613K views · Jun 14, 2010 · 4:04 · 1 HN recommender · 4 mentions · discussed 2012–2024
A clip from Channel 4's Inside Nature's Giants in which Richard Dawkins shows the recurrent laryngeal nerve of the giraffe during a dissection. The nerve takes a long detour down the neck and back up.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN uses it as the canonical example that evolution is not optimal and can get stuck in local maxima.
“The bit about the recurrent laryngeal nerve of the giraffe is particulary memorable”HN comment, 2024
“The bit about the recurrent laryngeal nerve of the giraffe is particulary memorable”
Memorable giraffe recurrent laryngeal nerve segment from Inside Nature's Giants
The blog post recommended the TV show "inside nature's giants", and I second it. The bit about the recurrent laryngeal nerve of the giraffe is particulary memorable: this video
“Form doesn't always follow function even in nature and evolution”
Giraffe laryngeal nerve as example that form does not always follow function
A rule of thumb is not a law. Form doesn't always follow function even in nature and evolution: this video Also styles and fads like "minimalism" and "flat design" are forms that do not follow function but are really forms that enforce function. Which is why they're fads and go away after enough people jump on the bandwagon and realize the fad's flaw and limitations.
“Evolution most certainly DOES get stuck in local maxima”
Giraffe nerve as example of evolution stuck in local maxima
Evolution most certainly DOES get stuck in local maxima: this video . Also, it's quite easy for me to imagine an animal like an angel, with arms and wings. Tetrapods only have 4 limbs to work with though. For bats to gain wings they had to lose their front legs.
Good catch. It seems like an artifact of working and editing a query until they got what they wanted - certainly not a BigQuery restriction. (like this this video ) Note that the published query scans 2.25 TB of data. While impressive, for a better workflow and cost management I would split it into a 2 step process: - First extract all the files I'm interested in to a separate table (all pom.xmls?). - Then run whatever analysis you want over those files.
