mummy — 2016 — The 21st Century Matriarch

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Skeleton Lake of Roopkund, India – The lake is in the Himalayas and covered with ice for most of the year. Researchers think that the 200 people were killed by a sudden hail storm – with hailstones up to 9 inches in circumference.

Heading off Headaches – I am fortunate to not have headaches very often. When I look at some of the preventative steps listed in the article…most of them are part of the way I live all the time.

Skeleton found in Clare cave reveal a tragic life story – The skeleton found in a cave was analyzed and found to be a boy 14-16 years old at time of his death in mid-1600s. He had endured near starvation conditions for all his life. The space he was found in was just large enough to crawl into…and I wondered if he intentionally went to the cave to be alone when he died.

The Chemistry of LED Lights – We are seeing so many LED lights in Christmas displays. Here’s the tech details behind the brilliance.

Skin proteins reveal how mummies died – Three mummies analyzed. Based on the proteins found, one might have died of tuberculosis and another from pancreatic cancer. The third one had been interred in a hollowed out log and exposed to the elements over time; the proteins had degraded and could not be identified for that one.

An Unlikely Renaissance of Appalachian Elk – Outside Grundy, VA – in a former surface coal mine, now grass covered…a place for reintroducing elk to the east coast. There are places in Kentucky and Great Smoky Mountains National Park too!

Raw foodies: Europe’s earliest humans did not use fire – An analysis of dental plaque from 1,2 million old skeletons shows they were eating meat and plants….raw. There was no indication of charred fibers or of microcharcoal.

Top Technical Advances 2016 – From The Scientist Magazine – so skewed to biological sciences.

3D Skeletal System: 5 Awesome Ligaments – I am digging into anatomy after finished the Osteoarcheology class…and starting “Anatomy of the Abdomen and Pelvis”

The Challenge of defining maturity when the brain never stops changing – “The age of 18 doesn’t have any biological magic to it.” The concept of maturity links to responsibility for actions…an important concept in our legal system.

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Pumpkin steel-cut oats – I am collecting pumpkin (and other winter squash) recipes. They are probably my favorite seasonal foods. I am going to use some leftover butternut squash (already cooked) for one of them today!

Salt’s Secret Success in Ancient Chaco Canyon – Evidently the salts in the soil around Chaco Canyon are not chlorides …but sulfate salts which are not toxic to maize. And the sulfate salts are useful for making pigments too which were used to color walls and pottery. The research contends that the water management systems in Chaco Canyon did not cause catastrophic salt pollution and abandonment of the area as had been previously conjectured.

A Win for the Whooping Crane’s Texas Home – I have been thinking about making a winter trip to the wildlife refuges along the Gulf Coast of Texas – seeing whooping cranes being high on the priorities for the trip – so I notice articles like this!

Thirty Years of Progress – My undergraduate degree in biology was about 35 years ago so this series of articles is a good update for me.

The London Landmark with 20,000 Skeletons in its Vault – The Museum of London – and a project to examine 1,500 skeletons from the collection and compare them with skeletons outside of London. It will be a slice through history using a lot of the same technologies used in modern medicine.

Hummingbird Whisperer Captures Close-Up Photos of Birds Visiting her Backyard – Hurray for backyard photographer Tracy Johnson – patience and persistence!

Culling of White-Tailed Deer Coming to National Parks in Western Maryland – We don’t have any natural predators for deer….so culling has become necessary. In our neighborhood, all certainly just won’t last through the spring and early summer because the deer eat them, low branches of trees are nibbled (or eaten) – even the evergreens which must be very tough eating. There are way too many deer and in a suburban area like ours culling is not an option.

Antarctic Invertebrates – Many times we only think of the larger, more visible plants and animals of an area….but biodiversity goes way beyond that view. This article makes the case about why we should care about invertebrates in the Antarctic…not just the penguins.

A Bird’s Eye View of Simmering Kilauea Volcano at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park – Last year at this time, we were planning a trip to Hawai’i in December and we enjoyed Volcanoes National Park when we went. Now I always take a look at any article about the place. This one includes a video of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater now – even more active than when we were there.

A Sherlock-Worthy Look at an Ancient Horse Mummy – From the steppes of Mongolia and dating from the 6^th to 8^th century CE.