existance of mankind in danger



There was a news item in the newspapers recently which I read with interest and which stated:
"A pastry-eating competi-tion in the canteen of a multinational IT company in Udyog Vihar cost a young engineer his life on Wednesday (Nov. 19, 08) afternoon. Twenty-two-year-old Saurabh Sabharwal, who reportedly choked to death, was found unconscious in the washroom after having eaten many pastries. He was rushed to a private hospital where the doctors declared him dead."
The most memorable incident of this kind occurred in 1976. A US scientist in 1975 declared that existence of mankind was in danger. "There is a common opening for our food pipe and wind pipe — epiglottis. When we gulp food, it covers the wind pipe. Accordingly when we breath (inhale), it covers the food pipe. This is the mechanism to avoid the entry of food into wind pipe. At times epiglottis forgets its function and food may slip into wind pipe which is withdrawn through coughing. If food in not retracted into foodpipe and remains in wind pipe, it may cause death of an individual. Series of this event can bring doom for humans." Ironically, he was the first known victim of his research.
Definitely this is a structural anomaly in the anatomy of the most evolved species i.e. Homo sapiens but it is not the only one. Some more are enlisted below.
1. Our most vital organs — brain, heart and lungs — are ill protected. Our skull bones are not strong enough, particularly just behind the eye socket, to protect our brain from injury. Similarly, our ribs, particularly floating ribs, can not save our lungs and heart as these are too fragile.
2. Our back bone is double - S shaped with four curves. The one at our waist (lumber curve) is quite slippery, the discs between the vertebrae here can slip easily, blocking the nerves passing through the region resulting in paralysis.
3. The last curve of back-bone (called sacral curve) restricts the opening of birth canal, through which the baby is delivered, causing extreme labour pains — literally unknown in other mammals. It is also responsible for at least 10% deaths at the time of birth.
4. In the four-legged animals, heart pumps blood to the body horizontally, vertically only in limbs. In two-legged humans blood is pumped vertically most of the time. It has resulted in manifold increase in the functioning of heart but its size and efficiency have not increased accordingly — an important reason for heart ailments.
5. Ideally, while walking on two legs, our weight should be in the middle of foot, i.e. between second and third toes but, in practice, it is on second toe — one of the reasons for muscle sprains. Have you seen any other animal limping because of muscle sprain?
This is not all. Many geneticists believe that all of us, on an average are carrying 5-10 harmful genes and if the number increases to 15, human species will be on its way out. The changing climate scenario, hunger, pollution and many more factors can hasten this process.
Isn't existence of mankind really in danger?

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