Natural Curls & Cute Science #2

Skirt is DIY | necktie c/o Flapper Girl | necklace is from Tash Tash Jewelry | Socks and shirt are thrifted | Sock cuffs are DIY I can't believe that I didn't know, for maybe two or three whole years, that my hair had become super curly, just because I got up and blow-dryed it into straight oblivion every single morning. Because look how curly it is!! The only thing giving it a little bit of oomph here is a bit of hairspray; other than that, those are all natural curls. So I mainly just wanted an excuse to post this suuuuper cute video, but I am going to make it sciencey. Bear with me (HAH, get it? No, because I haven't told you what the video is about yet. Okay. See below.) This is a polar BEAR at Toronto Zoo taking its very first steps: This little guy made his first steps just 58 days after he was born. After shedding some tears over the sheer cuteness of this video, it also got me wondering: why do different animals take different amounts of time to learn how to walk? And why are humans so (seemingly) bad at it compared to other baby animals? i.e. Time it takes different animals to learn how to walk after birth: Polar bears: 58 days Cats: 2 - 3 weeks Dogs: 3 - 4 weeks Hamsters: 2 weeks Horses: 1 hour (!) Humans: 1 year So apparently the time that all mammals learn to walk is closely correlated with the size of their brains. The reason humans take so long to walk is also largely because human babies are born very "undercooked" compared to other animals (even including chimpanzees and bonobos), who leave the uterus with their brains and bodies much closer to their adult form than human babies. In fact, a study in 2009 determined that all mammals start walking at about the same point in brain development relative to each other. So humans and horses actually do start walking at the same time in their brain development - even if horses basically gallop out of the womb - because humans are just born very underdeveloped compared to horses. And it makes sense, because intelligence, development and pelvis size had to meet in the middle somewhere - human babies are born so underdeveloped because if their brains were any bigger, the mother wouldn't be able to give birth to them! So the fact that humans take ages to start walking is in fact a sign of how intelligent we become. I hope that you're all having a gorgeous day, p.s. See Cute Science #1 here. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr