SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
http://neurosciencenews.com/evolution-hands-fighting-2917/
"As an alternative, we suggest that the hand proportions that allow the formation of a fist may tell us something important about our evolutionary history and who we are as a species," Carrier adds. "If our anatomy is adapted for fighting, we need to be aware we always may be haunted by basic emotions and reflexive behaviors that often don't make sense – and are very dangerous – in the modern world," says biology Professor David Carrier.
Carrier and his collaborators not only have argued our hands evolved partly for punching but that the faces of human ancestors, the australopiths, evolved to resist punching – and that human faces became more delicate as our violence became less dependent on brute force. The new study sought more experimental evidence for his theory using nine male cadaver arms purchased from the university's body donor program and from a private supply company.
Shoryuken!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2015, @04:38PM
Well, it's because you did incomplete citing. Here's how the sentence continues:
If we remove the parenthetical "and are very dangerous", we get that fragment in its pure form:
So you see the "don't make sense" is qualified with "in the modern world". In other words, they imply it did make sense back when it evolved, but no longer does.
It is not the scientists' job to invent a sense that doesn't exist. Just as the human appendix probably made sense at some time in the past, but is completely useless and even dangerous (appendicitis!) today, also those emotions made sense back when they evolved (that's why they evolved), but don't make sense in our modern world.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Monday October 26 2015, @04:55PM
Now you've made me thing of the "Spitting Image" video-clip of Genesis "Land of Confusion", where the big red button for "Nurse" is right next to the button for "Nuke" on the president's bedside cabinet.