Interesting things from today's magazine haul

[dvandom]

Archaeology magazine Mar/Apr 2008:

A dig has been symbolically recreated on Second Life.

A symposium has met to dispute Jared Diamond's conclusions in Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse. Apparently he's done a lot of cherrypicking of data. Plus, evidence has come to light that one of his strongest test cases, Easter Island, was NOT deforested by overuse of resources while building the Moai. Rather, it was a different sort of manmade ecological disaster: they imported rats as a food source, and the rats ate all the trees' nuts, thus killing off the trees within a generation (a tree generation).

The odd shape of Nefertiti's eyes, and those of women in Egyptian art following her reign, may have been the way they really looked and not a weird stylistic choice. She may have had a genetic (and inheritable) condition that gave her an epicanthic fold (that bit that makes Asiatic eyes look distinctly different from European ones), and passed it on to her children (such as Tutankhamen, although his mummy doesn't show it and depictions of it in art may be a result of weird style choice...artists liked the look on Nefertiti and repeated it on people who didn't have the actual fold). Of course, without a mummy for her, it's all speculation.

The Dragon Boat Development Company is building a 1:2 scale (the full size model violates Chinese maritime regulations for wooden craft), historically accurate reproduction of one of Zheng He's "treasure ships", part of the fleet that could have conquered the world in the 15th Century (or come damned close) had the Emperor of China been inclined to try (and, um, lived long enough...the one who commissioned the fleet died and was succeeded by inward-looking Confucians who wanted little to do with the outside world). Once finished, the 400 foot long ship will go out and retrace Zheng He's journeys in a not so subtle message from the current rulers of China. "Hi, we're back on the world stage!" I wonder if the captain will have to endure jokes about being a eunuch (which Zheng He was). ;)

Oh, and there's already orders to the DBDC to make more of these treasure ships....


Science Illustrated Jan/Feb 2008:

This is the very first issue of this mag, it seems to be like a shallower, but broader cousin to Science News. Lots and lots of little factoids based on current research.

A small piece on page 89 purports to explain why Mr. Bean is funny, but I don't buy it. Mr. Bean is not funny, after all. (The explanation is that little brothers tend to be funny, and Rowan Atkinson is a little brother.)

Daydreaming is the "default mode" of the human brain. This explains a lot. ;)

Fingerprint analysis suggests Leonardo DaVinci was part-Arab.

Fevers boost immune response by getting white blood cells mobilized, so it's not just a side effect when you're sick.

A mummy long thought to be that of Hatshepsut has been confirmed to be her. She's the woman who ruled as a pharoah, down to wearing the fake beard etc.

Flying squirrels have been around at least 125 millions years, and may have been flying before birds evolved. Go skwirlz!

Okay, it's not all just current-work tidbits, there's also a Q&A section with things like "Were ostriches once able to fly?" and "Why do most people prefer to drink cold water?" (The answer to that second one is that we have sensors in our mouths that say, "Okay, we got some water" to the brain, and colder temperatures trigger them more effectively.) There's also longer articles (like on icebergs and dark matter) with plenty of good illustrations.

T.rex had exceptionally good hearing in addition to its sensitive nose and binocular vision. You can't hide, and unless you can exceed at least 11mph (if not closer to 25mpg) you can't run either.... And T.rex romance involved a bit of rough trade: female skulls show numerous bite marks that may have been the result of males trying to convince them to mate. It's okay, though, T.rex skulls are built to absorb shock.

Interesting overview of various ways to restore vision, including chip-based bionic eyes (1000 pixel resolution expected by 2012) and gene therapy to regrow retinas.

While deliberate deforestation may not have doomed Easter Island, it may well have ended the Cahokia civilization in the St. Louis area. They built a huge and militarily unnecessary wall of 20,000 trees four times, deforesting the area. The approaching onset of the Little Ice Age probably didn't help, either.

A marsupial mouse called the Australian souther dibbler literally screws to death. The males mate so furiously and frequently during mating season that they die of either exhaustion or immune system collapse. Ow.

Not a lot of ads in this issue, although they don't seem too picky about advertisers, as there's a full page ad for a fairly crackpotty "natural law" group.

Overall, a very nifty magazine.

Comments

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Mr. Bean is indeed funny, but he's also very annoying and sometimes stupid. Different culture, different sense of humor.


Which is why their analysis is broken and wrong.

[unicronq.livejournal.com]

I must resist subscribing to Science Illustrated. I got an ad in the mail for it a while back, and almost sent it in. It sounds like an interesting magazine. I wonder if its too late to send in my "Charter Subscriber Reservation Card" to get the 2 years for $24. I'm not sure I like the fact that it is just bi-monthly though.

[finback.livejournal.com]

Wait, actual Rodentia in the late Cretaceous (or earlier)? Or do you mean "mammals with patagia"?

And yeah, dibblers (and the antechinus) are nuts. Males live a year, females for four.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Not Rodentia, no. Taxon is Volaticotherium antiquus. Which sounds like it translates to "ancient flying mammal", but my Latin is pretty non-existent.

[z4nd4r.livejournal.com]

Dibbler? They should call them Diddlers...

[z4nd4r.livejournal.com]

It's really kind of sad. I grew up in St. Louis but have never gone across the river to check out the Cahokia Mounds.


Heh. Mounds.