April 20, 2009

To sweat is human


This is my version of the idiom "To err is human, to forgive divine".

I've been learning about it in a couple of documentaries that I've watched. Sweating is almost just a human trait. They say that in the course of our evolution, we lost our fur and needed to sweat due to a number of reasons:

  • Most of the animals we hunted might have incredible burst speeds, but they lost out if chased far enough as they could not run and cool themselves at the same time. We achieved this by getting better at running and being able to sweat.
  • In our evolving brains, as with computer processors, heat is an unwanted byproduct. Our entire body might have been modified to be the brain's heatsink/fan :P
  • In a study, it was found that there was a preference to bodies with less hair. Through the generations, this might have led to less and less hair.
Why did I just discuss sweating? I think it sucks if you sweat so much or have "bungang araw" or have "summer hands" or can't thermoregulate properly. Damn summer heat :P


History Channel "Evolve" 4 of 11 "Skin"
BBC "What's the problem with nudity?"

1 comment:

brymac said...

Thanks Stephen :3