Grandparent

Grandparents are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually-reproducing creature who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic grandparents, eight genetic great-grandparents, sixteen genetic great-great-grandparents, etc., although the numbers will be lower in cases of pedigree collapse. In the history of modern humanity, around 30,000 years ago, the number of modern humans who lived to be grandparents increased exponentially. It is not known for certain what spurred this increase in longevity, but it is generally believed that a key consequence of three generations being alive together was the preservation of information which could otherwise have been lost; an example of this important information might have been where to find water in times of drought.

In cases where parents are unwilling or unable to provide adequate care for their children (e.g., death of the parents), grandparents often take on the role of primary caregivers. Even when this is not the case, and particularly in traditional cultures, grandparents often have a direct and clear role in relation to the raising, care and nurture of children. Grandparents are second-degree relatives and share 25% genetic overlap.

Grandfather (poem)

Grandfather (Дедушка, Dedushka) is a poem by Nikolai Nekrasov, written (according to the autograph) on 30 July - 8 August 1870 and first published in the September, No.9, 1870 issue of Otechestvennye Zapiski. It came out with a dedication to Zinaida Nikolayevna, Nekrasov's wife.

The prototype of the poem's hero is believed to be the Decembrist Sergey Volkonsky whose return to Moscow from the Siberian exile in 1856 was warmly greeted by the Russian intelligentsia. But while a former Russian army general re-emerged (according to Ivan Aksakov) "a wise, peaceful man, full of most ardent admiration to the modern day reforms started by our monarch," Nekrasov made a point to show his Grandfather as an unrepentant rebel, disgusted with the tsarist regime.

References

Grandfather (disambiguation)

Grandfather is a male grandparent

Books

Film and TV