Biology is weirdly messy sometimes.
Yonder daughter and I were sitting talking after dinner. Her favorite undergrad class at BYU had been evolutionary biology.
She told me, Yeah, the difference between hair and spine? One gene. There was this family in history in Australia that for three generations had no hair–but grew fine spines all over instead, as she motioned towards the hair on, say, one’s arm.
I was gobsmacked. Did they crunch when they hugged?
She had no idea.
I tried to picture how one would style, much less cut, such “hair” and how long it might grow, especially if you couldn’t.
She had no idea. But she assured me it was, like, really fine.
I guffawed and said, You know that this is the perfect Halloween subject to be talking about.
The prof had been talking about the genes. I’m still dying to know how it would have been to live with that and what it would look like. It gives a cool wind through your hair a whole different take–you’d be your own wind chimes.