Title, Author: The Story of the Human Body by Daniel E. Lieberman
Viewpoint/What is the author arguing: The author is talking about how humans evolve and how they have been evolving for millions of years. He is arguing how we are related to chimps and how we got our characteristics from them.
Main Ideas/ Evidence: ○ Bipedalism ○Evolution ○ How environmental change affected evolution ○ How we are related to our ancestors (LCA) ○ Natural Selection ○ How our brains have increased in size over time ○ We are designed to be adaptable to do many things not just one ○ What we eat really affects our body- these days, many people eat junk food which lead to obesity and many other diseases
Interesting Facts: ○ Chimps are more closely related to humans than to gorillas. ○ It is harder to be bipedal when pregnant because your weight shifts your center of gravity while animals on all fours are more likely to be stable ○ Time spent chewing equals less than half an hour per day ○ They ate bark because they had bigger and stronger teeth ○ Being overweight increases fertility which is why we haven’t evolved out of it even though it’s unhealthy ○ Since the farming began, more than 100 genes were positive ○ Dark skin- protect against UV radiation: lighter skin in northern because it’s cold ○ Kids should chew gum a lot because it’s good for their teeth and jaws ○ Cause of Cancer: Sodium nitrite- make meat look red and preserve food ○ Our gut and our brain are connected ○ Shorter and stouter women have slightly higher fertility ○ Our gut is like a second brain because there are many nerve endings there ○ Human need to be encouraged and obliged
Vocab you need to look up: ○ maladaptive ○ vicissitudes ○ elicits ○ pernicious ○disparity ○ caveat ○ quandary ○ palimpsest
Things you don’t understand or understand fully or don’t make sense: ○ How chimps can’t walk straight and how that has to do with their hips and spine ○ How evolution is purely based on what helps organisms reproduce and not on what makes them physically more adept(healthy) ○ Our ratio of brain to gut size changes because of our diet ○ Fruit juices are as unhealthy as soft drinks
Favorite thing so far you learned or read about: ○ how bipedal humans evolved to run, because speed and strength were necessary for survival ○ how our teeth have evolved because of different available foods ○ how females have evolved to have more of a certain vertebrae since they have extra stress on their backs during pregnancy ○ how our gut and brain are related
Pits and Positives of the Story of the Human Body
Have you ever wondered how humans evolved from apes? From this book we learned that there is a very complex story behind this evolution including many points about teeth, brain, bipedalism, and other body parts. The book demonstrates evolution using an example of teeth and brain by explaining how teeth have evolved from being very large and strong to being smaller and more precise. This happened because originally they had to eat hard foods such as bark and tubers(thick part of stems) so they needed larger teeth. However, later on, they learned how to process foods before they ate them so in this circumstance big teeth weren’t as necessary. One interesting fact about teeth is that you spend less than half an hour per day chewing.The brains have increased in size over time. The brain was smaller because we did not have to exercise our brain thinking as much. It got bigger as we faced more complex challenges and had to adjust which helped to developing a bigger sized brain. Another main point of the book was bipedalism and how the evolution of different body parts helped to achieve that. An example of these body parts are our hips and feet (specifically arches). Our hips now face forward more and the arches of our feet help us to walk long distances. BIpedalism helped early hominins to stay cool(less surface area touched by the sun) and walk further in order to find food. The last main point of the book is how the food we eat and the choices we make affect our body greatly. Back then, their main food were fruits and they didn’t eat or do anything harmful so they had a very healthy body. As they evolved throughout the centuries, they started to find other foods and harmful behaviors such as tobacco. Also, these days, many people eat fast food very often which can lead to cancer. The reckless activities such as bungee jumping and sitting too much during the day have negative effects on your body. This book filled us with a lot of interesting knowledge but we wouldn’t recommend this book if you are a weak reader or if you are not interested in ecology. We believe this because there are many complex words and it is a little unexciting to read if you are not enthralled by ecology. One of the most positive aspects of this book was the diagrams and images which clearly demonstrated the points of the book. In conclusion, this book was very informative and highly recommended for all who are interested in ecology but not as recommended for high school students who may not be as interested.