A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Today, I came across a report in New Scientist called “Neanderthals Speak Out After 30,000 years“. Based on a talk called “Voices out of the past: synthesizing Neanderthal speech” given by Robert McCarthy on research done by himself and F. Yates, P. Lieberman at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists meeting this year. As I understand it from reading the talk’s abstract and the article in New Scientist, the vocal tract doesn’t fossilize so researchers have to guess how the tract would work and fit together. There’s been some work previously. These scientists, as most do, built on the work that came before and then correcting what they perceived as errors in measurements, moved on to synthesize the speech of a Neanderthal. Of course they only did one vowel “E” and hope to later try their theories and equipment on longer words and sentences.

To hear the synthesized speech go here. For comparison listen to the sounds of a modern speaker, here.

As you can hear there is a difference in the sound of the letter E. The paper says that Neanderthals were unable to produce quantal speech or sounds that smooth over errors in articulation. Neanderthals, I believe, must have been very precise speakers or they wouldn’t have been understood by their listeners. Wonder what that did for those with a speech impediment. Hmmm. Of course this is my conjecture not theirs on the non-quantal speech sounds.

What I find curious is that with more study the Neanderthals have rapidly acquired skills, speech, and moved up from the brutish existence that they were thought to have lived when I first heard of them in my childhood whilst trying to find books on dinosaurs and early human (this was pre- all those Clan of the Cave Bear type books, and I wouldn’t have been allowed those at that age anyway.)

The photo of the Neanderthal Child is based on anthropological reconstruction based on the same methods that help police find out what the murder suspect looked like when all they find is “ick” and bones. I think the child looks very modern and a bit like one of the Gelflings in the movie The Dark Crystal. In looking around for any reference to the photo or the Neanderthal speech thing, I found a blog that also recognized the similarities to Gelflings. You really got to love those special effects artists — I’m sure they weren’t trying for Neanderthals but it looks like they got close anyway.

What is the most amazing thing is that we can listen to the speech of a person who has long since passed out of existence and yet, with scientific theory, mathematical modeling, and some educated guess work, we get a piece of our past now…talking to us. It’s amazingly, amazing. I LOVE science.

A new study found that pollution in the air changes the scent of flowers, either masking it or shortening the distance over which bees (and others) can smell them. I came across the report and all of a sudden realized that this means big trouble for all of us.

“The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 meters [3,300 to 4,000 feet]; but in today’s polluted environment downwind of major cities, they may travel only 200 to 300 meters [650 to 980 feet],” said study team member Jose D. Fuentes.

Think about it, bees don’t gather nectar to eat they also pollinate the plants that they gather from. If they are having trouble finding the flowers because pollution has masked the scent it’s a bigger problem than declining bee colonies. If the plants aren’t pollinated then they don’t set fruit. Without pollination many plants just look pretty and the flowers fade and that’s it — no apples, no tomatoes, no whatever else they buzz around.

No one in Congress takes air pollution seriously (hey most people in the US don’t either) but it causes a lot of the acid rain that is destroying much of the forest along our northern borders and in Canada. It causes breathing problem in just about everyone and especially those with asthma and allergies. There’s a reason that in many states ozone alerts mean free bus rides.

We have a great problem with global warming but because we still have winter and summer and all the rest most people just scoff. How long and what disasters will we need to face before we admit that there is a problem and it needs to be treated seriously. This isn’t just a bunch of tree-huggers or granola do-gooders looking for a cause — this is the future of our planet and our species. We can no longer afford to have laws made to “get me elected again”, this country needs an environmental plan that is based on science and not the wishful thinking of those with a political agenda to pretend that it’s all going to go away if it’s just ignored.

It seems like every time some little study comes out there is another data point that is telling us it’s time to wake up pay attention to our wonderful world before it’s too late.

Charlton Heston died. I got to thinking about him as the obituaries were rolling out in the news. I think have to thank him for spurring me to read. I remember seeing The Ten Commandments at the drive in. My mother and her friend and all us kids would go. We get in our pjs and have brown paper bags full of popcorn and cups for sodas (we had the big bottles not individual cans or bottles so cups were required). I remember not falling asleep. As the oldest child in our family, I lived in fear of those plagues of Eqypt for a long time.

After The Ten Commandments, I went on a reading binge of all the biblical novels I could find. I think I probably read just about anything by Thomas B. Costain that I could find either at home or on the library shelves. There were other authors and other books. When I hit on The Eqyptian, I side-tracked into a lot of books on Egypt, the pyramids, the legends and the Pharaohs.

Later after watching Ben Hur, I began reading all I could find about Romans, the Legions, the famous and infamous of the period. My grandfather had a copy of Quo Vadis. He always encouraged me to read and when he saw that I actually got through it, he let me borrow other books from his shelves. I remember he had a set of Shakespeare, sort of small with red covers. I read through a lot of those and he talked to me about them and the plays and the history that went into them. (It was through him and his copies of Shakespeare’s works that allowed me to continue to love the work of the Bard after high school and college English classes did their best to kill all interest in the stories.

So, while Charlton Heston is not directly related to my life long love of reading, the movies he acted in played a big part in getting me to open books. That in turn, opening the covers of other books, led me to find explore new worlds, times, eras, lives, and alternate realities. So, I thank him — for his part in my own life history. While I can not laud him for his later political stances, I can not forget the part he played in opening up my mind with movies and the printed word.

Last night was the 1st Friday WSFA meeting in Virginia. It was the usual business meeting followed by some socializing. Charles Stross was in DC and came to the meeting. His book, Halting State, is a 2008 Hugo Nominee. If you enjoy hard science, science fiction take a minute to read the review on the link and get the book and read it.

Today, it was back to Virginia for a meeting of the Capclave 2008 committee. This year’s guests of honor are James Morrow and Michael Dirda. Last year’s convention was a lot of fun as well as informative. This year’s convention is shaping up to be just as good. We’re working on putting together a great schedule of program items as well as some workshops (check last years program, we’ll probably have similar ones this year — but keep an eye on the official website). If you have never been to a local science fiction convention and you live in the Washington, DC area consider joining us for Capclave 2008.

Then it was time to run all our weekend errands in what was left of the day. Why is it that during the week, you think well we can do x, y, z, a, b, …. w this weekend. Then the weekend comes and all the stuff you can’t do because of work has to be done as well as any other plans that require two people to do and before you know it, it’s midnight on Saturday and you only have one more day of the weekend left and 40 billion things to do.

I seem to remember that when I was young there was talk of having a 4 or even a 3 day work week by the year 2000. Here we are in 2008 and most Americans are working 50 hour weeks with less vacation time than ever before as employers cut back on benefits. And to top it all off, weekends become the time to do all the things that should have been done during the week, but work wouldn’t allow time to do — food shopping, housework, laundry, household chores. I work at home and I still can’t keep up — maybe it’s a leak in my hours. I’m sure time is slipping away when I don’t look. Just last week it was January and today it’s April… I think Einstein and I need to have a talk about this relativity thing.

Finally, took a picture of my April coffee cup. I’m back to a big cup. This one holds about 14 oz. My March cup was smaller about 6 oz. which meant making far more frequent trips to the coffee pot. So, I decided to find another big cup. Of course, I’d cut down from a pot of coffee a day to about 1/2 a pot. Everyone keeps telling me how bad coffee is for one — stresses the system, makes you nervous, on and on and on…. I’m sure you’ve all hear the drill.

However, today I also came across a news article on BBC News and a similar article in Science Daily about a new study that shows that caffeine can offer some protection to the brain by helping reduce the permeability of the blood brain barrier. A quote from the article by Dr Jonathan Geiger of the University of North Dakota:

Caffeine is a safe and readily available drug and its ability to stabilize the blood brain barrier means it could have an important part to play in therapies against neurological disorders.

Seems to indicate that maybe drinking a moderate amount of coffee each day is a good thing. Of course in this study they gave one cup of coffee per day to rabbits. So how this will effectively apply to people is another nest of rabbits. I’ll hope my half a pot or about 2 1/2 large cups per day is not out of the question for protecting me from neurological disorders (especially the big scary one — Alzheimer’s).

Got to thinking again… In some correspondence with one of our reviewers, she wrote, “I guess I’ll work on reading that book–as if that’s really working.” Just the other day another person said, “I have a hard time sitting and reading a book for review because I feel like I’m not working.” Over the last few days, as we gear up to go live with the next issues of SFRevu and Gumshoe Review, I look at the steadily decreasing pile of books I’ve yet to read for the issue and every time I think, “why not just take a break and read for an hour” I think of the other stuff I have to do and I put it off.

Reading books for review is just one of the things I do in getting the zines together and online. It’s part of the process.  If I, along with others, don’t read the books and write reviews there will be no content — so the reading is fundamental (and like the poster I found on Amazon shows it’s also fun). Reading has always been fun for me. It’s what I do to relax. The perfect vacation for me would be to be able to hike to a nice place with a view, a snack, no mosquitoes or other attack bugs, and a good book. As I get older, this dream sort of includes proper seating or lounging to avoid back problems. But, the basic fact is I’ve always considered reading fun.

Now, I’ll also admit I come from a family of readers. Even my grandmother read, though she had to quit school about grade three to care for her younger brothers and sisters (Nana died a couple of years ago at age 100ish). I was also very lucky to have excellent English teachers who didn’t do the “what color coat did CharacterX wear in Chapter 3”. No, instead they talked of plot, theme, and character development. In high school, many of us talked about the books we read in class during lunch or after school — that’s how great the teachers made reading. In college, I learned that others hadn’t been so lucky and reading was a chore for them. I’ve never forgotten a woman with a college degree that I worked with, who when I asked at lunch one day if anyone had read a good book lately said, “I don’t read anymore. I got my degree, I don’t have to do that again.”

I can’t imagine a life without books. Books are escapes. Books can take you on visits to other places, other times, and other worlds. They are gateways to new thoughts, ideas, and philosophies. Whenever I have a task I’m not sure how to do, I turn to books. The public library has to be the best institution of civilized society.

But because I enjoy reading so much, when I read books as work it feels like cheating. You know reading a novel behind an open textbook, reading under the covers, reading at work when your supposed to be doing something else. Now my job is to read. How do you convince yourself that it’s okay to curl up with a book during work time? It is work, but it’s so entertaining — it just feels weird somehow.

For me, thinking can be a pretty exciting trip through my brain which tends to be filled with lots of bit and pieces of fluff I’ve collected over the years. Today, I was doing something — can’t remember what just now, probably thinking about eating a breakfast cupcake (I had cereal instead) — but as clear as clear could be I heard mom telling me to act my age. So, I got to thinking…how do you act your age?

It seems to me that if I’m my age and I’m doing something then I’m acting my age. All my life I’ve had people say either to me or about themselves — I/You can’t do that at your age. Why? If you can do it, why not? I’ve got long hair — or had, it’s growing out again from a donation to Locks of Love — but family members (female) keep telling me that at my age I should have short hair because long hair on a person my age looks silly. Why? If it’s clean and neat and I like it what’s silly about having the length of hair I feel comfortable with.

Personally, I just don’t get this thing about having to curtail activities you like because of some magic age that after or before which you’re not allowed to do this thing. Okay, I get not drinking before you’re of age and not driving before you get your license — those are laws and reasonable ones set up so that reasonable behavior can be expected. But there aren’t any laws that say after age 45 you must have short hair if you are a woman, or no white after Labor Day, or no motorcycle riding after 50, and so on. Who makes up this stuff?

I do know that I can’t do a lot of things I used to do simply because my body isn’t up to it any more. Climbing steep trails is a lot harder than it used to be (arthritis in my knees) but if I take it easy and don’t push I can usually make it to the view at the top. But, the thing is, I pretty much know my limits and I take appropriate (I think) precautions . Same with a lot of other activities — I like a lot of music that I’m told I should not like at my age — again I like it so obviously people my age do like it, or at least some do. I try to not pass judgments on others and expect the same courtesy in return.

But, the real question is where do these rules come from? Who made them up? Did the North Wind forget to blow this knowledge into my ear at the appropriate time. Is there a list? Not that I intend to follow the advice/rules, but it would be interesting to see how many of those shoulds that I’m ignoring at my age.

Yesterday, I got an ad for the Gattaca (Special Edition) DVD. I watched the trailers and spots and got to thinking about the movie and what it says about potential. Originally released on DVD in 1998, the film is about genetic engineering and its effects on society. Once people can have their children engineered to be what they want them to be, very few parents opt to have God children. God children are simply children who have not been engineered and are a random mix of the parent’s DNA. Vincent, a God child, has a dream and does all in his power to achieve his goals in a society that sees him as a lesser human. His younger brother has been engineered and is a police officer. Once, as children, Vincent and his brother had a competition/race — the result has haunted Vincent’s brother. Why? Because, Vincent won. There’s a lot more to the plot of the movie but what I want to discuss is the underlying theme of potential and capacity for growth.

Earlier, my husband and I got to talking about the big fish in a small pond phenomena for students and how it effects their college years. For example, in high school I got decent grade by just going to class and listening to the teacher. I read a lot outside of school and skimmed the textbooks and did the homework (sometimes without actually reading the books). In other words, I never learned how to study because I never had to. Then came college. All the students were smart. I had to read all the assignments, sometimes more than once to understand them because the lectures built on the readings rather than, as they did in high school, simply hit the high/important points of the readings. So, I had to learn to study. First semester was a disaster as I scrambled to keep up, with no clue how to study, outline, highlight material, pick out the important points of a lecture. I was totally lost because I was beyond my native intelligence to where I really had to push to reach my potential.

Now, in Gattaca, everyone is genetically engineered for abilities. There are no interviews for a job, they take a blood sample and see what you are capable of. So, why push yourself to go beyond what you can comfortably do? Why struggle to be more when your DNA has already given you everything and you can’t be more than that anyway.

The key to the movie is someone who pushes to grasp a dream. Someone who knows what they want and is willing to push themselves to the limit to get that dream. There is no magic bullet that can make people better, they have to strive to be better every day. You have to reach beyond yourself and push yourself to achieve. Expecting that you will have, or get, anything you want simple because of who you are or what you are — that is the first step towards a stagnant society. Right now we have a lot of people who feel they deserve things (the thing changes with the person) but they don’t want to work for it because they feel it’s owed. I’m not talking about Equal Rights, that’s just leveling the playing field and erasing the barriers, you still have to work to get the job or whatever. I’m talking about those who feel they are owed just because they exist. I’m sure we all know people who feel they are owned respect, not because they have earned it, but because they are better dressed, richer, more educated, whatever than someone else. On the other hand, there are people who are given respect from others because they just do what they do to the best of their ability while respecting others. Sort of a Golden Rule result.

Everyone has potential. Yes, disabilities can limit the range of opportunities, but there is still potential. On the other hand, there are groups, laws, etc. that limit potential. For example, people on welfare are often not allowed to own cars or can only own a car worth less than a certain amount of money (a clunker lucky to move at all). Therefore, while forcing them off welfare and to find work, they are artificially limited in where they can look and what they can do for work. There are always problems trying to live up to your potential — money, physical defects, environment, education, and location. But usually, there are ways to achieve your dreams against the odds even then.

However, there is little support for those on the lower end of the economic scale to achieve their potential. I have to wonder why. Right now higher education is out of reach for many from middle income to poverty level. Students from poor families are just as likely (and often more likely) to be motivated to succeed in education — yet their potential is limited by income. There’s something wrong with a country that has no real mechanism for those with lower incomes to attend colleges while high income students don’t even have to actually make the grades if daddy can endow a chair or building.

So, maybe it’s money more than DNA that determines potential. It’s a thought anyway.