Born to run
Humans are anatomically designed for long-distance running, right down to our large buttocks, which give us stability. Biologist Dennis Bramble and anthropologist Daniel Lieberman claim human ancestors first evolved into endurance runners while competing for prey. While there are many mammals that are obviously much faster than humans, it is our ability to run for hours while expending little energy that stands out. It was this evolutionary selection for running, and not simply for walking, that brought our ancestors away from the trees. This also led to the changes that took us from the long arms and short stature of apes and early hominids to the current human body.
-Justin Trottier
Source: CBC News
Yushchenko poisoned?
A British toxicologist is supporting claims that the defeated Ukrainian presidential candidate and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned. Yushchenko was hospitalized in September by a “mystery illness”-he claimed to have been poisoned, but his doctors said they found no evidence supporting his claim. Now, John Henry of St. Mary’s Hospital asserts that the disfigurement of Yushchenko’s skin is symptomatic of dioxin poisoning. Although he admits that he bases his conclusion on photos alone, Henry stated that this type of disfigurement could be the result of a single large dose of the poison. The pictures below are from August of this year, from November.
-Zoe Cormier
Source: Nature
