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Joined: Jul 2002
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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742 |
As a public service, and in attempt at a feeble bilingual pun, I offer the following: http://duke.usask.ca/~elias/left/Dieu et mon gauche!
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
This part about one lung being 3-lobed I'd never heard before:
"However, our internal organs
are largely asymmetrical. The right lung has 2 lobes whereas the left has 3, the right kidney is
usually lower and wider than the left, and the two ovaries also have significant structural
asymmetries (Davies & Coupland, 1967). Therefore, it appears as though symmetry in the
human body disappears when there is no adaptive pressure to retain it. "
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,541 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,541 Likes: 1 |
...symmetry in the human body disappears when there is no adaptive pressure to retain it
Why should we be surprised? Human bilateral symmetry is truly only skin deep...one liver here, one spleen there, one stomach on this side, one pancreas on that side, one gall bladder, one...
Well, you get the picture (can't say "point" here, can I? Not in an asymmetric post!)
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
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Something sinister is going on here...
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
You left something out, right?
TEd
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
On the other hand....for wannabee southpaws:
Can an Ultra-Sound Test Make You Left-Handed?
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) - A Swedish study of 180,000 young men showed routine ultra-sound
examinations of the fetus can affect the brain and lead to left-handedness, Swedish radio is reporting.
The study by Uppsala University Hospital and the Karolinska Institute showed that men born in the 1970s
who had been exposed to ultra-sound tests while in the womb were more likely to become left-handed.
Most people are predisposed to become right-handed with only about six percent becoming left-handed.
If you can't see the bright side, polish the dull side.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
So that explains Leonardo da Vinci's genius!! 
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Joined: Feb 2002
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
Ummm....YES! But - butbutbut - how then do we explain the genius of the guy who invented ultrasound?
If you can't see the bright side, polish the dull side.
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
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Whoever designed our bodies must actually be patted on the back. There's not a lot of space to waste and a lot of interlinked subsystems to cram in. Whoever it was obviously took suitcase packing lessons from my wife ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Oct 2000
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
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Human bilateral symmetry is truly only skin deep
Less than that really, wofa - there's that experiment/game where you stick a mirror vertically on a picture of someone's face (along the nose line) and produce two significantly different, though perfectly symmetrical, faces. There's actually something alien-looking about perfect symmetry.
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
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though symmetry in the human body disappears when there is no adaptive pressure to retain itIn my view, this statement puts things upside-down: If you consider evolution of organisms, the more primitive was the more symmetrical, and each breach of symmetry represented a jump in evolution (spherical -> cylindrical -> flat with differentiated underside -> front-end and back end + left and right asymmetry). It was thus "adaptive pressure" that made asymmetrical organisms "win", roughly speaking. There are still highly symmetrical competitors around, like the viruses (do not re-start a thread about this plural  ).
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
the lack of perfect symmetry is why we don't usually like our own photos-- we are used to looking at ourselves in a mirror, and we get used to that view. in a photo, we don't have that reverse symmetry, and we don't look as we would expect.
it is very interesting to take a full frontal face view, slice it down the middle, and then make two perfectly symmetrical faces out of each half.. not to hard to do with a program like photoshop.
the three images are distictly different, and both look like the whole face, but the doubled right and the doubled left often don't look at all alike.
still, there is a good deal of evidence that the concept of beauty is linked to symmetry in the face.
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