Saturday, June 09, 2007

Global warming to shrink brains?

Well it seems to have shrunk the brains of climate change denialists.

clipped from blog.wired.com
University at Albany will soon publish research that suggests the human brain grew dramatically as our ancestors adapted to colder temperatures.
Jessica Ash and Gordon Gallup studied 109 fossilized skulls from different latitudes to determine that "climate may have been an important selective force behind the evolution of human cranial capacity," according to Gallup, who theorized that changes in global temperature could account for as much as 50 percent of the variation in headmeat. "Specifically, we found that as the distance from the equator increased, north or south, so did brain size," he said. The researchers will publish their study in the spring edition of Human Nature.
This kind of talk hearkens back to social Darwinism and is sure to kick up skirmishes over race, IQ, inherited intelligence, etc.

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