High levels of solar radiation is one of many ways that can negatively impact humans as well as influence environmental stress. This includes sunburns, skin cancer, etc. Radiation can interrupt the process of radiation because with sunburn, tissue is broken down and damaged. This can happen with the absence of sunscreen due to radiation on skin contact. Although specific UV rays are healthy for the human body, too much is not. This
A sunburn is an example of an adaptation in which humans have created a short term solution for. Although this is a temporary example, the skin is known to swell as well as turn a reddish color in which thickens the top layer of tissue resulting in scarring or peeling of the skin. A differentiation of the pigmentation in the skin color is an adaptation of facultative stress. The melanin in the skin cells become damaged from the heat let off of the UV rays and begin to create something referred to as “sunspots.” This pigmentation can include darker and/or lighter patches of the sin. Developmental stress depends on one's phenotype, being their skin color. While one with a lighter skin color burns easier than a darker skin color, that is due to the amount of melanin. Someone with a darker skin color contains more melanin than those with lighter skin colors. People often tan to influence a darker tone in their skin. This could also be imitated through a spray tan in which refers to cultural stress.
Benefits of studying human variation is gaining knowledge of how human traits are distinct from others. This assists the theory of how the human ancestors may have potentially looked. By studying the effects of radiation for example, scientists are able to conclude a potential way of preventing skin disease and skin cancer due to high solar radiation.
Although race appears to be a distinctive matter between skin colors, it is simply just a matter of the amount of melanin a person has, cause a higher or lower amount of pigmentation. This is dependant on solar radiation and how is may slightly change one's sin color more effectively than others. With the scientific research of melanin and pigmentation in different bodies causing one human to look slightly different than another, it does not categorize people; instead it provide scientific facts.
Careful about your formatting. A little difficult to read the dark text on the dark grey background.
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Good explanation of the dangers of solar radiation stress, but do we gain anything positive from exposure to the sun which complicates this issue?
For your short term adaptation, remember that adaptations help the body adjust to a stress. It is a physiological response that has a positive impact. A sunburn isn't a positive response, it is an indicator that the body hasn't responded quickly enough to solar radiation. It is a symptom that damage has already occured, not a response to deal with the stress.
There actually is no short term adaptation to solar radiation which is why it is such a dangerous stress.
I don't think you understood the purpose behind this second section. You needed to describe four adaptations (i.e., positive responses) to solar radiation stress. You briefly mention tanning but not in reference to a facultative adaptation. The adaptations you needed to discuss here were covered in the resources in the assignment module. Please return and review those.
Facultative: Tanning (increasing the melanin in the skin) is a facultative response.
Developmental: Skin color is a developmental adaptation to solar radiation of various degrees,in response to both the harmful rays but also the beneficial Vitamin D we get from the sun. Populations at the equator tend to have darker skin colors to protect against more intense radiation. Populations farther from the equator have lighter skin, because they need to absorb Vitamin D and evolve lighter skin to do so since the need for protection against harmful rays is not as crucial.
Cultural: Spray tans don't actually protect the body. They are for appearance purposes only. Sun screen would be an example of an adaptation to solar radiation.
Okay on your discussion on the benefits of this type of approach.
"...it does not categorize people; instead it provide scientific facts"
Good. Race is not based in biology but is a social construct, based in beliefs and preconceptions, and used only to categorize humans into groups based upon external physical features, much like organizing a box of crayons by color. Race does not *cause* adaptations like environmental stress do, and without that causal relationship, you can't use race to explain adaptations. Race has no explanatory value over human variation.
I loved how you described the section about race. In a previous class that I took we watched a viedo about race and how skin pigmentation pertains to UV rays. We got to see an image of the globe in aw ay that depicts the warmest areas of the earth in dark red colors and changing color to identify areas of cooler temperatures and how the people living within these warmer temperatures where the suns UV rays are the strongest, have the darkest skin pigment. I remember thinking to myself how the history of the world could have been chnaged if these scientifitc findings had been discovered hundreds of years ago. I really felt that it was something that all people in the wolrd needed to see, hear, and understand. Great post!
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