LINKS - February 1st, 2023
Welcome to LINKS — my attempt to provide Rhapsody readers with five interesting stories that tell us something about what it means to be human. LINKS is published every Wednesday. Have a link you want to share? Drop it in the comments.
Dangerous Fungi Are Spreading Across U.S. as Temperatures Rise
By Dominique Mosbergen, The Wall Street Journal
“In the video game and HBO show ‘The Last of Us,’ a fungus infects people en masse and turns them into monstrous creatures. The fungus is based on a real genus, Ophiocordyceps, that includes species that infect insects, disabling and killing them.
“There have been no known Ophiocordyceps infections in people, infectious-disease experts said, but they said the rising temperatures that facilitated the spread of the killer fungi in the show may be pushing other fungi to better adapt to human hosts and expand into new geographical ranges.”
Students Lost One-Third of a School Year to Pandemic, Study Finds
By Emily Baumgaertner, The New York Times
“The analysis, published Monday in the journal Nature Human Behavior and drawing on data from 15 countries, provided the most comprehensive account to date of the academic hardships wrought by the pandemic. The findings suggest that the challenges of remote learning — coupled with other stressors that plagued children and families throughout the pandemic — were not rectified when school doors reopened.”
Archaeologist hails possibly 'oldest' mummy yet found in Egypt
By Patrick Werr, Reuters
“The 4,300-year-old mummy was found at the bottom of a 15-metre shaft in a recently uncovered group of fifth and sixth dynasty tombs near the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, Zahi Hawass, director of the team, told reporters.
“The mummy, of a man named Hekashepes, was in a limestone sarcophagus that had been sealed in mortar.”
Humans Can Correctly Guess the Meaning of Chimp Gestures
By Ingrid Wickelgren, Scientific American
“The work fills a hole in the case for a shared linguistic lineage. Scientists have learned that great ape vocabularies overlap extensively: about 95 percent of bonobos’ gestures are the same as those chimpanzees use. What’s more, in a 2019 pilot study, Hobaiter and her colleagues found that the vast majority of gestures used by toddlers younger than two years old, who do not yet primarily use spoken or sign language to communicate, are the same as those of chimpanzees.”
Why February is Black History Month
By Erin Blakemore, National Geographic
“In the early 1900s, historian Carter G. Woodson led the fight for a holiday that would promote Black achievements—and counter racist stereotypes.”