A New Twist In The Evolution Of Man

Science & Technology, News & Info | Comments (34)

By MAJOR TOM | August 9, 2007

Scientists are often too smart that some of them have invented and built the smart Tomahawk missile, so smart that it can hit a target many miles away with a margin-of-error merely in meters. I once had joked before that Tomahawk missile were so smart that if one of them would decide to enter Harvard University, it would surely end up with a masteral degree of some sort.

But a recent fossil discovery in Kenya had once again divulged the weakness of established scientific theories on human evolution and scientists have found themselves scratching their heads, realizing that they are back to square one. It was previously well-accepted in the scientific community that humans (homo sapiens) have evolved gradually from apes towards hominids (or human-like apes), into human-like species generally known as Homo Erectus and then towards the present form of humans as Homo Sapiens (see this Wikipedia article on human evolution).

And then this discovery of a skull remains of a Homo Erectus in Kenya, one that was carbon-dated to have lived side by side Homo Habilis and therefore effectively set aside and destroyed the previously accepted table of evolution that had showed how Homo Habilis----termed as “The Handy Man” for having made and used stone tools---have gradually transformed intoe Homo Erectus, the specie heavily believed to be the direct descendants of humans, except for the “missing link” specie that should connect them.

Now, scientists are not merely puzzled about this missing link between Homo Erectus and humans, but have now to contend to the question of how and where did Homo Erectus have evolved from, when it is now found out that they could not have evolved from Homo Habilis.

This new findings in fact reinforces another contending theory on human evolution, one that hypothesizes the sudden onset of the human specie, proposing that humans have not really gradually evolved from apes and hominids but have appeared into the scene in a sudden spurt of generation, revoking thereon the natural selection theory of Charles Darwin, as inculcated in his seminal notes “The Origin of Species”.

How human beings have suddenly appeared on Earth is now a scientific mystery that must be worth inquiring and scientists today might find it more worthwhile to investigate this angle than be stuck with the seemingly never-ending search for “the missing link”, which over the years had became like the quest for the Holy Grail, always searching but no finding. Unless if we believe Steven Speilberg and Mr. Indiana Jones.

Maybe scientists could better enlist some Tomahawk missiles in their quest for the “missing link” for they could prove to be smarter than any scientists living today. Just a suggestion, mind you.

In February 2007, A University of Pittsburgh professor named Dr. Jeffrey H. Schwartz have subscribed to this theory of sudden onset of human beings through a study he made using the “Molecular Assumption” principle where it becomes scientifically accepted as form of empirical result-gathering the use of blood serums in order to established the relativity of different species. It is quite a tricky form of experimentation vis-à-vis the theory of evolution since it did established that man and apes have similar strong molecular reaction in their blood serum and so therefore it is established that they are closely related groupings of mammals.

Now, this would seem to establish more the theory that man could have really come from apes. Not so, said Dr. Schwartz since the strongly similar serum reaction of man and ape’s establishes the assumption that they could not in fact have evolved from each other, either from ape to man or man to ape, since they won’t easily “divulge” from each other, or in plain text, they can’t spread out from each other since in the first place, they have similar structure in molecular terms, closely knitted that they can spread out from one to another, but existing side by side most probably. It’s really a tricky scientific assumption, not easily understood.

But as I understand it, this Molecular Assumption theory can be exemplified by the circumstance of two plastic balls, one was small and simple (apes) and one was huge and quaint-looking (humans). They have been placed side by side in one particular place, there even from the beginning of time, and have not evolved from each other, one did not came from the other, but had always been there and placed there together---not one after the other.

Of course, this new theory on human evolution is very new that at this point it would be hard-pressed to easily overcome the well-established and accepted natural selection and gradual evolution theory that had been there for one and half century now, since the time Charles Darwin had launched "the voyage of the beagle".

So did man gradually evolved from apes? If so, could we see a good evidence of gradual and slow transformation when the “missing link” species remains a mystery till this day and in fact been widened by this new fossil discovery in Kenya?

Or did human beings did came so suddenly as a specie?

Perhaps, it now becomes a question if in fact Adam and Eve were suddenly thrown out from Eden and found themselves suddenly on Earth full of hominids or Homo Erectus.

What do you think?

Aliens

Science & Technology, News & Info | Comments (19)

By MAJOR TOM | June 27, 2007

I was scouring the net for some information and this one current news had just caught my fancy. In an area within the state of New Mexico in America, a sizable number of people gathered there to mark the 60th anniversary of the event that is so-called as “The Roswell Incident” . It must be known that sometime early in July of the year 1947, an individual named Mack Brazel went out to check on his ranch, monitoring the situation of the sheep he was herding at that time, especially after storms have spread toward that particular part of the area. In a while, after reconnoitering thoroughly though his ranch, he found metal apparatus that according to him, he had never seen before and one he describes to be not-of-this-world, whose solidity and strength was remarkably beyond what could be produced here.

The tale about that particular incident easily had spread throughout Roswell and a week after, the local daily headlined that an alien ship had been found in Roswell---and then everything from that day became now part of history---global history even--- and became well-known all over as “The Roswell Incident” (see this wikipedia article).

Now, there is this saying which held that if one would keep on saying that “I am a God” over and over again, sooner or later, someone will finally believe that, and then more and more would follow suit. This is actually what happened to the incident in Roswell after that fateful day in July of 1947, when the buzz of alien ship and alien capture was so insisting that the story had become so widespread that even to this day, it had become romanticized in many pop-culture endeavors. In the 1990’s, Hollywood had made a very famous TV series out of it.

And this goes true to alien beliefs and alien sightings. To this day, no one has ever proven hypothetically the fact of alien lifeform, in concrete and material means. Yet, the presentiment about aliens intruding into earth’s space keep on occuring, time and time again, that in a while, we could not help but keep a closer eye on it and examine it’s veracity.

Like ghost stories and the fact of ghosts by themeselves, tales about alien sightings had become such a very general notion among the population everywhere around the world; that storytellers and raconteurs from all corners of the world keep on relaying them even if they are that hard to believe. The nature of ghosts and spirits had become so inculcated into the human psyche that somehow, we could not help but affirm their factual existence, one way or another. And even if often we are inclined to disregard them, we as consumers of such stories longed for it, we pay hard-earned money to watch ghosts or spirit movies, just because we enjoy such form of narrations or exhibitions, and therefore we like to believe in them and make them all come true.

At night, when the kids become too unruly, we say sometimes that the ghosts is somewhere in our vicinity that they better be at home and sleep so early…or else. Or else the ghost would be coming after them. And such scheme actually work.

Aliens stories are like ghosts stories. We kept on telling about them even if we haven’t seen any of them and even if we do not actually believe in them.

I have read in this Philippine government forum that the probability of aliens occurring has about (1x10^-58)^2 = 1x10^-116 chances of occurring. Sadly I could not actually comprehend such statistical probability but they say at that amount, it is nearly nil.

And then another forum commenter said that it would be of such “arrogance” for any human being to believe that we are the only intelligent lifeform existing in this universe, considering the vastness of the universe. And to me it does make sense. The universe is so wide beyond human comprehension that it wouldn’t be too surprising to realize that in fact, “they are out there” and probably “had been here’ once or twice on earth; just came visiting as one would say. They could be out there. And possibly, they could have been here.

For alien thoughts, many belief that the Nazca lines in Peru could have only been conceived by some alien lifeform since in ancient times, human beings could not be as intelligent and as complicated to be able to do such gigantic images. Unless overhead telescopes---or some form of top camera—had already been invented by that time in order to be able to calculate and execute the gigantic drawings. Even the pyramids, with all the mathematical exactions it had, are sometimes believed to have been of alien creation or inspiration, where in an ancient time humans minds were supposedly still unripe and uncomplicated.

So, do you believe in aliens? If you ask me, pointing to the “arrogance” theory, I may say that in this vast universe, as ever expanding and as ever mythical it is, I could probably be inclined towards believing that aliens do actually exist.

I remember some years ago that once that I was watching this cable television special (on Star World channel, I believe) where it was shown a collection of various videos exhibiting aliens caught on camera. There was one video there (despite that the others were clearly faked and doubtful) that really had amazed me. This particular video had shown how a white luminescent being with nearly human form (but with an unusually square-shaped face was somehow held off by a number of individuals clad in medical robes and the supposedly hidden camera was somewhere from above. I saw that the white human-like figure had got his hands tied behind his back, and then brought face down to a rectangular table, and he exerted to lift his head and his face was facing the camera, as if he knew where the camera was, and then he was coughing and coughing to no end. And he was looking at the camera so hard that I felt he was really looking at me, his face moving as if diagonally--to and fro---pleading and trying to communicate, trying to really imply some idea to me. It felt so eerily strange watching that video.

I then had a thought that if some naughty individuals had intended to manufacture this video of a luminescent human-like being---just in order to fool viewers---how come he or she could be so inventive to ever thought of having a coughing fake alien being dragged by individuals clad on medical robes into a hard metal table? Have you ever thought of a coughing alien? Coughing and heaving from seemingly lack of oxygen?

I thought the video images might really have been caught as it was happening and that it could possibly be the only video of a real alien. And that perhaps aliens would somehow coughed and should be heaving for air since the Earth’s atmosphere might not be too tolerable for them.

It just amazes me, these alien stories. How about you? Do you believe in aliens?

The Science of Beauty

Science & Technology, Philosophy | Comments (14)

By MAJOR TOM | January 18, 2007

LOOKS LIKE BEAUTY IS NO LONGER within the grasp of the one we often call as ‘the beholder’. Scientists from the University of Aberdeen in United Kingdom have found out through a very simple but fairly compelling experimentation process that human attraction can be largely based on influence rather than on innate qualities, or in simpler terms, one can be considered attractive depending on the number of people who will approve of the way you look.

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SMART For Smart Education

Science & Technology, Education | Comments (16)

By MAJOR TOM | September 26, 2006

SELF-EXSPRESSION is one form of capacity that must be inculcated into the individual, if one adheres to the maxim of complete education---or as our Ateneo moderators had always pointed out, a well-rounded education. Ironically, such is never a field of knowledge that is formally offered in any educational institution, as if it were a subject matter or a group of knowledge like Mathematics or Science. The closest we could get to it is perhaps through communication subjects like English and Filipino, thru extemporaneous speaking and debate.

Maybe I could be wrong but true to my heart, I do insist that the educated individual, as he or she becomes after years of knowledge and skills inculcation in classrooms, should come as a person confident in his speeches, in expression and in his outward demeanors, that in this manner, fulfillment in life-long endeavors becomes more reachable or obtainable. Like for example, in a case between two young executives working in the same institution, the one who is more comfortable and skilled in his or her communications (in undertakings like field reports, task accountings, concepts and proposals) would more often than not be more upward in mobility than the one who struggles with his or her wordings. In this light, I should adhere to the precept that self-expression is one mighty field that every student should obtained and be well-honed at.

In connection with this, it should be laudable that the phone company that many of us patronizes is suddenly not merely interested in profiting tons and tons of money from its customers as now it offers this very innovative and certainly beneficial program where interested schools and colleges could avail of free webhosting and be online with no cost at all. Considering how costly and labor-intensive this kind of undertaking partakes, this is a great boon for our educational system and certainly students benefited from this could get enhanced methods in improving their communication skills as well as be able to finally ride this amazing wave called the Internet superhighway.

Maybe, students can formally be introduced to net concepts like blogging and networking, since I do believe that these undertaking could be utilized as a very effective tool in molding the individual to become fully capacitated in this ultra-modern age, and be truly competitive as a skilled individual in the global arena.

Read Philippine Daily Inquirer’s “Smart offers free hosting, online library for school program”.

Into The Great Wide Open

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By MAJOR TOM | May 29, 2006

Every time I log-in into the Internet, I always have that feeling of exaltation, like I am entering into a whole new world ---like Alladin or Lea Salonga for that matter, as she sang that saccharine song featured in that cartoon movie---and such experience reminds me also of Tom Petty’s “Into The Great Wide Open”. There is just so much out there in cyberspace that can be had or browsed upon. Type the word in the search box and voila, you get to know something about that something you want to know about. You can have knowledge about everything---not almost everything, but exactly everything.

But now, the days of the wide-open cyberspace will soon be over, this according to a CNN report as money-rich lobbyists from AT&T and Time Warner (which happens to be the mother company of our favorite cable news network) are furiously blocking the passage of laws that would prevent communication companies from establishing a two-tiered Internet gateway, one fast and one slow. Those sites that have the money to burn can pay these media companies to give them wider bandwidth and make their websites load faster on your browser and those that have not much to spare would have to contend themselves on the usual (meaning, slower) lane. It’s like an invisible tollway in the cyberspace where only the mighty can pass through. To be sure, not all website operators could shell-out extra dough for a faster loading lane, especially bloggers like us. And we bloggers would surely be affected negatively by this development and all benefits would only go to giant but still money-hungry mega-companies like AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Maybe the United States Congress should do wisely by pushing thru with that law that should prevent these companies from establishing the double-standard in the netsphere. We’ve just been okay with this system and I don’t see any valid reason to change it. Why put a wall between two classes of webbies when there wasn’t any at all in the first place? We’ve have had enough of walls already—the wall that prevents Palestinians from moving freely in Jerusalem, the Berlin wall, the Great Wall of China, the 38th Parallel dividing South Korea and North Korea---I say, bring down and burn down the walls.

And lastly, why fix it if it ain’t broken in the first place?

Humans As Bird Food

Science & Technology | Comments (5)

By MAJOR TOM | January 23, 2006

It has been concluded lately that pre-historic humans were once hapless preys to huge birds (otherwise known as raptors). Paleo-anthropologist Lee Berger of the Wits University Palaeoanthropology Unit had made close examination of the 2 million year old fossil of a hominid known as the Taung Skull (after the region in South Africa where it was discovered in 1924) and found convincing evidence that the child-fossil was killed by a bird as indicated by ragged cuts in the shallow bones behind the eye sockets as well as keyhole marks on the skull, showing that it was attacked by beaks and talons instead of savage teeth and claws. It was first hypothesized that a leopard or a saber-tooth had killed the Taung child. Berger said that he had come up initially with the hypothesis after he found out that there had been a lot monkey skulls found in the same Taung region, having the same wounding marks. Thus, it is now ended what is said to be the longest or oldest murder mystery ever known---a riddle that was first posed by scientists ever since Professor Raymond Dart had discovered it in 1924. This recent discovery gives insights as to the life and times of early humans especially their manner of survival and the harshness of their environment. Scientists now deduced that predators such as the raptors have helped humans learned some important coping mechanisms like walking upright to help distinguish itself from monkeys (the more natural preys of eagles) and to often group together in order to stave off and discourage surprise attacks.

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Probe To Pluto Launched

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By MAJOR TOM | January 20, 2006

What flying object is more than ten times faster than a speeding bullet? No, it’s not a plane or a bird---not even Superman---but something called “New Horizon”. Just days after the historic return of comet-chaser Stardust from space, NASA had successfully launched this probe that is aimed towards the edge of the solar system, into Pluto and the its near environment which is believed to be part of the mysterious Kuiper Belt ( a region mostly composed of ice and rocky bodies). It is believed that Pluto is still a part of the Kuiper Belt and by studying its environment through this probe, scientists may enable themselves to examine in detail elements that are highly believed to be debris from the formation of planets billions of years ago---like fossil bones in space. Eventually, the research into this region would give scientists more hints and clues as to the formation of the solar system and how planets came to be.

If “New Horizon” fulfills its mission in ten years time, it would complete NASA’s exploration of all nine planets in the solar system, an ambitious project that had started in the early years of the 80’s.

Like Stardust, New Horizon is a technological marvel. The size of a baby grand piano, the probe to Pluto can reach the maximum speed of 47,000 miles per hour. It reached the moon only in 9 hours while it took Apollo 11 all of 3 days. It is powered by 33 kilograms of plutonium and will travel more than 3 Billion miles in a period of ten years.