7 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 111: May-Jun 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Extraterrestrial Handedness Human life forms favor right-handedness over left-handedness by a 9:1 ratio. Other terrestrial animals are also asymmetrical in various ways. But on the molecular level, terrestrial biochemistry is all left-handed. As far as scientists can determine, only left-handed amino acids are incorporated into proteins. In nonlife (if such a state really exists), amino-acid molecules are right- and lefthanded in equal numbers -- as least this has been the theory up until now. Amino acids are found in substances we assume are non-life or of abiotic origin. In fact, amino acids are present in meteorites, often in substantial amounts. They are profuse in Australia's Murchison meteorite, a carbonaceous chondrite. However, analysis of the Murchison's amino acids indicates that there are slightly more (7 -9 %) left-handed than right-handed amino acids present. This extraterrestrial handedness is of great import to both cosmologists and biologists, because the carbonaceous chondrites are thought to have formed 4.5 billion years ago -- long before life on earth originated. Furthermore, some of the Murchison's amino acids have never been found in terrestrial life, and they are also slightly left-handed. For some unfathomed reason, chemical and biological evolution both tilt to the left! (Bada, Jeffrey L.; "Extraterrestrial Handedness?" Science, 275 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 125 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf111/sf111p03.htm
... Curiosities of Avian Feet BBA23 Inherited Callosities BBA24 Unusual Pouches on Birds BBA25 Luminous Birds BBA26 Odoriferous Birds BBA27 Egg Complexity and Sophistication BBA28 Bird Eggs: Color, Pattern and Size Curiosities BBA29 Egg Mimicry BBA30 Mimicry of Other Species and the Environment BBA31 Remarkable Convergences of Appearance and Habits BBA32 Frightmolt BBA33 The Hollow in the Back of the Young Common Cuckoo BBB AVIAN BEHAVIOR BBB1 Avian Intelligence BBB2 Complexity and Sophistication of Avian Mental Processes BBB3 Enigmas of Instinct BBB4 Anomalous Altruism: Hard to Find BBB5 The Aesthetic Sense in Birds BBB6 Calculated Deception: Birds That Cry "Wolf" BBB7 Avian Play BBB8 Anomalous Aerial Tumbling and Erratic Flight BBB9 Leks: Why Did They Evolve? BBB10 Cooperative Displays on Leks BBB11 Enigmatic Dancing, Flying, Singing BBB12 Anting BBB13 "Hangers"; Upside-Down Birds BBB14 Curious Automatisms BBB15 Handedness (" Footedness") in Birds BBB16 Unusual Aerial Transportation Techniques BBB17 Unusual Forms of Terrestrial Locomotion BBB18 Unusual Hunting Strategies BBB19 Cooperative Hunting BBB20 Prey-Handling Puzzles BBB21 Avian Prey and Food: Some Misconceptions BBB22 Unusual Sexual Behavior BBB23 Avian "Sperm Wars': Cloaca Pecking BBB24 Unusual Mating Systems BBB25 Two Species with a Common Nest BBB26 Determination of Clutch Size BBB27 Exotic Objects and Eggs in Nests BBB28 Unusual Methods of Heating and Cooling Eggs BBB29 Brood Parasitism: How Did It Begin BBB30 Disparities between Parasite Host Adaptations BBB31 Tolerance of Parasite Chicks BBB32 Tolerance of Parasite Eggs Even When They Are Recognized as a Threat BBB33 Murder for Purposes Other Than Food and Brood Reduction BBB34 Infanticide BBB35 Siblicide BBB36 Information Processing in Migratory Behavior BBB37 Uncommon Groupings of Birds BBB38 Flock Synchrony BBB39 Flight Formations BBB40 Avian "Courts ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 57 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /cat-biol.htm
... This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Why most people are right-handed Depending upon which estimate you believe, 6 to 16% of us are left-handed. On the surface, left-handers seem little different from right-handers. So why the highly skewed population? Why not 50% of each? Dr. Peter Irwin, at Sanddoz, Ltd., of Basle, Switzerland, has what is certain to be a controversial answer. He was led to his conclusion by a series of experiments with psychoactive drugs, performed in collaboration with Professor Max Fink, SUNY, Stony Brook. Left-handers, the study demonstrated, are much more sensitive to drugs that act upon the central nervous system. Irwin believes that this finding is consistent with the known association of left-handedness with epilepsy and learning disorders. "But perhaps the most exciting aspect of Irwin's hypothesis is that it makes evolutionary sense. 'A greater resistance of right-handers to centrally active substances, when Man was a forager and before he learned to identify non-toxic edibles, would have favoured righthanded survival. This might account for the skew in the present handedness distribution that is unique to humans.'" And why should left-handers be more sensitive to psychoactive substances? Irwin thinks they must absorb or metabolize them differently, or perhaps there is a difference in the blood-brain barrier that affects the transport of substances into the brain. (Grist, Liz; "Why Most People Are Right-Handed," New Scientist, 22, August 16, 1984. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 29 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf036/sf036p18.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 58: Jul-Aug 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Do right-handers live longer?" Several findings suggest that lefthandedness may be associated with reduced longevity. For instance, Porac and Coren reported that 13 per cent of 20-year-olds are lefthanded but only 5 per cent of those in their fifties and virtually nobody of 80 or above. We believe that this absence of left-handers from the oldest age groups reflects higher biological and environmental risk." To investigate this asymmetry further, D.F . Halpern and S. Coren repaired to The Baseball Encyclopedia , where longevity and handedness are duly recorded for many players. Here again, they found that, although mortality is about the same up to age 33, thereafter about 2% more right-handers than lefthanders survive at each age. Halpern and Coren suggest a few possible causes: (1 ) prenatal and perinatal birth stressors are more probable in left-handers; (2 ) the immune systems of lefthanders may be reduced by ge netic effects and intra-uterine hormones; and (3 ) left-handers may suffer more accidents in a world designed for righthanders! (Halpern, Diane F., and Coren, Stanley; "Do Right-Handers Live Longer?" Nature, 333:213, 1988.) Reference. A variety of handedness phenomena are cataloged in BHB20-23 in Biological Anomalies: Humans I. To order this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers # ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 29 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf058/sf058b07.htm
... students at his University for four years and found that the probability of a left-hander having a car accident was 85% higher; accidents with tools were 54% higher; home accidents were 49% higher; etc. Coren blames these lopsided statistics upon the fact that the world is ordered for right-handers, not that left-handers are innately more clumsy. (Dayton, Leigh; "The Perils of Living in a Right-Handed World," New Scientist, p. 32, October 28, 1989.) But Coren's study, above, omits the "health" factor, which we now supply from a different source. "Halpern and Coren recently described an association between lefthandedness and a lower life expectancy. This finding is not unexpected because left-handedness has been linked to three leading causes of death in our society - alcoholism, smoking, and breast cancer - as well as to several neurological and immune disorders." (London, Wayne P.; "Left-Handedness and Life Expectancy," Perceptual and Motor Skills , 68:1040, 1989.) From Science Frontiers #68, MAR-APR 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 26 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf068/sf068b08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 111: May-Jun 1997 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Ancient entertainments Tobacco and cocaine in ancient egypt An anasazi ley line? Astronomy Extraterrestrial handedness Biology Circaseptennial rhythm in ear growth Life on different scales Chromosome choreograph Is perfect pitch favored by natural selection? Carnot creatures Geology Methane burps and gas-hydrate reservoirs Why some sands sing, squeak, and boom Geophysics White streak from a tv set Exotic seismic signals Psychology Malleable memories Math & Physics Levitation and levity! Something strange is going on! ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf111/index.htm
... Visa/Amex 296 pages, softcover, $17.95, 244 illus., Jan 2003. ISBN 0-915554-45-3 , 7x10". Biology Catalogs For a full list of biology subjects, see here . Biological Anomalies: Humans I: A Catalog of Biological Anomalies Sorry, Out of print This volume, the first of three on human biological anomalies, looks at the "external" attributes of humans (1 ) Their physical appearance; (2 ) Their anomalous behavior; and (3 ) Their unusual talents and faculties. Typical subjects covered: Mirror-image twins * The sacral spot * The supposed human aura * Baldness among musicians * Human tails and horns * Human behavior and solar activity * Cycles of religiousness * Cyclicity of violent collective human behavior * Handedness and longevity * Wolf-children * The "Mars Effect" * Telescopic vision *Dermo-optical perception * Hearing under anesthesia * Human navigation sense * Asymmetry in locomotion * Sex-ratio variations Comments From Reviews: "All I can say to Corliss is carry on cataloging". New Scientist View Cart Buy online via PayPal with MC/Visa/Amex 304 pages, hardcover, $19.95, 52 illus., 3 indexes, 1992. 548 references, LC 91-68541. ISBN 0-915554-26-7 , 7x10. Biological Anomalies: Humans II: A Catalog of Biological Anomalies Sorry, Out of print The second Catalog volume on human biological anomalies focuses upon the "internal" machinery of the body (1 ) Its major organs; (2 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 7 - 10 Oct 2021 - URL: /sourcebk.htm
