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Aug 13, 2024

Do We Sleep Better Than Our Ancestors? How Natural Selection and Modern Life Have Shaped Human Sleep

Human sleep presents a paradox: we are the shortest sleeping primate, yet we have the largest brain. If sleep is for the brain, why do humans exhibit the least sleep?

Biology

Health

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Jul 23, 2024

Public Health and Evolutionary Mismatch: The Tragedy of Unnecessary Suffering and Death

The current anti-vaccination movement is a result, in part, of the innate cognitive biases inherent in our nervous systems that evolved to deal with problems in a very different premodern world.

Biology

Health

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Jul 10, 2024

Is Cancer a Disease of Civilization?

Our cancer suppression mechanisms evolved for a world that is not the world we live in today.

Biology

Health

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Jun 18, 2024

(Mis-) Communication in Medicine: A Preventive Way for Doctors to Preserve Effective Communication in Technologically-Evolved Healthcare Environments

Cultural evolution created technologically-advanced contexts that make it difficult for doctors to communicate with patients in manners concordant with our evolved, ancestrally-familiar modes of communication.

Health

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Jun 11, 2024

Generating Testable Hypotheses of Evolutionary Mismatch

Models of ancestral environments are hard to construct and as a result such hypotheses are plagued with speculation. Where can we draw the evidence from?

Biology

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Feb 22, 2024

It’s Time To See the Light (Another Example of Evolutionary Mismatch)

The biological clock prepares our bodies for predictable events, like sleep and energy intake. Misalignment of the biological clock may have serious metabolic consequences.

Biology

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Feb 2, 2024

Functional Frivolity: The Evolution and Development of the Human Brain Through Play

Play is not frivolous but is an adaptation designed to guide proper cognitive development in human children.

Anthropology

Biology

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May 3, 2020

The Physical Activity Mismatch: Can Evolutionary Perspectives Inform Exercise Recommendations?

It’s highly likely that some degree of mismatch exists between our modern environment and the physical activity levels we have evolved to perform.

Health

Sports

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Jun 21, 2019

A Blurred Future: How Our Eyes Are Changing To Meet Modern Visual Demands

Certain genetic makeups may predispose an individual to become nearsighted in a specific environment but it is not guaranteed. Myopia is not a destiny, it is an adaptation.

Biology

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Jun 13, 2019

Is Shame a Bug or a Feature? An Applied Evolutionary Approach

Shame seems to have two separate components. One, the corrective feedback for us by which to monitor social behavior. The other, the more troublesome one, is putting oneself down as an incompetent person.

Biology

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