Lucy was a chimp that was born to circus chimps. She was taken up by an average couple in the city. They raised her like a pet until they noticed something special. The couple had raised Lucy until she started to get to strong for them to handle. With the help of proffesionals and a "babysitter" they attempted to release Lucy into the wild.
What was so special about Lucy? At a very young age, after being bottle fed, Lucy started to hold her own bottle very quickly. Soon after the couple that was housing her saw amazing development in Lucy's adaptation to a human lifestyle. She was now eating at the dinner table with the rest of the family and quickly learned how to use silverware, knives and all. A psychologist taught Lucy sign language and after a while she was putting together her own sentences. The question at the time was: Was Lucy just mimicking human actions or was she actually making connections in her head? Lucy was now making her own names for food using the sign language. The first of these names was "cry hurt food." Lucy was aware of human emotions and tried to do the best thing to help the person if in a bad mood. She had also learned how to make tea by herself using the stove and kettle and soon served the couple. Something very interesting that the couple had discovered about Lucy was that she was attracted sexually to human males. Once Lucy had grown up to be too strong for the couple, they had found an abandoned island off the coast of Africa. They flew Lucy there and stayed with her in hope she would adjust and prefer it to human life. Lucy wouldn't eat the native food and began to starve. After about a year of effort Lucy finally started to eat the local food. The caretakers left her and returned a while late. They had found Lucy killed and skinned.
I think the thing we can learn from Lucy is about our luxuries as humans. Chimps seem to be very similar to us in the fact that we spoil very easily and we also grow the same way if in the same environments. Lucy didn't want to go into the wild just like the average human would immediately refuse to. Chimps and humans alike have both evolved from an ancestor that was smarter than the average animal. Even in the wild chimps use tools almost like how we use silverware. This shows why Lucy might have quickly learned how to use silverware.
Project Innocence
On May 3, 1986 two college students who attended the University of Chicago were robbed and sexually abused. The perpetrators were three men claiming to have a gun. Billy Wardell and his childhood friend Donald Reynolds were both convicted for the crime and a third suspect was never arrested. One of the victims wrongfully identified Wardell as the rapist in a in a photo line up but admitted that she wasnt sure for the reason that the man at the scene was wearing a hooded sweatshirt. In the second line up all the men wear wearing hoods and Wardell was once again identified as the rapist. Wardell and Reynolds were both charged with sexual assault and armed robbery. The evidence, along with the victims testimony, was an incorrect serum test. Pamela fish tested the results saying that 43% of the population has the same blood type as the one found at the scene. The two men were sentenced to 55 years in prison. Years later, Fishes notes about the blood test were found and they stated that the blood samples did not exactly match up. A revisiting to the DNA testing was asked for by the defendants and finally happened in 1997. The evidence now showed that it couldn't have been Wardell nor Reynolds. They were both released in November of 1997. They had both been in prison for 11 years.
In the beginning of DNA testing, around 1990, nuclear DNA testing was only available and it required a very large sample that was still in good condition. When mitochondrial DNA testing was introduced to these types of case the defendant could not do both types of testing, just one or the other. When DNA testing started to prove jury and earlier evidence wrong, DNA testing was used more frequently for crime cases. As this went on technology has gotten better in the past 10 or 15 years to the point that the amount of needed DNA for testing is much more abundant at the scene of the crime.
Stories like these have definitely given me a new appreciation for the knowledge in science that we have today. Knowing that before, hundreds of people were convicted for crimes they had not done shows me how important this is. Another thing that was wrong with wrongfully convicting people is that the real criminal was still on the streets. It is very good to have the least amount of criminals on the street as we can.
Potential for a more humane meat industry?
Can we drive the meat industry to be more humane towards their product or is it a waste of time? It has been a very controversial topic for many years. If we cant change the process in farm factories is there a way to make it more humane through the genetics of the animal?
Lisa Zyga writes that there have been animals in these farm factories that have an easier time through this process because of the inability to feel pain like the others do. In a study, some mice that were lacking the Nav1.7 gene didn't feel pain cause by heat and pressure like the others did. Another study was conducted in which scientists engineered mice that don't carry specific genes. This made the mice not be able to feel pain but still have a feeling sensation that let them know something was wrong. Most times when something cant feel pain it injures itself because of the lack of knowledge in the situation.
This could open up endless doors in the world of science. Looking at the second study I feel amazed at the things we are capable of doing to a living being although it scares me at the same time. just showing that this mouse could not feel pain but knows when it is getting hurt is something that could easily be transferred to humans. This could be very useful for the animals going thought the process in factory farms but this could get out of hand. This should be greatly controlled and this procedure should not be used on humans.
