The Great Evolving Hand Experiment Reflection Response
Describe the experiment. What is the most important thing you learned from this experiment? Provide an example (from the experiment to explain your answer).
The experiment detailed several milestones in the evolution of the human hand. For each step, the hand (simulated with a taped and handicapped modern hand) was given a task to test the effectiveness of its design. I learned that an increased number of fingers does not necessarily correlate with better performance in each task but it is instead attributed to the ability to use the hand given. For example, my “Fin” writing task outperformed three of the other four hand designs. Given additional fingers to incorporate, my writing deteriorated from the careful and neat first attempt.
What part(s) of your hand did you need most in order to complete each task? Provide an example (from the experiment) to support your argument.
I needed my thumb most to complete each task efficiently. Though it was possible to complete tasks like writing with a pencil and stretching an elastic, an opposable thumb allowed me to do both with incredible skill. The quality and precision of my writing improved dramatically with the addition of this finger (Pictured on the right: “Quadruple-claw/finger” above, Human hand below). The elastic band could be stretched a
…show more content…
This probably served us well from their origin as “fins” (like a whale's’ or in Hand Shape 1) all the way to tree climbing “quadruple-claw/finger” (like a spider monkey or in Hand Shape 4). Having five fingers was always advantageous particularly recently with the advent of tools. I don’t think five is necessarily an optimal number of fingers and that the opposable thumb played a bigger role in the permanence of this design. Another opposable thumb making a total 6 fingers to a hand, could be an extremely advantageous
In the book, Your Inner Fish, by Neil Shubin he presents the notion of evolution and how we can trace parts that make up the human body back to jellyfish, worms, and even fish. The book not only discusses how we arose to be what we are today, but also the implications our ancestors had on our current body plan. In this essay, I will demonstrate that I have digested the entirety of Shubin’s book by convincing you (dear reader) that everything in our bodies is based on simple changes to already existing systems. To make this case, I will use the evidence of limb development in a vast array of organisms, the four arches found in the embryological stage of development, the structures inside our noses, and how our ears have come about all due to modifications.
The results of this experiment are shown in the compiled student data in Table 1 below.
The experiment was built in order to test our abilities to efficiently and correctly execute a separation of mixtures through deep brainstorming and teamwork.
The hands are the most important tool. They are sensitive and versatile and can transmit all kinds of information about the condition of the tissue. Different parts of the hand will be used depending on what stroke technique is used such as the heel of the hand, the fingers, the thumbs, the fists or assisted hands.
An evolving mother-daughter relationship is the focus of Jamaica Kincaid s autobiographical The Circling Hand. Like the narrator, Kincaid grew up in Antigua as the only child her mother and carpenter father. Also like the narrator, Kincaid admits her mother kept everything she ever wore. This narrative is a coming of age story, in which this dynamic and unusual mother-daughter relationship plays an important role. Through the beginning bliss of childhood to the frustrating stage of adolescence, this unique relationship, in which the daughter is infatuated with her mother, seems to control the narrator s development as a freethinking person.
The motor strip works with other motor areas such as the premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area, posterior parietal cortex, and several subcortical brain regions all to produce movements. The frontal lobe sends a signal to the motor strip, and before the person knows it, they’re drinking from a cup. Sending the signal successfully is in thanks to the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum sends nerves that connect and share information between the two hemispheres of the brain. Damage to these nerves results in things such as alien hand syndrome. This damage most often happens during brain aneurysms, in stroke patients and those with infections of the brain, but can also as a side effect of brain surgery, commonly after a radical procedure, often procedures that treat extreme cases of epilepsy. When the callosum is damaged in anyway, it leaves different sections of the brain disconnected and not able to communicate with the other half. With alien hand syndrome, one hand functions normally, carrying out wanted tasks without signaling the other hand, resulting in a hand that can act on its own, sometimes in dysfunctional and unwanted ways. The left hemisphere, which controls the right arm and leg, tends to be where language
To check the minimum number of changes required to make a claw into a nail or toilet claw the results from histological studies were compared to the phylogenetic tree of primates.
ONE DAY. If you can manage to do only half of everything left-handed for that day, you MIGHT BEGIN to understand the seemingly small ‘inconveniences’ suffered by the left-handed on a daily basis” (Dossey 12). Many people may glance at this challenge and find it pointless, highlighting exactly the point Weems makes: that the majority of people don’t realize the struggles of living in a world where people simply assume right-handedness. The stamp of left-handedness appears to also bring the stamp of unworthiness in regards to ease of living, since left-handed people have no trouble finding enemies in the most commonplace of activities. Cooking, for instance, requires lefties to run the risk of injuring themselves meals after meal. Appliance such as can openers, peelers, corkscrews, and soup ladles all force lefties to manipulate their hands in a way where failure prevails more often than success. If only manufacturers took the time to construct items suitable for lefties, or at least appliances equally suitable for both hand preferences, left-handed people would not have to spend just as much time in the kitchen worrying as they do cooking. However, in a world in which profit trumps quality, lefties continue to receive the short end of the stick, overlooked and under appreciated for the skills they could bring
Darwin attributes the change of bodily structures of man from its early progenitors to the natural law of Natural Selection that affects the structures either directly or indirectly. One example Darwin gives, is how the human hand was altered and shaped by Natural Selection. He states that the Quadrumana have homologous structures to the human hand; however, the Quadrumana doesn’t use it for locomotion, but instead for climbing trees. Although, different species of monkeys are able to use their hands to retrieve food and grasp objects such as stones and bottles etc., when doing a simple task such as throwing a stone, the stone is grasped clumsily; hence, they are not able to throw it with precision. Darwin goes to argue that the monkey hasn’t
It was noticed that the men who are quadrupeds walk with their palms down and woman on their fists with their fingers curled in. This may be on account of their ratios, that men have longer arms. When the women put their hands straight they are hyperextended. (Tan 2006). They were shown to have very little mobility in their hands aside from walking on them. Things like eating or tying a shoelace proved to be an up-most difficulty which most of the time resulted in tremors and lengthy time to do such tasks.
...etrical size of the fingers form kind of like those of the fingers on the human hand. The Gifu hand Ⅱ encompasses an abundant higher variety of sensors and higher response than any antecedently developed robot hand, and may move additional quickly than the human hand. We have a tendency to think about that the Gifu hand Ⅱ is beneficial as a research tool for adroit robot manipulation mistreatment each force and tactile sensing.
...ultivating fine motor skills involving my hands. I already have the thought in my mind that our hands do so much more than we realize. The thoughts that have come through my mind if I didn't have hands. This chapter describes the hands as the primary instrument that carried out the motor commands of the brain. Any job whether it is for work or pleasure you need your hands. According to Restak the hand is best thought of as an extension of the brain. I plan on playing games on the computer or jackstraw to keep my brain-hand enhanced.
The development of prosthetic limbs is ever increasing, impacting the lives of amputees. With the rate of development in prosthetic limbs, in a few years amputees should be able too much more making it feel like they never lost a limb. Prosthetic limbs have some few problems like some of them are expensive, they can be hard to control, etc. Never the less the impact they have on amputees is ever growing making it so that the amputees feel like they have a purpose in life.
The first experiment is the “Monster Study” it is about stuttering. This took place in 1939...
hands it generally makes it easier. If you have more brains then you have more ways to solve a problem. I