We humans walk with our feet. This is true, but not entirely. Walking, as part of locomotion, is a coordinated whole-body movement that involves both the arms and legs. Researchers at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research have identified different subpopulations of neurons in the spinal cord with long projections. Published in Neuron, the results show that these neurons coordinate movement of arms and legs and ensure a stable body posture during locomotion. (1)
Every move we make is a composite one.
We do not walk just with our feet.
We use our hands, mind, ears, eyes as well…
The same applies for everything else.
Everything is composed of many parts – what part we choose to acknowledge is exactly that: a matter of choice. The act of writing involves thinking, knowing, seeing, moving. The act of speaking involves moving the mouth as well as the hands, the mind, the eyes. The act of living involves dying. Oups! No, I do not want that.
Earlier this month, a federal court indicted a Chinese national for trying to steal GMO corn technology from DuPont, Monsanto, and AgReliant Genetics. The scientist’s arrest is just the latest in a series of indictments against six other people linked to a Beijing seed-development company called Dabeinong Technology Group Co. The FBI alleges the Dabeinong staff were part of a years-long seed collection effort that sometimes involved some low-tech methods. Science magazine reports:
The U.S.-based defendants roamed rural Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa in rental cars, digging up corn seedlings, stealing ears of corn, and stealing or illegally obtaining packaged seed, according to court documents. In 2011, a DuPont Pioneer field manager spotted one alleged thief on his knees digging in a field, as a collaborator waited in a nearby parked car. (1)
Patenting seeds…
How civilized…
We have patented everything. And now we look ridiculous.
Haidegger called for going back to the mother Earth.
As so many wise men before him.
But not like this.
The Earth is not our own.
Quite the opposite: WE are hers.
We must start digging with our hands.
We must start being dirty.
So that we clean up from all our sins…
All the seeds we need, are already in us.
Waiting to flourish.
Walk in the woods barefooted.
And you will feel that something magical transcends the cosmos.
And it surely is NOT the seeds of Monsanto…
Our brain could have evolved just for… walking. [1] A new theory proposes that our beloved organ, what we believe makes us unique, was created just for controlling movement. If this is true, then two possibilities exist: The other “high level” activities that constitute consciousness could just be a side-effect or… a result of something “else”. Choose wisely.
The evolution of various organs of the human body is an essential part of the Theory of Evolution and a beloved theme for discussion among biologists.
We have many organs which seem evolved in exactly the way needed so as to allow them to perform their important mission.
We have legs which have evolved so as to support our walking.
It seems logical, but it may be not. Strangely enough, an idea which is lost in the abyss of time may shed new light to that notion.
It was Epicurus who postulated it: The organs ARE NOT evolved so as to support their functions, but the other way around! The functions are evolved BASED ON the organs we have available!
