Mapping the Human Transition from Vegan to Meat Diets
Homo erectus was the first member of our species to dominate the global food chain and become what zoologists call “a hypercarnivore” or “apex predator.” These terms describe mammals with diets where 70 percent of their food was other animals.
Ben-Dor, who is the lead author of the study, wrote in the new paper that the human colon is “77 percent smaller than that of the chimpanzee, while our small intestine is 64 percent longer.” The colon is where energy is extracted from plant fiber and the small intestine is where sugars, proteins and fat are absorbed.
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Apr. 4, 2021 1:30 PM
We are what we eat, goes the old saying, and new research has revealed one of the deepest and oldest secrets of who we are as a species. Humans are natural born killers: super-predators designed by evolution to subsist mainly on the meat and fat of large animals, and genetically hardwired to hunt our prey into extinction, says a new study on the eating habits of prehistoric hominins going back 2 million years.
This meta-analysis collated information from some 400 previous studies, conducted over decades by unconnected scientists, and providing biological, genetic, archaeological and molecular data on the diet of our Stone Age ancestors.
by Lenore T. Adkins
Mallika Sarma, Ph.D., aboard a helicopter in 2015. Sarma studies human resiliency in extreme environments, including space.
For scientist Mallika Sarma, the notion that science is apolitical, objective, or has nothing to do with the people you work with is “total garbage.”
She underscores this by sharing her favorite story about Sally Ride, who went on to become the first American woman in space. That Ride was asked if 100 tampons would be enough for two weeks in space prior to boarding the Challenger in 1984 shows Sarma, “You can’t only have young white men who are making the decisions.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/arts/design/Fort-William-Henry-soldiers-remains.html
Credit.Lauren Lancaster for The New York Times
They Died in the French and Indian War. Their Remains Await Reburial.
The bones of British soldiers and colonial militia were disinterred during a reconstruction of Fort William Henry nearly 70 years ago.
Credit.Lauren Lancaster for The New York Times
Dec. 18, 2020
At points over the past decade, disinterred human remains the full skeletons and fragmentary bones of British soldiers and colonial militia who died during the French and Indian War have been a cause of some concern in the environs of Lake George, N.Y.