550 million years of human evolution [animation]

Cinematic Espresso Shots By Hannah Piercey If Aristotle were alive today, to paraphrase a famous Timothy Leary adage, he would have a Vimeo channel. So believes Jason Silva, a young futurist and filmmaker with movie-star looks and a childlike sense of wonder. Leary’s notion of the philosopher as a performer is a natural fit for Silva. Silva double-majored in film and philosophy at the University of Miami. Silva received his first camera at age 12 and became immediately obsessed. “Watching the video later, after the insight wore out—after a meal or shower when I was in a different mode of consciousness—created an interesting feedback loop between my ‘experiencing self’ and my ‘remembering self,’” Silva reflected, borrowing a concept from psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s 2010 TEDTalk. After nearly five years at Current and feeling ready for a new challenge, Silva left the channel to produce videos independently. Silva quickly found an audience online—and it scaled. And now back to the Timothy Leary reference.

Why Are Europeans White? The Puzzle: Northern Europeans are Uniquely Depigmented “White,” of course, is a a social designation. The question really is, “Why are northern Europeans depigmented?” Here is a map of human skin tone. The natives of northern Europe are oddly light-skinned. Most people know that it has something to do with sunlight, UV, latitude, and vitamin D. The closer you are to the equator, the darker your skin. It Has Something to do With Solar UV and Oceans UV rays produce vitamin D and reduce folate when they hit naked skin. Too much UV penetrating the skin (too pale-skinned under intense sunlight) increases Vitamin D but reduces folate. On the other hand, too little UV penetrating the skin (too dark-skinned under dim sunlight) increases folate but reduces vitamin D. And so, humans adapt very quickly to solar UV. But this explanation fails for Europe. Clearly, there once was a factor at work in Europe other than dim sunlight. Here is another map of skin tone. Skin, Hair, and Eyes: Neoteny

Montessori Monday~ Great Lesson 2~ The Coming of Life Today we had our second Great Lesson and it was really great! This lesson uses the Time Line of Life to help show the kids how much life has changed since it started as a small drop of jelly. The Time Line serves as a point of research as they start to have questions that they want know about. Here are a couple of Drawing of Fossils. C. also drew a picture of how she thought a snake started with legs and slowly lost them. J. had a question about what time period a crab started in. Bunny got really interested in his work and they started working together! Here are the facts that they found: They have hallow bones (to fly better) Their wing span was 6 meters, or 20 feet. They eat fish They were found in the United States and they were out of Europe! Great facts huh? Bunny’s friend C. introduced everyone and welcomed them to the Dinosaurs show! C. told about her fossil pictures and what she learned. Bunny and J. shared their work about the Pteranodons C. They all took a bow in the end!

Y-Chromosomal Adam Lived 208,300 Years Ago, Says New Study According to new research reported in the European Journal of Human Genetics, our most recent common ancestor – the so-called Y-chromosomal Adam – lived on the Earth 208,300 years ago. Creation of Adam, detail. By Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1510. Dr Eran Elhaik from the University of Sheffield and his co-authors used conventional biological models to show that Y-chromosomal Adam is 8,300 years older than scientists originally believed. “We can say with some certainty that modern humans emerged in Africa a little over 200,000 years ago,” Dr Elhaik said. The findings contradict a recent study – published in the American Journal of Human Genetics in February 2013 – which had claimed the human Y chromosome originated in a different species through interbreeding which dates Adam to be twice as old. “In fact, their hypothesis creates a sort of space-time paradox whereby the most ancient individual belonging to Homo sapiens species has not yet been born. Eran Elhaik et al. 2014.