But then sure people imagine these things happening and in a city London not somewhere like here you know Jodie Chesney is the 18th person to be murdered in London this ship and the 50 teenager to die Meanwhile 217 year old boys are still being questioned on suspicion of murder after Yusef Mackey was stabbed to death in Hale Barnes near altering him on Saturday night. The Dutch government says it won't help people who've joined the Islamic state group to return her husband should mean a Begum says he wants to take her and their baby son back to the Netherlands Jaeger read it married the teenager days after she travel to Syria in 2015 she's now been stripped of her British citizenship a correspondent Anna Holligan is in his hometown in on him there is absolutely nothing physical in his past that was explained S. He grew up in a stable home only one of the wealthiest neighborhoods I am he went to a good school he had friends he was a quiet boy he says he was brainwashed on the Internet others have said that he confessed it to Islam and they were preachers coming to the mosque and they were breakaway creeps wind speeds reached more than 75 miles per hour in parts of Southern Wales as Storm Freya sweeps across the U.K. Met Office is warning of injury and danger to life from flying debris in large parts of the country the U.K. 1st prison unit for transgender inmates will open this week when will be based in down view in south London it will initially cater for 3 offenders who were born male but have since changed gender and event peace and peers says schools should teach a language to people from age 5 to 18 to reverse what it calls a disastrous decline in skills ministers say the number of students taking language G.C.S.E. Days has improved slightly since 2010 that's the news let's go to sport now with Nicole McCarthy lower Amir has become the 1st affidavit in almost 50 years to successfully defended 2 titles at the European Indoor Athletics Championships after winning the 1500 meters in Glasgow to add to the 3000 meter title she won on Friday Shalane are asking Clarke one gold in the women's Is 100 meters while there were 4 silvers for the British team as they finished with 12 medals their best ever performance at the championships the repair manager Yogen club says he's completely fine with choosing Manchester City after his side drew no no at Everton and missed the chance to return to the to. On the Premier League the result means that for the 1st time since the 7th of December they were polar behind their title rivals by one point having played at the seam and number of games Brendan Rodgers 1st game in charge of Leicester ended in a $21.00 defeat against Watford while filum remain 10 points from safety after losing $21.00 at home to Chelsea under caretaker manager Scott Parker and in the battle of the bottom to Newcastle Falcons beat it was warriors 176 and rugby union's Premiership. This is B.B.C. Radio 5 Live on digital B.B.C. Sound small speaker and. Then a quick look at the weather very strong winds and rain spreading across much of the U.K. But it will start to dry out in many areas if I don't think the rest of the day the wind will ease with a mix of sunny spells and scattered showers highs of 11 degrees in London a night in Inverness. There's this $5.00 and $5.00 bright spots extra The 6 Nations champions will be crowned. Festival. Season kicks off with the Australian brokering. In ceaseless countries from the Premier League Champions League and F.A. Cup. 5 and 5 like sports extra. This is up for not only 505 Dawson added buying coming up in this a very special Monday morning phone and. Indeed we're talking about the human body and how we evolve we've got a special guest service endorser a mere You might remember she's an evolutionary anthropologist an expert on the human body can turn in the past about the evolutionary leftovers vestiges that they call a vestige of all structures on the human body that no longer serve a function you might want to ask questions about that those parts of the body that you feel at least no longer serve any function but still that. How come is a question the obvious one is down to you an 85058 by take so email open at a B.B.C. Dot co dot U.K. Or indeed give her a call directly 180-859-0969 extension 3 She'll be with us to answer your questions about how and why the human body is evolved to be what it is if you've got any questions for Dr me whether it's how we came to be walking on 2 legs or otherwise and through free thought so they're good morning good morning I am very well thanks very much last time you were Rod I got so many questions that came in via text and e-mails for you and your for a few minutes just bring us up to date on. The topic that we were discussing so I didn't realize I generally use just inundated Sunday with all these texts and e-mails just as I was about to say goodbye to you so we get you that we had to get you back thank you for agreeing to come back and I'll Chris thank you so much agreement and I have got some questions already and just so the listeners get the parameters of what you are able to talk to them about regards to the human body will kind of questions would you expect there anything that is there any questions are off limits about the human body you know no I don't think so I will try my best to answer them to the best of my ability so my training is an Evolutionary Anthropology questions that I think are how we evolve why we have faults and whether there are parts of our minds or bodies in our current age that are making mismatch in the environment that we are pressed as the environment that we adopted for so I'll do my best to answer any questions that you have and I have maybe some resources I can talk about if I can't answer your question that might be better suited for just on the question of mismatch Joyce is in self Queensferry which is in Edinburgh. In Scotland says I think I read somewhere that the amount of sugar we presently consume would have killed our Victorian ancestors but isn't is it then put a symbol that our bodies will adapt to the involuntary consumption of micro plastics because I don't see any way we can avoid these That's right that's right so I think it's unlikely that although our sugar intake it's very high now that it really would have killed someone in the past unless they were diabetic so we have modern marvels like insulin now that help us live lives that were not possible in the past with micro plastics That's an interesting question so for us to develop a trait or rather for it natural selection to select a trait that would be beneficial You basically have to have high rates of deaths caused in those people that don't have that trait so if for example there is some massive micro plastic epidemic that kills people that don't have a certain enzyme that can digest it that would be evidence of bachelor selection for that and sign and the next generation would most likely happen at so I doubt that there's anything to that degree going on right now but it's important also to recognise that natural selection is not an active force in that it can't foresee the future right it's simply who makes it to the next generation and what traits that they have that have benefited them that are then going to be passed their progeny I think listeners who get the idea of now oh the 808-590-9693 is the number to court if you've got a question for Dr Dorsey Amir our evolutionary anthropologist Kuo there of what I would see jokes ever period even at this time of the morning oh you know this is part of the human evolution is that Judy says doesn't can you ask the clever lady why my husband's brain seems to serve no obvious per cent. I hope in hell of a movie that is beyond your remit anyway Micallef Lancaster's says why is it necessary to clamp the coat and tie the human umbilicus wind to my knowledge most if not all other animals don't have to do this yet so that is a traffic question to the best of my knowledge actually I believe in some animals you don't get that they chew off the umbilical cord so they're doing not using their mouths as opposed to these tools and I think it is also the case that the little bit that is left after you cut it off or chew it off actually drops off on its own so what we've developed are these clever tools that help us do it in a more hygenic way but when I think we have been severing that connection in many ways for millions of years. It's a good question. It's fascinating to hear the kind of questions that coming through given the this is the 1st time that you've joined as I think people do you sort of get the idea just on the idea of human body parts that seem to serve no function anymore Mordecai's is why do men have nipples We'll do we need them for. Yeah so that is a really good question often male nipples are thought of as mystical structure is popularly but in fact they're not so they're kind of an accident of what happens during the developmental process as an embryo is developing so when an embryo is developing before sex differentiation happens that is before it starts developing into a baby boy or a baby girl the nipples have already started developing now what that means is that before the male actually becomes a male there's nipples are already there and when the baby is born it is born with those nipples as far as we know in males they don't serve a function but they're not necessarily the social structures and the way that we've been describing so far they're just kind of remnants of the developmental process of the embryo so as to prove it would not show men have nipples because they might be women. And so yes it would default blueprint of an embryo is a baby girl and unless there is sex genes are activated and it develops into a boy and so it is are actually developing before it up process kicks that. And of course men would look really weird without them. That's OK That's right it was not necessary for static reasons let's me to let it sit who is in Blackpool Hello Larry said I He. Didn't Good evening you through of course not to me I'm not the expert but the mere with us adults adore said Amir Go ahead ask your question yeah I'd like to know about the evolution of the membrane between 3. And one character an explanation and additions that cause this increase in. Yeah so that is I think one of the most defining questions of human evolution because we are very unlike other mammals and other primates with the size of our brain now what kicked out off is a bit of an evolutionary mystery I think there are lots of different things that could account for it and one of it is that over time as we started developing into these happy thoughts that were more open so our ancestors were treated well in primates once they started coming down into the land there were other trait I'm sorry other prey to target that were a little bit more complicated to find and so those of us that were clever and maybe had slightly larger brains were able to hunt down those things better and therefore pass those genes on to the next generation but what's interesting is that our brains are enormously energy hungry approximately 20 to 25 percent of our P.L. Metabolic rate our energy is going to our brains and it takes a lot of energy to feed them now what is potentially something that happened in human evolution is that there was a co-evolution of our ability to target meat and hunt and the ability that that gave us then to grow our brains and so it seemed like there was this kind of like cycle of being able to track down better prey get more access to meet and therefore potentially select for larger brains so that's one of the reasons that might have happened. Very straight Thanks thank you those a great question but I'm on the premise of the quote See the questions do is going to spread fact isn't fun yet this is out OK let's get a little bit tricky down SIMON So this yesterday in anticipation of your coming on the program and he says now that psychedelics are gradually being recognize how does duals who feel about the idea that access is psychedelic such as magic mushrooms were responsible for Fost tracking language and evolution. So this is a funny hypothesis known as the stone to ape hypothesis I would say in our Evolutionary Anthropology circles it doesn't hold much weight and it's possible that it's access to psychedelics that psychedelics were really important for the early development of things like shamanism and so in lots of different cultures and lots of different indigenous population you see people making use of natural substances for instance in South America a lot of use of tobacco essentially to the point where you are on the verge of death and hallucinating and that was an important part of the ritual aspects of those cultures and so it's possible that that is the function that it served but it's unlikely that it serves a really important role in the evolution of of let's say our brains. It's the stoned a high prophecy that's right what a great name I hope if I fool Verno Cornett that says sweet C.J. In Cambridge and I J Hi Don How are you a very well facts are Watch out you're enjoying this warnings for. Every least read Anthropologie never done that before that's for sure so you're free to do with me don't to do me a go ahead with your question J. It seems to me that there was some kind of contradiction between Wallace's work and Darwin in the Wallace said there was a part of the crime the same shouldn't being. Said that we couldn't come from Sydney and where as Darwin said yes we came from Simeon. Could you clear that out for me and for those verses as for policy would you also just tell if you want to see these I think many people I know Darwin is and Wallace to do its work and I think the South America Darwin sort of. Interesting experiments in different for search for Dolly and then supplying the word to him today which then was published in the in Darwin's book you say. It was die before the publication and there's a lot of women saying in the science world about whether all this was right or Darwin was right and what is a Mustang you say and they see Darwin was origin of these pieces were about Simeon d'Orsay who was similar to the original homo sapien in. So I think simian just is a moniker to refer to apes so if we say that something it's coming from A to mean origin the put it means James that was how you thought That's right yes yeah that's right so you know I'm not intimately familiar with waltzes work to the point that I know exactly what he said about the differences micro McGowan's and what you would find. When you went clarifying that for me J. . WALLACE seemed to say that there was an additional part on the chromosome. Proved that this couldn't come from the simian. Darwin seems too obvious. And says no we came from the simian of the Jubilee so this is a bit controversial I know but it's intriguing because there's an additional part of the chromosome. You know where did that come from kind of thing and yeah so unfortunately without more specifics about that I'm afraid I can't speak to it but I will say that it is I would say very widely accepted in my field that we did evolve from primates in fact that we are primates and there is lots of evidence to back that up both kinetically behaviorally morphologically historically but I would definitely like to hear a little bit more about that so I might look it up on my own afterwards if you look up all this is well in my muzzle of find out what I mean ready even so I sort of. Thank you for the on for the jury should the dog who couldn't answer your question in charge of murder you could I was Judy's question. Do you know why her husband's brain seems to serve no purpose. Anyway we lost you Jay No I'm still here yeah it's been great. Where I think it is. Somehow I knew that was going to be the odds but I thought I think you know I think. You volved me. Thank you for calling as well Jay thank you very much only 0 point 085909693 I said I would like to join in this fascinating conversation that we're having tonight evolutionary and through Paula just a. Discipline I didn't even know existed obviously now clearly exists I understand that now but I never thought about it before and we thankfully don't to do also Mir is here to answer any questions you might have about the human body you've got Richard in benefit with us as well any rigid people in those who wanted to mention you guessed as well. Don't let me answer Hello yeah like question. When you have a large contracts where a lot of people die a large sample 2nd mobile phone how does one manage to redress the balance when so many men have to hide it and we become psychologically. In generational. Boy's Own you to go also. Tonight Chennai it is. Well you got your job if you. Know No I think that's a great question so these cases of let's say manmade warfare or even cases of let's say hurricanes or natural disasters are cases of what we call genetic drift and so these are cases where there is just kind of a random portion of the gene pool that no longer is able to go to the next generation. And I would say actually that nature is not necessarily this kind of omniscient balancing force it really is just an individual whether or not they can survive and reproduce to the next generation and natural selection as a force is really essentially Are you fit enough to make it to the next generation and there's no larger plan kind of balancing out there's some cases in other species for instance those where sex ratios are balanced out where there are perhaps ways in which the developing embryo can recognize something about the balance and either differentiate into a male or female to the best of our knowledge humans don't do that and there are many cases for instance I'm thinking of China's current demographics where boys outnumber girls and there are kind of a. Potential consequences of that downstream that we don't really have a lot of control over so I would say that with humans we don't quite see that on average there are slightly more boys born than girls very slightly more and toward the end of life there are more women than men and so you kind of see this crossover happening but on average is about 5050 but yet it doesn't these kind of like manmade things like warfare really do change that balance and I don't think that nature is really rebalancing it and any important way. Roy The issue is China you know coming back I mean for you you say you've got more men than there are girls because it possible ready it's. Not a large market it's like coming back the other way you know looking in and why now men are more girls being dormant boys for example. You know right right so I think that there is perhaps social policy in 2nd help us shift balance to one way or another for instance limiting late term abortions for use need to selective reporting of female embryos for instance but there are definitely social political consequences for. More or less artificially changing the sex ratios in some important way and one there's actually a book about this called their branches that I haven't gotten around to reading yet but I know it's on this topic about the political and social consequences of artificially changing the sex ratios to favor for instance men in China. I think Richard was referring to the now you know the one child policy has been overturned and Charlies in China there allowed people to have more than one child forever my critics in this Richard you're asking here because a lot of people you know there were places where people were deliberately looking girls boy because I only wanted a son because I could only have one great Charo Yeah well I wonder whether that whether it was with dressing itself or man having more girls for the Mother Nature was redressing itself you know again you know what it would which or whatever but yeah. Yeah I think it's unlikely in humans so I do think that it is approximately $5050.00 and that each in each birth as an independent event so I don't think that that's happening but things like social and cultural forces might be changing that balance the interesting question so maybe we return to some of these questions in a momo to Nick spend of the meal in black bird He's with us hello Neal Good morning doesn't Good morning Dr Deutsch I mean how are you. All right thank you my question to both through evolution why do we still love think that an appendix colors so I don't know yet because become an obviously closer to a believer in the Do we don't we just. Get removed That's right that's right so the appendix is a very interesting story and historically it's been fought of as one of our best digital features and just for those listening of us digital future is we chatted about before is some sort of trait that no longer serves the function that it a ball for and so by looking at other animals and primates we can try to understand what the appendix was originally for and it seems like it was really useful for helping us digest plant material and as I was describing a bit earlier once the human diet started changing away from that the appendix started mattering less and less and you're right actually at that in some cases it can be potentially problematic and even fatal Now what's I think very interesting about the human story is that we're not just necessarily totally vulnerable to natural selection we have this complex culture that keeps getting more and more complex and with that has come surgery right so we can take out an appendix that's inflamed and potentially save the lives of people that in the past would have died and in fact what we're describing without surgery is a case of natural selection and so it's possible that what we're observing is the appendix being actually slightly against Up until the time when we really started medically intervening and through this medical intervention and by saving those people that otherwise would have passed away in the past what we're doing is interrupting the work of. So so the paid gigs would have some time this is what I understand from what you say I'm sure you understand as well do over if we had to if through surgery we had been able to remove the appendix over the course of time the appendix would have disappeared if it said that from you but I'm . Yeah that's that's one way to think about it and that's I think a working hypothesis right and I think we've done enough for a lot of things not just the appendix but through medical interventions we've really been able to weaken in the course of selection things that would have been fatal in the past and that meeting would have been removed from the gene pool we are now intervening upon. Wonderful Dr Dorfman doesn't thank you very much indeed for any Thank you no it's not finish it because you asked about the tonsils as well I think that there it is a similar thing little insoles it so the titles actually do serve a function they are part of our immune system and they are kind of the 1st responders they are able to detect pathogens and they're able to recruit the immune system to help fight whatever pathogen might be detected now in some cases what you get is that the tonsils themselves become infected and need when become the source of the infection and in some severe cases they have to be removed the popular understanding of this is that it didn't really seem to have a significant. Negative effect right so removing it seems to be more or less the same as keeping it but there was a study that came on just yesterday actually suggesting that those with early Hans like to me that they had their tonsils removed as children more potentially more susceptible to upper respiratory illnesses in later life potentially suggesting that there is some role upon the tonsils really are playing and that removing them might be slightly detrimental obviously if it's to the point that they're infected and really dangerous they should be removed but they definitely serve a function and are I don't think commonly viewed as just a tool structure you know when I was a kid a lot of kids went to get the tonsils removed and I always envied them because they go like a week or 2 of school have a long they go out of school and I never knew what it was like to be you know school and get all that great national health food and so on so you seem like they were getting better better fit than we were yes there is but I wonder if it's good but it's what Rich it's been free was I wonder when you when we intervened at some point. In nature nature is caused by removing people's tonsils and now when we don't remove those tones whose anymore does nature. Re address I know it's over a short period of time but once upon a time we might be going down the trajectory of nature thinking where you keep referring I'm out may as well get rid of these tonsils but now that we leave them in you know they survived other a stronger. You know existence in the human body than they would have been other was. So the things that we do during the course of our lifetime are really unlikely to affect what happens in the next generation so someone that is born with tonsils but has the medically removed still has the genes for tonsil development and will pass it on to their offspring so it's unlikely that these interventions that were. Taking during the course of someone's lifetime is going to affect their ability to genetically transmit that next generation so I think that's unlikely and Lucy sends a text saying what about toes and toenails in fingernails Why do we have them yet so tall some fingernails do serve a function they are helpful for helping us almost to use them like tweezers so we have really fine control of that and they actually help us correct things better we can use our nails better because they're not bending back so they're providing a bit of a support scaffolding for our for our nail so to speak our toenails are probably slightly less useful but probably still useful to some extent to the degree that I described so many generations to come Will women's toenails be funny many killed when they have all those painted you know playing games on. Probably unlikely. Which is a good thing because there is no problem as a stew of the work you know. It is good for good for nature for your kids to be. The work force in there is but bear with this will come back just a moment and talk some more about evolutionary ads for apology with our guests this morning don't adore me if you want to do directly about any questions you've got about the uber body you can give me a call now or 080-859-0969 extension 3 1st has got the latest 5 Live headlines as Mitch Mansfield on digital B.B.C. Says it's Snuffy. This is B.B.C. Radio 5. The government says. Will spend more than one and a half 1000000000 pounds on boosting rundown towns after Breck's it labors accusing trees may of trying to bribe M.P.'s tobacco withdrawal till the prime minister says prosperity has been unfairly spread for too long an opinion poll for the B.B.C. 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Is urging parents who lose a child to consider organ donation saying that young people are dying because of long waits for transplant donations from adults have risen by a 5th over the past 15 years but the numbers from children are mostly unchanged and at least 14 people have been killed by tornadoes in Alabama the U.S. State's governor is warning residents there could be more extreme weather to come Nicol has a spot in front of her home cried Laura Mira completed a golden double at the European Indoor as lead example and chips in Glasgow into the home show they come now you know rob your history Micah is a long long way to the 3000 meter she won on Friday night and now it's cold again in the $1500.00 metres near becoming the 1st athlete in almost 50 years to successfully defend 2 titles the event that's very special isn't it but I mean it had to be for here I'm just yeah we only say to do the one a few months ago and I thought you know what let's go for the double and then decided you know it was one of 6 in British medals on the final day there were Silvers for the women's 4 by 400 metres relay team holy broncho in the pool vault Jimmy Webb in the men's It 100 metres and Tim Duckworth in the hip tough alone while she lay in Austin Clarke won gold in the women's It 100 meters having been hourly pitched to the title 2 years ago after Belgrade I know I'm strong and so I knew that I needed to I want to be out there for Maddie and just hold her hand and then you know you'd have no regrets and you give me you know Liverpool manager your gun club says it was a good day but not a perfect one as they truly know though with Everton in the Merseyside Darby at Goodison Park Liverpool now a trio Premier League leaders Manchester City by one point with 9 games remaining You cannot judge everything because like because on a title race differently you have to obsess to say it's like this it's so it's good isn't it so for us probably the most difficult away game season because Wales all of them so important for us it's important so it's always a special. Game I think we had today at least 5 really really big chances didn't score and that's how it is Brendan Rodgers 1st game in charge of Leicester ended in a $21.00 defeat of Waterford Andre Gray's winner coming after a clearance from Kasper Schmeichel was intercepted but Rodgers refused to place any blame on his goalkeeper he was very standard today probably only misplaced policy a mere nothing it was so obvious it was trying to put it into the striker to hold the ball up and there's no criticism of him but as you know there's no blame he was he was probably a force there was also defeat for limbs new caretaker manager Scott Parker they were beaten 21 by Chelsea at Craven Cottage to remain 10 points from safety we got some exceptional tiny players was not quite perform for one reason or another to me the biggest focus is can we get the fans back because I always assume when the team it's again we're strong alpha Inverness are through to the Scottish Cup semifinals after winning 21 against Andi United's Rangers face a replay it against Aberdeen after drawing 11 against Derek McInnes a sight we felt good because Martha museum will look forward to when it comes round but on the high we want to try and get a company a cellphone intentions those same one job done and that's what we try to do much through the night champions Wigan remain 2nd from bottom of the Super League after news ing its $116.00 of London while Hull F.C. 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Sounds of all night at a boy show from Monday morning Evolutionary Anthropology phone and we are asked about any questions that you have about the human body in how we evolve don't adore me or is with us she's an evolutionary anthropologist and she'll take your questions about why we developed Physiologically the parts of the body that we don't need anymore perhaps you do. And obviously there are many other things to talk about in regards to this little bit of controversy which I'll come onto the moment road to do so as we take the controversy 1st let's start yesterday the controversy for us because you might remember earlier on one of our callers I think it was Jay in Cambridge was putting forward some different anthropological theories one of them being Darwin and then another one being Wallace. And Kenneth in down the you know just Kenneth one of our listeners as well says chromosomes 1st were not known about do Wallace's time and also why do you just say that when Darwin is around the genes weren't known about then so any says your age and with 2 to 2 are nonsense. Can you say that. Sure yes so we didn't know until way after Darwin and also time exactly what was in it up in heritance Darwin actually did hypothesize about something called Jem you'll G.E. And UL e which kind of function like genes but it wasn't quite clear until way they were on especially with the incorporation of Gregor Mendel is work on peas that we were introduced to the modern synthesis this is the idea that genes are the carriers of this information and are the units that are actually done by natural selection. You can talk about it in retrospect the insides even though we may not have known about genes we can infer gene is in his that's right talk of ours because he would have been of the Somehow he just wasn't sure exactly how any just the technology wasn't quite there to figure that out in his lifetime OK so lots of questions for you will go back to the callers in just a moment or 2 so bear with us cord is. Some interesting questions here for why did the male voice evolve deeper than the female voice of Jeff. That's interesting so it's unclear whether it's something that was directly selected for or is some sort of consequence of testosterone and it's likely that it's one of the many features that exhibit sex differences like height in which you get some selection for signals that might be useful so for instance we know that men with a slightly deeper voice are often perceived as being more attractive than men with a higher voice and so it's possible that it was acting as some sort of signal of let's say how formidable man is or his circulating levels of testosterone and so these are signals that may have been sexually selected and that may have been important in mate selection for you till anything about male masculinity from looking at men's feet. That's a good question and you know I'm not aware of work on that topic but feet tend to be directly proportional to the rest of the body and so it's possible that you could see and 1st someone's height from the length of their feet but it's unclear if that work has been done that's just speculation OK because for the record I'm a size 10 or generally 7 size 11 otherwise the wife hears a lot about the geisha. Yet this other while this is interesting from a traditional summer who will say look it's a future was you know if humans will develop in our sight capacity to deal with digital screens as so many young people especially he says in the Far East is suffering from myopia shortsightedness and also do other mammals have the same issues with eyesight as humans do. Yes So this is I think a really topical and interesting question in terms of human evolution so as it is kind of referring to earlier for a trait to really come on the scene and be selected for there must be some serious disadvantage for a person who does not carry that gene so if it were the case for instance that those with poor eyesight died and were not able to pass on their genes that next generation that is something that we would call natural selection but with eyesight We have also intervened in many ways to correct these deficiencies so I myself wear glasses that have only been around relatively recently and thus I don't actually suffer the consequences of it but I say it is an interesting thing in that it does get trained over time especially early in development based on what you're looking at and so one of the reasons people have hypothesized that we have what is now known is that myopia boom this really high increase in the rates of near-sightedness is that we're spending a lot of time training our eyes to look closely and we're not necessarily using our long distance vision quite as much especially in early development and so the reason we might have higher rates of myopia might be influenced by the fact that we're training our eyes very early on to look close as opposed to far now if you had. Done the you have more. I was just going to touch on this topic of this eyesight deficiency in other animals to the best of my knowledge there is obviously going to be variation and how good an animal's eyesight is but I think this recent increase that we've seen in myopia in humans is almost certainly due to cultural or environmental changes that's happened just too quickly for it to be caused by genes alone you know 80859096 tried 3 as a number school if you'd like to speak to door to door directly and ask a question about the human body. She's a human evolutionary and reportage is we've got with us Mel in we're all Hello Mel How are you morning Tilton Good morning doctor very well thank you Don It's very nice to speak to you again and thank you for taking my call. My abiding memory of having my tonsils removed was the US Tri-Care I mean I was about 8 years of age being told to eat plenty of ice cream and having this mess trying to show me lots and lots of water and ice cream to. Tell me when I'm on the things never happen to me Oh. Never get any will not allow you to. Look at the question I wanted to ask the doctor is. It's a it's a it's is probably an on to the logical question I get is complete is a go I think it was an analytic mound was found I don't know what that was in the article so man's got Lacan quite remember I'm sure somebody wouldn't. And they found on doing D.N.A. Tests or tests to have viewed that he probably would have come from Scandinavia or from from around the area and it will obviously for some reason have. He'd obviously met somebody. From another tribe and there was a conflict and they share in the heat it was really really interesting I remember and I think what happened they did it had a conflict and narrowed been fired after him and it hit him in the had and they couldn't ascertain all this up to put to the chase. The panic frosted obviously kept him in good condition on they found that he had the the what was beautiful coat that had been so on a coil stand how the arrows Anis on a pouch that had some tools that are obviously been used for. Fashioning has. Been in the some level now he was from Switzerland or one of the Nordic countries and they did they did some kind of bomb in the eye and I think is what I'm thinking could be the I.C.R.C. I could be the iceman it was very very interesting I think it was on one of the National Geographic or. One of these one of the programs waiting for anything to do with paleontology and bones of things like that I mean I'm like a shot to be honest. He wasn't found he was found in the Alps I think but you're just not right yet the sound of the outside thank you already had the most this animal skin on a quill still had you know the detail was still there and they could do tests on them and they found that he'd had a confrontation with another with other people. Questions held by the damage that been on the school level ever it was and that he come to that whole conflict they could work from the book My question to the Dr is. It's morning with the gods of we know obviously that we learn things well through the centuries we hope people who are very clever they write things down and we can learn and we can speak and we can communicate with each other I mean it only in mind these people couldn't even speak English and yet there were functioning tools they were. Clothing to me so beautifully made you know and so to gather how how what do you know doctor how would they learn how would they who would teach of them so I would be learned skill it's just a subject to move up because I mean the it doesn't just happen they don't just do it they've got to somehow be told so they've got to learn how to do the right ferns Yeah yeah so if you're referring to artsy actually he was found I think he was hypothesized to live about 3000 B.C.E. Which really in the eyes of evolution is not that long ago for our species so for all intents and purposes our anatomically modern Homo sapiens The She's has been around at least 200000 years and what we mean by that is that more or less with some exceptions a child that was born maybe during our time could be born into our time and function just fine so these are really modern humans in the way that you probably know them now the question of how you get this kind of complex cultural information like sowing is an interesting question and the answer really is that it's very gradual so we as humans have been really remarkable billet easy to both create culture and transmit it so as you were very accurately mentioned language is one of the ways the rich we can do this and what this means is that very slowly over generations these little pieces of information that are useful So for instance how to create a needle and how to sew are passed down really orally and through. Transmission and demonstration across the generations and are refined but what's really beautiful is that each generation gets all of the combined wisdom of the past generation and can then innovate upon it and so our cultural evolution is it accumulates over time and so the same technology probably about our team is using to so that clothing is very similar to the technology that we use now only we have maybe slightly better needles but this is a very gradual and slow process so if you go back further in time and trace his ancestors back every generation you probably see some maybe slightly less complex version of the same exact cultural innovation stretching back and rakes. Was in the one the the skeleton that was found in northeast city I'm pretty sure that's the one in it northeast of the somewhere around the city in the Alps in any case. My code hybrid with some of my co. You get a very crucial background on how by how affective to shoulder and. So those very strangely patterns of. Iran or were they are. The most. Refined in a time are harder suppose growth. That there's nothing wrong with X. Longer not fly. To the serious the pavement so much to cavemen child ready that caveman replies must have been protected or not by people staying up all night or even the far. And protecting the girl because the. Proposal is so you know so not today Dotson's basically yeah yeah they don't have any any fairly short foundation in. A bipolar disorder could be a little a my natural. Sure sure so human sleep patterns I think are relatively variable depending on where you are on the planet so. In general humans are what are known as diurnal so we usually sleep at night and we're up in the morning but sleep patterns vary and I think these are the types of things that are also affected by culture so for instance in some of the populations I work with in the Amazon there is very little electricity and some of the communities and your sleep patterns are much more determined by the location of the sun and when it sets in when it rises but in some communities where there's electric lighting you see that those patterns are pushed back or forward and so it is flexible process and it also is very likely that people at least what we know from contemporary hunter gatherers people get up in the middle of the night to tend to fires to feed their children and women wake up at all hours of night to settle their babies who may be crying or feed them and so it certainly is the case that there are there's a lot of variation and it's not necessarily the case that we are evolved to sleep through the night 8 hours of nights the relationship with bipolar disorder I'm not particularly familiar with but it is possible that there might be some function to having a more flexible sleep pattern especially if some parts of the year let's say the night is more interest or less dangerous than others Michael think you've got Jeremy Finn don't D. And it can move. Hello good species Good question of the dog to do. Something rid many years ago a kind of Ember where. I just want to. Research or evidence for this because it goes to correlate with my own observations for well before the air war and the tendency. For the mother say the family to care for her children more than the father stated the family oh I've just tended to nor to Simone far away all the families as well the. Mother does more of the caring and therefore she's more likely to keep in touch with her side of the family but I read somewhere that it may actually be put evolutionary reasons yet that the mother can be on her side of family to be more so after. The children are harder children we have those with the father side of the family is one way we help with fully than the 2 of them but it's more possible but they're not his children that's right that's right that's exactly right so your observations do match up with what we know in the evolution or literature to be adaptations around what's known as paternity uncertainty so you're absolutely right that a mother who gives birth to her child can be 100 percent sure that that child is her genetic offspring she bore it but the father could never be 100 percent certain and in fact it's pose such a dilemma throughout the years that there are lots and lots of cultural innovations aimed at trying to secure a turn of the certainty and it also is the case again that because of the certainty of the maternal lineage it's probably more likely in many cultures that the maternal side is contributing more especially the grandparents on that side yeah that's what I mean to go and P.M.'s and uncles and aunts That's right that's only my family but maybe I was just pure strickly But and so and others as well and as a C. I just wonder if you see that it is actual sold research evidence is not just an interesting theory yeah yeah I know it's a bit but topic of paternity certainty is certainly something that we study in our field and there is documented cases and I get as I mention lots of cultural innovations around this so for instance there are lots of cultural innovations and lots of culture. That are focused on limiting female sexuality and one of the reasons that we see that cropping up again and again is again this is a way to try and ensure that there is more certainty in the paternal lineage trait you can't be 100 percent sure but if you engage in let's say this is another term make guarding if you are around the woman more if you're kind of observing her interactions you are better able to control her sexuality of course this is not a moral case just because we observe it doesn't mean it's something we should be doing but it is it is accused that we do observe and so just humans you see those in essentially all genetically or sexually reproducing animals and especially in the case of birds you see this this form of make guarding takes place a lot and it's all around this idea paternity certainty OK. Right now your observations are spot on you go great. Thank you but you're just really appreciate it Kenneth and Don De they've got Jack Sussex Elo Jack Dorsey and oh yeah yeah my question for you or your expertise to go back thousands of years every where would you say 70 votes for. Cherry. Cherry it evolution of the body. I mean if someone if you don't have somebody a few 1000 years ago that probably looked exactly over the 5 of us with that trade you it's right out with a you know what would they be fact if I was asked pretty much will have or how did you how awful would you have to go by he said yeah but it's really different Yeah so in terms of general functioning in terms of interactions and such and in terms of like social belittling guage really what we define us anatomically modern Homo sapiens you can really go back 100000 maybe 200000 years now that's not to say that we haven't changed at all during that time but you have to remember that Snedeker evolution is very slow it takes hundreds of generations really for there to be significant differences that are noticeable and so I'm really of the mind that if you go back you know thousands and thousands of years you actually are still going to encounter humans that are very much like the humans talking you know right now. But again not to say that there aren't some slight differences in our genetic material largely a lot of the recent genetic changes have been due to things like die at or adaptations to cold climates or to high altitudes but they're relatively minor So we actually define our species by this idea of anatomical maternity and we can kind of infer that our minds and bodies are really functioning the same way based on that. Yeah I mean if you it but how does a 1000 he is out to half a 1000000000 years well ask how would they be different so if they are they yeah you see so I mean this is one of the tough things about the whole record right is that bone fossilised behavior doesn't and so a lot of these think we have to infer and a lot of time people look at our evidence of things that are complex for instance they look for evidence of art and look for evidence that sculpture is of complex tool because that way we can kind of retrospectively and genea reverse engineer that there must have been complex mind created thing. But the other thing you have to bear in mind it's all is that everything is very gradual right so it's not that you there is some sort of shift that happens in one generation after which we call those being human and before that they're not human right you know babies being born 20 non-human mother it's all very much a backdrop and so we have this category that we've come up with you know approximately 200000 years ago or anatomically modern humans but of course that's that's kind of a useful thing to think about but not necessarily the truth right everything is kind of gradually blending back into other species OK This Thanks a lot I'm sorry too thanks of the go Jack yes I do say that Luther King I'm a journalist who question the purpose good or the so off to the through to news or to just wait to have to the truth old news for you I'll put the question because you could think about events Yeah I started to question use considering the Pashtun will. Talk sick environments on this planet where life exists not the. Smoking childish. Shit but actually just because of the speech talks it cost all the chapter of the boiling cases pockets after you fall into like a freak with literally all these planets and could see through the weeds of what will will make it so anyway you see possible to point you by always a human being to fall if different not just on display of. Well funnily enough this is from every similar kind of question not quite that. He says might it be possible in the future to design a person to survive in an environment of of them that found on earth considering the mess people are making of this planet it might be necessary to design people to be able to live on the planet. On a planet this one is being on the planet this one's being to. How is everything you brought over Yeah no really good. For you having to do corners we could have both brothers up to save. And we. Could have ever. Get into corners as well and we'll come back after the news yeah OK OK Yeah just take care we'll come back to your option we owe it no wait 5 No no no it's 6 not 3 there's a number to call to sub 0 bring your brother along if you got to give us a call as well yes this is a case may be. Just for news. For anyone else C.B.C. 5 it's true Good morning this is not. The main news on 5 he says the reason may have Bing and paste it back. And Forth Britain's lower and here wins a golden European into athletic skis B.B.C. 5 with the B.B.C. 5 Live has Giuliana Cassaday Labor's accusing Theresa May a bribe. Supporting areas to back her withdrawal Dale the prime minister is launching a $1600000000.00 pound fund to boost less well off to leave the E.U. Has our political correspondent Ian Watson the bulk of the money is going to was in England. And this is effectively what treason is saying she is making because of the promise she made and that 1st speech as prime minister to help great working. Family is by an assembly former Conservative M.P. United independent group put it very bluntly she said that tourism is trying to buy votes the home secretary will meet police chiefs this week after a series of stabbings around the country Sajid Javid says they'll discuss what more can be done to stop senseless violence 2 teenagers were stabbed to death at the weekend in London and Greater Manchester Leeroy alone.