In this episode of Curious by Nature, we sat down with Dr. Elise Wang, an assistant professor at Cal State University, Fullerton, and a medievalist who specialized in the literature, history, and lore of the medieval period. Dr. Wang discussed her work teaching early literature courses and her research into conspiracy theories, examining them as narratives.
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Fifty years ago鈥攐n November 24, 1974鈥攐nly a few years after humans鈥 first steps on the moon, a young paleoanthropologist, Donald Johanson, walking in the dusty landscape of the Afar Rift Valley of Ethiopia discovered the first human ancestor fossil who reliably walked upright on two feet鈥斺淟ucy.鈥
A new, wide-ranging exploration of human remains casts doubt on a long-standing theory in archaeology known as the Kurgan hypothesis鈥攚hich, among other claims, suggests that humans first domesticated horses as early as the fourth millennium B.C.
The WCS Library and Archives, based at the Bronx Zoo, released its newly digitized Department of Tropical Research (DTR) Film Collection. The project was funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources鈥 (CLIR) Recordings at Risk grant, supported by the Mellon Foundation.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has started a community archaeology project on campus, inviting local residents to join forces with students and faculty in uncovering the rich history of the area.
When Japanese samurai repelled the Mongols, their victories were attributed to typhoons whipped up by divine forces. Now, Ph.D. candidate J茅r茅my Le Blanc-Gauthier is taking a fresh look at the legend.
The places we grew up leave indelible marks on us, locked in the atoms of the toughest structures in our bodies. Subtle differences in tooth chemistry could help determine the identity of fallen soldiers and other human remains鈥攊f we can learn to read that history.
Text, images, and video:
https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/sonify9/
A quarter of a century ago, NASA released the 鈥渇irst light鈥 images from the agency鈥檚 Chandra X-ray Observatory. This introduction to the world of Chandra鈥檚 high-resolution X-ray imaging capabilities included an unprecedented view of Cassiopeia A, the remains of an exploded star located about 11,000 light-years from Earth. Over the years, Chandra鈥檚 views of Cassiopeia A have become some of the telescope鈥檚 best-known images.
To mark the anniversary of this milestone, new sonifications of three images 鈥 including Cassiopeia A (Cas A) 鈥 are being released. Sonification is a process that translates astronomical data into sound, similar to how digital data are more routinely turned into images. This translation process preserves the science of the data from its original digital state but provides an alternative pathway to experiencing the data.
A research team conducted a comprehensive analysis of phylogenetic relationships among Australian citrus species and 13 international accessions, shedding light on their genetic diversity and evolutionary history.
The universe may seem static, only capable of being captured in still frames, but that is far from the truth. It is actually ever-changing, just not on timescales clearly visible to humans. NASA鈥檚 upcoming Roman Space Telescope will bridge this gap in time, opening the way to the dynamic universe.
Researchers have received a $650,000 NSF grant to investigate the cultural dimensions of ecological instability by studying the experiences of vulnerable communities in South Florida and Puerto Rico. Using ethnography, they will capture the nuanced ways in which communities are responding to ecological disruptions. Understanding how cultures adapt to ecological instability can provide valuable insights for communities worldwide, including those in the Caribbean. By documenting and analyzing these responses, researchers can develop and refine strategies to enhance collective survival.
Tracy Devine Guzm谩n, an associate professor of Latin American studies at the University of Miami, received a Fulbright Scholar Award to conduct research on Indigenous land rights in Mato Grosso, Brazil, which contains part of the Amazon rainforest.
For the last seven decades, Earth has been operating in unprecedented ways, leading many researchers to argue that we have entered a new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene.鈥淲hile it may not have been formally accepted onto the geological time scale, the Anthropocene is real and its effects have drastically and irrevocably changed the living conditions on our planet,鈥 said Julia Adeney Thomas, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame.
A new study of ancient DNA by a team of international researchers and co-led by Krishna R. Veeramah, PhD, of Stony Brook University, provides insight into the development and social structures of European rural communities following the fall of the Roman Empire. The findings, published in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggest that early medieval elites, or those of higher social status, were initially made up of multiple families with distinct genetic ancestries. However, over time these families intermarried and also the local communities integrated genetically diverse newcomers from a variety of different social and cultural backgrounds.
New study shows how the mismatch between where fossils are preserved and where humans likely lived may influence our understanding of early human evolution.
The traditional historical view that white women were rarely involved in buying and selling enslaved people in the United States is not accurate, a new study shows. Researchers analyzed records from the time and found that white women were involved in more than 30% of the transactions in the largest market for enslaved people in the antebellum era.