烹饪与人类的智慧

Cooking Up Human Intelligence
So what makes the human brain so special? Actually, it might not be that special after all.
Sliding Scales
In 2009, Dr. Suzana Herculano Houzel and her colleagues showed that the human brain has the same density of nerve cells as other primates. Comparing humans to smaller primates, she claims that our brain is no bigger than it should be for our body size. Still, given the distinctive way that primate brains scale with size, we may have the most brain cells of any mammal.
That being said, gorillas can grow to be three times our size, but still have much smaller brains than ours.
Brain cells need more energy than most body cells. Although the brain is less than 2 percent of the mass of the human body, it consumes 20 percent of our resting metabolic energy. Gorillas have to spend more than eight hours every day eating to get enough calories to support their big body, and they simply can’t afford a bigger brain.

Brain Food
So, then, how did human ancestors overcome this limitation? Beginning with homo erectus, about two million years ago, our ancestors couldn’t have afforded the metabolic cost of their increasingly large brains if they ate raw food like gorillas do.
Primatologist Richard Wrangham thinks that the invention of cooking with fire is what made this growth in brain size possible. Cooked food is easier to digest and yields more calories. Cooking may have made the human brain possible, and freed us from having to spend all day eating.
density n. 密度
distinctive adj. 有特色的，与众不同的
mammal n. [脊椎] 哺乳动物
metabolic adj. 变化的；新陈代谢的
n. 灵长类动物学家 (primatology的变形)

唐山翻译公司推荐阅读
 

• 相关文章
• 久坐真的会死人哒 (2015-8-7 11:12:26)
• 教育孩子最好的办法 (2015-8-6 22:36:15)
• Growing roots 生长的树根 (2015-8-6 22:35:48)
• 上海成游人满足城市,想去哪看景致 (2015-8-6 22:34:35)
• 英文指示牌 "洗手间"翻译成"候车室" (2015-7-29 15:45:4)
• 不要让这八件事毁掉你的面试! (2015-7-29 14:1:56)
• Offer 太多也会烦？6步选择并不难 (2015-7-24 9:43:59)
• 富人如何越来越富？花样投资有诀窍 (2015-7-24 9:42:25)
• 超能妈妈7妙招 工作生活全都我来包 (2015-7-23 15:10:44)
• 怎么练好英语口语？ (2015-7-23 15:2:3)