Monica Bennett
Bio
I am a retired high school and college teacher. I have taught forensics, biology, chemistry, ecology, and Earth science.. Long Island has been my home for 60 years.
Stories (63/0)
The Real Hobbit
If there ever was a species that rocked the scientific world, it was Homofloresiensis. It was so tiny, so small brained, so out of time and place. Found on the Island of Flores in Indonesia in 2003. How did it get there? It had to be by boat of some kind. How does it fit in our family tree? That is something no one has been able to figure out yet. It was the WTF reaction by researchers as well as its diminutive size that complicated its acceptance into the species Homo. The keyboarding went quantum. It was a pathological anomaly. It had this disease or that syndrome. You name the disorder, floresiensis had it. The most common choice was Down's Syndrome, which is very rare among primates. Only two known cases have ever been found. When more bones and tools were found, we were asked to imagine a tribe of Down's Syndrome dwarfed hominins sailing off to Flores and establishing themselves as hunters. Really.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Futurism
Evolution of the Big Brain
Our brains are truly the one thing that has separated us from everything else that has lived on this planet, and it was happenstance. It evolved serendipitously, as a side effect of our environmental lifestyle, and the tale is a glorious tribute to the beauty of evolution. Let me be clear. We did not need a big brain to survive. Nothing else has one, and all life here progresses fine without one. Its usefulness allowed us to conquer every environment. So what did we do that was so right?
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Futurism
Neanderthal and the Denisovans
The southern Iberian Peninsula near Gibralter was the last outpost of Neanderthal. They languished there until as late as 24kbp (thousand years before present). This area offered several survival elements They had warmth, seafood, and cliffs. With so much game gone at this point, they probably relied on food provided by the sea and cliffs. The cliffs also offered security from intruders. Climate had undergone drastic changes. A volcanic eruption 40kbp began a series of extremely cold seasons. This caused a loss of game animals and the calving of icebergs that also lowered temperatures. This is seen as the match that broke the camel's back for our cousins. Some researchers believe that Neanderthals couldn't make warm enough clothing, but that seems ridiculous. These were a people long used to living in colder temperatures. After all, aren't they built for the cold with their shortened arms, legs, and stocky bodies, just like Arctic people today?
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Futurism
Why We Walk on Two Legs
Perhaps the greatest frustration in evolutionary biology is bipedalism. Why walk on two legs if running on all fours is faster? Well, for the last hundred years or so, we were taught we stood up to see over the tall grass of the savannah, much like meerkats. This freed our hands to carry food, make tools, and become the mighty hunter. That theory went out the window when the entire Savannah Hypothesis bit the dust. Ardipithecus and Australopithecines are now viewed as semi-woodland dwellers. Here we developed two-leggedness because we stood on branches, using the hands to steady us, employing a light touch. They have even determined how strong the touch would be as we steadied ourselves, swaying branches and what the force of a breeze would be. Some people have got too much time on their hands!
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Futurism
Out of Africa
Today's view of human evolution is rapidly shifting from the now-defunct Savannah Hypothesis to the more believable coastal living scenario. No longer is the idea that we developed our brains while hunting on the savannah held true. Some have opted for a semi-woodland environment, but this, too, is leading us to coastal living as the preeminent ecosystem where we evolved from a small-brained biped into a large-brained one. Picture, if you will, a group of LCAs (Last Common Ancestor) living on the east coast of Africa, blocked to the west by the Ethiopian Escarpment, and to the east by the Red Sea. There is plenty of freshwater. We know this because there is a continuum of freshwater springs in this area today, produced by the movement in the East African Rift System. Seafood was plentiful. Even the old and the very young had all they could eat. There was volcanism and rift movement and occasionally openings in the rift would come about and some would leave this paradise for the interior. They may have gotten lost out in this different world and been unable to make their way back. Or, the pathway they took out of their normal environment may have been closed off by rift activity. Unless you think bipedal forms of hominids sprung up spontaneously all over Africa, this is the only interpretation. The likelihood of that is remote when you consider the extremely different environments in which this adaptation would have had to occur.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Futurism
Why Are We Hairless?
We are called the naked ape because we show more skin than any other primate. The gentleman in the picture appears hairless, but we know his hair has been removed for the shot. However, it may surprise you to know that we have just as many hair follicles as a chimpanzee. Our hair is just finer and much shorter. So why do we show so much more skin than any other primate?
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Futurism
Jones Beach
Every year my dad taught summer school. He was an English teacher at a local high school, and I don't know how he did it. I was a science teacher, and when summer rolled around, I collapsed for the first three weeks! He would arrive home about one in the afternoon, and we would be chomping at the bit for his return. We waited with swimsuits on for the daily foray to the shore. On the short trip there, my sisters and I would call out the landmarks as we drew near.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Wander
Body Enhancement
Body ornamentation and modification is older than humankind. We were not the first to use it. So far, Neanderthals are the first that we know of. They used shell beads and feathers for self-decoration. When this may have started is controversial, but Neanderthals were around for at least 400,000 years. These discoveries carry very strong implications. One must have the consciousness of self. There is no need to enhance oneself unless you are self-conscious. Having an inward view is one of those prerequisites for being human, but Neanderthal had it. Early body enhancement was most likely used to differentiate among people. The more extensive reserved for the head of the group, certain marks to delineate a pair-bonded female, a little something for the healer and so on. Once body decoration began, it never stopped. You would be hard put to find a person today who does not wear make-up, has pierced ears, wears an attractive watch, has facial hair, or some form of decoration.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Blush
Language
So much has been written about speech and language, someone could open a library with no other topic. Some will argue that speech is different from language, but here they will be treated as one and the same. So much has been written about the FOXP2 gene lately, but language concerns more than just one gene. Since we now have the Neanderthal genome to work with, we know they also had FOXP2. Molecular techniques show the gene is older than Neanderthal, going back to at least 400,000 years ago. Did Neanderthal have language? The proof is presumptive. They lived in groups, hunted in teams, probably buried their dead, and new research shows they also made cave paintings. It seems unreasonable they did these things in relative silence. Both Stephen Jay Gould, the evolutionary biologist, and Noam Chomsky, the language guru, believed language was a side effect of a bigger brain. They believe language was not selected for, in the traditional Darwinian way, but occurred because of its association with a non-language gene. It happens that the FOXP2 is not only related to speech, but also digestion. If that is the gene that allowed for speech, then speech may be a side effect of its digestive function. Another gene related to language is CNTNAP2. Disruption in this gene is associated with both Autism and specific language impairment. Neanderthal did not have this gene, which produces a neurexin-family neural growth factor. They have to do with carrying impulses in the brain across the synapse between neurons. Language may also have been a side effect of either brain development or reorganization. The ability to gather ancient DNA may, in the future, supply answers to these questions.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Futurism
The Evolution of Hidden Fertility
We are the only female primates that do not undergo estrus—a time when the anogenital areas turn red and swell signaling receptivity for sex. The obvious bright swellings also indicate the female is fertile. This is also referred to as sexual heat. Science is a male-dominated occupation, full of bias in assessing the role of women in evolution. Nowhere is this seen so acutely as it is in considering why human females do not undergo estrus. Many of my male counterparts see the loss of sexual heat as simply the evolution of continual receptivity that benefitted the males of our species., and others believe sexual heat still exists in more subtle ways. Some of the current thinking on the end of estrus can be summed up as follows:
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Viva
Blockchain for Health
There are many things Artificial Intelligence (AI) could do in medicine better than doctors. The biggest drawback is getting enough raw data to enable AI to determine a diagnosis. Medical records are not readily available to researchers. Massive amounts of medical data are required, but in most countries, access to medical records is severely restricted by privacy laws. Dexter Hadley, a physician and computational biologist in California has come up with a solution. He's developed a plan that could implement enough medical data for screening algorithms that do not violate privacy laws. The information would not only be secure, but people who opt to share their medical information would still be in control of it. Their method relies on blockchain technology. The very same tech that underlies bitcoin cryptocurrency. The project is set for May 2018 and will use 3- 5 million mammograms that will be used to train their AI algorithm in detecting breast cancer.
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in The Chain
The Glass Ceiling
As of 2017, women make-up just over 50 percent of the population, and yet we still haven't reached equality in either pay rate or job status. Women earn 60 percent of all four-year college degrees and 60 percent of all Master's degrees. Law degrees? We earn 47 percent of MBA's and 48 percent of all medical degrees. and 47 percent of other specialized Master's. We comprise 47 percent of the general workforce and 49 percent of the college-educated workforce, yet we are poorly represented in the upper echelons of nearly every possible field. The massive progress of the last few decades of the 20th century has all but come to a standstill. As of 2011, we hold only nine percent of top management positions in S & P 1500 companies. As of 2016, women hold just 18 percent of S&P 1500 board seats.They are just 25 percent of executive and senior officials and managers, 9.5 percent of top earners, and 6 percent of CEOs in S&P 500 companies. Women don't fare better in law or medicine. Although females make up 45 percent of lawyers, we only make-up 22 percent of law firm partners. In medicine, we represent 37 percent of all physicians and surgeons, but only 16 percent of medical school deans. In television and film, the results are equally dismal. Women accounted for just 17 percent of all the directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors who worked on the top-grossing 250 domestic films of 2016. Many films are designed to get female viewers and yet they have only a small hand in creating them. Women were just 26 percent of all off-screen talent on broadcast networks, cable, and streaming programs during the 2015-16 season. Women of color were only 3.9 percent of the executive or senior-level officials and managers and 0.4 percent of CEOs in the companies that produce our entertainment. In 2017, after the departure of Ursula Burns as CEO of Xerox Corp., there were no African American women heading Fortune 500 companies. As recently as 2013, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies had no women of color as board directors at all. So what can be done to eliminate the ceiling?
By Monica Bennett6 years ago in Viva