Advantage Southpaws..?!

Southpaw : LEFT-HANDER
especially : a left-handed baseball pitcher
(merriam-webster dictionary)

It's well-known that left-handed and right-handed people view the world differently.

Research has shown that the left-handed(not biased or anything but being a southpaw myself..) use the left hemisphere of the brain to focus on the big picture - like a landscape - but to focus on details within the big picture - a hill,a lake or a house - they use the right-hemisphere.

The exact reverse holds true for right-handed people.

But what got my attention was an article about you selecting your 'preferred' hand as a 10-week old foetus ..incredible or what!

A research team from Belfast conducted an experiment ,in which they identified 60 foetuses who sucked their right thumbs and 15 who sucked their left thumbs in the womb.

(Well,technically,when you're a 10-week old foetus your movements are not under brain or conscious control - the arm movements are more likely to be some kind of local reflexes trigger by the spinal cord.

This shows that nerve connections from the body to the brain seem to develop before the connections that allow the brain to control body movements ,and this has given rise to speculation about how the foetus's body movements could somehow influence the way the brain develops,instead of the other way round - which is the popular belief.

But I digress...)

After examining the subjects as kids aged 10-12, they found that all 60 right thumb suckers were right-handed while 2/3rd of the left thumb suckers were left handed (probably changed their mind and opted for the 'dominant' hand)

Kids definitely have a mind of their own!!

Being Southpaws also helps snails - snails with left-handed shells can have a big advantage in life - predators may find them impossible to eat!

The whelks and cone shells preyed on the crab Calappa flammea get clean away as the Calappa dudes cannot open left-handed shells (from their point of view)- they have a tool for peeling on the right claw only!

It's like trying to open a can with a right-handed can-opener using your left hand and it goes like - struggle to get the grip right on the opener,struggle to fit the opener on the can,can slips/slides, you lose the grip , do it all over again, bring in a knife, hack away and by the time you've opened the lid,you've made a big mess and introduced fine iron shavings into the contents - only the Southpaws know how painfully frustrating the whole process is!

This is just not one pain point - you have the 'right-handed' peelers, scissors,hockey sticks - ok,I should stop now but I have to mention a beautiful knife - right-handed but still beautiful - I have with a six-inch blade and one serrated edge - I'm never going to be able to use it in self-defense because when held in my left hand,I'm forced to strike with serrated edge instead of the smooth,sharp edge- what a waste!

(Check out my favorite Southpaw Salvation here)

Back to our crustacean friends - when faced with a choice like this ,they prefer the right-handed shells(again..from their point of view) because with the left-handed ones,the opening is on the for which they have no 'can-opener' tool or else they have to grasp the pointed end towards their bodies.

Both options apparently are too much trouble; the crabs acts like a vegetarian in a butcher's shop and moves on to find dextral shells.

But strangely enough,instead of being numerous, the left-handed snails are rare and may even be dying out.

Similarly,10-13% of humans are left-handed.

Makes one wonder what else is at play in Nature!

Another interesting fact is that the left-handed people also have an advantage in sports like tennis,cricket and baseball.

But left-handedness also has an increased risk of certain diseases so it's puzzling that it has still endured.

While great brains are figuring that out, it's also a fact that Southpaws are good at combat.

Although this has fired speculation about violent societies have a larger percentage of left-handers, it's established that Southpaws usually have the upper hand in fights including certain sports like boxing and fencing which are 'special cases of fights' with strict rules about intentionally wounding/killing the opponent.

Apparently,opponents just do not expect a left hook!