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Brain Games Make You Smarter

Posted by Melanie Burns on
Brain Games Make You Smarter

Brain games or puzzles can actually help boost brain power and improve memory and sharpness. Just like the muscles on your arms and legs which can be grown through regular exercise, your brain also has similar capabilities.

That’s right your brain can also be “exercised” through mental games or activities such as word games, puzzles, and riddles. Exercising your brain daily through these games can even raise your I.Q. There even exists supporting evidence to back this. Here is a list of specific brain games which could help improve brain power as found on a long-term care insurance article regarding the effectiveness of puzzles on the aging brain.

Human Intelligence

6 ways to improve your IQ

Posted by Melanie Burns on
6 ways to improve your IQ

IQ (Intelligence Quotient) is a measure of mental agility and comprehension speeds. Some of the greatest scientists of all time had impressive IQ. In the UK, the average 32-year-old has an IQ of 100. This is thought to be increasing by at least 3% per decade, as human beings evolve to cope with changing environments. The good news for you is that you don’t have to move with this pace. You can fast-track your IQ by following the following simple steps.

  • Play Games – fluid intelligence relates to your working memory, and is a crucial part of all IQ tests. By using games where you are required to remember a sequence of sounds or geometric shapes, you can boost your fluid intelligence. Dedicate about 25 minutes to play an appropriate game each day and you can raise your IQ measure by at roughly 4 points. Nowadays, you only need your smartphone to get started. There are tons of apps that are dedicated to enhancing your IQ through games.
  • Take Supplements – now, you probably didn’t expect this one on my list. But there’s evidence that ingesting 5g of creatine daily can get your IQ up by up to 15 points over a 6-week duration. Creatine has been known to significantly boost brain power. In tests, scientists administered this supplement and requested participants to spot missing items in grit patterns. They noted that there was an increase in the energy level available for the brain’s computational functions.
  • Engage in social games – play Scrabble to improve your brain power. Any activity that entails a diverse range of skills plus social interaction will suffice. Dedicate about 50 minutes to do this at least once each week and you’ll definitely see some increment in your Intelligence Quotient.
  • Get some bad guys – there’s a direct link between 1st-person video games and increased visual awareness in the real world. Visual awareness is an IQ building block, and scientists have confirmed that the ability to accurately absorb visual cues at speed is invaluable. So you might want to go right ahead and play Call of Duty 4. This should get your IQ up by at least 2 points, before you even know it.
  • Get some training rolling – a Swedish demonstrated that cardiovascular fitness improves your verbal intelligence by up to 50%. There are many other studies that have tied cardiovascular fitness to better cognitive capacity. On the contrary, muscular strength is very weakly tied to intelligence. Carding some cardio routines going one at least 20 minutes every once in a while should get your IQ up by at least 5 points.
  • Practice, practice – there’s strong evidence that retaking your IQ tests could raise your score by up to 2 points. Practice helps arm you with the skills you need to tackle the next test. So if you are not happy with what you scored the first time round, load your best IQ test app and get going the second round. You might be surprised to see your IQ score up.

By engaging in these activities, you might be able to upgrade your IQ by up to 17 points in total. Largely, it’s all about focusing on activities that strengthen your mental faculties.

Religious Evolution

Religion vs scientific evolution

Posted by Melanie Burns on
Religion vs scientific evolution

Evolution in nature is inconsistent according to Pope Francis. A substantial percentage of adults in America totally disagree with the scientific explanation for human origin. Although most Catholics in U.S accept evolution ideas, a number of religious groups in the U.S argue that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection is wrong since it conflicts with their creation view. May be with a better understanding of the above terminologies one can get the whole idea easily.

What is religion?

Religion is a cultural reality comprised of sacred stories, tradition of practice and sacred places. Religions are diverse and it’s common to identify the ultimate with a deity like Christianity, Judaism and Islam but not all do. Religious understanding draws from traditional authority and also from scientific explanations about the world as a way of knowing how world is like.

What is science and evolution?

Evolution is the process by which species of organism undergo change over a period of time through natural selection. The genetic makeup of organism is traced using fossils or DNA technology. Science is a way of understanding nature and developing explanations for stuctures. Science does not provide proofs but it provides well supported theories which guide future efforts of solving all questions about natural world.

Here are some facts about religion and science.

Minority of Americans accept scientific evolution

A minority of Americans says that human and other living things have evolved over time through natural processes. About 24%  of U.S adults believe that human beings and other creatures evolved through the guidance of a natural being. Survey shows that there are those who do not entirely believe in evolution and argues that humans existed since the beginning of time.

Evangelical protestant rejects evolution

Majority of evangelicals believes that humans existed from the beginning. Only one in ten evangelicals says that humans evolved through natural selection. Church like Southern Baptist Convection rejects evolution as being in conflict with what they see as biblical truth.

A quarter of white Catholics reject evolution

Despite the church acceptance about evolution through natural selection, Hispanic Catholics in US rejects evolution since they believe that humans existed in their present form.

Series of court decision prohibits teaching creationism in public schools

Despite many Americans states efforts to ban the teaching of evolution in public schools court has rejected any curricula that veers away from evolutionary theory.US Supreme Court once ruled that Louisiana law that required students to learn both evolution and creation science was violating the US Constitution prohibition on establishment of religion.

Roman Catholic Church accepts evolutionary theory

Pope Francis was not the first to publicly affirm that evolution is compatible with religious teachings. Pope John Paul II even went deeper by saying that evolution is more than a hypothesis. Most Catholics believes that humans and other living things evolved with time through natural processes.

Conclusion

It’s clearer now that religion and science do not differ much. Religion borrows from science in order to understand life in a better manner. Evolution happens in our day to day life since more species are evolving and our body features are changing.

Peak of Evolution

The latest levels of human evolution

Posted by Melanie Burns on
The latest levels of human evolution
The latest levels of human evolution

Human has not stopped evolving. Assuming that civilization continues along the same path as today major changes will be expected over the next few years. Since civilization hasn’t been around for long we can expect extraordinarily changes as years draw by. Here some major changes we expect in human evolution.

Muscle Atrophy

There are two main foreseeable causes of human gradual physical weakness which are; Over reliance on technology most especially on machine to do our muscle enhancing work. This makes the whole species weaker since they do not depend on physical strength for body muscle growth. If we were to relocate to space the second cause of muscle atrophy is much relevant. Here physical strength is less necessary for day to day activities but it doesn’t mean we spend too long as explorers since we eventually lose most of our body muscle mass. The future generation should consider this to prevent finding themselves confined to wheelchairs.

Smaller/larger scull volume

Scientists argue that it is impossible for human to evolve with larger heads. The ‘small scull’ gets all the support from biologists who believe that a larger head will make birth impossible. A larger head at birth is most likely to kill or hurt the mother and with it seems the head size will stay the same or decrease over time. With advanced technology caesarean section has provided more opportunities for survival of big headed children which is heart thrilling for the mothers affected. Many may think that C-section is safer than natural birth but its dependence would be dangerous for human.

Self-improvement

Soon human will reach a point where they can force evolution on themselves through technology. A good example of this is through gene selection where prospective parents choose their child’s trait before birth. This is the avenue of human evolution will take in near future leading to a boom of what is known as “designer baby” in which all undesirable traits are removed.

Mono-ethnicity

As long as multiculturalism continues being the essence of modern society humans are expected to evolve into a single ethnic group. Humans will start slowly start losing the main distinguishing features of their ethnicity and take on characteristics from different cultures in the world. This is a benefit since race will no longer be a problem.

Increased height

For the last two centuries human height has been growing rapidly which is believed is caused by abundance of nutrition. The more a person’s eats the more energy he/she has to grow. Eating will make species to grow taller whether the sky is our limit or not. Only evolution can tell the limit of tallness.

Brain rewiring

Technology has greatly affected how our memory works. Our brain can only remember where the information is stored but not the content. Technology is advancing each day thus our brain adapts to maximize properly at the detriment of our memory.

Weakened immune system

Human immune system is growing weaker due to relying on medication for survival. It is foreseeable that soon humans will evolve to the point where hormones no longer organically created within the body. Our body needs a powerful immune system to fight diseases and self-dependency. Use of medication will only make most of our internal functions obsolete.

Conclusion

These are the recent levels   of evolution which will be taking place in the next few years to come. Evolution is advancing so fast that many changes are not easily noticed. With time humans will have many more variations in traits as years goes by. Evolution from apes to human to more advanced creatures in future with better living environs mixed cultures and level of intelligence.

Cultural Evolution

All you need to know about Cultural Evolution

Posted by Melanie Burns on
All you need to know about Cultural Evolution

Cultural evolution is also known as social cultural evolution which is the development of one or more cultures from simpler to more complex form. The general mark on modern theories of cultural evolution is their insistence of cultural inheritance. Members of our species are able to survive in part of habitat and technology which are maintained by learning and discoveries made from others. The main question here is how theories of cultural evolution should be related to the traditional understanding of organic evolution. Here is all you need to understand about cultural evolution.

What is culture?

According to Richerson culture is mostly the information in brain. Cultural inheritance is understood as the transmission of brain information from person to next. He argues that there is no similarity in gene and cultural variant but insists that cultural variant must be gene like to carry cultural information. To understand culture better we have define information which simply means the knowledge stored in books but the definition differs from person to person. Although the precise details are yet to be ironed out research shows that cultural evolution is possible.

Culture as a product of biology

Nature and biology share a complex relationship .Research shows that culture can influence human evolution. A good example is the rapid spread of a gene that produces a protein which allows humans to digest lactose. Change in culture greatly affected human genetics. Culture ranges from micro-level of interpersonal interactions to the macro-level of the influence on entire societies.

Nonhuman animal cultural evolution

There is an existence of some degree of culture in nonhuman species. The songs of a certain species of birds and tool use in some primates vary from one group to group within the same species. A good example is how group macaques of Koshima Island began to use the sea for washing instead of the stream and preferring the taste of the salt water. This shows how innovation created behaviorally distinct population within the same species. Cultural evolution on nonhuman is under researched and unclear on how observational learning is. Further work will establish the extent on which we may speak about cultural evolutionary processes in nonhuman species.

Memes theory

Memes theory draws a very strong analogy between evolution at cultural level and biological evolution. Dawkins argues that in standard biological models of evolution genes are the relevant replicators. This is because genes make copies of themselves and this explains why offspring organisms resemble their parents. Incase culture evolves it is important to find a form of cultural replicator which explains cultural inheritance. Some exemplary memes are ideas, ways of making pots and clothe fashion.

Cultural evolutionary theory

Cultural inheritance is an important factor in explaining how species has changed over time. Change in culture brings about alterations to the environment and this affects how genes act and how natural selection pressure acts on genes. Cultural evolutionary theory provides insight into the historical pattern of cultural change in the same way that evolutionary biological tools have reticulated history of life. Culture is important since it highly affects human evolution in positive manner.

Conclusion

Natural selection acting on gene variation can cause disposition to learn from non-kin and this can cause maladaptive traits. This is considered as genetically inherited adoptions by cultural evolutionists. This was produced in response to the problems faced by our earlier ancestors. Cultural evolution includes the inheritance of habits from group to group within species. This contributes to human evolution for example in the ability of species capacity to acquire language.