> William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > So what about those ear and eyebrow mites? We > probably killed them all off...
http://bjo.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/84/12/1342 "... About forty percent of humans house eyebrow mites, living beneath our notice at the base of hair follicles above our eyes. By ordinary human standards, and magnified to human size, these mites are outstandingly ugly and fearsome. I would just as soon let them go their way in peace, so long as they continue to favor utter imperceptibility. And do we really want to know the details of ferocious battles between our antibodies and bacterial invadersa process already distasteful enough to us in the macroscopic consequences of pus?..." Here's one theory on why we are the (sorta) hairless ape: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s876284.htm "Humans lost their hair because it reduced the number of biting and disease-causing parasites, and made them more sexually attractive, according to a new theory. Proposed by British scientists Professor Mark Pagel of the University of Reading and Sir Walter Bodmer of the University of Oxford, it challenges the current argument that humans became hairless in order to control body temperature in hot climates... ..."What the researchers are getting at is a sexual selection idea," Groves said. Hairlessness is a way to display a lack of parasites: having relatively little body hair shows how fit you are, how free of parasites you are. "Sexual selection can work both ways, demonstrating female as well as male fitness." This theory does imply a social shift away from the societal patterns seen in apes. Chimpanzees are noted for their community behaviour, where the males groom each other and the females groom the males. In these societies, the dominant male stays healthy through grooming. "Humans don't have that sort of society. Within that community we have evolved into family groups. The important social group has become the family," added Groves..." There are clickable pix at this site (a bit down from the top): http://www.americanscientist.org/template/BookReviewTypeDetail/assetid/21990;jsessionid=aaaeLe6o0uEN-p#22041 http://makeashorterlink.com/?C30F12519 "...Physician Robert Buckman takes a look at the miniature beasts that inhabit our bodies in Human Wildlife: The Life That Lives On Us. The next time you worry about the nature of self and your identity, consider this: Each of us is made up of roughly 100 trillion cells, but only 10 trillion of these are human cells. Most of the other 90 trillion are bacteria, with a few other parasites, fungi and miscellaneous critters also crawling around the human ecosystem. This is a book that just about everyone will find in some measure fascinating, disturbing, engaging, repulsive and funny. My favorite section is the one on eyebrow mites, Demodex folliculorum, which burrow into our eyebrow follicles, leaving their rear ends wagging in the air..." Debbi Happy Ecosystem Indeed! Maru ;) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
