Genetics and Lack of Brain Matter

Substantial, hmm. I promised substantial. I know, what about a bit of fringe science I discovered today. Ok, so science is not my strong suit so I may get some terms wrong, but I've an earnest interest in it so I'm sure you'll forgive me.

The Penile Spine
I get your attention. Yes, well apparently we were pretty close to evolving keratinized penile spines. What the holy hell? That's not all. We also are around one gene away from sensory whiskers. The link is in the title, so I'll refrain from unnecessary quotes. We lost these spines because apparently it made "copulation" pretty quick which somehow led to a loss in human lineage. So spinelessness makes you less sensitive so you can go the distance. Think about that, we evolved in such a way to make sex less about reproduction and more about a possible emotional bond. Pretty hectic, evolution really set us apart from most animals.

Furries rejoice, we're one gene away from cats. Eish.

Phineas Gage
Gage was a railway worker in 1848, by 1849 he was a sideshow freak and science guinea pig. What happened within that year? Well a railway spike was blown clean through his head removing a large chunk of his frontal lobe. Surviving the whole thing somehow, Gage went on to live 12 more years before dying (redundant sentence is redundant). Whats remarkable is how much he changed as a human being without that part of his brain. Apparently he became profane, insensitive and numb in the social and emotional context and didn't know how to place value on money. In fact when offered $1000 for a hand full of pebbles, Gage declined because he couldn't place value on the pile of pebbles (this was an experiment). This single individual was the foundation of what we know of neuroscience today.

At least it wasn't a penile spine.

I think I'll leave it at that today. Perhaps I'll do more of these science themed ones. I'm a big fan of Theoretical Physics so maybe I'll stumble through some of that sometime.

Thanks for reading, see you next week.