From the NY Times:
"Pregnant women do not tip over, and researchers say an evolutionary curve has a lot to do with the reason why. During pregnancy, the abdomen grows by nearly one-third and the center of mass shifts forward considerably. That increases pressure on the spinal column, strains the muscles and generally reduces stability. Researchers looked for an additional mechanism, besides the woman leaning back, that might have compensated for the increased strain of pregnancy.
What they found, said Katherine K. Whitcome, a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard and the lead author of the paper, was evidence that evolution had produced a stronger and more flexible lower spine for women. After studying 19 pregnant subjects, Ms. Whitcome found that the lumbar, or lower back, curve in women extends across three vertebrae, as opposed to just two in men. And the connecting points between vertebrae are relatively larger in women, and shaped differently in ways that make the stack more stable and less prone to the bones shifting out of alignment or breaking."
Way to go scientists! Non-Related: I was watching a Carl Sagan video on YouTube about the human brain, and he said that the brain library contains 10,000 times more volumes than the gene library. YIKES! Billions and billions, right.
"Pregnant women do not tip over, and researchers say an evolutionary curve has a lot to do with the reason why. During pregnancy, the abdomen grows by nearly one-third and the center of mass shifts forward considerably. That increases pressure on the spinal column, strains the muscles and generally reduces stability. Researchers looked for an additional mechanism, besides the woman leaning back, that might have compensated for the increased strain of pregnancy.
What they found, said Katherine K. Whitcome, a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard and the lead author of the paper, was evidence that evolution had produced a stronger and more flexible lower spine for women. After studying 19 pregnant subjects, Ms. Whitcome found that the lumbar, or lower back, curve in women extends across three vertebrae, as opposed to just two in men. And the connecting points between vertebrae are relatively larger in women, and shaped differently in ways that make the stack more stable and less prone to the bones shifting out of alignment or breaking."
Way to go scientists! Non-Related: I was watching a Carl Sagan video on YouTube about the human brain, and he said that the brain library contains 10,000 times more volumes than the gene library. YIKES! Billions and billions, right.
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