Who wants a 'perfect body'?
A couple of days ago I watched a fascinating programme on BBC4, presented by the wonderful Professor Alice Roberts, called 'Can Science Make Me Perfect?' If it hadn't been for the synopsis accompanying the billing in the Radio Times I would have assumed it was about cosmetic surgery, diet and weight control and given it a wide berth – which would have been a shame, as it couldn't have been more different!
Prof Roberts, who's always up for anything in her documentaries (I'll always remember the one on spiders …) took part in a fun experiment carried out by the Science Museum to see what the human body would look like if it borrowed evolutionary modifications from other species to iron out the kinks that plague us – the two most obvious being back pain (which afflicts almost everyone to some degree past middle age) and difficulties in childbirth (a potential hazard for fifty-two percent of the population). With the help of a 3D scan of her own self-confessed 'imperfect, forty-something body', she tracked the modifications that would have to be made to produce this ideal human. These included the chimpanzee's shorter lumber spine and higher pelvis, the shock-absorbing leg structure of the ostrich, the more heart-friendly arterial system of the dog, the flight-efficient lungs of the swan, the swivelling ears of the cat, the 'backwards' retina of the octopus, the amphibial ability to change skin colour according to environment and, most intriguingly of all, the kangaroo's pouch to hold and nourish a developing foetus. This last modification was particularly complicated and it involved placing the nipples inside the pouch (thereby losing the human breasts) and carrying the developing baby for several years within it to allow for human brain development.
The resulting image, unveiled to the public and to Roberts herself at the Science Museum in London, looked suitably weird in comparison to what we're accustomed to – but also oddly appealing, including as it did large round eyes, pointy Spock-like ears and a dear little baby's head poking out of the stomach pouch beneath the flat chest. It was such a refreshing change to the usual 'perfect body' spiel churned out ad nauseum under the auspices of 'health and beauty' that I was at first reluctant to find any fault with it – how wonderful to have the benefit of all these tried and tested evolutionary modifications! But then I got a bit picky, and started to wonder whether nicking the attributes of non-mammalian species wasn't something of a cheat – shouldn't she have stuck to the chimp, dog, cat and kangaroo and created the 'perfect mammal', something more in keeping with what evolution could credibly have achieved within one class of creature? Another problem, bearing in mind that evolution is geared towards the continuation of the species, is the years-long gestation of the new, improved human baby – if, say, one of the fat fools pressed the nuclear button and we were reduced to a mere handful somewhere in the southern hemisphere, surely we'd need to reproduce a little faster than that in order to survive (painful childbirth notwithstanding)?
Anyway, here a link to the accompanying 'Radio Times' article – have a look and see what you think. I'd love to hear your comments! https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/20...
Prof Roberts, who's always up for anything in her documentaries (I'll always remember the one on spiders …) took part in a fun experiment carried out by the Science Museum to see what the human body would look like if it borrowed evolutionary modifications from other species to iron out the kinks that plague us – the two most obvious being back pain (which afflicts almost everyone to some degree past middle age) and difficulties in childbirth (a potential hazard for fifty-two percent of the population). With the help of a 3D scan of her own self-confessed 'imperfect, forty-something body', she tracked the modifications that would have to be made to produce this ideal human. These included the chimpanzee's shorter lumber spine and higher pelvis, the shock-absorbing leg structure of the ostrich, the more heart-friendly arterial system of the dog, the flight-efficient lungs of the swan, the swivelling ears of the cat, the 'backwards' retina of the octopus, the amphibial ability to change skin colour according to environment and, most intriguingly of all, the kangaroo's pouch to hold and nourish a developing foetus. This last modification was particularly complicated and it involved placing the nipples inside the pouch (thereby losing the human breasts) and carrying the developing baby for several years within it to allow for human brain development.
The resulting image, unveiled to the public and to Roberts herself at the Science Museum in London, looked suitably weird in comparison to what we're accustomed to – but also oddly appealing, including as it did large round eyes, pointy Spock-like ears and a dear little baby's head poking out of the stomach pouch beneath the flat chest. It was such a refreshing change to the usual 'perfect body' spiel churned out ad nauseum under the auspices of 'health and beauty' that I was at first reluctant to find any fault with it – how wonderful to have the benefit of all these tried and tested evolutionary modifications! But then I got a bit picky, and started to wonder whether nicking the attributes of non-mammalian species wasn't something of a cheat – shouldn't she have stuck to the chimp, dog, cat and kangaroo and created the 'perfect mammal', something more in keeping with what evolution could credibly have achieved within one class of creature? Another problem, bearing in mind that evolution is geared towards the continuation of the species, is the years-long gestation of the new, improved human baby – if, say, one of the fat fools pressed the nuclear button and we were reduced to a mere handful somewhere in the southern hemisphere, surely we'd need to reproduce a little faster than that in order to survive (painful childbirth notwithstanding)?
Anyway, here a link to the accompanying 'Radio Times' article – have a look and see what you think. I'd love to hear your comments! https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/20...
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