On his second voyage to America, Christopher Columbus stopped in the Canary Islands to get supplies. It was at La Gomora where he met the widowed governess, Beatrice Bobadilla, a young woman famous for her beauty and charm. Columbus meant …
A Secret Reason We Survived an Asteroid Impact While the Dinosaurs Did Not
Around 65 million years ago, a meteorite approximately 10 km in diameter sailed through our atmosphere and hit earth in the Yucatan, causing massive tsunamis and fires. A huge dust cloud entered the atmosphere, blocking the sun and causing an …
The Black Sea, Early Agriculture, and one more likely reason we Get Fat from High Glycemic Carbohydrates
For several million years our ancestors were hunter gatherers, living on game, wild plants and honey. Then, around 10 to 11 thousand years ago, the first agricultural communities developed in Anatolia (present day Turkey) and around the Black Sea. The …
Evolution and History – The Origins of Alcoholism — Another Thrifty Gene
Originally our ancestors could not drink alcohol as we could not break it down. However, this all changed about 10 million years ago when we had a mutation in an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase that increased our ability to break …
Salt Licks and Fat
There are many animals that seek salt licks, which refers to areas where the salt concentration in the soil or ground is high. Hooved animals, such as deer, particularly like salt licks and can travel miles to find them. Studies …
How do Whales Get Fresh Water?
You may have never thought about this question, but how do whales get water? Ocean water turns out to be too salty for the whale, so the whale gets most of its water from the food it eats, such as …
How Frogs in the Sandy Desert can Teach us about the Importance of Water
You might be surprised, but there is an amazingly hearty frog that lives in the Great Sandy Desert in the northwest region of Australia. This frog can store water in its bladder, and also builds fat up in its feet, …
How the Camel can Teach us about the Purpose of Fat
Many children believe the hump of a camel may serve as a canteen, providing needed water for the camel that lives in the desert. In actual fact, these children are not completely wrong, for while the hump is made of …
Sugar and its Effects – A Survival Switch that is Driving Most of our Diseases
Sugar is the name commonly applied to table sugar, or sucrose. Sucrose consists of two sugars, glucose and fructose, that are bonded together. Glucose is the primary sugar used in our body for fuel, while fructose is the primary sugar …