Omakase

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Why we kiss.....

I really enjoy it when pop culture and biology intersect. Just in time for Valentine's Day, a technical but understandable explanation of the biological roots of kissing.

No one knows for sure, but one guess is that we kiss because that's how some of our ape ancestors fed each other!

Another guess is that it is how women biologically screen their potential mates. The theory is that at a subconscious level, women are looking for mates with different immune responses than their own, making their offspring sturdier, and that this information (MHC complex) is detectable via kiss.

Any and all of these explanations might be scientists reaching too far, but they're all technically plausible.

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With my new friends on the Great Wall of China

With my new friends on the Great Wall of China
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World sun clock

Uncommon Man's Creed

"I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon -- if I can. I seek opportunity -- not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I wish to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole, I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence, nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master, nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid, to think and act for myself, to enjoy the benefit of my creations, and to face the world boldly and say, "this I have done." All this is what it means to be an American." -- Anonymous