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篇目1

Cool New Experiment Explains Why We Evolved Curly Hair
进化适应：卷发帮助人类减少出汗
难度：六级/考研 单词：586

To other primates, humans must look extremely odd.We are the only species with a general lack of fuzz, and yet for some reason, we have a whole bunch of hair sprouting from random spots on our body, like the summit of our heads.

Scientists still don’t really understand why that is, but new evidence supports the theory that our scalp hair evolved to help us stay cool.
This built-in sun-guard might seem like an obvious benefit to a generous mop, but science needs hard data.When a thermal manikin was given a wig of human hair to wear in a climate-controlled chamber, researchers found the manikin did not absorb as much heat as when it was bald.

Researchers tested multiple different types of wigs on the manikin, including ones with straight hair, loose curls, and tight curls.
Ultimately, the wigs all performed in similar ways when under the hot lights of lamps, but tightly curled hair was the best at keeping the manikin cool from the ‘solar’ radiation above.

The results suggest that any type of barrier on the top of the head reduces heat gain from the Sun and, in turn, the need to sweat.
The findings suggest that scalp hair evolved in response to our species’ upright posture and our increasingly large brains.

“The emergence (or retention) of scalp hair may have struck an optimal balance between maximizing heat loss across the large surface area of the body and minimizing solar heat gain on the small surface area of the scalp, directly over the brain,” researchers write.

“Tightly curled hair may provide an additional reduction in heat influx beyond the capacity of typically straight mammalian hair.”

Tightly curled hair is a trait not seen in any other wild mammal.Clearly, there’s something about the human experience that gives preference to this type of scalp coverage.

For years now, scientists have hypothesized that scalp hair, specifically curly hair, evolved as a thermoregulatory response.But experiments in 1988 found that bald men sweat two to three times more than men with scalp hair.At first, this was used to argue that hairless heads are better off at keeping the head cool.

A more recent study in 2010, however, found that bald heads simply absorb more heat, requiring more sweat in turn.

The current experiments are the first to explore how scalp hair affects a person’s overall thermal load, not just a body’s sweating response.
“Our findings confirm that, regardless of texture, hair acts as a barrier that decreases heat loss from the body (in this case, the scalp) to its surroundings,” researchers write.

Tightly curled hair, however, doesn’t lie flat, which means it allows the scalp to ‘breathe’ better, while still protecting it from the Sun.

As the curliness of a wig is increased, experimenters found less sweat evaporation would have been needed to shed heat from the scalp, thereby conserving water and energy.

A manikin in a climate-controlled chamber is, of course, not wholly realistic.Further research should be done outside with human participants to see how scalp hair might have evolved to function in a more natural setting.

In a hypothetical sense, however, the findings of the current experiment give credence to the idea that human hair evolved to adapt to a bipedal lifestyle, especially in hot and arid regions where drinking water was scarce.

In this environment, experts think curly hair might have allowed our ancestors the ability to partake in longer, “strenuous physical activity before needing a drink of fresh water.”

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篇目2

A Brief History of Pancakes
煎饼简史，妙趣横生

Defined simply as flat cakes prepared from starch-based batter, pancakes — or at least rudimentary versions of them — were one of humanity’s earliest, most important foodstuffs.

While previous research suggested cooking emerged during the Neolithic era (roughly 7000 to 1700 B.C.E.), when prehistoric people transitioned to larger, more structured communities and began to domesticate crops and animals, more recent findings indicate otherwise.

Ceren Kabukcu, an archaeobotanical scientist at the University of Liverpool, cites evidence of "cooking with different plants (tubers, nuts, seeds) much earlier than the Neolithic."Some 30,000 years ago, for instance, Stone Age people made flour out of cattails and ferns, likely combining the powder with water and baking the mixture on a hot rock to create a flat cake.

Today, the pancake remains one of the easiest foods to cook.Simply take a starch, be it wheat, barley, spelt or another flour, then add water, milk, perhaps an egg or two, and — if hoping to make a thick, fluffy pancake — a raising agent.Combine, then pour or scoop the mixture onto a hot surface, flipping the patty once bubbles appear to produce a perfectly golden-brown cake.

While the base pancake recipe is largely the same around the world, different countries have found ways to make the food their own.

In the United States, pancakes come slathered with maple syrup and butter; in France, thin crepes are made from wheat flour or buckwheat, without a raising agent like baking powder or soda.Other global varieties include Ethiopian injera, Korean buchimgae, Chinese jianbing, North Indian cheela, Venezuelan cachapas, South Indian dosa, Dutch babies and Moroccan msemen.

“What links pancakes from different ingredients and different cultures … is their flat shape, which helps them cook through quickly,” says food writer and cookbook author Melissa Clark.“They’re relatively simple, and their smallish size makes them easy to eat.”

• Early pancake history

The first written records of pancakes come from the ancient Greeks and Romans.Around 500 B.C.E., Athenian poet Cratinus described “a flat cake hot and shedding morning dew.”

Some 600 years later, in the late second century C.E., Greek physician Galen included a recipe in his On the Properties of Foodstuffs that’s similar to how Russian blinis or Canadian griddlecakes are prepared today: “What are called girdle-cakes by the Athenians but griddle-cakes by us, the Asiatic Greeks, are prepared with olive oil alone,” he wrote.

"The oil is placed in a frying pan that is put on a smokeless fire, and when it has become hot the wheaten flour, soaked in a large amount of water, is poured into it."Galen noted that these sweet treats were often enjoyed with honey.

• Pancakes around the world

Pancakes are celebratory, a festive food considered by many to be “a symbol for life,” perhaps because “the bread-pancake made of unleavened flour and water was the staff of life” (or a dietary staple) in numerous ancient civilizations.

Eaten in Ethiopia, Eritrea and some parts of Somalia, injera (made of teff flour) is served at weddings, birthday parties and family gatherings.Traditionally, injera is enjoyed communally, with two or three people eating from the same plate.In North India, chilla, a pancake made with chickpea-based gram flour, is commonly served at weddings.

Literary classics reference pancakes’ role in revelry, too.In John Steinbeck’s seminal 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family eats pancakes topped with syrup and sugar after Al announces his engagement to Agnes Wainwright.

Every culture has its own version of the pancake — and with it a story.“However many pancakes I make to test recipes, I could never tire of them,” says Food writer Felicity Cloak.“Every year, I’m surprised at just how delicious something so simple can be, especially that inevitable first disaster that’s widely regarded as the cook’s perk.That’s always the best one.”