The water temperature in our southern ocean at the moment is 17 degrees. Usually it ranges from about 15 to 17 at this time of the year - this is in the upper range of what we'd expect though. We've had unusual rain, and it's humid. Whether you believe in climate change as a result of human intervention or not, the climate is certainly changing. If it could stay like this, I wouldn't mind. Hot afternoons, beautiful skies, rain for the garden - it's magical. The water is beautiful.
On Saturday night we attended Professor Alice Roberts talk in Melbourne, 'From Cell to Civilisation'. I must have paid quite a bit of attention in first year Biology - I quit after that - as I understood everything that was said - about 90 percent of it. However, it was still interesting and she is a compelling presenter in her slinky dress. The entire talk was a walk through evolution, from the beginning of life on earth and the various threats to it over the years, which obviously didn't work out too well for dinosaurs but worked out well for birds and our fish ancestors.
Alice came and visited us the next day - she's a friend of my sister in laws as she did archaelogy with Alice's husband. We love entertaining overseas guests - it's awesome to show them along the Great Ocean Road and Alice was thrilled with our garden and koala and waterfall spotting. She's an enthusiastic and passionate woman, and has written some 15 books as well as her various presenter roles with the BBC and more roles than I can count. After she became a doctor she studied paleopathology, and was a senior teaching fellow at the University of Bristol teaching clinical anatomy, embryology, and physical anthropology. She also researched osteoarchaeology and paleopathology. It's pretty awesome to chat to such a well studied, intelligent guest with a love of history, science, travel, and much more in between. My type of gal.
Alice giving her talk & with Jamie in our garden.
And what do Alice and I talk about over my super duper health halloumi salad? That evolution doesn't care, in light of our complaints about menopause. I was telling her about my hip tendonitis and we agreed that once you hit a certain age, you're disposal. Evolution just wants you to procreate and after that it's not looking after you anymore.
Evolution doesn't care because it's a process rather than a God. It's simply the mechanism that ensures reproductive success through generations. Once your biological purpose if fulfilled, there's no evolutionary incentive to maintain your body past a certain point. That explains why my tendons are deterioting, my eyesight is failing, and my muscles are getting weaker. Menopause is a stark example of evolution not giving a shit. Perhaps I'm being kept alive long enough to invest in my grandchild's survival, but other than that, I'm coming up to having served my purpose.
Whilst I can give up in the face of this thought of how I'm merely a disposal vessel for DNA, I can find ways to extend and improve my life through medicine and technology - evolution has given us these brains after all with the capability of understanding who we are and how we work, and what might make us work better. There's a ton of research going into science now that says the best things for menopause are an antiinflammatory diet (as oestrogen lowers, the inflammatory response heightens, hence all this pain), exercise (particularly load bearing weights and cardio in short, intensive bursts). A lot of woman, like me and Alice, swear by HRT (they'll take it from my cold dead fingers!).
And then there's wild swimming. Alice did a program on it I haven't watched yet - it's grown in massive popularity in the UK. I've been swimming in the ocean before it was called 'wild'. I know cold ocean swimming can help ease some of my symptoms by reducing by reducing inflammation and supporting my well-being. Cold water immersion triggers my stress response, which, paradoxically, helps regulate the inflammatory processes that contribute to muscle aches and pains, and joint pain. Continued exposure helps release endorphins (it's why I surf all winter) which helps mood and fights anxiety related to hormonal changes. And swimming can help cardioascular health and strenghten my increasingly weakening muscles. As my Dad used to say 'salt water fixes everything' - well, almost.
Alice's program on Wild Swimming in the UK
Wild swimming isn't going to fight the coldness of evolution - but it's going to help me be a little more resilient in my systems, so that my transition to death is a little more manageable. If I'm going to die because I'm disposable after I've passed on my DNA, I'm gonna die feeling good.
With Love,
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I'm not a great believer in evolution or in creation by the man up in the sky. There's just got to be some other explanation!
God, hah. Evolution though, it's just science. I don't think you can argue much with the fossil records. Interpretation of by man, perhaps, but it's the best we have. I mean, there's fossils everywhere - cells in the rocks, bacteria, fish, lizards, dinosaurs. I find it hard not to believe in it. What makes you doubtful? Interested.
Crikey, that’s a huge question. In very short:
The theory of evolution requires billions of years, a single cell organism coming into being spontaneously and evolving through genetic mutation, jellyfish into fish etc
Methods of dating are so unreliable it’s impossible to say with any certainty how old the world is and consensus is more apparent than real. Contrary evidence tends to be ignored.
No example has ever been found of ‘change in kind’
Lack of transitional fossils and the number of science hoaxes such as Piltdown man and Nebraska man.
I think dinosaurs are likely a hoax. No complete skeleton has ever been found. The dinosaurs we see on display are imaginative reconstructions from bone pieces, in some cases a single bone or tooth.
It's a matter of trusting the science, and I don't.
Hmm, I've heard these kind of doubts before. I think carbon dating is way more reliable these days, there's been some remarkable breakthroughs.
I guess over billions of years the chance a single cell will mutate gets higher... But also, we can see real time mutation in bacteria in a single lifetime... So extrapolate that change over billions of years and it's definitely possible.
Radiometric dating, dendrochronology, and ice core analysis are pretty reliable these days when cross referenced and they consistently align with one another - modern dating methods are waaaaay more reliable than they used to be and there's less and less error.
Also evolution describes gradual changes over time, not abrupt changes in kind - there's loads of fossils that show a bridge between kinda. And they have even been able to tweak genes - I was reading about how it's only two genes between a beak and a more dinosaur like mouth and when they tweaked those in chickens they got very dinosaur like embryos. It's amazing how closely the very young human embryo resembles a fish .. evolution seems to just reuse and take what works rather than magical transformations.
Ah Piltdown Man! Classic hoax. But science now SETS OUT to debunk every hypothesis - no longer grasping at bullshit to support a hypothesis like they used ro. I think we get a lot less hoaxes now because science is much better at disproving. Science now actually sets out to debunk, and if they can't, some kind of truth is set. It is self-correcting, always. That's the science I trust these days. That's what science IS. Everything else is politics and dreams.
Look at the BIG fossil finds of recent times like Archaeopteryx which linked dinosaurs and birds and there's the whale ancestors with hind limbs. And they've found loads in the last few years and even can now trace DNA back way farther than they used to. There have been a few complete dinosaurs like T. rex and reconstructions isn't as random imagination as it used to be when they gap filled without evidence. Most of that has been unravelled and they are way more careful and accurate now and don't embellish like they used to at all.
I guess trust comes from consistent evidence and self-correction - whilst it has been dubious at points it's getting better - lots of rigorous challenging is what real science is all about. Old science, not so much. Modern science, yes. I think it's sad how science has been cherry picked and used to support political and institutional ends which isn't the fault of real science but the people using it.
I won't argue with you since your information is a lot more up to date than mine. It's years since I researched this stuff, though it was something I was fascinated with at one time. Indeed I heard both Matt Ridley and Richard Dawkins speak in Dublin in the 90s. I wasn't aware a full TREX skeleton had been discovered, though I'm not surprised to find it was it was unearthed by professional fossil hunters. I understand the Chinese do a roaring trade in fake fossils:)
Ha yeah they do!!! But also some pretty important fossils have come out of China that have provided gaps.
I guess coz I'm married to a physicist I understand a lot about what science IS - as he says, it's usually 'the very best theory we have' but that it's always 'evolving' excuse the pun. It's easy to get scullduggery mixed up with proper science and once we have heard that it's very hard to have trust in it again.
I don't know, I see the absolute passion that drives a lot of science and really admire what people have done and how hard they work. It's totally fascinating how old theories are replaced all the time! As I said, real, proper science isn't designed to mislead us at all.
I absolutely love the story of evolution as it's constantly reassessing itself!
I'd go as far as to say that science is constantly reassessing itself and much of our current science will prove to be bunk. I mean, after all, we used to believe we landed on the moon:)
That’s so cool that you know Alice Roberts. We’ve been watching Dig for Britain recently and she’s a fantastic presenter.
On the topic of menopause, my wife is going through the changes at the moment and has had to come off HRT for awhile for reasons I won’t divulge here. She is certainly noticing the difference it was making whilst she is off it temporarily.
She's as lovely in real life as she is on the telly!
Please tell your wife I empathize. It really is a hard lot for us woman.
I bet she is and I’ll tell Tina and wish she would join Hive to be honest. She is kind of interested I think!
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Here at this time the weather in our city has become much colder and this time winter has come. Previously it used to be cold here in November but this time it is in December so I like this view more and more whenever. As we move closer to the ocean, there are many things we are seeing for the first time.
You're lucky moving closer to the ocean! Stay warm x
Yeah.
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