Jessica Wynn

And fencing gets interesting when a lefty is an opponent.

It just confuses everything a right handed person trained for.

There's even a classic scene about it in that movie, The Princess Bride.

Right.

Yeah, for sure.

And this isn't athletics, but another interesting fact is that astronauts are more likely to be left-handed.

About 60% of astronauts are left-handed, which is a rate much higher than the general population.

I mean, there's nothing solid, but it does point back to how those cilia are formed in the womb.

Since they influence our hearing and vision, that seems to be a factor for things like astronauts, pilots, even underwater divers.

This is weird and not sure what it means evolutionarily, but studies overwhelmingly show that left handed people adjust more easily to seeing underwater and have far better vision below the surface than righties.

Yeah.

I mean, it's in everything.

It's not just with our hands.

We have dominant feet.

You know, consider skateboarders and surfers who ride with what's called goofy footed.

Even animals show handedness.

Cats, dogs, horses, chimps.

No male cats are more likely to be left pawed.

Yeah, many animals are handed or pawed.

So handedness in animals is a widespread phenomenon, not an exception, and can provide insights into evolution and brain development.