Four Stone Hearth Volume 102 is Up

Volume 102 of the Four Stone Hearth is up at Anthropology in Practice. Be sure to stop by the Hatters Tea Party for a fine round up of the best writing in the anthropology blogosphere!

Four Stone Hearth Needs Submissions

Just a friendly reminder that the next Four Stone Hearth is in four days. and will be hosted at the always interesting Anthropology in Practice. Be on the lookout for good anthropology writing and submit them to me or to Anthropology in Practice.

Also, there is still a hosting vacancy for 10/10/10 if anybody is interested in hosting on that date (or any other) please contact me.

Einsteinian Relativity At A Personal Scale

This is really cool!:

Scientists have known for decades that time passes faster at higher elevations — a curious aspect of Einstein’s theories of relativity that previously has been measured by comparing clocks on the earth’s surface and a high-flying rocket.

Now, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have measured this effect at a more down-to-earth scale of 33 centimeters, or about 1 foot, demonstrating, for instance, that you age faster when you stand a couple of steps higher on a staircase.

Described in the Sept. 24 issue of Science, the difference is much too small for humans to perceive directly — adding up to approximately 90 billionths of a second over a 79-year lifetime — but may provide practical applications in geophysics and other fields.

Body Mass and Genetics

This is really interesting. It concerns a study in Science Translational Medicine that looked at DNA methylation and body mass. From Science Daily:

Four Stone Hearth Volume 101 Is Up!

Sapien Games has the 101st edition of the Four Stone Hearth. Check it out.

Also please note that we still need a host for 10/10/10. Volume 102 will be hosted at Anthropology In Practice on 09/29/10.

In Memoriam: George Williams

I am sure that most of my readers have heard that George Williams has passed away. Williams, for those of you who are unfamiliar with him, was one of the giants of evolutionary biology. His book Adaptation and Natural Selection is one of the must read classics in the field – and certainly one anthropologists of all stripes should be read. His paper Pleiotropy, Natural Selection, and the Evolution of Senescence, for example, contains the the first outline of the grandmother hypothesis – something paleoanthropologists have been arguing about for years. Williams was also concerned with the evolution of sex and a pioneer in the field of evolutionary medicine.

Update 1: Carl Zimmer has a piece that explains how all these different strands come together in Williams work.

Blair Mountain Update

About a month ago I mentioned that the National Park Service had made a horrible decision to delist Blair Mountain from the National Register of Historic Places. They are now being sued:

Four Stone Hearth: Call for Submissions

The September 15th edition of The Four Stone Hearth Will be hosted at Sapien Games so be on the lookout for get anthropology post to submit. You can email your submissions to mail{at}nickhorton{dot}net, or to me at the email address on the About page.

Four Stone Hearth Needs Hosts

We have quite a few vacancies for hosting duties at The Four Stone Hearth. Spread the word and consider volunteering yourself.

Rickets, Neanderthals, And Lubenow: Part Two

In the previous post in this series I looked at vitamin D metabolism and the effects of vitamin D deficiency on the skeleton. So, lets talk about Lubenow and Neanderthals. Lubenows discussion of Neanderthals and rickets occurs in chapter 14. He begins the chapter by invoking the Genesis flood to explain the ice ages, which only lasted, according to Lubenow, for 700 years (give or take).