Because scientists are sometimes weird.Scientists have swung human corpses around on a pendulum to establish that the human body evolved so that we could punch each other.
Our hands didn’t evolve just so that we could use them to manipulate things, the scientists suggest, but also so that men could fight over women. They came to the finding after collecting nine cadavers and putting them through tests that involved fishing line and guitar tuner knobs.
To make the dead fists clench, lengths of fishing line were attached to tendons controlling movements of the wrist, thumb and fingers. They used the guitar knobs to tight and slacken the hands, so that they could be formed into a "slapping" open hand, a hand formed into a fist with the thumb extended, or a "buttressed" fist with the thumb locked around the index and middle fingers.
The scientists found that when the fist was scrunched up it doubled as an efficient club.
The team, led by Professor David Carrier, from the University of Utah, wrote in the Journal of Experimental Biology: "We tested the hypothesis that a clenched fist protects the metacarpal (palm or hand) bones from injury by reducing the level of strain during striking.
Read more:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/human-hands-evolved-for-punching-scientists-say-after-swinging-corpses-around-on-a-pendulum-a6704436.html
