science

Iespējams, noskaidrots, kā tas gadījies, ka cilvēkam ir attīstījušās lielas smadzenes. Ģenētiskas mutācijas dēļ mūsu organisms neražo vietu, kas varētu būt traumējoša nervu centriem:

(...) Ajit Varki of UCSD led the research that established that Neu5GC is missing from humans. (...) Varki also points out that the elimination of Neu5Gc might have been particularly important for the hominid brain--which, perhaps not coincidentally--went through a huge expansion roughly around the time that the Neu5Ac mutation occurred. In other animals, Neu5Gc is abundant on the cells of most organs, but exceedingly rare in the brain. It is very peculiar for a gene to be silenced in the brain, which suggests that it might have some sort of harmful effect. Once a mutation knocked out the gene altogether, hominids didn't have to suffer with any Neu5Gc in the brain at all. Perhaps Neu5Gc limited brain expansion in other mammals, but once it was gone from our ancestors, our brains exploded.

Viss raksts angliski (garš).