Criticism. Essay. Fiction. Science. Weather.
week:
1Eye design, plant solar cells and
the ape squad culture war. 2CloneBeef: coming to a burger near you
and the new (privatized) Space Race 3The story of sixty cell lines
and how they restricted science 4Why'd they have to make it a pyramid again?
and wastewater pays back 5Monkeys, Peanuts and the Science
of Unrequited Love. 6Throwing pieces of metal at a red planet
and "Its all about the Insulin, baby." 7Skate me to the moon with a rat-on-a-stick. 8Man and Machine lay down the boxing gloves,
joining forces to pursue good 9Bobbing for apples in a giant vat of grape flavoring. 10Do you believe in magic? 11Brain scans on the mind. 12Sex with cats, popping caps
and frying cars. 13The Quarterly Review drops Science;
√9 of the best so far. 14Flying on some sun rays. 15No, it's not the return of that new wave band. 16The rate of warming might be at issue,
but the fuel is definitely running out. 17Sleep your way to victory! 18I wonder how many big macs it takes... 19It's all drugs and giant waves this week 20Holy jumping jeans Batman!
That mouse is a knockout! 21They call Alabama the Crimson Tide...
or is it Maine? 22How much smaller than the head of a needle?
Well... a lot.
23Information nation ablation preservation. 24Do you want fries with that test tube burger? 25When weeds don't obey the rules. 26Two Quarters = One Half 27The things you can't see are much scarier. 28Jeepers peepers! 29It all makes so much sense...
except as good science. 30Another nugget of knowledge from the annals
of forgotten phenomena 31Very small birds and very large mountains. 32The hazelnut graham cracker one was nuts! 33Naming the new fruits. 34Gas is up but laptops are down. 3590ways brings the straight dope on a thanksgiving tall tale. 36I rolled em out on the street, but I've never once seen the old fella do the same. 37An alternative to tatooing UPC codes onto animals and an insatiable lust for rhino horn. 38"Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection..." 39Three, it's the magic number. 40Bivalves gone wild off that bubbly. 41If only there had been an experiment
to bring about the end of Edward Teller 42What's that, girl? Timmy's stuck in a well?
Wait, Timmy has Cancer?? 43Neuron fire beat electric spark. 44What do Penguins, Ostriches, and Earwigs have in common? 45Looking far, far away to find what's right here. 46Bringing some science for your valentine. 47What's so special about 2.5 pounds of gray stuff? 48I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow the house in. 49A million bases ain't no thang. 50Do the robots run this motha? Hell Yeah! 51A dormant giant looms in the Pacific Northwest... 52Cheap real estate to anyone who can
hold her breath for six hours a day. 53Like all the best megalomaniacs,
we can make Science all about us. 54Well, That's the long and short of it. 5599 Bottles of Beer on the pharmacy wall. 56Tortoises may move slow, but Orchids are definitely alive. 57Feeling hot! Lava so big the numbers don't stop. 58Attached at the hip. And a few other places as well. 59The swamp, or the savanna. You decide. 60Mom and Dad are fighting! 61The stress of death. 62N.I.M.B.Y. Well ... maybe ... 63I've got a headache this big! 64Attraction. 65Well, That's the long and short of it. 66Rafting through history. 67Before there was science there was unreason. 68Be careful with the weeds. Use them well. 69Climate change will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. 70Lucy, a public whipping, it could only be ... 71The highs and lows of being high. 72A sign of the times. 73What was that? 74= Poetry 75The Solar System Shuffle 76Biodynamics is not the latest diet plan. 77Pulsatilla vulgaris 78Climate change will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. A reprise. 79People cannot reason outside their own idiom. 80Soda pop or Ritalin? 81What's really up Kim's sleeve. 82Rolling the dice with molecular biology. 83Food so cheap it won't make you sick. 84In the ether with Einstein. 85Watch out for saturation.
And watch out for 2048. 86The wonderful thing about science is ... ? 87Silent or not, the truth is the truth. 88Playstation 3 or Science Olympiad? Now middle-school kids don't have to choose. 89From watch making to watch repair to Mars. 90We remember when this week seemed but a distant fantasy. 91The end of the quarter is here! 92What would they have done with Photoshop™? 93Modern minds can handle three questions. 94NAND the gardener said, "Let there be quantum tunneling." 95Get off The Pyramid. The traffic is terrible. 96Creeping to a shoreline near you -- neurodiversity. 97Baking soda vs. Baking powder - Scientific Subsitutions 98No jokes about Ice Cube allowed... 99What would your ancestors eat? 100A few rules of thumb for green ones. 101The proof is in the video. 102To those a definition for what life is. 103No, not the Stan Lee creation. 104What would they have done with Photoshop™? 105DNA is nothing but double-sided tape, essentially 106All the colors of the stage. 107Human and a monkey sittin' in a tree,
A-T-G-C-I-N-G.
108Poetic Retrospective
A Digging Dynasty
Cassimer Gustafson
There is no other single family that has contributed so much to one particular field of science as much as the Leakeys have to paleoanthroplogy. Paleoanthroplogy is the study of fossilized human remains. It is the science which helps explain the origins of human kind, and is constantly reproving that evolution does indeed exist.
Mary and Louis Leaky married and began their career together, and dynasty, in 1939. The first and most notable characteristic of their work was that they went against all contemporary academic teachings which claimed human life began in Asia, and decided to search instead in East Africa. Since then, they, and the successive two generations of Leakeys have not only proven that human life did begin in Africa, but are responsible for numerous other finds that contribute significantly to our understanding of primate history. All of which was quite a shock to the established racist thought of European colonists.
There are a few main epicenters of the Leaky discoveries. They are all in East Africa, and are somewhat near Lake Turkana and one of the most famous is Olduvai Gorge. Olduvai Gorge is a ravine in the Great Rift Valley in northern Tanzania. In 1959 Mary discovered a partial skeleton of a extinct primate. Louis went on to name it Austrolapithicus boisei. Someone else discovering it and Louis naming it was a dynamic that continued for many years, and seemingly one that brought Louis notoriety, not to mention many lecture tours.
Due to the successive layers of volcanic ash in Olduvai Gorge, radiometric dating is relatively easy and precise. Such dating techniques put the fossil at 1.75 million years ago (mya). A short band of primates, they measured in at 4 ft 3 in for males and 3 ft 5 in for females with a brain size of 500-550 cubic centimeters, less than half of modern human's 1350 -1450 cubic centimeters. A few years later, in 1964, Louis and Mary's son, Jonathan, discovered Homo habilis, dated at 2.5 mya. The name is Latin for 'man with ability' and was the first Homo (which means direct ancestor of humans) to be credited with using tools. Those tools were stone flakes.
Just 45 km south of Olduvai is Laetoli, another site of the Leakeys. There, in 1976, Mary discovered three sets of ancient footprints that had been preserved, once again, due to the successive layers of ash in the area. The prints are of two large sets of feet, and one small set, so it is believed that an ancient family went for a stroll when the ground was a bit damp, and shortly after a fine layer of ash covered the prints, essentially cementing them in place. The footprints were dated at 3.6 mya, pushing back the date for known bipedalism. The footprint showed the family had no mobile big toe, as non-human primates do, and an arch in the foot, which is characteristic of bipedalism.
Probably, the biggest indicator of bipedalism is that there were no accompanying knuckle prints to the side of the prints. It is now generally thought that prints were left by Australopithecus afarensis, a species popularized by the finding of Lucy, also discovered by Mary.
The third Leaky site now proving itself to be a wealth of really old, dead things is Koobi Fora, located on the savannas of northern Kenya. Mary and Louis' granddaughter, Louise, currently heads the Koobi Fora Research Project, as her father once did. Louise's mother Maeve made a notable discovery in the 1990's. Maeve found bones of a biped from around 4.2 mya. She and her team classified this partial skeleton as Kenyanthropus platyops, or 'flat faced man of Kenya'. Significantly, this primate was a contemporary of Australopithecus afarensis. This makes human ancestry a bit more complex since it seems there were two bipedal apes roaming around at the same time.
All of these sites have been the location of numerous other finds, including bones of extinct animals, clues to the diet of extinct primates, and many other primate bones. Additionally, the family's impact has not been felt solely within the paleoanthropological community. Both Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall are protégés of Louis Leaky. Maeve's husband Richard is known not only for his work at Koobi Fora, but for receiving a public whipping in Kenya after an unsuccessful attempt to run for election in an opposition party of his creation. And he is also known for heavily arming the anti-poaching troops within Kenya National Forest.
Though respected and lauded the Leakeys are not above the critical eye of academic peers. For example, Kenyanthropus platyops is widely believed to simply be a poorly preserved Australopithecus afarensis. Regardless, with a third generation still digging in the dirt, and doing so with the fame and grant money few archaeologists are able to secure, as well as the seeming existence of "Leakey luck," it is inevitable that the Leakeys will uncover a few more successes.