Giraffes

“One Health” is the term that refers to the health commonalities of humans and other animals.  This piece, while it’s not really about medical automation, has some interesting insights about the gene expressions of hypertension, bone and blood vessel formation.  “A functional analysis of these genes showed that they are most often associated with growth and development, nervous and visual systems, circadian rhythms, and blood pressure regulation, all areas in which the giraffe differs from other ruminants. As a consequence of their tall stature, for example, giraffes must maintain a blood pressure that is roughly 2.5 times higher than that of humans in order to pump blood up to their brain. In addition, giraffes have sharp eyesight for scanning the horizon, and because their strange bodies make it difficult for them to stand quickly, they sleep lightly, often standing up and for only minutes at a time, likely a result of changes during evolution to genes that regulate circadian rhythms.”   For the historian, this is an update on the rivalry between Lamarckian and Darwinian evolution.    MORE

Image Credit:  WorldAnimalFoundation.com