This is the age-old question: is there a nerd gene or is the nerd lifestyle learned from society?
I have spent endless hours in labs with test tubes and specimens, many a scientific text read and still I stay awake at night unable to find the answer to this conundrum. Bewildered, I knew I had to go back to the basics. One of the first biological phenomenons tought to us in grad school is the concept of “Surivial of the Fittest.” Of course, when we think of this, we all imagine big meathead jocks picking on the little guy in gym class (because what kind of nerds would we be if we weren’t picked on by the big guys?!). As we as students progress through the science levels, we have a better understanding that the most successful traits of an individual will put said individual at a higher probability to find a mate and have lots of offspring that are genetically predisposed to success in the animal kingdom. But wait! Could the process in which female seahorses look for a male with an inticate camouflage pattern and a willingness to incubate eggs be related the Human species?! How?!
Well let’s take a stroll down memory lane. Once we were all hunters and gatherers. Women were attracted to the men that were big and strong and brought home the bacon and men, well, men went for the prettiest of the gathers. As the wheel, pulley, lightbulb, telephone, iPod and self parking car were invented, we were no longer a race of merely hunters and gatherers, but a species thriving on our own creations. This is where the definition of “fittest” changes from strong, sharp-shooting individuals to tech savvy, Star-Wars-reference making individuals. Women want men who can make nerdy references to any situation and the brains to stay up to date and beyond in the technological realm and men want women who will fulfill their fantasy of a Star Wars themed wedding, buns included, and the intellect to keep up.
In my professional, undergrad opinion, as time went on, the nerds began to thrive, leading me to the theory that there must be a nerd gene that has evolved from a recessive trait that skips every other male generation to a dominant gene that only the unfortunate are doomed to miss. Nature wins another argument.
I have spent endless hours in labs with test tubes and specimens, many a scientific text read and still I stay awake at night unable to find the answer to this conundrum. Bewildered, I knew I had to go back to the basics. One of the first biological phenomenons tought to us in grad school is the concept of “Surivial of the Fittest.” Of course, when we think of this, we all imagine big meathead jocks picking on the little guy in gym class (because what kind of nerds would we be if we weren’t picked on by the big guys?!). As we as students progress through the science levels, we have a better understanding that the most successful traits of an individual will put said individual at a higher probability to find a mate and have lots of offspring that are genetically predisposed to success in the animal kingdom. But wait! Could the process in which female seahorses look for a male with an inticate camouflage pattern and a willingness to incubate eggs be related the Human species?! How?!
Well let’s take a stroll down memory lane. Once we were all hunters and gatherers. Women were attracted to the men that were big and strong and brought home the bacon and men, well, men went for the prettiest of the gathers. As the wheel, pulley, lightbulb, telephone, iPod and self parking car were invented, we were no longer a race of merely hunters and gatherers, but a species thriving on our own creations. This is where the definition of “fittest” changes from strong, sharp-shooting individuals to tech savvy, Star-Wars-reference making individuals. Women want men who can make nerdy references to any situation and the brains to stay up to date and beyond in the technological realm and men want women who will fulfill their fantasy of a Star Wars themed wedding, buns included, and the intellect to keep up.
In my professional, undergrad opinion, as time went on, the nerds began to thrive, leading me to the theory that there must be a nerd gene that has evolved from a recessive trait that skips every other male generation to a dominant gene that only the unfortunate are doomed to miss. Nature wins another argument.
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