Science Sermon

 “Speaking words of wisdom, 11B” ~ Weilland Huttner What makes us human is a question that people have been grappling with for centuries. And everyone has a different take on what angle to explore the question from.   Some take the relationship with others approach and look to our capacity to altruism and kindness, or cruelty. Some take the artistic path; our ability to create music, poetry, or other forms of artistic expression. There is also the mythological view- that humans are more special than any other creature on earth, being fully formed- like Athena born from the forehead of Zeus. And finally there are the scientists searching for the first human- giving us such ancestors as “Lucy”, Neanderthals, and Homo erectus, among others. But what makes us so different than other apes? Maybe, as my students say, it’s our big brain. In a very interesting study, the answer of how we got our big brain begins with a bit of gene that was copied too many times, (I bet there isn’t...