• Question: How did humans survive in the past, without the antibiotics and technology we have today?

    Asked by glacierbunnys to David, Rebecca, Simon, Verity, Wei on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Wei Xun

      Wei Xun answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Badly! 😛

      But seriously, about 200 years ago, many people died from infections, flus, accidents, childbirth, and not having clean water to drink etc. A baby born then can only expect to live until around 30. But after the improvements made in living conditions, hygeine and the invention of modern medicine since the late 19th century, how long people can live have increased dramatically. In the UK today, a baby girl can expect to live until she’s 82, and a baby boy until 78.

      As a result of most people surviving until old age, people have started to give birth to less babies since they don’t need to worry about losing children to disease/accidents anymore. Which is why is you look at a country such as the UK, there are many more older people than younger.

      This is what we call the “epidemiological transition” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiological_transition

    • Photo: Rebecca Handley

      Rebecca Handley answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Good question! The same way animals and plants do, by natural selection – only the strongest survived, and in turn their children were stronger and better suited to their environments.

    • Photo: Verity Nye

      Verity Nye answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I think that the girls have already covered this one for you.

    • Photo: David Armstrong

      David Armstrong answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      The development of technology is a really interesting question. Humans were making the first tools (flint axes) 100,000 years ago. The development of all technologies stem back to this. Developing this allowed them to hunt and eat more efficiently, which helped them develop further.

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