After analyzing 1,600 samples of speech and song from 21 societies on six continents, researchers have concluded that baby talk and lullabies are universally recognizable.

Apparently, we all adjust our voices in similar ways when communicating with babies, using purer timbres, more subdued songs and higher-pitched words. When researchers asked more than 51,000 people from 187 countries to guess when these vocalizations were aimed at infants, their intuitions were right more than expected by chance, suggesting a consistency of function across cultures.

Researchers suggest the universality may be due to a common evolution.

Body of Knowledge

Waterloo teeth were dentures made in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo (1815), which left nearly 50,000 men from both sides dead or wounded. Scavengers robbed corpses of their teeth, selling them to dentists, who prized their quality because most came from formerly young, healthy men.

Get Me That, Stat!

The World Health Organization says rates of childhood vaccination have dropped to their lowest levels in 30 years. For example, the three-dose regimen for the DTP vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis fell to 81% coverage, a 5% drop between 2019 and 2021. That means 25 million children missed DTP doses in 2021 — 6 million more than in 2019. Experts say COVID disrupted vaccination efforts, but regional conflicts and misinformation were factors, too.

Doc Talk

Alopecia totalis: hair loss involving the whole scalp. Hair loss involving the entire body is called alopecia universalis. Hair loss involving male pattern baldness is called genetic destiny.

Mania of the Week

Hypnomania: an obsession with sleeping

Best Medicine

One parent to another: "I've never vaccinated any of my kids. I pay a pediatrician to do it."

Observation

"My struggle to remain healthy is gradually killing me." — British writer and epigrammatist Ashleigh Brilliant (1933-)

Medical History

This week in 1990, the first transplant operation of a lung from a live donor to a recipient is performed at Stanford University Medical Center in California. A mother donated a lung to her 12-year-old daughter.

Sum Body

Five vestigial features of the human body:

No. 1: Palmar grasp reflex, a grasping reflex seen in unborn children and newborns, possibly an evolutionary trait intended to help infants cling to their mothers.

No. 2: Tails. In the sixth week of gestation, the human embryo possesses a tail, complete with several vertebrae. By birth, the tail has disappeared and the vertebrae have fused to form the coccyx, or tailbone.

No. 3: Wisdom teeth, which were useful in early hominids who needed to grind hard foods. Modern humans have smaller jaws and eat softer foods, causing wisdom teeth to be unnecessary and often problematic.

No. 4: In other animals, the nictitating membrane is a fold of tissue in the inner corner of the eye that serves as a sort of third eyelid, providing protection and cleaning. In some species, it can even cover the entire eye, yet is transparent enough for vision. In humans, it's just an extra bit of tissue where "sleep" deposits.

No. 5: Auricular muscles control the pinna, or visible part of the outer ear. In other mammals, they are used to move the pinna to better zero in on incoming sounds or as a means of expression. In humans, they are mostly useless, though some people retain their ability to wiggle their ears.

Curtain Calls

A determinedly stubborn English farmer named Clifford Greenwood, 67, refused to leave his house despite rising waters from a nearby swollen river. Instead, he propped himself in his front room in a lawn chair, swilling whiskey and watching TV.

When a family friend called to check on his welfare and asked if he was drunk, he replied, "I am that, lass," and still refused to leave. She assumed that he would eventually retreat to his upstairs bedroom, but the next morning, Clifford was found dead. He had toppled out of the chair and drowned in 18 inches of water covering his living room floor.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Pexels at Pixabay