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July 1, 2016
Q. Why cry?
A. Crying actually encompasses two very different processes: vocal wailing and tearing, says Sonia van Gilder Cooke in New Scientist magazine. Human babies are great at wailing because it's a very effective way of grabbing the attention of caregivers. Yet interestingly, for the first couple of weeks human babies don't shed tears because their tear glands haven't yet developed. Over time, a baby's crying becomes less vocal and more tearful, perhaps for sound evolutionary reasons: Wailing advertises vulnerability to everyone around, including predators. Thus, “once a child can move around, it is wiser to use the covert signal of tears.”
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