TED Community » Solaiman Akbar

More About Me

Talk to me about

anything you wish to.

People don't know that I'm good at

whistling, sketching stuff precisely, FIFA

My TED Story

I was scrolling around the appstore in my newly unlocked iphone, and I was like *tap*, and then thats it..

Comments

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• A reply on Conversation: What is the advantage of evolving the ability to cry?

  Mar 21 2013: Expression of emotion plays largely in the social intelligence of humans. Bottomline: crying has many different functions , so that means the ability to cry isnt simple. It is very hard to comprehend humans losing tear glands anytime soon, unless we evolve into emotionless, electronic, metalloid robots!(they wouldnt have use for tear glands!) Therefore, the adaptation of the ability to cry is crucial for humans evolution and reign over Earth.

• A reply on Conversation: What is the advantage of evolving the ability to cry?

  Mar 21 2013: lets assume we dont get exinct if we lose the ability to cry. That means at some point in the future, tear glands become unneccessary for our survival, rendering it useless. we have seen humans lose vestigial(useless) organs which all humans are still born with the appendix. It was believed our ancestors had a vegeterian(herbivore) diet and the appendix helped digest the food. Now we are omnivores and we dont need complex organs for digesting plants; but we are still born with it! Meaning that if we lose the ability to cry, it will take thousands of generations until we would see a complete removal of the tear glands.
  
  crying moisturizes the eye. Ancient Earth was all water and oceans. Organisms with eyesight during ancient earth are used to the abundance of water around their eyes and entire bodies. When Land appeared and organisms had to deal with their loss of habitat by adapting to a dryer environment, i.e. Land. So tear glands may be an adaptation to keep vision healthy by keeping the eye as close to the moisture it was used to in Ancient Earth.
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  A reply on Conversation: What is the advantage of evolving the ability to cry?

  Mar 21 2013: Arkady what you said was completely correct. oh man. I just realized that tears dont necessarily act as defense mechanism because people also cry of joy; and what harm would joy do to someone's body(?!) my best guess emotions affect a part of our brain which we still cant comprehend and psychology. Im blabbering. Im not in a position to speculate cuz im no expert and i have no references to what im saying.
  It's fun to speculate :PPPP I actually just turned sophmore, biology is my niche

• A reply on Conversation: What is the advantage of evolving the ability to cry?

  Mar 20 2013: Arkady, dont you think if tear glands and crying are random mutations, then how are tears present in all humans? Humans prefer to have tears, just based on the prevalence and survival of Tears. Have you ever heard of a person with no tear glands? You probably can find some on google, but they are infinitesimal. I believe It is safe to say that tears were a very primitive terrestrial adaption. Preterrestrial animals were all Marine and are used to an abundant amount of moisture around they're visionary senses (i.e. the eyes). When Continents in earth formed, marine habitats were destroyed and many organisms had to approach new 'waters', and it was what we know as continental earth. Only the fittest animals were capable of transitioning into terrestrial(LAND) organisms. Land was very dry unlike the ocean, so animals who had dryed out eyes have bad or no vision and therefore less chance of survival. Animals who developed tears to keep moisture around their eyes are probably the ones that passed their offsprings, therefore continuity and increase in alele frequency. It is hard to see how Arkady thought of this question. if we lose our tears doesnt mean we all are gonna die and our reproductive capabilities are gone. Well the thing is you never know, because it's all chance and probabilities.

• A comment on Conversation: How many languages is it possible to know?

  Mar 20 2013: One of my closest friends speaks 6 languages. His mother knows 8 and his grandma knows 11. In this case it seems that there is no limit. as you keep aging. Its awesome that all animals except for humans communicate to others of the same species in one language. dogs bark, crows squawk and owls hoot. Us humans we have thousands of different languages.
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  A comment on Conversation: What is the advantage of evolving the ability to cry?

  Mar 20 2013: I'm gonna try to give an educated guess. Crying happens on different scenarios for different reasons. Your eyes tear when a needle pinches you, when dust particles enter the eye, and also when someone hurts you emotionally.
  Crying or tearing is a common response to physical or/and emotional pain. When you something external acts on your body, it reacts. Physical pain: tears and crying are involuntary, so when you cry from pain, your body is going on defense mode, it wants to relieve the pain and wants it to go away. The chemical reactions in the brain that trigger crying might also reduce the pain as byproduct. However , crying's function may differ with stages in life. Infants for instance, cry when their body is in NEED of something i.e. food, diaper change, sleep >>> all for one thing, healthy upbringing, survival and to bring offspring. another stage in human's lives, lets say (2-7yrs old), you often see them cry more when they are denied something they want (candy) rather than physical pain. when they cry they range from cute convincing watery eyes to volatile annoying tantrums. Well I'd say they get their way 50-50, but thats not essential for survival as in infants. So why do they cry when they want something? I really don't know, but if I had to say, its the human's obsession with instant gratification. If you always get what you want, you are happy and you have a brain full of Dopamine(happy chemical), it could possibly also mean a healthier brain and body. Thirdly, eyes tear when dust or other foreign particles enter the eye. The tears gather all the foreign objects and mechanically by gravity leave your eye, and clearing your eyes from any risk of disease. I have no knowledge of how tears evolved from species to species. All this infromation I wrote might be completely false. I am only typing this from my head. kinda went with the flow of this website. whew... this is my first on this website, pretty inspiring..