Not exactly the sort of thing I expected to run across in WaPo:
Mobile technology has transformed the way we live — how we read, work, communicate, shop and date.
But we already know this.
What we have not yet grasped is the way the tiny machines in front of us are remolding our skeletons, possibly altering not just the behaviors we exhibit but the bodies we inhabit.
New research in biomechanics suggests that young people are developing hornlike spikes at the back of their skulls — bone spurs caused by the forward tilt of the head, which shifts weight from the spine to the muscles at the back of the head, causing bone growth in the connecting tendons and ligaments. The weight transfer that causes the buildup can be compared to the way the skin thickens into a callus as a response to pressure or abrasion.
I realize that the academic journal in which this is reported, Scientific Reports, is part of the Nature group and so is respectable, but I still squired a little when I read the read the lead author is a chiropractor working on a biomechanics PhD.
Still, you can’t help but wonder if it’s the beginning of the revenge of the dinosaurs.
Your child’s future.
(Source: Wikipedia)
