john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

evolutionary medicine

  • Birth politics

    Sat, 2013-03-09 18:51 -- John Hawks

    Alice Roberts writes about the process of childbirth as she awaits her second delivery: "Childbirth: why I take the scientific approach to having a baby". The essay includes a bit of evolutionary perspective and a good discussion of evidence-based medicine and the ways that advocacy can distort it. A teaser:

    Another problem is the politics of birth. It can be quite hard for mums-to-be to access impartial evidence and advice when it seems there are plenty of people wanting to influence your decision in one way or the other. Evangelical advocates of home birth often talk about the importance of women's choice and empowerment, as well as instilling distrust in obstetricians. For me, being empowered to make a decision requires access to good evidence and the freedom to make up my own mind. And whilst "maternal satisfaction" is often put forward as an important factor to be taken into consideration, I want to know what the relative risks are. And if there's not yet enough evidence to assess that – I want to know that too.

    For more detailed reading about the role of evolution in female health, I can recommend Wenda Trevathan's book, Ancient Bodies, Modern Lives: How Evolution Has Shaped Women's Health.

    Tags: 
    birth
    evolutionary medicine
    politics

  • Surpassing our evolutionary scars

    Sat, 2013-02-16 16:16 -- John Hawks

    Ann Gibbons covers a session at the meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, titled, "The Scars of Human Evolution" ("Human Evolution: Gain Came With Pain"). The session was organized by Rachel Caspari and Karen Rosenberg, and included some great talks. For example, Bruce Latimer, who is always excellent in describing the trade-offs of bipedalism for long-term skeletal health:

    Turning up the pain threshold a notch, anatomist and paleoanthropologist Bruce Latimer of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland limped to the podium, dangling a twisted human backbone as evidence of real pain. “If you want one place cobbled together with duct tape and paper clips it’s the back,” said Latimer, a survivor of back surgery.

    ...

    In the United States alone, 700,000 people suffer vertebral fractures per year and back problems are the sixth leading human malady in the world. “If you take care of it, your spine will get you through to about 40 or 50,” says Latimer. “After that, you’re on your own.”

    The session was based on the 1951 article by Wilton Krogman, likewise titled, "The Scars of Human Evolution". In honor of the session, Scientific American has made the article available for download for a short time. In some ways, this article was the impetus for what we now call "evolutionary medicine".

    Tags: 
    evolutionary medicine
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Neandertals

For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.

Denisova

From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.

Acceleration

The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

Malapa

Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.