Why Do Humans Grow Up So Slowly? Blame the Brain

sciencehabit (1205606) writes Humans are late bloomers when compared with other primates — they spend almost twice as long in childhood and adolescence as chimps, gibbons, or macaques do. But why? One widely accepted but hard-to-test theory is that children's brains consume so much energy that they divert glucose from the rest of the body, slowing growth. Now, a clever study of glucose uptake and body growth in children confirms this 'expensive tissue' hypothesis.

Comments

Re:not so fast

[Xiver]

You can scream this at the top of your lungs until you are blue in the face, but it probably won't make a difference. Explaining it carefully might convince a few people, but not about things they already believe in. Its been said so much that you wouldn't even post it under your username, because you know it will get adversely moderated. People have read it so much they cringe when they see it.

You'll never be able to convince people that toasters don't cause suicidal tendencies in teenagers.

Sperm to frogs

[tepples]

You have to clean out the pipes every once in a while before the sperm, well, mature.

Re:not so fast

[AK Marc]

Every time I shoot you in the brain, you die. But correlation does not imply causation, so it must be some other reason.