2024-01-04
38 分钟The Economist.
It's well known that women live longer than men.
They can see a wider range of colors, have more sensitive noses, and can hear sounds of higher frequencies.
How and why women evolved all these abilities is largely mysterious though,
because women have been infamously understudied by scientists.
The real-world impact of all that are nowadays well known.
Everything from the efficacy of drugs to the safety of cars has been designed mainly with men in mind.
Our guest today wanted to find some answers to why women are the way they are.
Cat Bohannon is a writer and cognitive researcher.
In her new book, Eve, she delves into the deep history of our species and retells the story of human evolution,
but this time, with female bodies at its center.
The problem is we've been building single models, essentially sex neutral models,
but we've only been studying male bodies to do it.
And what we need to do is shift to a dual model.
Dr. Bohannon argues that it's the anatomical changes in our female ancestors, the Eves of her title,
that give rise to everything from lactation to placental pregnancy to midwifery and much more.
And these are the real reasons why humans became such a successful species.
The moral imperative in biomedical research is clear, but it actually shapes even the deeper story of how we understand ourselves.
Even when we look in the mirror, what is this thing I see and where did it come from?
I'm Alok Jha and this is Babbage from The Economist.