LINKS - November 16th, 2022
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.
Ancient fish teeth reveal earliest sign of cooking
By Raffi Berg, BBC News
“They found evidence in the 780,000-year-old remains of a huge carp-like fish discovered in northern Israel.
“The scientists noted ‘the transition from eating raw food to eating cooked food had dramatic implications for human development and behaviour’.
“The previous earliest evidence of cooking dated from about 170,000 BC.”
Ten Things about Anthropology Games
By Samuel Gerald Collins, Matthew Slover Durington, Edward Gonzalez-Tennant, Krista Harper, Marc Lorenc, Nicholas Mizer & Anastasia Salter, Anthropology News
“1. There is broad interest in gaming in anthropology, one that reflects a long history of games in the discipline. Games and anthropology go back as far as the nineteenth century. All our workshops were well attended, as were subsequent game sessions. Moreover, holding these events introduced us to people in anthropology already involved in game studies in anthropology and incorporating gaming into their work.”
Are Gas Stoves Bad for Our Health?
By Claudia Wallis, Scientific American
“The big surprise in one new study, conducted by environmental scientists at Stanford University, was the amount of unburned gas that leaks into kitchens when a stove is off. They found that more than three quarters of methane that escapes from a stove does so when it is not in use, most likely through imperfect pipe fittings. Only one out of 53 stoves measured for the study—and many more the team has measured since—did not leak when turned off, says Rob Jackson, senior author of the study. Methane is not toxic, but it is a potent greenhouse gas. With 40 million gas stoves across the country, Jackson and his co-authors estimate that the heat-trapping potential of the methane they discharge annually is roughly equivalent to the carbon dioxide released by half a million gas-powered cars.”
The Heart of Veteran Suicide Isn't About Combat
By Greg Matos PsyD, Psychology Today
“The heart of suicide isn't experiencing combat itself. It is both the disconnection that follows and the core beliefs we have around vulnerability that predate our service.
“Thomas Joiner’s interpersonal theory of suicide is a core component of the military psychology community's approach to suicide prevention. The theory postulates that suicide occurs because of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness.”
The pristine Winchcombe meteorite suggests that Earth’s water came from asteroids
By Lisa Grossman, Science News
”An analysis of those fragments now shows that the meteorite came from the outer solar system, and contains water that is chemically similar to Earth’s, scientists report November 16 in Science Advances. How Earth got its water remains one of science’s enduring mysteries. The new results support the idea that asteroids brought water to the young planet (SN: 5/6/15).”