and worse yet, some cause cancer to develop. Scientists are currently pursuing 2 paths to alleviate this problem, the first being the attempt to develop induced pluripotent stem cells which function identically to natural embryonic stem cells and the second being to create a system to recognize which induced pluripotent stem cells will fail in an effort to exclude these cells from being inserted into the human body

The Myth of Python Snakes Strangling Prey

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It is a myth that pythons suffocate their prey into submission and eventual death as they are technically causing obstructive shock of the circulatory system. This is performed by creating force pressure capable of exceeding the ability of the heart to compress, with this pressure focused tightly within the center of the heart, causing death as a direct result. As soon as pressure is elevated above what the heart utilizes to pump and eject blood throughout the circulatory system, the cardiac system becomes unable to eject blood causing prey to pass out within 10 – 20 seconds, similar in structure to how a headlock cuts off oxygen from the brain and causes a human opponent to pass out. As a python coils, it begins contracting its muscles to generate this tremendous crush pressure, referred to as “circumferential pressure”. To provide frame of reference, circumferential pressure is the type of pressure applied when a saturated cloth is rung out to expel all liquid. The blood pressure of prey typically doubles in stature after being constricted (e.g. moving from 120/80 to 250/160 to 300/200 over the course of 12.5 minutes), enough to cause syncope, a cerebral vascular accident, and death in most mammals. Sphygmomanometers typically exert 140 – 160 millimeters of mercury during a routine blood pressure examination, enough to cause blood perfusion to be cut off during measurement and pain to develop if the duration of the examination is extended for any reason. Python snakes are capable of applying 2x – 3x this rate of pressure, directly upon the neck or thorax of their prey. It is currently unknown if this ability can be increased when required (e.g. emergency situation of an animal escaping etc.)

The Study of Bacteriophages in Antibiotic Research and Why They May be the Next Major Scientific Breakthrough

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Bacteriophages, which are viral infections that reproduce to target and kill bacteria, were studied in Eastern Europe during the 1950’s by countries which did not have access to western medicine, including antibiotics. In 1 milliliter of sea water, billions of phages are present, with countless different varieties. Phages have tendril like appendages which are used to probe and identify hosts, clinging onto them, then forcing its own deoxyribonucleic acid down into the bacterial host. When this genetic code is introduced, it destroys the bacteria as a direct result. This leads to a chain reaction as hundreds more are produced each time this instance occurs, copies which then fledge out and find hosts of their own, building populations exponentially and wiping out bacterial infections completely. Bacteriophages were found prior to chemical antibiotics but when Penicillin was discovered, because it is so easy to develop and administer, chemical antibiotics became the clear path of choice in medicine with scientists not realizing the severity of this error until decades later. Antibiotics are often broad spectrum which is another reason antibiotic research overshadowed bacteriophagic research as different phages affect different bacteria and are therefore not broad spectrum. Because phages are self-replicating like bacteria, they have the ability to completely annihilate all bacteria presented before them in the same way that bacteria have the ability to totally annihilate their own host as well. Because of this, bacterial infections can be knocked out with 100% efficacy in all cases, regardless of the severity of the the infection, provided the correct phage is alotted enough time to do so. This is a task antibiotics often struggle to achieve and even if achieved, cannot be guaranteed in perpetuity as reinfection or resistance can occur at any time

The Reason Aritifical Intelligence Differs From Traditional Software

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Recently, many of the improvements made within the artificial intelligence sector have been due to the technology of “deep learning” which is also referred to as an “artificial neural network”. Traditional software is not intuitive as it simply follows a set of instructions predetermined by a programmer. If the software runs into a new problem which it has no answer prewritten for, it crashes. Deep learning is different as software can now write its own instructions instead of reading the instruction(s) of a programmer. Currently, as of 2021, deep learning is the equivalent of an all powerful, dim witted genie as it has the ability to evaluate the pixels of a photograph of a bottle of water, and can recognize with astonishing accuracy photographs of other water bottles, however it has no idea what the concept of water or the water bottle itself is, what the end user does to drink from the water bottle, what the end user needs the water for etc. This differs in human beings however as humans learn from a sample size of one, and are able to surmise the purpose of water and everything else which is relevant from witnessing it being used upon a single occasion

The Evolutionary Reason Human Beings Seek Violence and Conflict

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Whilst observing chimpanzees in the wild, Jane Goodall noticed her observed chimpanzee community beginning to divide amongst itself, with some members choosing to spend more time in the northern region of the jungle and others in the south. By separating themselves, these chimpanzees inherently relinquished their right to be recognized as part of their previous clan. This once seemingly peaceful community began to become heavily engaged within primitive warfare and conflict, with the entire community which had moved south annihilated into oblivion by their northern counterparts. Goodall stated upon record that it took her considerable time to reconcile this brutality, as she had always thought of chimpanzees akin to human beings however better, kinder, and gentler. Goodall believed that conflict was a human invention, but eventually realized and accepted that the dark and cruel side of human nature was deeply embedded within the human genome and inherited from primate ancestors. It is most probable that a propensity for brutality, violence, and conflict has been hard coded into human beings genetically, at the fundamental level of deoxyribonucleic acid which create proteins, which produce neurons, and subsequently unique neural traits, such as a propensity for violence behavior(s). It would be advantageous for evolution to have evolved such traits because if a person (or animal) is being attacked, the ability to fight back with deadly force is expediently beneficial. This is believed by most scientists to be the reason why such traits have evolved within human beings. It should be noted, prior to Goodall’s work, scientists had no knowledge of chimpanzees engaging in warfare and/or hunting practices, which makes her work groundbreaking and revolutionary to say the least as it provides unique introspective into human behavior(s)

The Causation and Cure for Colorblindness

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Being colorblind is more difficult than most people believe as those affected often cannot match clothing colors, tell when fruit is ripe, tell when meat is cooked, or tell when traffic lights are various colors in certain lighting conditions (e.g. flashing red being mistaken for flashing yellow). Color vision is trichromatic with 3 types of cone cells within the eyes which consist of blue, green, and red, which are sensitive to short, medium, and long wavelengths of light, with each cone permitting an observer to view approximately 100 different shades. When all shades are combined, the human eye can observe approximately 1,000,000 (1 million) different colors. Colorblindness can stem from faulty cone cells or an interruption between the pathway of the cones and the brain. Colorblindness has caused vehicular deaths due to accidents around the world which have occurred most often because a driver perceived a light as yellow when it was red in reality. Neuroscientist Professor Jay Neitz (pronounced “nites”), a color researcher at the University of Washington in the U.S. and his spouse, geneticist Maureen Neitz, have teamed up to try and cure colorblindness. Gene therapy is currently being researched around the world and scientists believe that colorblindness will be cured using gene therapy in the near future. Male squirrel monkeys are naturally red-green colorblind and gene studies have demonstrated that these monkeys can be afforded color vision after having a gene delivered into the cone cells within the eye. The gene produced transforms a subset of the green cones within the male squirrel monkeys eyes to force them to become red cones, red cones which have hijacked the squirrel monkeys neural circuitry which was previously utilized solely for blue-yellow color vision, essentially bifurcating into red-green cones and blue-yellow cones so that the monkeys examined developed full color vision like human beings as of 2019. The Neitz’s confirmed this by providing male squirrel monkeys colorblind examinations which when answered correctly, delivered a small treat of food after having undergone gene therapy. Trials in human beings have yet to start as the Neitz’s believe that this step is still a few years away, but expected to initiate during the 2020’s

The Psychology Behind Why Human Beings Desire

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Human beings are not born with a sense of self, as the answer to the question “who am I?” is truly the accumulation of experiences and interactions with other people. This interaction and experience creates the self-image, an idea which is built by the views and responses of other people. Modern society is comprised of a civilization which spends great time, effort, and attention acquiring and accumulating objects and possessions, often with no particular use whatsoever, collected to produce a statement of each individual, leveraging objects as an extension of the self. In a society of sentient beings, desire is an inevitability. The products which a consumerist society creates are optional but the desire is not. This drive is what makes it easy for producers to create and design products and services which are acquired by the masses, products and services which aren’t necessarily useful or needed (e.g. latest smartphone with unknown features which remain unknown until used for the first time, but this being unimportant as the end user is positive they will enjoy the features once observed) but are purchased out of the compulsion of desire. This primitive desire has created the modern concept of dynamic obsolesce. The end user is permitted to achieve a positive emotional state, for a short period of time, which quickly fades and must be replaced by something else. This character trait has been bred into the human psyche through evolution. Human beings, like all animals, compete for mates. All animals display extra resources (e.g. colorful feathers, large horns, decorative patterns etc.) to advertise for potential mates that their genes are incredibly fit for selection and reproduction. Human beings partake in this evolved display by demonstrating attributes which require extra energy and natural resources which aren’t required to be genetically fit, which the human mind responds to regardless of the features usefulness (e.g. high heeled shoes and makeup, fast automobiles, designer clothing and accessories like handbags etc.). Manufacturers of these types of products intuitively understand and therefore successfully hijack the concept of status, one of the most fundamental determinants of human behavior. Producers of products and services tap into the preoccupation human beings have with what others think as human beings are effectively animals seeking social stature and prestige. Because of this, human beings prefer objects to be new, flamboyant in their display, and convenient