If you unearth an artefact with the same shape and used for the same purpose in two or more differentregions, it could be the bespoke result of cultural diffusion — but not necessarily. Archaeologist Sue O’Connor studied five fish hooks from Indonesia’s Alor Island. They were among items carefully placed under the chin and around the jaws of a female from the Pleistocene era (dating back 12,000 years). The collection consisted of two types: a J-shaped hook and four circular rotating hooks crafted from the shell of a species of sea-snail. Evidently, in both life and death, Alor’s Pleistocene inhabitants were intrinsically connected to the sea, and the association of the fish-hooks with a burial hints at the cosmological status of fishing in that island setting. Their hooks bear an uncanny resemblance to rotating hooks used in Japan, Australia, Arabia, California, Chile, Mexico and Oceania. O’Connor said, “We argue that the same sort of artefact was developed independently because it was the most fitting form to suit the ecology, rather than through cultural diffusion.”
SNEAK PEEK
1. The pen, mightier
The pen truly was mightier than the sword in the great civilisations in history. Early innovations in IT, such as writing and coinage, appear to be “as important to the sociopolitical development of our ancestors as something like the internet is to us today.” Who said that?
1. Anthropologist Tim A. Kohler (Washington State University)
2. When we disagree
If you disagree with others, it might not make any difference how sure they are. A disagreement lessens your brain’s sensitivity to the strength of other’s beliefs. Your brain fails to encode the quality of their opinion. And less reason is left to change your mind. Who found it?
2. Tali Sharot (UCL Professor of cognitive neuroscience)
3. Ancient Halal
Around 50,000 Ethiopian animal bones, dating from the eighth/ninth centuries onwards, show what Muslims ate 400 years before major Mosques or burial sites were built in the sites. It is the first evidence for the ancient halal butchery in Africa, Who uncovered the evidence?
3. University of Exeter archaeologist Jane Gaastra
4. It is not learned
Nearly everything we do (walking, talking, or drinking coffee) involves accurate timing in activating many muscles at the same time. People are fully capable of controlling their blinking with a time precision that was previously believed to be impossible. Who noted the feat?
4. Anders Rasmussen (Lund University) with Dan-Anders Jirenhed
5. All are electrical
The electrical fields in all kinds of organisms are very similar to those that scientists measure in the atmosphere from global lightning activity. Organisms must have adapted to actually use the electricity in the environment over evolutionary timescales. Who proposed this?
5. Geophysicist Colin Price (Tel Aviv University)
6. Affective health
Smart devices that measure electrical signals from your skin could tell you about your stress levels, help your sports performances and allow you to track your emotions. The prototype of this novel type of visualisation is called ‘Affective Health’. Who devised the system?
6. Dr Pedro Sanches (KTH – Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm)
7. Links all around
Depression or anxiety in mid-life and old age are already known to be risk factors for dementia. A new study links ‘Repetitive negative thinking’ (RNT) to ensuing cognitive decline as well as the build-up of harmful brain proteins associated with Alzheimer’s. Who did the study?
7. UCL Psychiatrist Dr Natalie Marchant
8. The lateral septum
A free wanderer is there in all of us, but usually we have a reason when we go somewhere. As we pursue life’s rewards, a region of the brain keeps ‘prioritising’ spatial information related to it. Who said that, like a treasure map, the brain region emphasises reward locations?
8. Hannah Wirtshafter (A postdoc at Northwestern University)
9. Drones, a problem
Drones can help people a lot. Nevertheless, they can also cause dire situations. Drones, for instance, can be harnessed to carry out terrorist attacks. Who established that, due to their varying sizes, shapes and composite materials, drones can pose a challenge to radars?
9. Vasilii Semkin (Aalto University, Helsinki)
QUIZ No. 958
1. Babies know it and love it when adults imitate them. Who established this in tests?
– Kay Redfield Jamison
– Gabriela-Alina Sauciuc
– Richard Bandler
1. Gabriela-Alina Sauciuc
2. Who discovered that zebrafish can use a single-pixel vision to spot their tiny prey?
– Kristina Curry Rogers
– Frederick Nutter Chasen
– Tom Baden
2. Tom Baden
3. Who evinced that even untrained dogs would try to rescue their people in distress?
– Clive D. L. Wynne
– Erik Homburger Erikson
– Robert Grosseteste
3. Clive D. L. Wynne
4. Who wrote a story in which the queen of spades winks at a card player in a game?
– Alexander Pushkin
– Marion Zimmer Bradley
– Virginia G. McMorrow
4. Alexander Pushkin
5. A little girl’s red coat is one of the few instances of colour in the B&W film named …
– Goodbye, Mr. Chips
– The Song of Bernadette
– Schindler’s List
5. Schindler’s List