The fish was considered extinct, a relic of the past world which ended with the dinosaurs… that is, until a freshly caught one showed up in the hands of a museum curator.
Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was a museum curator at the East London Museum in South Africa. When she started her position in 1931, the modest museum boasted little more than six stuffed birds infested with beetles and a few old display cases. Two days later, she'd burnt the decaying old birds, axed the display cases, and started repopulating the museum with exciting new exhibits including her personal stone tool collection.
Courtenay-Latimer’s reputation quickly grew beyond the bounds of the small East London Museum. She studied exhibiting techniques at Cape Town’s South African Museum, met the famed ichthyologist J. L. B. Smith, and spent three months studying wildlife on Bird Island, a dream since childhood. It was on this study trip in 1937 that she met Captain Hendrik Goosen of the fishing boat Nernie. Goosen offered to collect any unusual specimens he came across and send them to her at the museum.
On December 22, 1938, Courtenay-Latimer was working to finish a dinosaur reconstruction before Christmas when the phone rang. It was Goosen with a fresh haul of unusual sea creatures. Along with her Xhosa assistant Enoch Thwate, Courtenay-Latimer took a taxi down to the docks and poured through a tub of sharks, fish, and seaweed until she was surprised by a shining blue finned fish. Goosen had not mentioned this creature over the phone, even though it had snapped at him as it trawled up from the depths.
Stone tools can tell us a lot, but perhaps most importantly, these objects let us reconstruct the migrations of our early ancestors out of Africa. A recent reexamination of an archeological site in Korolevo, Ukraine supports the theory that the continent was settled from the east. These tools have been dated to 1.4 million years ago, making them the earliest such tools known to Europe. Additionally, the tools are the northernmost assemblage yet discovered and may provide a roadmap for discovering future sites.
The Korolevo site has been known since its first excavations in 1974 and appears to have been continually used as a toolmaking site for much of the Paleolithic Era. Findings at the site span multiple stone tool industries and include everything from precise stone flakes to more crude stone chopper tools. In spite of the thousands of specimens found at Korolevo, no fossils have been uncovered, but it was likely Homo erectus who fashioned the earliest stone tools at the site. If so, the earliest Europeans belonged to the first species of the Homo genus.
A stone tool chopper, similar to those found at Korolevo
While the Korolevo site has been known for half a century, the tools were thought to be far younger than their 1.4 million years. The study made the discovery by using surface exposure dating, a method used in geological studies. When cosmic rays strike the earth, they produce cosmogenic nuclide isotopes in rock that slowly decay over time, allowing geologists to estimate how old a given rock layer is. In the Korolevo case, that came out to roughly 1.4 million years, upending not only our understanding of the archeological site but early human history itself.
The findings at the Korolevo site are the northernmost tools yet found, suggesting Homo erectus was better suited to the cold conditions of the Pleistocene’s ice age than previously thought. It can be assumed that no such sites will be found to the north of Korolevo as much of northern Europe was covered in the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, meaning any surviving tools are buried deep underground. With this information, scientists can speculate on where future such tools sites may be found, aiding in the reconstruction of the colonization of Europe by the earliest humans.
Interested in learning more about stone tools? You can read more at Mini Museum's Prehistoric Stone Tool Timeline and even get your hands on your own stone tool from the Paleolithic!
]]>Today is leap day, an extra day that occurs every four years (with some exceptions) to account for a discrepancy between the calendar year and what is called the tropical year, based on the year’s seasons. The tropical year is roughly 365.2422 days long. Leap day accounts for this extra quarter of a day each year by adding February 29th on leap years. Without leap day, the numeric drift would throw the calendar out of sync between the equinoxes and the seasons. Many different calendar systems have arisen to account for this specific problem.
Today, much of the world uses the Gregorian calendar instituted by its namesake Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. This system was a refinement of Julius Caesar’s Julian calendar that incorrectly estimated the tropical year length to be 365.25. The Gregorian calendar is a more precise 365.2425, closer to the real length of 365.2422 but rounded so as to allow for a uniform occurrence of the leap day. In the Gregorian system, there still is numeric drift, but it will be around 3,300 years before the calendar date and the tropical date is out of sync.
The opening of Gregory's papal decree
Gregory’s reforms were vital for calculating Easter’s date (and thus a number of other related Christian holidays), which was of obvious importance to the Catholic Church. Beyond that, leap day has taken on its own special folk traditions. In Britain and Ireland, women traditionally propose marriage on leap day, based on a legendary arrangement in Irish hagiography between Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget. In Anthony, Texas, the town holds a leap day festival for those born on the date, known as leaplings.
There are some exceptions to the leap day rule. Leap days fall on every year divisible by four (2024, 2020, 2016, etc.) except the beginnings of centuries that can’t be divided by 400 (1700, 1800, 1900, etc.) Besides these rare exceptions, every four years we get one extra day to do whatever we like. Don’t forget to take your own leap on this leap day!
]]>This week marks the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ first tour in the United States, ushering in the British Invasion that would shape the musical landscape for years to come. Their first live show was at D.C.’s Washington Coliseum and followed the Beatles’ television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show two days before. With their Coliseum show, the Beatles were introduced to the chaos of touring that would dominate their lives for the next few years, and the United States was introduced to one of the most influential music groups of all time.
By early 1964, England was firmly in the grip of Beatlemania, the band’s live performances drowned out by screams of devoted fans. The Beatles’ stardom was assured, but it was their first tour in the U.S. that cemented their status as global pop stars. With the Coliseum show, the Beatles encountered the challenges that would come with touring. Between adoring fans, problems with the sound system, and poor acoustics in the venue, the Beatles could hardly hear themselves play. Nevertheless, it was an auspicious live introduction to the United States that laid the groundwork for their 1964 tour later that year.
Harrison by McCartney (source: AP)
Just recently, over 1,000 photographs snapped by Paul McCartney from this period were unearthed by an archivist, depicting the band’s rapid rise to fame. In them, the Beatles sport the shaggy mop-top haircuts and clean-cut suits that they wore as they introduced the U.S. to their early love ballads. Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm is now on display at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA and will later arrive at the Brooklyn Museum on May 3.
A new exhibit at the Liverpool Beatles Museum featuring the rear garden door of George Harrison’s childhood home has opened for public display as well! This door was removed during renovation of the house and has been shared with museum by the home's current owner, Ken Lambert. Now fans of the Fab Four can see the doorway George, John, and Paul crossed through on their way to their earliest practice sessions at 25 Upton Green. Ken has also shared material from an interior doorway of the house with Mini Museum, which is currently available in our shop as one of three Beatles artifacts available in our collection! Check our Beatles items here!
]]>Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters has released new pictures of the Colossus, a revolutionary computer that deciphered Nazi codes during World War Two. Check them out here!
The Colossus prototype was built at the Post Office Research Laboratories by Thomas Flowers, a telephone engineer working for Bletchley Park, the nerve center of the Allies’ code-breaking work during the war. It automated the decryption of the telegrams sent with the Lorenz SZ42, used by Nazi high officials, gathering intelligence that saved innumerable lives and helped shorten the war. The Colossus’ use at Bletchley was a state secret, only officially acknowledged in 2000 by the GCHQ. With the release of these pictures, we know just a little bit more about one of the most important computers ever built.
The Lorenz SZ42 cipher machine encrypted its message by including randomly generated characters intermixed with the message’s characters. This made the messages impossible to break, but only if each message used a different preset of Lorenz’s twelve code wheels. If two messages with the same preset (called a depth) were intercepted, the obscuring characters could be identified and the code broken. The only problem was that all Lorenz operators knew to use a different preset for each message.
Code Breakers at work in Bletchley Park's Hut 6. (source: Encyclopædia Britannica)
The Nazi’s fatal mistake came on August 30, 1941. A message from occupied Athens to Vienna failed and was sent again, using the same preset. On the second attempt, the machine operator wrote a condensed version of the previous message, producing a depth. Both messages were recorded by a radio intercept station at Knockholt in southern England and were quickly passed on to Bletchley Park. Once there, Brigadier John Tiltman was able to identify the obscuring pattern used in both messages. With this, codebreaker William Tutte and his team reverse-engineered Lorenz’s encoding pattern, breaking the code.
Breaking Lorenz codes by hand could take weeks, but with Colossus, the process was automated. The computer’s internal memory was maintained by 1,500 vacuum tubes and used electronic ring circuits to synchronize the machine’s two data inputs: the broken wheel pattern codes and the raw encrypted messages. Now codes could be broken in mere hours, providing invaluable intelligence, including for the D-Day invasion. Work from Colossus also helped spawn Alan Turing’s bombe, used to break the Enigma code, another breakthrough both in the fight against the Nazis and in computer technology.
Want to read about another revolutionary computer? Check out our article on the Cray-1, or browse our collection of Cray-1 computer chips!
Read More!
Rojas R, Hashagen U. The First Computers: History and Architectures. MIT Press; 2002.
Shipley H. Turing: Colossus Computer Revisited. Nature (London). 2012;483(7389):275-275. doi:10.1038/483275b
]]>Across the Mesozoic Era, dinosaurs’ dentition adapted to innumerable diets and ecological niches. The Tyrannosaurus rex’s serrated teeth could max out at 12 inches and the semi-aquatic Spinosaurus carried over 60 teeth in its massive jaws. However, while the carnivores may have been frightening, it was the herbivores who held the largest number of teeth. The duck-billed Hadrosaurus and the horned Triceratops held hundreds of teeth in complex dental batteries, while the sauropod Nigersaurus taqueti holds the record for the most teeth, topping out at over 500. Beneath each tooth were up to eight replacements stacked underneath, allowing the Nigersaurus to continually shed and replenish their dental armory.
Unusual among dinosaurs, Nigersaurus’ teeth were arranged along a long straight line, forming a shovel-like shape—from there, its teeth would grind up planet matter for digestion. Teeth on both the upper and lower parts of the jaw were convex incisors that pointed outward. Wearing on the teeth suggests they ground against each other during eating. The skull that housed these teeth was made of very delicate bones, with four fenestrate openings. In spite of this, Nigersaurus’ bones were able to take the toll of its abrasive eating style.
Reconstructed Nigersaurus skull at Denver Museum of Nature and Science. (Photo credit: Bernard Sandler)
Nigersaurus’ adaptations to its eating style extend beyond its dental battery. The genus was a part of the sauropod clade, a group of herbivores that used their long necks to consume treetop vegetation. Among the sauropods are some of the largest dinosaurs, but Nigersaurus was relatively small at 30 ft, its short neck allowing it to munch on grasses and low-lying plants. Additionally, Nigersaurus’ inner ears pointed downward, also supporting a body plan geared towards the ground. Because of Nigersaurus’ eating habits, it has been nicknamed the “Mesozoic cow,” thriving in the low floodplains of what is now Niger.
Because of its thin bones, Nigersaurus specimens fossilize poorly and thus few specimens have been discovered. The first was found during a 1960s expedition in Niger headed by paleontologist Philippe Taquet but the scarcity of material meant little was known of Nigersaurus until a Paul Sereno-led expedition in 1997. Much remains unknown about Nigersaurus—its small size for a sauropod has led to much debate over its posture and movements. Still, the dinosaur’s dental configuration makes it unique among dinosaurs, with adaptations at odds with the rest of its clade but fine-tuned to its own environment.
Interested in buying a dinosaur tooth? Check out our Pterosaur tooth collection, our Carcharodontosaurus, or our Plesiosaur and Mosasaur specimens!
Read More!
Sereno, Paul C., et al. “Structural Extremes in a Cretaceous Dinosaur.” PloS One, vol. 2, no. 11, 2007, pp. e1230–e1230, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001230.
Sereno, Paul C., and Jeffrey A. Wilson. “Structure and Evolution of a Sauropod Tooth Battery.” The Sauropods, University of California Press, 2019, pp. 157–77, https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520932333-008.]]>An urban legend has it that Santa Claus was invented by the Coca-Cola company for an advertisement campaign, but unfortunately for Christmastime conspiracy theorists, European folklore is replete with such gift-givers. Santa Claus is the result of Christian traditions intermingling with European folklore, Saint Nicholas crossed with Father Christmas, but there are other such legendary figures. In parts of Eastern Europe and Russia, the white-bearded Ded Moroz (meaning Grandfather Frost) brings gifts to good children on New Year’s Eve. With Ded Moroz, one sees how intersecting traditions can create a new mythological figure.
Ded Moroz’s origins can be traced to Slavic folklore, where Moroz is the personification of frost and something of a trickster god, hindering or helping mortals on a whim. In the midst of Russia’s westernization, Ded Moroz’s potential for malevolence was dropped and over the course of the 19th century, Ded Moroz became associated with Christmastime, though was still most associated with New Year’s Eve. The Ded Moroz story lost some of its edges, but Grandfather Frost has his own distinct characteristics, a Santa Claus figure born of a historical crossroads between Russia and the influence of the outside world.
Postcard promoting the Soviet space program
After the October Revolution in 1917, the Orthodox Church and its traditions were repressed by Russia’s new Communist government. Beginning in 1928, Ded Moroz and the elka (New Year’s tree) were banned under Joseph Stalin’s government, but this position later softened and New Year’s celebrations appeared during the late 1930s. Ded Moroz was joined by Snegurochka (or the Snow Maiden), a fairy tale figure from national folklore that emphasized Moroz’s Russian nature. Ded Moroz and his companion were used as a more secular alternative to Christmas celebrations, with the two appearing in Soviet propaganda campaigns.
Ded Moroz is still celebrated as a wintertime figure across Russia and parts of Eastern Europe, having traversed across a long 20th century. He is one of many such Santa Claus figures that appear in Europe, like Belschnickel in southern Germany or the more intimidating Krampus. Our modern-day image of Santa Claus may have been codified by things like Coke ads, but the story can be traced to a wellspring of different fairytales and pieces of folklore lore that spawned off other unique figures, Ded Moroz among them.
Read More!
Larsen, Timothy. The Oxford Handbook of Christmas. First edition. Oxford ; Oxford University Press, 2020. Print.]]>Just below the Arctic Circle, a roadside mammoth statue welcomes visitors to Salekhard, the capital of Siberia’s Yamalo-Nenets province. Standing 10 meters tall and made of bronze, the statute is an approximation of the massive woolly mammoths that once roamed across Siberia during the Pleistocene Epoch, beginning two and a half million years ago. These megafauna giants were well suited to the inhospitable conditions of the last Ice Age, with their thick coats of coarse hair and fat deposits protecting them from the cold. Siberia is home to many of the world’s woolly mammoth fossils, the giants tied to the region’s culture and identity.
In 2016, the Salekhard mammoth got a makeover for the Christmas season. Inspired by a kindergartener’s drawing, the local government decked the statue out in a red Santa hat and coat made up of 150 meters of fabric, adorned with 40 meters of artificial fur. After a month of cutting, sewing, and fitting, the massive costume was finally unveiled. With its new outfit, the Salekhard mammoth joined a long lineage of Russian wintertime figures like Ded Moroz, a Santa Claus-type figure from Slavic folklore, and the Snow Maiden Snegurochka, his companion who helps award good children on New Year’s Eve.
Paleoart of the Adams Mammoth, the first documented mammoth fossil with preserved skin
Because woolly mammoths have only recently become extinct, their remains are well-preserved in the tough Siberian permafrost. As such, we are always learning new things about these towering animals. A 2021 paper published in Nature sought to do just that by investigating 535 genomic samples across 50,000 years in order to reconstruct the mammoth biome and its environment. It found that woolly mammoths and other megafauna lived as recently as 3,900 years ago in Siberia. Prior to this, it was thought that the only mammoth populations to survive to that point did so on Wrangle Island, but it seems mammoths were still flourishing on the mainland.
This finding is significant because it suggests that the woolly mammoth’s extinction was tied more directly to the Holocene Epoch’s warming climate than hunting from humans, as had been assumed. The woolly mammoth’s life and death is something of a biological catch-22: as an animal evolves and becomes suited to its specific environment, it is then at greater risk when that environment changes. But while the woolly mammoth is gone, it is still remembered across the Arctic Circle in places like Salekhard, with its jolly mammoth proving a welcome sight amidst the bitter arctic environment.
Interested in getting ahold of some mammoth material? Mini Museum has you covered with meat, hair, and tooth specimens. Check out our mammoth-sized mammoth collection!
]]>A new potential source of alien life has been discovered in our solar system, beneath the icy surface of Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth-largest moon. The moon harbors a vast subsurface ocean that erupts through dozens of geysers across the body’s surface. These plumes were detected by the Cassini-Huygens space probe during its 2004-2017 orbit that circled Saturn and its surrounding satellites. A recently published paper that examined Cassini’s Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer findings found a diverse chemical composition in Enceladus’ plumes, including compounds that are a prerequisite for the formation of life. Below Enceladus’ icy surface, there very well could be microbial communities of minuscule aliens.
The Cassini–Huygens mission was launched in 1997, arriving at Saturn in 2004, and set about investigating the planet, its rings, and its 146 moons. As part of its mission, the probe deployed the Huygens lander to Titan, the first and only probe to land on a body in the outer solar system. For 13 years, the Cassini probe studied the Saturn system before it exhausted its fuel supply and the probe was flown into the gas giant for destruction. Even six years later, we are still learning new information from Cassini’s data, including the possibility of life on Enceladus.
Thermal imaging of Enceladus' plumes. (source: ESA)
Enceladus’ eruptions are composed mostly of H2O gas and ice that either falls back to the surface or accumulates into Saturn’s rings along with carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, and hydrogen. This new research has identified additional compounds by comparing the INMS data to other known mass spectra, identifying hydrogen cyanide, acetylene, propylene, and an unidentified alcohol. Methane and hydrogen suggest the presence of hydrothermal activity which could support microbial life. Hydrogen cyanide has been suggested as a precursor for amino acids, which in turn constitute proteins that comprise proteins.
Geothermal activity on the ocean surface could harbor microbial communities, drawing their energy source from acetylene, propylene, and the other newly discovered compounds. If so, alien life may be living on Enceladus, but the moon is not the only potential source for such life. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer probe, which will arrive in orbit around the gas giant in 2031, is set to investigate Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa’s own subsurface oceans for signs of life. Other contenders include the dwarf planet Ceres and Neptune’s moon Triton. The race is on to discover which of these bodies is the genuine article and harbors alien (albeit microscopic) life.
]]>Put simply, a paleontologist is a scientist who studies prehistoric life, be it flora or fauna. As an organized field of science, paleontology is sometimes said to have begun with the Swiss polymath Conrad Gessner’s On Fossil Objects, published in 1565. Of course, fossils have been known since prehistory, first documented by Xenophanes of Colophon in Ancient Greece, but it was not until Gessner and other Renaissance-era scientists’ work that the field began to take shape. Georges Cuvier is usually considered the first proper paleontologist, with his discovery that a supposed elephant bone belonged to an extinct species he named Mastodon.
The discovery of such otherworldly creatures brought with it startling ideas. Concepts like extinction and deep time were at odds with the Biblical literalism that prevailed at the time. Early paleontologists laid the groundwork for Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species published in 1859, another watershed moment in our understanding of Earth’s history. Paleontology today is not so controversial, but new things are always being discovered. The Dinosaur Renaissance that began in the 1970s redefined dinosaurs as warm-blooded, active animals, while some astrobiologists are searching for microbial fossils on the Martian surface.
Cuvier's sketch of a Mastodon
Today’s paleontologists have a lot of tools to accomplish their work. For example, let’s consider a hypothetical T-Rex fossil. A paleontological team might find such a fossil in Montana amidst the vast Hell Creek Formation, but they would be lucky to chance up a complete specimen. After finding the remains, paleontologists have to remove the bones and surrounding matrix; with a chisel if they’re lucky and maybe with a sledgehammer if they’re not. If our T-Rex emerges from the stone unscathed, it is carefully wrapped in plaster for transportation away from the dig site to a fossil preparation lab where it is extracted from its stone matrix for study.
From there, our T-Rex may find itself mounted in a museum hall or studied carefully for new information on the genus. Perhaps it is a new species with a subtle anatomical difference to its peers, a new branch in evolution’s tree. Our understanding of extinct life has changed much since the earliest days of paleontology, but the core features remain the same. Paleontology begins with direct observation and fieldwork, but from these beginnings, we may glean new understandings of how life on Earth once existed millions of years ago.
Interested in getting into paleontology yourself? Check out our dinosaur specimens!
Read more!
Wall WJ. Investigating Fossils: A History of Palaeontology. 1st edition. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated; 2021. doi:10.1002/9781119828624
Wylie CD. Preparing Dinosaurs: The Work Behind the Scenes. The MIT Press; 2021.
]]>After the societal breakdown of the First Intermediate Period, Egypt united into the Middle Kingdom, innumerable pharaohs fanning out their influence across vast trade networks. It was during this time that the Ancient Egyptians made contact with the mysterious Land of Punt, an otherworldly kingdom furnished with gold and precious spices. For all its utopian descriptions, it is known that Punt was a real place, the only problem being the Ancient Egyptians neglected to document its location. Debate over Punt’s location has raged ever since, but the question may finally have been found in a mummified baboon.
Baboons hold a special place in Ancient Egyptian culture, the vicious animals deified as a god in the form of Babi, a ruler in the underworld. As such, baboons were often mummified, their remains still preserved to this day. A recent study of one such baboon from Egypt’s Valley of the Monkeys found that its mitochondrial genomes align with current-day populations in the Horn of Africa. Along with gold and myrrh, Punt also traded animals with the Egyptians, including baboons, suggesting Punt’s location lies somewhere along the African coast of the Red Sea.
1868 excavation of Adulis
If this is the case, the Land of Punt is likely what became Adulis, a trading city in Eritrea that flourished over a thousand years later, beginning in the fourth century. This is supported by Ancient Greco-Roman accounts—Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia notes Adulis as a hub for animal trade, including baboons. If indeed Punt and Adulis are one and the same (though separated by a gulf of time), then this study has resolved a long-simmering question in Ancient Egyptian archeology. Not only does this resolve the question of Punt, but also provides a better understanding of Ancient Egyptian trade routes and contact with neighboring kingdoms.
Of course, while the link from Egypt’s baboons to the Horn of Africa is pretty definitive, the link between Punt and Adulis is more speculative. Other theories place Punt in Somalia further to the east and along the Arabian Peninsula across the Red Sea. Regardless, this study forms a better picture of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, testifying to the rise of an organized society that extended its influence across the wider region.
]]>From November 19 to Christmas Eve, the night sky will be littered with falling meteorites! This is because of the Geminids meteor shower that peaks around December 14 each year. The celestial event is the product of 3200 Phaethon approaching the Earth, the asteroid scattering bits of meteorites that light up the night sky as they streak through our atmosphere. This year, the meteor shower will peak on December 13 and 14, so be ready for a heavenly display in the night sky, with over 100 meteorites falling per hour.
Though the Geminids were first documented in 1862, we are still finding out more about them. A study published earlier this year analyzed data collected by the Park Solar Probe that suggests Phaethon once formed a comet with asteroids 1999 YC and 2005 UD. This would explain why the Geminids are the rare meteor shower with an asteroid host body and not a comet. We also know that the Geminids shower is growing in intensity, as Jupiter’s gravitational influence has pulled the asteroid’s trail of material closer to the Earth.
There are a few things you can do to make sure you get a good look at the Geminids this year. Make sure you are watching from somewhere dark and you give your eyes time to adjust to lower light. After that, just wait for the show to start and remember you can always catch the performance the next day. That said, if you’re a bit impatient to see the Geminids peak, you can always check out Mini Museum’s meteorites section, including the new Tunguska piece and the classic Lunar Highlands specimen.
]]>Across its vast archipelago, Japan is comprised of over 14,000 islands, from Honshu to innumerable uninhabited inlets. Just recently, another island has joined this long list, the product of volcanic activity off Iōtō, also known as Iwo Jima. The eruption began on October 21, with phreatomagmatic explosions belching steam and magma to the surface and eventually forming a small landmass.
Iōtō itself is a volcanic island, a caldera adorned with Mt. Motoyama, Mt. Suribachi and now joined by this as yet unnamed island. This landmass is actually the product of two forces: the erupting crater that is spewing magma and a vent where rock mass is being ejected. Together, they are forming a new landmass, but it is unclear whether the island is a permanent fixture, as it may collapse back into the ocean after the eruption.
The eruption poses no risk—Iōtō is uninhabited say for a Japanese military airstrip, the same base that witnessed some of the most brutal combat of the Second World War. Additionally, the eruption is small and, based on previous volcanic activity, is likely to subside within a month. Until then, the island is an ongoing demonstration of the volcanic activity that has shaped Japan’s islands and the rest of the Pacific’s Ring of Fire.
Evidence of Japan’s volcanic geography is found all over its islands, including in this Mount Fuji Lava proudly offered by Mini Museum!
]]>Over half a century since their breakup, a new Beatles song was released today. “Now and Then,” an incomplete demo recorded by John Lennon during his solo career, has been finished by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, also incorporating material recorded by George Harrison before his death. A similar project finished Lennon’s “Real Love” and “Free as a Bird” in 1994, but the poor quality of the “Now and Then” recording made it unmixable. New technology pioneered by Peter Jackson and company for the Get Back documentary was able to separate Lennon’s vocals from the accompanying piano, allowing the final Beatles song to be completed.
Lennon recorded the song on a tape recorder in 1977, during his time living at the Dakota in the midst of his semi-retirement. His widow Yoko Ono gave the tapes to the surviving Beatles in the 1990s, but efforts to complete the song were abandoned. With Jackson’s MAL software, which was also used to remix Revolver last year, Lennon’s voice has been isolated and mixed with new material recorded by McCartney and Starr as well as Harrison’s guitar, recorded during the 1994 attempt. Giles Martin, son of producer George Martin, also composed a backing string section, fleshing out a simple home recording into a complete studio-level Beatles track.
The single's cover art
“Now and Then” is a simple ballad, at once calling to mind the forlorn love songs Lennon wrote towards the end of his life and contrasting with the more optimistic pop singles from the early Beatles. Not unexpectedly, the song is not a lost masterpiece restored to life, but it is unmistakably a Beatles song, from its opening count-in, McCartney’s thumping base and Starr’s backing drum track. Over forty years after his assassination, Lennon once again has a new song for his fans, both old and young, to listen to.
Accompanying the “Now and Then” release is a short documentary on the song and a music video directed by Jackson, to be released on November 3. This music video will include footage of the 1995 reunion of the Beatles, home movies of the different members, and the earliest known footage of the Beatles performing. With the release of “Now and Then,” the career of one of the most influential music groups in history comes to its final end over fifty years after their breakup. John Lennon, his life and music cut tragically short, now has one last song added to a long legacy that redefined pop music forever.
Want a piece of the Beatles' legacy for yourself? Check out our store!
]]>For centuries, stories of a devilish winged horse have circulated across southern New Jersey, the beast supposedly stalking the vast Pine Barrens. The Jersey Devil is an unusually persistent bit of folklore, not because the creature is real but because of the complex chain of influence that gave rise to the monster’s story. The Jersey Devil is more than the usual tall tale; it is the story of political and religious schisms of the United States’ colonial period, much of the drama centering around a Quaker writer named Daniel Leeds. It was Leeds’ conflict with the wider Quaker community that set off a chain of events that spawned the Jersey Devil.
Leeds was a community member in Burlington, a Quaker enclave; he was devout in his faith but was also given to more esoteric pursuits. An astrological almanac Leeds wrote in 1687 and a sprawling theological and scientific book called The Temple of Wisdom angered the church leaders and much of his work was destroyed. Leeds turned to writing anti-Quaker diatribes and was soon accused of being a harbinger of the devil. After his death, his son Titan took over publishing his almanac, feuding with Benjamin Franklin who would jokily depict the younger Leeds as a pawn of Satan. Slowly, the Leeds name came to be associated with demonic evil.
A zodiac man. Daniel Leeds depicted a similar figure in his almanac, angering the Quaker community who linked him with the devil
This association with the devil intermingled with preexisting folklore in the area. The indigenous Lenape people had many stories of forest spirits inhabiting the Pine Barrens. The so-called “monstrous births” of women like Puritan reformer Anne Hutchinson served as proof of her angering God. When the witch hunt hysteria took hold, a story circulated of “Mother Leeds” who gave birth to a hooved, winged creature. Leeds’ name comes from Leed Points, which was named for Daniel Leeds’ family, further linking his family and what was then called the Leeds Devil.
The appearance of the Leeds Devil was partially influenced by the demon Mephistopheles, often invoked in depicting an enemy as a monster, a means of character assassination used against the Leeds. Long after both men were dead, interest in the Leeds Devil was elevated by con men who attached wings to a kangaroo and claimed it was the creature, while a spate of sightings in 1909 cemented the creature’s place in modern cryptid lore. Sightings continue to this day, but the creature is not flesh and blood. The Jersey Devil is an amalgamation of America’s colonial history, a strange product of religious feuds and political spats at the dawn of the country.
Read more!
Regal B, Esposito FJ. The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created a Monster. Johns Hopkins paperback edition. Johns Hopkins University Press; 2019.
]]>In searching for inspiration for his vampire count, Bram Stoker selected Vlad III, the 15th-century ruler of Wallachia. How much Stoker knew about the real-life Dracula is still debated, but Vlad III was a brutal villain in his own right, once impaling an army of 20,000 invading Ottomans. Just recently, another bloody detail surrounding the voivode of Wallachia has been lent credence, that Vlad the Impaler shed tears of blood, a condition called hemolacria. Vlad III may not have been a vampire, but barbaric war tactics and an unusual blood condition may have helped paint a picture of a real-world monster.
The study in question examined three letters written by Vlad III in 1457 and 1475 for biological material left behind by the prince. A thin film of Ethylene-vinyl acetate aligned with positive and negative ions and hydrophobic resin extracted proteins on the papers which were then subject to a mass spectrometry examination. The study identified roughly 100 human peptides (a sub-unit of proteins) along with 2,000 environmental peptides (plants, insects, bacteria). 31 of the human peptides are found in human blood while another three are linked to tear production. This suggests that tears may have deposited the blood material on the letters.
One of the letters under mass spectrometric analysis
The presence of the 2,000 other peptides also tells scientists something about the environmental conditions in which the letters were written. Wallachia in the 15th century was ravaged by disease, and Vlad III’s letters are a testament to this. 22 proteins identified as viruses include the Flaviviridae family, a group that is spread by mosquitos and ticks and can cause yellow fever and dengue fever. The content of Vlad III’s letters themselves is fairly dry, having to do with taxation on the city of Sibiu, but on the pages is evidence of the instability of Vlad III’s kingdom.
As exciting as this find is, it comes with the obvious qualifier that other people handled these letters and it may have been them who were afflicted with hemolacria. Still, it stands to reason that Vlad III’s DNA would be the oldest material on the paper, as he was the one who wrote the letters, and it was these proteins that were specifically targeted. This find helps form a more complete picture of Vlad III, a historical figure from an unstable period of history that has long been shrouded in mystery. Vlad III’s reputation for barbarism is mostly the result of propaganda leaflets from his lifetime, but some of those unsavory details seem as though they were genuine, including his tears of blood.
Want to learn more about Vlad III or even get ahold of some Dracula artifacts? Check out this article about the prince.
]]>It is a common task of folklorists to try and pin down the origins of a given subject, to find a real-world analog or starting point to account for a mythological belief. Werewolves are an attractive subject for this treatment, stories of their existence being so widespread (especially in Europe) that surely there must be some basis in reality. As yet, no satisfactory explanation has been found, the subject interrogated by folklorists, medical doctors, witchcraft historians, and literary scholars alike. Part of the problem has to do with a basic tenet of folklore: mythologies are unstable, with the werewolf’s appearance and behavior varying from culture to culture.
The popular image of the werewolf is a composite of many different sources. In 1963, physician Lee Illis documented a number of werewolf characteristics from existing literature: broken and yellow skin, red mouth, abundant hair, etc. However, Illis’ source was a Dutch 19th report on stories of a shape-shifting creature in Indonesia, distinct from werewolf mythology. When werewolf trials were conducted beginning around the 15th century, hairiness was rarely mentioned regarding the accused, but it is an integral part of the modern image of werewolves, owing to films like 1935’s Werewolf of London.
Timelapse woodcut of Stübbe's execution for being a werewolf
The exact symptoms of lycanthropy vary, but the basic outline of the mythology is solid: a human who shapeshifts into a wolf creature and terrorizes their community before reverting back to human form. A number of diseases have been put forth to account for this supposed transformation: hypertrichosis (causing excessive hair), porphyria (liver disease causing skin problems), and of course rabies. Ergot poisoning causing hallucinations or feral wild children inspiring werewolf stories has also been suggested, but these and other theories still cannot account for just how widespread werewolf stories are.
Werewolf origins were not just cultural but also political. During the European witch trials, a number of werewolf trials took place, the transformation thought to be a Satanic illusion. Peter Stübbe, a 16th-century German farmer, confessed under torture to killing multiple children in his wolf form and was executed on October 31, 1589, supposed symptoms of lycanthropy used in his conviction. Nailing down the exact source of werewolf mythology might ultimately be fruitless: some features were invented, some were imported from separate cultures, and some are simple products of storytelling that are not based on any real-world medical disorder.
That said, sometimes werewolf attacks were not entirely works of fiction, like the Beast of Gévaudan...
Tracing Halloween’s origins is tricky; the holiday is a syncretic blend of competing cultural and religious traditions. Its earliest roots are found in the Celtic Samhain festival, celebrating the end of the harvest season and the lighter half of the year. This celebration was attended with offerings of food and animal sacrifices—the question of human sacrifice among the Druid priest class remains controversial, with most mentions of the practice coming from propagandizing Roman sources. The existence of the wicker man, described by Julius Caesar as a means of ritual killing, is generally doubtful.
What we call Halloween is the first day of Allhallowtide, preceding All Saints’ Day and All Soul’s Day in the Western Christian Church. The belief that the spirits of the dead returned to Earth just before All Soul’s Day intermixed with the Celtic influence of Samhain as a liminal zone when the barriers between worlds were weakened. Costume-wearing can be traced to behaviors like the Shetland Isles' gruliks who wore decorative animal skins and would travel from home to home asking for gifts. This intermingled with Christian observances like souling, with the faithful going from door to door to ask for prayers for the departed and receiving soul cakes.
A traditional jack-o'-lantern in the Museum of Country Life, Ireland (source: Rannṗáirtí Anaiṫnid)
Halloween was repressed during the Reformation, with the Protestant Church objecting to the Catholic idea of Purgatory that Allhallowtide revolved around. The popular traditions of bonfires and guising persisted without clerical influence, contributing to the holiday’s secularization. In turn, English Protestants adopted Guy Fawkes Day as an alternate night of revelry, celebrating the failure of the 1605 Catholic Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament. Guy Fawkes Day landing on November 5 meant there was much overlap and borrowing from Halloween, but the holiday continued to survive, particularly in Scotland and Ireland.
It was Scottish and Irish immigrants in the 19th century who brought Halloween to the United States where the holiday, now more a popular night of celebration than a religious observance, was gradually absorbed into the larger culture. With the United States’ rise as a cultural superpower in the 20th century, Halloween has come to be celebrated around the world, far beyond its roots as a Celtic harvest festival. Ironically, its suppression during the Reformation seems to have guaranteed Halloween immortality, the holiday having been celebrated in one form or another for millennia, from the Samhain bonfires of prehistory to the trick-or-treaters of today.
Read more!
Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Cary: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2003. Print.
]]>Trilobites hold a prized position in the Earth’s fossil record, a benchmark that signals the beginning of the Cambrian Explosion and the rapid diversification and advancement of life. Still, much remains unknown about these creatures—their tough outer shells fossilized easily, leaving their inner workings often poorly preserved. Now, a rapidly fossilized Bohemolichas incola has given a glimpse into a fundamental life function of trilobites: their diet. To this point, trilobite eating habits were speculated on based on the physical remains of the specimens; for the first time, actual food has been preserved in a fossil, a step forward in understanding the creatures.
The trilobite specimen was found in the Czech Republic’s Šárka Formation, encased in a siliceous nodule. The trilobite in question was rapidly buried and preserved soon after its final meal, persevering not just the animal but its gut contents as well. Its digestive tract is lined with the fossilized remains of ostracods and other small crustaceans, suggesting scavenging behavior in this particular genus. Based on the number of shells and their placement in the specimen, the study’s authors are able to speculate on the shape of the digestive tract and the rest of its inner anatomy that does not fossilize as well.
A Phacops trilobite (Source: Thomas Bresson)
Understanding the trilobite’s digestive tract in turn allows us to understand the rest of the creature’s anatomy. To compensate for the animal’s apparently quite large digestive chambers, the trilobite would need long and sturdy appendages to move about effectively. The well-preserved mini fossils in the trilobite’s gut also suggest a neutral pH, as high acid levels would have corroded what remains of the creature’s prey. These features can in turn be compared against the living anthropods, allowing for a construction of the evolutionary links between the animals.
Through this discovery, much can be gleaned about trilobites, not just about their digestive functions but their entire anatomy and the evolution of their living ancestors. Trilobites are some of the best-represented fossils on the record, with 20,000 species documented, but until now much of what we knew about their feeding was confined to speculation. With this exceptional fossil, we have a better understanding of these ancient sea creatures.
Interested in picking up a trilobite fossil for yourself? You can find them right here, including some jewelry specimens!
]]>Yesterday on September 24, an asteroid touched down in Utah’s West Desert, or at least part of one did. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has completed the space agency’s first mission to retrieve material from an asteroid; it follows two similar JAXA missions that returned in 2010 and 2020. OSIRIS-REx’s return is the culmination of a seven-year mission timeline, following its launch in 2016, its arrival at near-Earth 101955 Bennu in 2018, two additional years to survey the asteroid before landing, collecting samples, and returning to Earth with 8.8 ounces of material.
OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security—Regolith Explorer) may be able to shed light on the early formation of our solar system and study Bennu itself, a potentially hazardous object, or PHO. If Bennu does impact Earth, it is a long way off in 2182, but study of the asteroid will allow speculation on similar near-Earth objects. OSIRIS-REx, having now released its capsule of material, is on to 99942 Apophis, another PHO, which it will reach by 2029. Even near-Earth objects are a long way off!
OSIRIS-REx touching down on Bennu. (NASA)
After its touchdown, the Bennu material was held in a clean room at the nearby Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range where it was subject to a nitrogen purge. Being an inert gas, nitrogen allows NASA to preserve the material and keep it uncontaminated by material on Earth. Today on September 25, the material will be flown to Houston’s Johnson Space Center for initial inspections. From there, it will be studied by NASA and its various partners, including Canada’s CSA and Japan’s JAXA, which both contributed to the project.
Beyond studying the early solar system, Bennu also has the potential to tell us about the origins of life on our own planet. The rock boasts simple organic compounds that are the building blocks of life, and its materials suggest its surface came into contact with liquid water. It is possible that such materials were brought to Earth on a similar meteorite billions of years ago, originating life on our planet. What exactly the material from 101955 Bennu will tell us can only be speculated at now, but this is an exciting beginning to a study that could shed much light on our planet, our solar system, and the asteroids that crisscross through it.
It might be tough to get your hands on some Bennu dust yourself, but Mini Museum is proud to offer material from the Allende meteorite which holds material from the formation of our solar system. Check it out!
]]>The relationship between dogs and humans stretches across thousands of years, the early history of our two species defined by their relationship with each other. Dogs benefited from the excess food nomadic tribes produced, while their superior sense of smell (200 million olfactory neurons to humans’ five million) and hearing (four times greater than ours) greatly aided in hunting. That said, the relationship between our species was not strictly utilitarian; even in the Paleolithic, humans kept dogs as pets, as evinced by the Bonn-Oberkassel dog, buried alongside two humans 14,200 years ago.
Discovered in 1914 near Bonn, Germany, the Bonn-Oberkassel dog was buried with a man around 40 years old and a 25-year-old woman, all three bodies painted in decorative red ochre, a common ritual practice. The dog was around 27 weeks old when it died from a serious periodontal infection. Importantly, the high mortality rate of such a gum infection means that the dog only survived because of intense care from its owners, suggesting an emotional connection far beyond a purely transactional relationship. The ailing dog was likely killed when its owners died, allowing the three to be buried together.
The Bonn-Oberkassel dog's jaw
The Bonn-Oberkassel remains were thought to be the oldest buried dog in the archeological record until a 2018 reexamination of the grave found that one tooth belonged to an older dog. This tooth appears to have been a grave good buried alongside the humans, again demonstrating an emotional tie to the animals. The limited remains of this older dog makes further study difficult, but coupled with Bonn-Oberkassel, a picture forms of early human-dog relationships. Our species first came together for pure survival reasons, but the pet relationship came soon after.
Bonn-Oberkassel is the earliest confirmed dog burial, but it is far from unique. The Koster Site in Illinois includes a number of buried dogs dated to 10,000 years ago, while the Ashkelon Dog Cemetery in Palestine houses thousands of specimens, possibly venerated as a sacred animal. Across the archeological record, man’s best friend appears again and again, an early sign of human emotional development during the Paleolithic.
Conventional wisdom has it that urban centers are biological dead zones, home to little more than infestations of rats and pigeons, but in truth, cities can provide unexpected ecological niches. Most cities have well-kept green spaces filled with pollinating flowers, as well as tall buildings and other structures that are filled with crevices waiting to be filled. Coral reefs are a useful metaphor here: coral provides shelter to fish, which in turn attracts more fish and turns the reef into a combination hunting and breeding ground. A city can work in the same way: one species exploits a feature of the urban environment, attracting more animals in turn.
These human-reliant animals are called synanthropes and can be found in cities all over the world. For example, the Red-crowned Parrot is indigenous to northern Mexico and southern Texas, but it also has populations in Miami and Los Angeles, formed from their escaping as pets. The irony is that these parrots are endangered in their indigenous areas but thrive elsewhere, with Los Angeles now hosting 3,700 of the birds, more than in all of Mexico. Similar situations have been found in Hawaii with Madagascar-originating geckos or the wall lizards of Trier, Germany.
The parrots' distribution in Los Angeles
Los Angeles’ parrots have been so successful that there have been proposals to intentionally release other endangered birds into cities in the hope that their numbers will rebound. These biodiversity arks could in theory shelter a given species for a time while their natural habitat is restored, saving them from extinction. If the Red-crowned Parrot is any indicator, the project could save other birds, with the parrots now considered naturalized to the California ecosystem, perfectly fitting into its ecological niche.
Of course, the introduction of a foreign species of animal can have unexpected effects on the larger ecosystem. If the animal is predatory, it can overhunt an indigenous group, imperiling the city’s food chain. And while some cities have proven to be unexpected hotspots of life, the exception proves the rule that urban expansion generally imperils ecosystems and the animals living there. The urban ark is a novel idea for conservation, but its use should only come after careful consideration.
]]>Competition is the law of the land in the animal kingdom, but it is not the only way to end up on top. A recent study published in Nature found that among a group of vervet monkeys, those that were lower in the hierarchy were better at foraging for food, giving them a leg up among their peers. Conversely, those at the top of the hierarchy, who did not usually have to compete for a food source, struggled with foraging behavior. Interestingly, this holds true independent of the specifics of the foraging environment, with the lower hierarchy monkeys better at problem solving than their dominant relatives.
The study made use of 27 monkeys in a closed environment that included a half banana held in a plastic box, with a small hole to retrieve the food. Initially, the monkeys would pick up the box and rotate or shake it until the banana could more easily be retrieved, but they found it was quicker to not touch the box and simply stick their arms into it. All but one of the monkeys was able to accomplish this but importantly, those lower in hierarchy were able to learn the technique faster. The quickest time for retrieval clocked in at one second, with the longest being just over a minute.
One of the monkeys using the preferred "no-manipulation reach-in technique"
This division owes itself to differences in social learning, the ability of a group to impart information and survival techniques to each other. Dominants in the group are more likely to forage solitarily, as their subordinates give them a wide berth and fellow dominants also go off to explore on their own. Without valuable experience learning from each other, those at the top of the pack struggled to learn the technique best suited to retrieving the banana, in this case putting themselves at a disadvantage.
Those lower in the hierarchy conversely had formed the habit of observing others' techniques in foraging and were more likely to closely observe others while they handled the box. They also had a greater motivation to learn the technique faster, as the hierarchy dictated how long each had to attempt to retrieve the banana. The study demonstrates that fixed hierarchy among some animals can actually have disadvantages for those on top.
]]>The National Center for Atmospheric Research has recently installed a new supercomputer in part to assess the feasibility of solar geoengineering, a proposed solution to climate change. In tandem with greenhouse gas reduction, solar geoengineering projects would emit reflective aerosol particles into the atmosphere, blocking excessive radiation from the sun. NCAR’s new computer, nicknamed “Derecho,” will study the potential effects on the atmosphere from such projects, as well as more conventional studies on wildfires and hurricanes. The computer’s operation is potentially the first step in tackling the climate crisis in a radical new way.
Derecho’s system boasts 19.87 petaflops, giving it the ability to run 19.87 quadrillion calculations per second, three and a half times faster than the center’s previous computer. Beyond its studies into solar geoengineering, other projects include building models to better predict hurricanes, the effects of wildfires on air quality based on the 2020 California fire season, and the impact of solar storms on the atmosphere. Derecho’s study into solar geoengineering comes on the heels of a Congressional report signaling support for greater studies into the technology, but as it stands now, solar geoengineering is still a new field.
The Derecho computer. (Source: NCAR)
The most commonly proposed model for solar geoengineering is the use of stratospheric aerosol injection of sulfate particles to reflect solar radiation back out into space. The NCAR study, headed by Kristen Rasmussen of Colorado State University, will run simulations on rain patterns in South America and what effect the deployment of aerosols could have on them. At this point, potential side effects of solar geoengineering are poorly understood—studies like this will assess the long term effects of engineering changes to the Earth’s atmosphere. There is understandable concern that such a project could in turn spawn off its own problems.
A major concern of solar geoengineering, beyond unintended side effects, is that its research and use comes at the expense of greenhouse gas reduction. In any proposed model of solar geoengineering, greenhouse gasses would still need to be rapidly phased out, with aerosol injections acting more as a transitional technology than a solution in itself. Although it has the potential to aid greatly in the climate crisis, solar geoengineering is not a silver bullet and its use would only come after extensive testing, like those soon to be performed by NCAR’s Derecho computer.
]]>Natural selection is a slow process, its adaptations refined over millions of years, but there are some places on Earth where evolution kicks into overdrive. Islands have been called nature’s laboratories, their geographical isolation spawning off unique menageries of life unlike anything on the mainland. It was his time on the Galápagos Islands that informed Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, based in part on his observations of closely related species of birds having different attributes best suited to their specific island. Each island in the Galápagos Archipelago functioned as a test case for Darwin, much like a laboratory experiment.
In the Galápagos case, the divergence of life owes itself to adaptive radiation, wherein different species spawn off from a common ancestor that then fill an ecological niche. It remains a debate which factor is the prime driver of change. Does the proliferation of a species cause its members to fill ecological niches, or do the niches themselves prompt the speciation? On the Galápagos, the latter seems to be the case, as there is far less speciation on the comparable but more isolated Coco Islands to the north. A high number of animals alone do not prompt evolutionary change, there still needs to be different niches for the animals to fill.
A pygmy mammoth being excavated. (Source: NPS)
Our understanding of how life adapts to isolated environments has greatly advanced since Darwin’s day, such as with The Theory of Island Biogeography. Published in 1967, the book outlined a model where island’s ecosystems are in a perpetual equilibrium, balanced out by extinction of existing species replaced by new immigrant species. More contemporary studies have expanded the picture even more, where islands are better understood not simply as closed systems but themselves constantly adapting to sea level changes and tectonic forces that effect a given island’s habitat.
Islands as laboratories may not be a completely solid metaphor—they themselves are as changing as the species they harbor, but their habitats are still unique in the animal kingdom. These land masses are known to prompt considerable size changes in different species, wherein smaller species grow larger and larger species shrink, like the pygmy mammoth of the Channel Islands. Our understanding of how exactly islands shape life is also always in flux, but they still provide valuable insight into these evolutionary forces.
]]>It was 1963, and a Turkish farmer had a strange problem: his chickens kept passing through a small crack in his house’s walls and disappearing. When the farmer began to excavate, he rediscovered a vast underground city, dating to at least the 7th century BCE. Derinkuyu, as the city is called, is only one of 22 large-scale underground cities that have been uncovered in Turkey’s central Cappadocia region. The soft volcanic rock that dominates the area is perfect for these structures—Derinkuyu alone could support around 20,000 inhabitants across 18 levels of tunnels that housed chapels, schools, living quarters, and even live animals.
These underground cities are the result of soft volcanic tuffs from the Cappadocian Volcanic Province that, because of their high porosity, are easily carved and sculpted. When exactly they were built is still debated, though Derinkuyu was likely begun by the Hittites, then passed from empire to empire for hundreds of years. Whoever was inhabiting Derinkuyu and its sister cities were attracted for the same reasons. The underground cities provided a stable climate, free from the daily temperature fluctuations on the surface. Living below ground is also the perfect camouflage to protect from a marauding army on the surface.
A fairy chimney in Göreme, Turkey.
Cappadocia’s wonders are not just human-made. The volcanic deposits have also formed what are called fairy chimneys, long spiraling towers that dot the landscape. They are formed from erosion carving through the soft tuffs, leaving behind a tower of volcanic rock topped with a bit of tougher basalt. Some of them are big enough that they were carved into surface dwellings in the same manner as the underground cities hidden below.
Derinkuyu covers an area of 26,000 square feet with a maximum depth of 270 feet—across dozens of tunnels are kitchens, armories, wine cellars, and of course toilets. To keep a city like this functioning, Derinkuyu has 52 ventilation chimneys that could also be used for communications between different floors. Its tunnels are long, narrow, and sometimes maze-like to confuse invaders, with tunnels also connecting neighboring cities into one massive underground complex. Today, the cities are designated World Heritage Sites, with some of the levels open for any visitor that is not too claustrophobic.
]]>In early 2020, when lockdowns sent a large chunk of the world’s population indoors, strange things began to happen. Air pollution cleared, waterways got cleaner, and wild animals took to the streets that humans had left empty. Hard as it is to imagine, it has been three years since these lockdowns, but the studies on their effects are still coming in. A recent one, just published in Science outlines the ways animal movements changed as they responded to a world with less noise, less traffic, and less humans. It found that a disease that devastated humankind briefly allowed for a resurgence for the rest of the animal kingdom.
The study examined the GPS-tracked movements of 2,300 land-based mammals across 43 species during two periods, the 2020 lockdowns and the same time period in 2019. What exactly constitutes a lockdown is a matter of debate, but under the strictest measures, animals increased their movements across 10-day periods by 73%. Conversely, across 1-hour periods, movement decreased by 12%. This shows that in the long term, animals moved further, unencumbered by dangerous roadways, while in the short term they stayed put and foraged, less likely to be scared off by human activity.
In addition to distance displacement, the study also considered proximity to roadways, with animals in high traffic areas moving 36% closer to roads during lockdowns. With the reduced threat of impacts and reduced noise from passing cars, animals were drawn closer to roads, something they usually avoid. Ironically, under these conditions roads can actually facilitate animal movements, rather than hinder them as they usually do.
Overall, exact findings from the study are difficult to quantify, with different species responding to different levels of lockdown, but the averages are quite clear. The lockdown period functioned as a control group for our impact on the environment, and with a reduced human presence, animals had greater mobility than the same time period the year before. Hopefully, studies like this can be a call for better environmentally-conscious designs, like wildlife crossing that seamlessly allows migrating animals to move under or below busy roads.
]]>For all the talk of the current boom in artificial intelligence, it is easy to forget that these advances are a long time coming. Perhaps the most memorable watershed moment in the history of AI was the 1997 chess match between Grandmaster Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, an IBM-built supercomputer. Deep Blue beat Kasparov, considered the best chess player in the world, in the final game of a six-game rematch, a major legitimization of artificial intelligence.
Kasparov and Deep Blue first played in 1996 in Philadelphia, where the machine took one game, Kasparov took three, and the other two were played to draws. A year later, after Deep Blue had scrimmaged Grandmaster Joel Benjamin and others, they played again in New York’s Equitable Center skyscraper. Kasparov won one game, Deep Blue another, leaving three draws, with the final game determining the winner. Kasparov ultimately resigned the game, handing the victory to Deep Blue, though he later accused the computer of being aided by a human Grandmaster, much like the 18th century Mechanical Turk machine.
Kasparov playing Deep Blue during the 1996 match. (Source: AP)
Kasparov’s charges of fraud were never proven—Deep Blue was simply the product of many chess computers that came before it. It was a successor to IBM’s previous Deep Thought (named for the computer in Hitchhiker’s Guide) and laid the groundwork for Deep Junior, Deep Fritz, and others. The machine operated 480 processors across two computer towers, capable of calculating 200,000,000 moves in a single second. With this approach, the computer does not have to think so much as it has to simply run the numbers and brute force its way to a victory.
Today, chess computers can trounce even the most adept Grandmasters and the entire field is something of a settled science. Deep Blue’s victory is hailed as a major step forward for artificial intelligence, demonstrating the capacity for AI to function in a fixed system like a chess board. However, perhaps it should be remembered that Kasparov was able to hold his own for so long because he did not use brute force, but drew from abstract reasoning and experience to make his moves, something a computer cannot reproduce in the same way.
Read more!
Newborn M. Beyond Deep Blue : Chess in the Stratosphere. Springer; 2011. doi:10.1007/978-0-85729-341-1
]]>The Divje Babe flute’s status as a musical instrument was not initially accepted—it was instead suggested that the holes were the result of another predator attacking the bone’s cave bear. To test this hypothesis, dental casts of a cave bear, hyaena, and wolf were made and tested on 34 similar femurs to the one Divje Babe is made from. However, no set of teeth can account for the symmetry and uniformity in the flute, and any that come close would break their femurs in two.
The flute being played by Dimkaroski. (Source: European Music Archeology Project)
To support the hole’s human origins, archaeologists Giuliano Bastiani and François Zoltán Horusitzky built a similar flute using Mousterian-era stone tools that would have been available at the time. They were able to do so without leaving distinct manufacturing marks on about half of their perforations, something the Divje Babe flute also lacks. But the flute’s true verification as an instrument came when it was played by academic musician Ljuben Dimkaroski, who oriented the piece in such a way as to be able to play complex music compositions. It has also been suggested the flute was used to replicate animal sounds during hunting.
The flute’s discovery had important implications for our understanding of Neanderthals, who were long thought to lack meaningful symbolic or creative thinking like Homo sapiens. The Divje Babe flute helped bolster the idea that these kinds of behavior extend further back into prehistory than previously thought. Today, the flute is housed at National Museum of Slovenia, but if Slovenia is a bit too far of a trek for you, you can listen to music played on a reconstruction of the flute right here.]]>The “Out of Africa” hypothesis, or the clunkier Recent African Origin of Modern Humans, is the near-universally accepted theory of our species’ origin, but how exactly we got started remains debated. The earliest human remains are known to the north of the continent, dating to over 300,000 years ago, but the fossil record only tells us so much about the diverging branches of the Homo genus tree. It’s been long held that human beings owe their origins to one specific population that diverged from an archaic human ancestor, but a genetics-based study published this week in Nature has challenged this idea.
These recent findings suggest Homo sapiens are the product of two divergent populations, not one as had been accepted. This is based on genomic sequencing from contemporary Africans across the continent, whose genetic makeup is best explained by two distinct branches that nonetheless interbred with each other. These findings are limited insofar as they can’t say where exactly these populations lived, but they being distinct from each other supports a geographical separation. The projected timeline suggests these two branches existed alongside each other for about a million years, before converging 120,000 years ago and later migrating out of the continent.
Genetic diversity in modern-day Africa.
The study drew from four possible genetic models to explain the origins of Homo sapiens: a “single-population expansion, single-population expansion with regional persistence, archaic hominin admixture and multi-regional evolution.” It found that two distinct populations best explains the genetic diversity exhibited by contemporary Africans, bolstered by additional interbreeding with Neanderthals who originated about 500,000 years ago. The jump to Homo sapiens likely happened more than once independently, resulting in the divergent genetic makeup of populations living in Northern Africa and the Horn of Africa today.
An analog to our species’ beginning might be found in the K/Pg extinction event. Just as we now know the Age of Dinosaurs ended in a long whimper and not a climatic bang, our species began slowly across a period of a million years, with no one single origin point. It is unlikely we will ever have a perfectly clear image of the dawn of our species. Genetic findings can give us the big picture, and the fossil record provides case examples, but there will always be gaps in our knowledge of that bridge between humanity and the rest of the animal kingdom.
]]>