SAST Wingees

Why do human females have menopause?

Recently a friend of mine asked me this interesting question. Untill now, I had not thought about this issue that much. Little did i realize i was going to step on a much debated question in evolutionary biology. First question – do animals experience menopause? The Wikipedia says Pilot Whales do experience menopause. Okay, what if this is an aberration like the human female? As i was researching on this topic, I came across this brilliant article “Why Women Change” by none other than my favorite author Jared Diamond. After proceeding to demolish the standard answers that are offered for this question, he masterfully concludes that it is because the benefits of menopause far outweighs the costs – less risk of child birth, you want the older women to be there to take care of the families etc.  He goes on to tie it to the menopause in Pilot Whales because they are also similarly social, highly intelligent animals. He wrote this article in 1996. Nearly 10 years later, in December 2005, Livescience carried a report that showed that Guppies (fish) experience menopause as well. But interestingly, female Guppies don’t stay around to take care of their litters. So the theory that menopause has been evolved for better protection of young ones seems to be incorrect. The livescience report goes on to say:

Menopause has been observed in other animals like Japanese quail, laboratory rats and mice, opossums, and other primates such as gorillas,
but most of these animals lack well-developed family networks and engage in
very limited, if any, maternal care. 

On the other hand, female lions and baboons—animals which rear dependent young and live in complex social groups like humans—don’t experience menopause at all and die soon after giving birth to their last young.

FTOTW ending Feb 3, 2007 – Google Restaurant, Kids & Programming, Insomnia, Inkless printer..

1. One of the greatest insights i have gained recently from the application of the ABC theory and others is the aspect of feedback loops, measurement etc. Came across this  post on O’reilly titled “If Google were a restaurant” that captures this idea of feedback beautifully. 2. Programming is a key skill that everyone must possess. So it may be better to start kids off with this. Came across this excellent post on O’reilly. But it seemed like one needed to buy expensive stuff. In the comments on this post, i came across the free MIT Scratch which seems to have some great possibilities. [Caution: i don’t have kids and haven’t tested these ideas on one] 3. You may have seen my post on coffee’s effect on sleep patterns. Here is some tips for a good night’s sleep – from this list, warm milk with honey works well for me. 4. A printer that uses no ink is now in the market. At last, freedom from the ravenous inkjet is just around the corner. can’t wait. 5. Priya Raju picked out the movie “The day the earth stood still” directed by Robert Wise. It is a b/w sci-fi classic from 1951 (a full 8 years before the other Scifi genius Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone hit the idiot box).  This movie is f***ing brilliant. In 1951 to conceptualize something like this and make it is fantastic. Don’t miss this one. Gort, Klaatu Barada Nikto – wonder what that means? see the movie. BTW, Robert Wise is also well-known for his other classic movie –  West Side Story.

FTOTW ending Jan 27, 2007 – Saffron, Phobias,Dr.Dolittle..

1. Did you know? Saffron was first documented in Ashurbanipal’s 7th Century BC Assyria. Now Saffron is a key spice across the world’s major cuisines including Indian. 2. BBC’s 15 web principles – captures the essential insights of the modern web. In the neuroscience department –
4. the neurology of phobias – brilliant article <Via Archana Raghuram> 5. How easily our brain can be fooled – an insightful post on how we end up eating a lot
more than we should. <Via Businesspundit> 6. We watched Eddie Murphy’s Dr. Dolittle – as always Eddie Murphy does a great job. In my view,
the director could not leverage the key idea properly – Dr. Dolittle’s ability to speak to animals. The storyline could have been much better. Priya Raju liked it though.

March of the Penguins – heart rending

Opposites attract – genes to blame

Updated Jan 29, 2007: Priya Raju made an intuitive leap and said perhaps women detect dissimilar immune systems using smell. Loos like she is correct. check this article science of attraction. well done Priya.

When it comes to choosing a mate, we all know that opposites attract. Today, in an interesting report, scientists are saying that women are genetically pre-programmed to seek out men that are different from themselves. The main reason being to choose someone with a different immune system so that the progeny will have better immunity. Its not clear how women detect something as innnate as the immune system, but the report shows that women that cheat are often in relationships where the men don’t have a dissimilar immune system. So don’t be surprised to hear this in the trial court – Honey, I’m sorry I cheated because I’m genetically pre-programmed to do so. Just so this article is gender-neutral, men have already been shown to be genetically pre-programmed to have multiple partners.
Source: Times of India, Jan 12, 2007, p17, Bangalore edition