Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL that in 1961, the only doctor at a Soviet research station in Antarctica got appendicitis, and had to performed surgery on himself to remove his appendix. Two weeks later he resumed regular duties (www.bbc.com)

submitted 1 year ago by garfaagel@sh.itjust.works to c/til@lemmy.ca

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Bonus: Nowadays Australian doctors staying over the winter must remove their appendix preemptively, in order to avoid similar situations.

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[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Eyesight will get worse over time now, but people can see better than ever... it's a bizarre contradiction.

Until you consider medicine and technology to be part of the aggregate evolutionary progress. In which case, we're racing ahead!

I don't think we see a return to traditional evolutionary pressure unless we get truly isolated populations again, coupled with a major global disaster. That, or people living in space.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Until you consider medicine and technology to be part of the aggregate evolutionary progress

No, that stuff is memetic instead of genetic.

You can say it's human society evolving, but it's not humans evolving.

[–] TotallyHuman@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

I can see the argument that it's part of the evolutionary advantage conferred by bigger brains, vocal chords, and opposable thumbs.

[–] getseclectic@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

I think there is a strong argument that we have been post human since we developed writing and that a 'person' encompasses more than just their meat sack. I was first introduced to this idea by the book Natural Born Cyborgs. You are taking a narrower view of the word evolution, but I'm not totally sure it's justified.