Over a career spanning more than four decades, Carrier pushed the boundaries of what a biologist could ask, explore, or survive. From human fists to facial hair, from panting pronghorns to defrosting wolves, his curiosity led him everywhere—including the pages of Science, the airwaves of "This American Life," and the stage of the Ig Nobel Prizes.
Running Down an Idea — Literally
"In the summer of [1984] my brother and I go to Wyoming to try to run down an antelope. The idea is not to run faster than the antelope — only cheetahs can run faster than pronghorn antelope — but to run longer and farther in the heat of the day. My brother think it'll take about two hours, and then the antelope will overheat and collapse. We drive off the interstate and down a dirt road for a few miles... ."
One of Carrier’s earliest big ideas was that humans evolved to be endurance runners. Not sprinters, like cheetahs—but marathoners. His “Running Man” hypothesis suggested that early humans could chase prey over long distances until the animals collapsed from heat exhaustion, thanks to human adaptations like sweating, upright posture, and a springy gait. Running is "one of the reasons we top the food chain. Before supermarkets and food processors, before rifles and four-wheel-drives, we used to outrun our food, ”persistence hunting," Carrier called it.
The Running Man hypothesis, published in 1984, was met with skepticism from the scientific community, and from his own Ph.D. advisor, Dennis Bramble. So Carrier did what any committed scientist would: he tried it himself. He and his brother Scott Carrier (a journalist and radio producer) decided to chase pronghorn antelope across the plains of Wyoming — on foot.
Listen to 'Running After Antelope,' on 'This American Life" here.
The Wyoming Department of Natural Resources politely declined their request for permission. So, naturally, they did it anyway. The pronghorns were unbothered. The Carriers were exhausted. But the story lived on, later aired on This American Life, and eventually helped usher in a renaissance of interest in human endurance running and persistence hunting. The Running Man had arrived. Today, the "Running Man" hypothesis is cited in numerous anthropology texts and inspired a chapter in the 2009 bestseller, "Born to Run," by Christopher McDougal.
Punch First, Publish Later
Later in his career, Carrier turned his attention to a different kind of movement: punching. He began asking whether the human hand evolved to form a fist for striking—something no other primate can do.
To test the theory, Carrier’s lab designed experiments using cadaver arms to measure the forces involved in punching versus slapping. But this wasn’t just a theoretical exercise. At one point, a student — experienced in mixed martial arts —punched Carrier in the face. Repeatedly. For science. In a now-legendary twist, Carrier wore glasses during the test, banking on the unwritten rule: you don’t hit a guy wearing glasses. It didn’t help.
Then came the facial hair question: could beards protect the jaw in combat? Using wooly samples on a test rig, Carrier and colleagues found that bearded “faces” absorbed more impact than bare ones. The findings earned him the 2021 Ig Nobel Peace Prize for biology — a satirical award that honors science that “makes people laugh, then think."
Carrier’s Ig Nobel lecture, appropriately titled “Beards and Face Punching,” has since become a cult classic among fans of creative science. View lecture video here.
'David is the only PI I know who would get punched by a student, grow a beard for data, and still offer to take you out for a coffee after.' ~Jeremy Morris, former Ph.D. student
Click the photo below to watch the RadioWest video of "Made to Fight."
viewer discretion is advised
David Carrier is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Utah. He co-authored a paper that argued the human fist evolved for fighting. He and his team were caught off guard by the controversy it generated.
A Career that Made an Impact—Literally
Carrier’s research touched on everything from breathing patterns in locomotion, to the mechanics of head injuries in
football, to the evolutionary role of human aggression. His contributions have shaped how we understand the design and function of the human body — whether sprinting across a plain or bracing for a hit.
Now, as his scientific career draws to a conclusion , one question lingers: who else would get punched in the face to prove a point? Who would grow a beard for science? Who would literally run after antelope to test a hypothesis?
The answer is no one. And that’s the problem with being incomparable.
David Carrier retires with an “Ig Nobel" and leaves behind a legacy that’s equal parts unconventional, bold, and brilliant. His experiments will be cited, his stories retold, and his impact felt — in academic journals, in student memories and maybe even in the next punchy evolutionary theory.
The same property is there for fish too. They know exactly where they're swimming in a three dimensional space, and that helps them navigate.”
As I entered college, I was in renal failure and had two choices: Return home and enjoy the rest of my declining life, or make one last effort to achieve my childhood dream. I chose the latter. I received an auto renal kidney transplant, picked up my textbook and asked myself this question, ‘How far are you willing to go?’ I’m willing to go farther than anyone has before me.
