Humans

Tom Mustill’s How to Speak Whale and Karen Bakker’s The Sounds of Life explore what we know about the way life on Earth communicates, from whales to coral reefs. They are both must-reads

Humans

5 October 2022

By Chris Stokel-Walker

Karen Bakker (Princeton University Press)

PASSENGERS taking the train through Port Elizabeth in South Africa in the 1880s – today called Gqeberha – had more than the passing brushland to look at as they crossed the country and stared out of the window. As the train reached a certain signal box, they might have noticed that their safe passage was ensured not by a human, but by … More

My late wife was an environmentalist and wanted an eco-friendly funeral. I have seen to her wishes, but a woodland burial isn’t possible for all those who would like one, writes Graham Lawton

Humans

| Columnist

5 October 2022

By Graham Lawton
John Fryer/Alamy
FOLLOWERS of this column may have noticed that I have been absent for a while. I have been caring for my wife, Clare, who fell seriously ill about a year ago. She declined at frightening speed and died in August aged just 53. We were together for 30 years, married for 24 and had three sons together. My grief is immense.
She developed a rare and not-well-understood condition called nociplastic pain or central sensitisation, which is when the way the brain produces pain goes into overdrive. Even tiny amounts of “normal” pain are experienced as massive, overwhelming agony. Ditto negative emotions, tiredness and illness. Painkillers don’t work, not even intravenous morphine. The condition was only recognised as a separate category of pain about a decade ago and medical science can’t offer very much. Clare got sucked into a vortex of ever-escalating and never-ending pain, which led to anxiety, panic attacks, depression and drug addiction, all of which just served to ratchet up the pain even further. Once nociplastic pain has its claws in there is no easy escape. Clare couldn’t see one, and she ended her own life.
I am planning her funeral as I write this. She was an environmentalist and wanted to be buried in a biodegradable coffin, preferably in woodland. It turns out that this is possible – our local cemetery in north London has a lovely woodland plot. But it is also phenomenally expensive – the coffin alone is £550. Clare had good life cover, so I have seen to her wishes. But I am sure a woodland burial is beyond the means of many people who want to donate their body to the earth.Advertisement
The default option is cremation. At present, about 80 per cent of the people who die in the UK are cremated, which is much cheaper, but extremely damaging to the environment. An 80-kilogram body contains approximately 14.4 kilograms of carbon, which is all converted to carbon dioxide when combusted. Crematoriums also use natural gas to burn the body and coffin. According to National Geographic, a single cremation produces 240 kilograms of CO2, about the same as burning 100 litres of petrol.
Cremations also produce toxic pollutants, principally mercury from dental fillings. Filtration systems can prevent this from venting to the atmosphere, but not all crematoriums have them.
Traditional burials are less damaging, but don’t get a clean bill of environmental health either. If the body is embalmed, the formaldehyde leaches into the soil as the body decomposes. Coffins usually have metal fittings that also pollute the earth. Making coffins and headstones consumes considerable amounts of energy.
Clare’s funeral won’t be totally eco-friendly. Her coffin is made of water hyacinth leaves produced by a certified fair-trade grower in Bangladesh, so I guess will rack up a fair amount of coffin miles. We will travel to the cemetery in petrol-powered vehicles. But in other respects, it will be impeccably green. Her body hasn’t been embalmed, the coffin is 100 per cent biodegradable and a woodland grave will quickly turn her into compost. She had excellent teeth, so mercury pollution won’t be a problem.
As well as being eye-wateringly expensive (my eyes have been doing a lot of watering lately), woodland burials are also in short supply. We are lucky our cemetery has a woodland plot; not all do.
Indeed, a shortage of burial plots of any kind is becoming a serious problem. In a 2019 article in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, John Ashton warned that England and Wales’s graveyards and cemeteries are filling up. With 100,000 burials annually, there will probably be no room in a few years.
One solution, according to Ashton, is to take inspiration from the Victorians, who responded to similar pressures on churchyards by creating large urban cemeteries, including London’s so-called magnificent seven. These have served us well, but are almost full. The modern equivalent, says Ashton, is to develop green burial corridors alongside roads, railways and footpaths. I am not sure I would want my loved ones buried by a major road, but if it increases the availability and affordability of eco-burials, I am for it.
I mentioned that we had three sons together. The first of them died at a very young age and is also buried in the same cemetery. I take a little bit of comfort from the fact he is going to be reunited with his mum and that I can visit their graves at the same time.
As for other silver linings, I got a BOGOF deal on the plot and will one day have my own eco-funeral and be buried alongside Clare. Farewell my love, we will be reunited in the woods one day.
Need a listening ear? UK Samaritans: 116123; US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1 800 273 8255; hotlines in other countries.

Graham’s week
What I’m readingA friend bought me a copy of The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki, which she says I will find comfort in.
What I’m watchingI am oddly drawn to police procedurals about brooding detectives with unorthodox methods and a dark past. Ridley is good.
What I’m working onGetting back to work.

More on these topics: More

New Scientist’s weekly round-up of the best books, films, TV series, games and more that you shouldn’t miss

Humans

5 October 2022

Read
A Traveler’s Guide to the Stars by physicist Les Johnson introduces the science that could allow interstellar travel. Is it time to revive the dream of settling distant worlds? On sale in the US on 11 October and in the UK on 3 January.

Read
Illuminations is Watchmen author Alan Moore’s first short story collection. It contains 40 years of invention, ranging from ghosts and otherworldly creatures to theoretical Boltzmann brains fashioning the universe at the big bang. On sale 11 October.
Mamik Flanagan/CC BY-SA 4.0
Visit
The Huxleys, a … More

HBO’s Game of Thrones turned fantasy into a cultural phenomenon on the small screen; now, rival platforms are rushing to catch up. Are sci-fi fans being left out in the cold, asks Bethan Ackerley

Humans

5 October 2022

By Bethan Ackerley
Tom Sturridge as Dream in Netflix’s adaptation of The SandmanNetflix
THROUGHOUT the history of television, science fiction has fared far better than fantasy. Its place in the mainstream was cemented by Star Trek and Doctor Who, not to mention more recent masterpieces like Battlestar Galactica. It is only in the past decade that we have seen a fantasy series become a true cultural phenomenon, thanks to Game of Thrones. No other show in the genre has had such an impact.
That might be about to change. August’s biggest … More

Early humans evolved a faster fetal growth rate than other apes about a million years ago, suggesting it could have played a role in the evolution of our species

Humans

3 October 2022

By Carissa Wong
A series of hominid craniums (clockwise from the left): juvenile Australopithecus, juvenile chimpanzee, adult chimpanzee, adult Australopithecus, adult Homo erectusTesla Monson
High prenatal growth rates found in modern people may have first evolved in ancient hominids less than a million years ago, according to estimates based on fossil teeth.
Human fetuses grow by around 11.6 grams per day on average – considerably faster than the fetuses of gorillas, the next fastest ape in the hominid family, with a rate of 8.2 grams per day.
“We found that human-like gestation [may have] preceded the evolution of the [modern human] species – around 200,000 to 300,000 years ago – and may in fact be a critical factor that led to our evolution, particularly our large brains,” says Tesla Monson at Western Washington University.Advertisement
Previously, researchers studying the evolution of human gestation have relied on fossilised pelvises and the rare remains of infants.
Monson and her colleagues found that across primates, prenatal growth rates are closely correlated with the ratio of the lengths of the first and third molar teeth.
The researchers built a mathematical model that could predict prenatal growth rates from the size of molars from 608 primates, including apes and African and Asian monkeys.
They then used the model to predict the prenatal growth rates of 13 hominid species from their fossil molar teeth. This revealed that hominid prenatal growth rates increased after our lineage split from chimpanzees around 5 to 6 million years ago, becoming more similar to those of modern humans than other apes around 1 million years ago.

Monson is unsure why prenatal growth rate and the molar length ratio may be related, but she and her team are investigating whether certain genes might control both. She acknowledges that extrapolating prenatal growth from skeletal remains may not be reliable. “Since we don’t have a time machine, we can’t directly compare our reconstructions with real values in the past,” she says.
However, the estimated rise in prenatal growth rates over this period coincides with increases in pelvis size and brain size among hominids. “It’s really cool that our reconstructions align with so many other lines of evidence,” says Monson.
“The authors’ primary finding that human-like prenatal growth rates emerged less than 1 million years ago, in concert with major increases in brain size, is convincing,” says Anna Warrener at the University of Colorado Denver.
“Teeth are frequently found in the fossil record and would be a fantastic tool for such evaluations in the future,” she says.
“The study is of great importance. It is incredibly difficult to access information about fetal growth rates from skeletal remains due to poor preservation. The authors have opened up new ways of overcoming this obstacle,” says Patrick Mahoney at the University of Kent, UK.
Journal reference: PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2200689119
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Archaeologists once viewed ancient Nubia as separate from and inferior to Egypt. But research is now showing the Nubians had their own rich culture that powerfully influenced the land of the pharaohs

Humans

3 October 2022

By Colin Barras
The pyramids of Meroë in Sudan were built by Nubian pharaohsChristopher Michel
THE middle of the 19th century was the heyday of Egyptology. Hieroglyphs had been deciphered and people could finally grasp the full richness of the ancient Egyptian civilisation. The pyramids, the mummies, the statues – it all came to life. But some European Egyptologists felt the best was yet to come. As they worked their way further south, they believed they would find older relics, perhaps even the cradle of the Egyptian culture.
In this atmosphere, Prussian archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius began an expedition up the Nile valley. Late on 28 January 1844 he reached Meroë in what is now Sudan and found a scattering of pyramids. But even by the light of his candle, he could see the structures weren’t as old as he had hoped. As he investigated further, he concluded they weren’t Egyptian.
Lepsius later drew a dividing line between ancient Egypt and the people who built the pyramids at Meroë, who belonged to a separate civilisation called Nubia. In the next century, researchers followed his lead and saw Egypt as sophisticated, and Nubia as its inferior neighbour. Egyptian artefacts were given pride of place in museums, Nubian work was largely ignored.
But attitudes are changing. Fresh research is bringing ancient Nubia out of the shadows and its story can now be told. These were diverse peoples with their own beliefs and customs. Far from being a boring backwater to Egypt, the Nubians exchanged cultural ideas with their neighbours, even setting fashion trends for kings like Tutankhamun. … More

By David Stock
In 2020, a chemical explosion in Beirut caused 218 deaths and widespread destruction. It also shattered one of the world’s richest collections of ancient glassware, offering experts the chance to analyse the artefacts in ways that would otherwise have been impossible

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In 2020, a chemical explosion in Beirut caused 218 deaths and widespread destruction. It also shattered one of the world’s richest collections of ancient glassware, offering experts the chance to analyse the artefacts in ways that would otherwise have been impossible

Humans

29 September 2022

By James Dacey
Early to mid Roman-period glass bowl; bell-shaped flask from Islamic Golden Age; late Roman-period small cup;high-necked jug with turquoise tint from early Roman periodThe Archaeological Museum, American University of Beirut
PICTURE a 2000-year-old glass jug – turquoise tint, elegant spout. It probably decanted wine at lavish Roman banquets, surviving earthquakes and war before finding itself standing among similarly beautiful, delicate pieces in the American University of Beirut (AUB) Archaeological Museum in Lebanon. Then, in an instant, it shatters.

At least 218 people died and thousands more were injured when a giant pile of ammonium nitrate exploded at the port of Beirut on 4 August 2020. The blast was one of the largest non-nuclear, human-made explosions recorded, and the subsequent shock wave wreaked devastation for kilometres around.
The incident was also a cultural calamity. The wider region around Lebanon is touted as the crucible of glass production, a material that has helped shape civilisation. As one of the oldest museums in the area, the AUB housed a particularly rich collection of ancient glass artefacts. The blast smashed 72 jars, bowls, cups and other vessels dating back to the ancient Romans (1st century BC to 5th century AD), the Byzantine Empire (4th to 15th century AD) and the Islamic Golden Age (8th to 13th century AD).
A pile of ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut, Lebanon, on 4 August 2020. The blast killed 218 people and injured thousandsANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images
Rather than try to fix everything, however, AUB Archaeological Museum curator Nadine Panayot saw an opportunity in the debris. Much … More