Lighthouse News Daily

Breaking Daily News

Friday, April 16, 2021
Log in
  • Headlines
  • Business
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • U.S.
  • World
  • Latest News
    • Inflatable Greenhouse Could Be A Food Source In The Outer Space
    • YouTube for Children Being Launched by Google
    • Some Animals Produce Natural Sunscreen to Protect Themselves from Radiation, New Study Shows
    • A New Genetic Map Tracks Down Dog Breeds And Their Evolution
    • Lack Of Sleep Causes Brain Cells To Slow Down
    • Meet Lyuba, the Best-Preserved Baby Mammoth in the World
    • Reports of Great White Shark Spottings Around Wells, Maine
    • Minecraft Adds Hour of Code Designer Tutorial
    • The de Broglie-Bohm Theory Is Back and It’s Surreal
    • Could High Carbon Dioxide Concentration Make Earth Greener?
You are here: Home / Science / Why Do Humans Have Big Brains? Experts Weigh In (Study)

Why Do Humans Have Big Brains? Experts Weigh In (Study)

May 24, 2018 By Grant Hamersma Leave a Comment

Email, RSS Follow

human evolution

Most people might have already heard about the famous Australopithecus afarensis fossil that experts named Lucy. Well, Lucy lived between 3 and 4 million years ago, and its body was somewhere between a human and an animal. The body was similar to ours, and it could probably stand straight. However, something else was completely different: the brain. According to experts, Lucy had a brain that was only about a third of the size of our brains today. So, what happened in-between that prompted this evolution in brain size?

This is what a team of scientists set out to discover in a new study which the journal Nature recently published. Experts have claimed for decades that our brains are among the most complicated organs. Moreover, some have even claimed that the brain is the most complex object in the entire universe. But taking into account our body size, out brains are a lot larger than one would expect. But why should we care so much about this aspect? Well, experts think that understanding how our brain evolved could help us also get a grasp of how the brain really works.

Why do humans have such big brains?

It’s important to know that so far, scientists have come up with three reasons why we might have evolved to have such big brains. One is the physical challenges that humans had to overcome. The second is the social needs that forced our brain to develop, and lastly, cultural reasons. This means that people who were capable of acquiring knowledge and pass it on were more likely to reproduce.

The new study argues that most likely, all these three were important in developing the brains. However, there are also downsides to this because a big brain needs more energy. Nowadays, 20% of the energy that our bodies produce goes to the brain. The new paper also suggests that the environment played a huge role in the size of the brain.

Image source: wikimedia

Email, RSS Follow

Filed Under: Science

Pages

  • About/Contact
  • AccomplishNow Sandra Rechsteiner | A Journey to Self-Acceptance
  • Privacy Policy GDPR
  • Staff
  • Terms and Conditions

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 17 other subscribers

Final Fantasy: Heavensward is closing in on the MMO king, reaching above 5 million registered accounts in the entire world.

Final Fantasy almost knocks down Warcraft

August 23, 2015 By Martha Goodwin 2 Comments

Hottest Year on Record

January 16, 2015 By David Kellen Leave a Comment

Alleged Spies from Russia Face Charges in New York

January 26, 2015 By David Kellen Leave a Comment

Fear that Canadians Died in Vanuatu Cyclone

March 17, 2015 By David Kellen Leave a Comment

Data for Retail Sales in U.S. Points to Slower Growth

February 12, 2015 By David Kellen Leave a Comment

Fidel Castro Gives His Opinion on Diplomatic Efforts between U.S. and Cuba

January 27, 2015 By Lonnie Davidson Leave a Comment

American Hostage Held by ISIS Confirmed Dead

February 10, 2015 By Joseph Decker Leave a Comment

Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus Hosts Vast Ocean Beneath its Surface

September 19, 2015 By David Kellen Leave a Comment

Related Articles

  • Hunterian Museum, where the skeleton of the Irish Giant is kept

    Irish Giant Skeleton Could Be Buried at Sea

    Jun 27, 2018
  • part of a Leonardo Da Vinci painting

    Painted Tile Might be Leonardo Da Vinci’s Earliest Work

    Jun 27, 2018
  • Robert F. Kennedy

    More Details on Robert F. Kennedy’s Assassination Emerge (Study)

    Jun 20, 2018
  • cat and dog

    Dogs Have More Neurons than Cats (Study)

    Jun 18, 2018
  • Stephen Hawking

    Stephen Hawking’s Voice to Be Beamed into Space

    Jun 15, 2018
  • cat's blue eyes

    Why Do Humans See Better Than Other Animals? (Study)

    Jun 7, 2018
  • ice shelf in East Antarctica

    Earthquakes are Happening Beneath East Antarctica’s Ice (Study)

    Jun 6, 2018
  • mother with her baby

    Women’s Voices Drop After Giving Birth (Study)

    Jun 4, 2018
  • Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun with dogs

    Adolf Hitler’s Teeth Confirm He Indeed Died in 1945 (Study)

    May 23, 2018
  • planet Jupiter

    Asteroid that Orbits Backward Around Jupiter is from Beyond Our Solar System (Study)

    May 22, 2018

Categories

  • Business
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Headlines
  • Health
  • Nature
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • U.S.
  • Uncategorized
  • World

Copyright © 2021 lighthousenewsdaily.com

About | Contact · Staff · Terms and Conditions · Privacy Policy