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SCIENCE • HISTORY • NATURE

Volume 2 Issue 5 August 2012 ` 100

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July- August e! Calendar Insid ties 10 greatest cild of the wor p76

Examining the Big Cat’s bleak future p46 Plus: Ruskin Bond’s Last Word on the genius of Charles Dickens p112

R.N.I. MAHENG/2010/35422

The longest living wild species p56 Q&A:

Can stars escape their galaxies p16

A golden DECADE OF DINO FINDS p80

Did the Aryans really invade India? p86

On the cover

AUGUST 2012

HISTORY

THE MAN BEHIND THE EMPIRE

&+$1$.<$ The man behind the Empire

XXX

AVN SURESH

Himanshu Prabha Ray introduces the brahmin who authored the Arthashastra and defined the rules of Indian politics

August 2012

72 Chanakya: The Man Behind the Empire How much do we know about the man who deﬁned Indian politics

NATURE

NATURES SURVIVOURS

TRAVELS IN

NATURE’S

TIME

MACHINE

How do some lineages endure for millions of years? Delving into the past, Piotr Naskrecki reveals what it takes to be a survivor. Photos by Piotr Naskrecki

Sing when you’re winning The last relics of an insect group that thrived in the Jurassic (200–140 million years ago), grigs are now found in only a few cold areas of the Rocky Mountains and the Himalaya. Their wings lack the sophistication of those of modern crickets, preserving a snippet of an evolutionary history that has produced the choruses we enjoy every summer. Fossils from the Mesozoic era (250–65 million years ago) are almost indistinguishable from today’s grigs, evidence of how little the species’ appearance has changed in the past 150 million years. Since then, other, younger groups – crickets and katydids – have become the dominant singers of the insect world, having developed efﬁcient, highly

The unblinking eye of a Papuan forest dragon keeps watch over a habitat that has remained unchanged since New Guinea and Australia formed one continent

왘 57

56 Travels in Nature’s Time

Piotr Naskrecki ﬁnds out how some wild lineages survive for millions of years

DECADE OF THE

HISTORY

PLANET DINOSAUR

DINOSAUR More new dinosaurs have been unearthed in the past decade than over the previous two centuries. Paul Chambers celebrates this golden age of discovery

NATURE

BBC XXX

The sensational discovery of a giant Jurassic pliosaur dubbed ‘Predator X’ sent shock waves around the world in 2008. Its 30cm-long fangs were useful for tackling plesiosaurs, such as this Kimmerosaurus 80

Supersize me Big is beautiful – at least, it was during the early years of dinosaur research, when museums pushed scientists to ﬁnd ever-larger exhibits for their galleries. A century ago, the biggest species on display were the plant-eating Apatosaurus (popularly known as Brontosaurus), which weighed in at 30 tonnes, and the fearsome 6-tonne predator Tyrannosaurus rex. However, despite an expectation that even mightier specimens would be found, many decades of scouring the bone beds of Europe and North America revealed no new giants. By the 1980s, T. rex had retained its crown as king of the prehistoric 왘

August 2012

The Gir Forest is the last refuge of the Asiatic Lions p46

XXX

ur world, according to some commentators, has entered a new epoch: the ‘Anthropocene’. For the ﬁrst time in recent geological history, the activities of one species – Homo sapiens – have left an indelible mark on the planet. And a by-product of the spread of our civilisations has been the discovery of geological treasure troves, some of which have fundamentally changed our understanding of the fossil record – and, in particular, our knowledge of dinosaurs. Indeed, a growing number of palaeontologists have come to refer to the past decade as a golden age of dinosaur discovery.

ASIATIC LIONS

80 Decade of the Dinosaur

and her cubs, An Asiatic lioness haunt subspecies’ lone India. pictured at the in north-west – a forested reserve that the closest DNA studies show in the of Asiatic lions living relatives in West Africa wild are those

Deﬁning dinosaur discoveries in the past decade have ave sc scientists e t sts eexcited, c te writes Paul Chambers ARYANS

HISTORY

The Aryan Invasion:

Myth or fact? Michel Danino points out signiﬁcance historical evidence that demystiﬁes the Indian subcontinent’s greatest fable

ost Indian history textbooks tell us that about 1500 BCE, semi-barbarian, Sanskrit-speaking nomads called ‘Aryans’ poured from Central Asia into the Indian Subcontinent. There, they came upon the Indus or Harappan cities, destroyed them and drove survivors southward (where they became ‘Dravidians’), although softer versions propose that the Aryans arrived after the decline of the Indus cities. Either way, they swept across the Indus plains, composed the Vedas over a few centuries, spread Sanskrit and their caste system over India, and built the mighty Ganges civilization. This neat tale, known as the ‘Aryan invasion

theory’ (AIT) or ‘Aryan migration theory’ (AMT) was ﬁrst propounded in the nineteenth century by European scholars, notably F Max Müller. It was a convenient way to explain obvious similarities between Sanskrit and Greek or Latin, since another branch of the Aryans were assumed to have migrated towards Europe. But it also allowed India’s British masters to portray themselves as ‘one more Aryan wave’ destined to bring about a ‘reunion of the great Aryan family’ and to bring once more true civilization to this land! Besides, the Aryan theory proved useful in deepening divisions among Indians between high-caste 왘 (supposed descendants of the Aryans)

August 2012

Q&A

RAVI SATPUTE

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

EXPERT PANEL

August 2012

86 Aryan Invasion: Myth or Fact?

Stuart Blackman A zoologist-turned-science writer, Stuart is a contributor to BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Susan Blackmore (SB) A visiting professor at the University of Plymouth, UK, Susan is an expert on psychology and evolution.

Alastair Gunn Alastair is a radio astronomer at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester, UK.

Robert Matthews Robert is a writer and researcher. He is a Visiting Reader in Science at Aston University, UK.

Did the Aryans really invade India? Michel Danino makes his case

Gareth Mitchell As well as lecturing at Imperial College London, Gareth is a presenter of Click on the BBC World Service.

Nick Rennison An editor and writer based in the UK, Nick is also a regular contributor to BBC History Magazine.

Why do women need fewer calories per day than men?

What is the deepest underground shaft? Miao Keng in China’s Chongqing Province is the world’s deepest natural shaft. The shaft, pictured here, is 509m (1670ft) deep and was discovered in September 2006. It starts 150m (492ft) below ground, connecting with another cave network. However, mining shafts go far deeper. The current world record holder is the Western Deep No 3 Shaft at the TauTona gold mine west of Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s over seven times deeper than Miao Keng, at 3900m (12,795ft) deep. It was completed in 2008. GM

bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in

Bringing the house down: can human actions cause ‘natural’ disasters?

HIGHLIGHTS 왘 Do ﬁsh die when lightning strikes the ocean? p89 왘 How are rising sea levels measured? p89 왘 What’s the fastest speed achieved by a non-petrol car? p89 왘 Why are some people such fussy eaters? p89 86

VITAL STATS

Only about 20 per cent of the calories you need every day are used by your physical exertion. Another 10 per cent goes into keeping your body warm, but the remaining 70 per cent is consumed by the basic cellular processes of life – a lot of it is just used to regulate the osmotic balance of each cell. Men tend to be heavier than women, and taller too, so their internal organs and muscles are all larger. Women also have a slightly higher proportion of body fat, which requires very little energy to sustain it. Together, these two factors mean that men require about 500 extra calories each day. LV

45 years

the between is the time tinned food, of invention the invention in 1810, and opener, of the tin in 1855

Can human actions cause earthquakes? This question was at the centre of the recent controversy over tremors reportedly caused by the extraction of shale gas from a site near Blackpool, UK. There’s no doubt that human activity can trigger quakes: nuclear tests, hydroelectric dams and coal mining have all been linked with tremors. The key issue is how big these tremors are and whether they would have happened anyway. When the US conducted its largest-ever nuclear test off Alaska in November 1971, it unleashed the same seismic energy as an earthquake measuring magnitude 7 on the Richter scale. Yet despite its violence, the explosion only triggered some minor natural tremors of the type routinely felt in the region. It’s the same with mining and drilling – and the ‘fracking’ operations near Blackpool. They can trigger small natural tremors but not a full-blown earthquake. RM

KNOW SPOT The Socotra buzzard (Buteo socotraensis) became the most recently discovered bird of prey when it was named in 2010. The buzzard is only found in tiny islands that form the Socotra archipelago in Yemen.

16 Q&A

Your questions answered by our experts

Luis Villazon Luis has an MSc in zoology from the University of Oxford. He is a freelance science journalist based in the UK.

KSTOCK X2

ON THE COVER: URI GOLMAN, PIOTR NASKRECKI, ROGER HARRIS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, RAVI SATPUTE, AVN SURESH

August 2012

XXX

other moose and her calf pulled their heads out of the water and began to chew mouthfuls of aquatic plants. The crowd at the edge of a shallow pond in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, gasped in adoration, and a staccato of camera shutters ﬁlled the air. I glanced at my watch and decided that it was time to go. In less than an hour, the sunset would trigger a spectacle even more arresting than this, and I did not want to miss it. I had come to Wyoming to hear the evening song of a chubby, cricket-like insect known as the grig Cyphoderris, whose direct ancestors were possibly the very ﬁrst land animals to use sound communication to attract mates.To me, listening to grigs feels almost like a trip back in time.

ASK THE EXPERTS Email your queries to bbcknowledge@

August 2012

Contents

August 2012

science science

uri golman, alamy, thinkstock, alamy

HISTORY

history

HISTORY

NATURE

nature

history

FEATURES 34 Great Writers: Charles Dickens

English literature boasts a pantheon of fine novelists. Is the author of Great Expectations and Oliver Twist the greatest of them all? Cover story

46 India’s Last Lions

Enduring human’s wrath, the Gir Forest in Gujarat, houses the last lions of India writes Luke Hunter ON THE COVER

56 Travels in Nature’s Time Machine

Piotr Naskrecki unveils a generation of animals whose genealogy has remained unchanged for millions of years

63 Portfolio: Whooper Swans

46 India’s last Lions

Will our great grandchildren only see the skeletons of lions in the museums?

For three seasons, six chilly weeks, Stefano Unterthiner follows one fascinating bird, The Whooper Swan ON THE COVER

72 Chanakya: The Man Behind the Empire

Himanshu Prabhu Ray introduces the brahmin who authored the Arthashastra, the ancient Indian political treatise ON THE COVER

76 The City That...

The 10 metropolises that had the most effect on shaping human civilisation

16 Q&A

How close to the Earth’s centre has a mineshaft burrowed?

ON THE COVER

80 Decade of the Dinosaurs

Paul Chambers celebrates the past decade of dinosaur discoveries that have left scientists enthralled ON THE COVER

86 Aryan Invasion: Myth or fact?

Michel Danino unravels the greatest historical mystery of the Indian subcontinent

94 Superscopes

UK-based astronomer, Alastair Gunn writes about the next generation of ground-based telescopes of the future

96 The Big Idea: Extreme Value Theory Is it possible to second-guess freak occurences? That’s where this mathematical theory comes in

54 Subscribe today Every issue delivered direct to your door

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The mystery of the longnecked dinosaur

Charles Dickens Is he untouchable among novelists?

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inbox From the editor

Experts this issue

Cats evoke extreme reactions in all. From stoic dislike to unwavering awe…there is no ignoring them. Perhaps, it is this fascination that has led to the downfall of their cousins in the wild. Tigers and lions have been fighting a battle for survival in India and abroad for decades. The last detailed Indian census conducted in 2011 showed the tiger population at 1706 and the last lion census in 2010 showed only 411 remaining in the Gir wilderness. Read our cover story (page 46) to get the big picture about the challenges faced by the dwindling population of Asiatic Lions. A big one for us – Ruskin Bond is our guest contributor for The Last Word (page 112) this month. On account of the Charles Dickens bicentenary celebrations, Bond pens a tribute to honour the genius that inspired him to write. Also, a must read inside is the unknown tale of the elusive Chanakya, the philosopher believed to be the force behind the Mauraya Empire. Did he write the Arthashastra or was it Kautilya and were they both the same people? Find out on page 72. There is more of India in this issue. A special feature by Michael Danino questions and illustrates a viewpoint that challenges the age-old belief that has become a part of our collective historical consciousness. The Aryan invasion. But did it really happen? Read on page 86. And lastly. Congratulations to the participants and winners of PIXELS and the BBC Knowledge Summer Calendar Contest. The response to both has been overwhelming and the entries were anything if not inspired.

Stefano Unterthiner

Unterthiner, an award winning wildlife photographer, took up photography at the age of 17 and specialises in telling life stories of animals, living in close contact with his chosen species for long periods. His work has been widely published in magazines worldwide. Having authored six photography books, his latest is titled Gli angeli dell’inverno featuring the Whooper Swans. See page 63

Himanshu Prabha Ray

Having graduated in ancient Indian history, Sanskrit and archaeology, Himanshu Prabha Ray is currently a professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her current research focuses on the Maritime History and Archaeology of the Indian Ocean. In this issue, she talks about Chanakya and his treatise on politics – the Arthashastra. See page 72

Cheers.

Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond is a celebrated awardwinning Indian author of British descent. Surrounded by books and encouraged by his father from an early age, Bond decided to become an author at the age of 12. In this issue, he pays a tribute to the literary genius Charles Dickens and speaks about Dicken’s influence in his life and work. See page 112

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Crossword NO.11



E Across

1 & 3 Dickens’ novel which begins in Marseille (6,6) 6 African jungle where the lion can still be found (8) 8 City home to Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world (5) 9 Birthplace of Charles Dickens (10) 11 Symbol of a married Hindu woman (7) 13 Ancient city which came up with the idea of settlements banding together to form a government (4) 15 See 25 20 The ___ revolution formed the backdrop for many Dickens novels (9) 22 Gujarat peninsula home to lion reserves (9) 23 Memphis was one of the biggest ____ hubs of it’s time (8) 24 Greek city where democracy was born (6) 25 & 15 Dickens classic about an orphan boy (5,12) 26 It was the best of ____ , it was the worst of ____ - A Tale of Two Cities (same word) (5)

H Down

2 Aquatic species which can

spend months buried under sand in the absence of water (8) 3 & 12 The most autobiographical of all Charles Dickens’ novels (5,11) 4 Japanese city which rebuilt itself after World War II (5) 5 First city in the world to develop an underground railway network (6) 6 Ancient Hindu symbol (8) 7 City home to Wall Street and the Empire State Building (3,4) 10 Ancient city state which pioneered the construction of road networks and aqueducts (4) 12 See 3 14 3 Down’s villain (5,4) 16 Destructive insects which have existed since the Jurassic era (8) 17 Number of children Charles Dickens sired (3) 18 One of the major Indian rivers in the Vedic era (9) 19 Plant species which can survive almost complete burning (6) 21 George Stephenson’s locomotive (6) 25 India’s most famous lion sanctuary (3)

Solution NO. 10

Your Details Name:

Age:

Address:

PostCode:

Tel:

School/Institution/Occupation:

Email:

How to enter: Post your entries to BBC Knowledge Editorial, Crossword No. 11, Worldwide Media, The Times of India Bldg, 4th floor, Dr Dadabhai Navroji. Road, Mumbai 400001 or email bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in by August 10, 2012. Entrants must supply their name, address and phone number. How it’s done: The puzzle will be 14

August 2012

familiar to crossword enthusiasts already, although the British style may be unusual as crossword grids vary in appearance from country to country. Novices should note that the idea is to fill the white squares with letters to make words determined by the sometimes cryptic clues to the right. The numbers after each clue tell you

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announcing the winner of crossword No. 10 Ravindra Shanbhag - Mumbai

Q&A

Your Questions Answered

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HIGHLIGHTS E How are rising sea levels measured? p18 E What’s the fastest speed achieved by a non-petrol car? p20 E How do bats hear ultrasonically? p22 E Do fish die when lightning strikes the ocean? p24

Expert PANEL

Stuart Blackman

A zoologist-turned-science writer, Stuart is a contributor to BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Susan Blackmore (SB)

A visiting professor at the University of Plymouth, UK, Susan is an expert on psychology and evolution.

Alastair Gunn

Alastair is a radio astronomer at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester, UK.

Robert Matthews

Robert is a writer and researcher. He is a Visiting Reader in Science at Aston University, UK.

Gareth Mitchell

As well as lecturing at Imperial College London, Gareth is a presenter of Click on the BBC World Service.

Nick Rennison

An editor and writer based in the UK, Nick is also a regular contributor to BBC History Magazine.

Luis Villazon

Luis has an MSc in zoology from the University of Oxford. He is a freelance science journalist based in the UK.

Ask the Experts Email your queries to bbcknowledge@ wwm.co.in. We’re sorry, but we cannot answer questions individually. ALAMY

How low can you go? Exploring the world’s deepest natural shaft

August 2012

VITAL

STATS

192.5

in of snow s) e mount is the a es (75.8 inch etr on centim ll in one day that fe ke, Colorado, a Silverl 1921 in

Q&A

Your questions Answered Bringing the house down: can human actions cause ‘natural’ disasters?

bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in

Why do women need fewer calories per day than men? Only about 20 per cent of the calories you need every day are used by your physical exertion. Another 10 per cent goes into keeping your body warm, but the remaining 70 per cent is consumed by the basic cellular processes of life – a lot of it is just used to regulate the osmotic balance of each cell. Men tend to be heavier than women, and taller too, so their internal organs and muscles are all larger. Women also have a slightly higher proportion of body fat, which requires very little energy to sustain it. Together, these two factors mean that men require about 500 extra calories each day. LV

VITAL STATS

45 years

n the e betwee is the tim tinned food, of on ti n inve ntion d the inve in 1810, an n opener, of the ti in 1855

Getty, Thinkstock X2

How are rising sea levels measured? It’s a combination of measurements collected from tide gauges and satellite altimetry. Tide gauge data needs to be averaged over long periods to even out differences in sea level caused by tides and atmospheric pressure. Satellites can measure altitude to a precision of 20mm (0.79in) but they need to be constantly recalibrated to allow for orbital decay. Each system is used to refine the measurements of the other. LV

August 2012

Q&A

Your questions Answered

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Strange but true Make yourself at home

ALAMY, Chris harrison / microsoft research / carnegie mellon university, Holly Salewski

Thanks to the bacteria in their gills, shipworms are able to feast on wood

There are plenty of partnerships in nature, but it isn’t often that a single species is actually composed of two entirely unrelated ones. Enter the shipworm. The nemesis of early explorers and low-lying countries, these worm-like molluscs are notorious for reducing wooden boats and sea defences to a crumbling honeycomb. Though shipworms are highly competent at demolishing wood, they cannot digest it by themselves, so they work closely with bacteria nestled in their gills. These diminutive collaborators also boost the shipworm’s nitrogen intake, by harnessing the gas from air dissolved in the seawater. From cows to runner beans, many organisms provide a habitat for bacteria in return for help with difficult jobs, but the shipworm’s relationship with its workforce is particularly intimate. These little helpers live right inside its cells and have never been found living independently. Give them another few million years of co-evolution and they may become integral components of the shipworm’s cellular machinery, just as other cellular organelles, such as mitochondria (the cellular power plants of all complex organisms), started out as free-living bacteria. SB

What’s the fastest speed achieved by a non-petrol car? When it comes to biofuels, engineering students from Boise State University in Idaho hold the record for the fastest vegetable-oil-powered car. In November 2011, they achieved 248.5km/h (155.331mph) in a Chevrolet S-10 pickup running on cottonseed and sunflower oil. The 5.9 litre-engined truck was fitted with a mechanical injection system, a separate tank for vegetable oil and a heating assembly to reduce the oil’s viscosity, helping it run through the fuel system. But of course, the fastest non-petrol car is the Thrust SSC, the current land speed record holder, which achieved 1228km/h (763mph) in October 1997. It had turbofan engines powered by kerosene aviation fuel. GM At 248.5km/h, students at Boise State give lie to the myth of laziness

Sept/Oct 2011

Omnitouch technology takes the idea of handheld devices up a notch

When will we see the end of computer keyboards? It’s impossible to say when, if ever, we’re going to kill off the qwerty keyboard. But other technologies are typing out its death warrant. Many of us are already using touch-and-swipe devices like tablets. Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University are working on a system called ‘OmniTouch’ (pictured). It combines picoprojectors and movement-tracking software that will allow you to project virtual keypads on to any surface – even your hand. GM

Q&A

Your questions Answered

bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in

QuicKFIRE

How do bats find their way in the dark?

Why do we sigh? A sigh is an inhalation and exhalation about twice as deep as normal. Recent research suggests that sighing may help reset breathing patterns. Breathing is ITAL STATS V essentially a chaotic They emit rapid high-pitched clicks and measure how long the system, balancing echoes take to come back. This means they can perceive distances the demand and e and build a picture of the world around them. supply of oxygen t official tim is the fastes marathon, Some species cruise around clicking quite slowly so as not to waste a as conditions to complete a’s Patrick ny energy but speed up their clicking when homing in on prey or approaching a hazard. How posted by Ke e 2011 change. An au at th ak M they sort out the echoes depends on the species. Some use the Doppler effect – the n occasional random ho at ar M n Berli input such as a deep change in frequency of the sound wave as the bat moves in relation to its moving prey – to sigh helps the body learn work out their speed. Others emit sounds with a downward-swooping pitch, so the returning how to respond to the echo is lower in pitch if the object is further away. unexpected. SB Many bats can close their ears against the loud blast of their own click and then open them to

How do bats hear ultrasonically?

2:03:38

receive the faint echo. Recent research has discovered that horseshoe bats can even change the shape of their ears. They do this in a tenth of a second, quicker than a human eye-blink, to suit their echolocation to different sensing tasks. SB

Yes. Some stars can be propelled out of their host galaxies by gravitational interactions with supermassive black holes. Other stars may be stripped from their galaxies when whole galaxies interact. Such stars will be left to roam the lonely depths of intergalactic space but will be too faint for us to detect. AG

ALAMY, FLPA, science photo library

Why were prehistoric animals so much bigger There is a tendency in evolution for animal lineages to get progressively larger over geological timescales. This is known as Cope’s Rule, after the 19th-century American palaeontologist Edward Cope. Horses, elephants, bears and even humans all evolved from smaller versions of essentially the same body shape. The reason this happens is that nearly all animals are competing with other members of their own species for resources. Being slightly larger than your peers allows you to fight them off, to win a mate and also makes you less vulnerable to predation. Over evolutionary timescales this selective pressure tends to make animals ever larger, but larger animals also need more food so the trend can’t continue indefinitely. They also have longer reproductive cycles and this makes the species as a whole more vulnerable to environmental change because it can’t adapt so quickly. This often leads to animal lineages growing steadily larger before abruptly becoming extinct, whereupon a smaller species takes over the niche. LV

August 2012

Can stars escape their galaxies?

Will new planets be found in our Solar System?

Are we all doomed to get too big for our boots?

Astronomers discover thousands of new members of the Solar System every month. However, most of these are very small bodies like asteroids or comets. Larger objects (called ‘dwarf planets’) are occasionally found, although there are currently only five of these confirmed. But it’s extremely unlikely that a large object, a fully-fledged ‘planet’, will have gone unnoticed in the Solar System. AG

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WHAT IS ITKNOW DID YOU A victory you’ll never forget

QuicKFIRE Why do planets orbit in the same plane? Imagine a pizza chef making a base by tossing dough in the air. By spinning it, he makes the dough flatten out into a disc shape. The spinning cloud of gas and dust from which the Solar System formed flattened out in much the same way. The planets formed from the material of this spinning disc and so all ended up in approximately the same orbital plane. AG

Why are some people such fussy eaters?

A professional football player from Leicester, UK, once beat an elephant 3-2 in a penalty shoot-out. One of the star turns on Sanger’s Circus in the 1890s and early 1900s was an elephant that played football. He was able to both kick the ball and act as a goalkeeper, saving shots from opponents. In 1899, when the circus visited Leicester, a publicity stunt was organised in which four players from Leicester Fosse FC (now called Leicester City), the town’s leading club, challenged the elephant to a shoot-out. Embarrassingly, the elephant beat three of them, but one man, William Keech, did something to rescue his team’s reputation. He feinted to shoot right in the deciding penalty and, as the elephant moved in that direction, he scored to the left. NR

Do fish die when lightning strikes the ocean?

THINKSTOCK X2, Alamy, Illustration by Jonty clark

Lightning forms when an electrically charged cloud creates a channel of ionised air below it, called a ‘leader’. This leader grows downwards and at the same time, an oppositely charged leader grows upwards from the ground. When the leaders connect, a huge current (typically 30,000 amps) flows down this ionised channel. Seawater, unlike air, is a good conductor as it contains salt. Rather than creating an irregular, narrow, ionised path, the charge from the lightning strike spreads out sideways and downwards in an expanding half-sphere from the surface. Any fish within a few tens of metres of the strike point would probably be killed but beyond that they would just feel a tingle. LV

KNOW SPOT Mount Everest is growing. The geological processes that have led to the Himalayan giant becoming the world’s highest mountain at 8848m (29,029ft) are still going strong, and causing it to rise by 6.1cm (2.4 inches) each year.

August 2012

Ask the Experts? Ever wondered… well, anything? Email bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in. We’re sorry, but we cannot reply to questions individually.

Fussiness is an adaptive advantage in young children because they’re more vulnerable to poisons so it’s safer to favour known foods. Adults are, generally speaking, more open to new tastes but some have a naturally more acute sense of taste, which can make them extra fussy; it depends on their past experiences with new tastes. Autistic spectrum disorders can also make people less receptive to unfamiliar foods.LV

How do we learn to walk? Much of our ability to walk upright appears to be hard-wired: simply holding infants upright and moving them across the floor is enough to make them take ‘baby steps’. New research shows that we inherited some of the necessary brain circuitry from other mammals, such as rats. What makes us different is that by the time we become toddlers, we’re using this circuitry in much more sophisticated ways, allowing us to both walk upright and grasp things at the same time. RM

Update

The latest intelligence

P What is outer space made of? p26 P New research opens door to limitless range for electric cars p27 P Were the Nazis on drugs? p28 P Electrical stimulation of the brain could be the key to cerebral success p30

The humble horsefly (above) would appear to hold the secret to the most famous stripes in nature

How the zebra got its stripes Plastic horse models solve century-old debate hy is a zebra striped? Some of the finest minds in science have been wrestling with this question for decades. Now, new research has provided evidence that the distinctive black and white pattern evolved to keep flies at bay. Horseflies (Tabanidae sp.) have been found in tests to be less attracted to a zebra’s stripes than to a white, brown or black horse coat. Such protection is important, as horseflies transmit diseases. Susanne Akesson, an evolutionary ecologist at Lund University, Sweden, thought insects may have had a role to

FLPA, Thinkstock

play. To find out, she made black, white and striped horse models, which she coated with odourless insect glue. Earlier tests by Akesson had shown that when sunlight is reflected off a dark brown horse, the light waves tend

by water, where horseflies can mate and lay eggs. “The flies were least attracted to the striped patterns, which was surprising because you might expect something between the response to the black and the white coats,”

Horseflies are less attracted to a zebra’s stripes than to a black or a white horse coat to vibrate horizontally rather than vibrating in all directions as they do in sunlight or off the coats of white horses. Such horizontal vibrations are known as ‘linearly polarised light’ and are also produced

says Akesson. “We think that originally the zebras were black and introduced the white stripes to destroy the signal of the reflected linearly polarised light.” Akesson’s work raises the question of why all horses

haven’t adopted stripes, if they are such an effective guard against horseflies. One factor is that horses have been domesticated and selectively bred for centuries. Another may be location. “If you spend the day in the shadow of a tree, you reduce the risk of being detected by horseflies, but if you are always exposed to bright sunshine in the African savanna, where zebras graze, then you must find another trick,” says Akesson. Further research is needed, but if the response to linearly polarised light is widespread among disease-carrying insects, then it may provide new means of protection for humans. Something dark could be used as a trap, drawing flies towards it and away from people who might otherwise be bitten. Or, if the pattern mimics that of zebras, striped clothes could be worn to offer more protection against these disease-carriers. August 2012

Update

The latest intelligence

Alien particles unmasked Another piece of star-making puzzle found spacecraft orbiting Earth has directly detected the atoms that make up the area of space just outside the Solar System. To scientists’ surprise, new data from NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) craft, launched in 2008, indicates that the composition of this area of ‘interstellar medium’ is not uniform across the galaxy, but is unexpectedly low in oxygen. The discovery is important because it offers fresh information about the fundamental make-up of stars, planets and even people. Astronomers had previously achieved a general feel for the composition of the interstellar medium across the galaxy by studying how light from distant stars is absorbed. The

NASA / Goddard conceptual image lab, Tom Mannering, Rex, Press association, news press, getty

For a wobbegong (right) to consume a bamboo shark is not typical behaviour

August 2012

new IBEX results provide the most detailed picture yet of the interstellar medium just outside our Solar System, the ‘local cloud’. “The results were surprising,” says David McComas, a heliophysicist at Southwest Research Institute in Texas, and principal investigator for IBEX. “The composition of the medium right outside the Solar System isn’t like the average measured throughout the galaxy – and that is important because the interstellar medium is the material from which stars, planets and all life form.” IBEX’s main goal is to map the heliosphere, the part of space directly influenced by the Sun. Charged particles from the Sun – the solar wind – create this protective ‘bubble’,

Has NASA’s IBEX spacecraft uncovered the nature of space?

which extends through the Solar System, preventing electrically charged particles outside it from entering. IBEX detects neutral atoms, which can pass through the heliosphere as they lack an electric charge. A previous NASA mission, Ulysses, measured neutral helium atoms from outside the heliosphere. IBEX is the first to measure heavier elements, such as oxygen and neon, which

were found to be entering the Solar System more slowly than expected – and from a different direction. “This discovery changes our understanding of the heliosphere itself, and of how it works to keep out those energetic charged particles,” says McComas. The IBEX team continues to take measurements to establish levels of other atoms within the local cloud.

Shark eat shark The consumption of one shark by another is a sight rarely caught on film, but a 1.3m (4ft) tasselled wobbegong (Eucrossorhinus dasypogon) is here shown to be holding a 1m (3ft) brown banded bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum) in its mouth. It is not unusual for one shark to dine out on another, but neither is it typical behaviour. The tasseled wobbegong is a flat shark that blends in with the surrounding rock or reef. Its jaws can dislocate and it has large rear-pointing teeth, allowing it to grip relatively large prey. Scientists at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Queensland stumbled across the incident on the southern Great Barrier Reef. Their report was published in the journal Coral Reefs earlier this year.

News in Brief Will electric cars soon be able to charge on the move?

Milestones

Anne Frank writing one of the most famous diaries in history

70 years ago G 12 June 1942: Anne Frank, a Jewish girl growing up in Amsterdam, is given an autograph book for her 13th birthday. She decides to write diary entries in it, which later detail her experiences living in hiding from the Nazis for two years, concealed in the upper rooms of an annexe to her father’s office building. Anne died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 but The Diary of a Young Girl went on to be published in 60 different languages.

25 years ago H 28 May 1987 Inexperienced 19-year-old German pilot Mathias Rust manages to pierce the supposedly impregnable Soviet air defence by landing his Cessna Skyhawk 172 near Red Square, close to the Kremlin. Rust has flown from Finland, and says he wants to create an “imaginary bridge” to the East. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev uses the incident to fire many military officials opposed to his reforms, meaning Rust plays a small part in bringing an end to the Cold War.

Mathias Rust landed his light aircraft behind the Iron Curtain

Electric car revolution Future cars with an unlimited range? hysicists are working on technology to wirelessly transfer electricity from the road to electric cars, using magnetic fields to send the power from one place to another and provide the cars with an unlimited range. Today’s most advanced electric cars have a range of little more than 160km (100 miles). The system in development at Stanford University, California, would allow vehicles to be charged while they are driven, with copper coils beneath the road surface transferring electricity to identical coils under the car. Computer models of this ‘magnetic resonance coupling’ technique have shown that, if the coils are positioned correctly, 10 kilowatts of energy can be transferred to a coil nearly 2m (6ft 6in) away, and that the metal of the car’s body would not interfere with the exchange. Shanhui Fan, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford, is leading the research and says his team has proved that the physics works. In his system, an alternating current passes though copper coils in the road, producing an oscillating magnetic field. The coils under the car detect this field and convert it back to electricity. Other systems for wirelessly transferring electricity to vehicles have been developed but, crucially, the Stanford team says their system would allow electricity to be transferred over longer distances, so vehicles would not have to be driven so accurately above the coils. A key consideration will be safety – ensuring the electromagnetic radiation generated by the coils in the road does not affect the car’s occupants or the car itself. “What we have not done is to build a road and test transferring power to a moving car, but that is part of our vision,” says Fan. “If you ask me when we are going to see a highway that is equipped like this going from San Francisco to Los Angeles, I would have a very difficult time trying to give you an answer. What we are actively working on is designing the electromagnetic field so it is confined away from the car.”

Changing sex Male garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) became attractive to other males when implanted with a capsule that raised levels of the hormone oestrogen to female levels. Snakes are dependent on pheromones to recognise the species and sex of others, and the oestrogen appeared to encourage the production of female versions of the chemical cues. The US-based researchers are investigating the impact of compounds that mimic oestrogens found in some chemicals and pesticides.

Biblical garden The composition of a luxurious garden from Biblical times has been revealed using pollen. The pollen is thought to have become fixed into the walls of irrigation channels when they were plastered during renovation work around 5-4BC. Tel Aviv University researchers say that, as well as local vegetation, exotic plants such as Persian walnut trees were planted in the garden, on a hillside above Jerusalem.

Earth shattering A laser scan of a 360km2 (140 square mile) area of land surrounding the site of the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake in Mexico reveals a detailed picture of what happened around several small faults that ruptured to produce the magnitude 7.2 event. Studying the Earth’s movement down to the scale of a few centimetres like this will improve scientists’ understanding of such events. The 2010 earthquake opened up vital clues

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EEE ROUND UP The top science, nature and history research from around the world

Thinkstock x2, dreamstime, Ghedoghedo / wikipedia, nasa / jpl-caltech, Alamy x2, brent goehring / lamont-doherty earth observatory

PALAEONTOLOGY When palaeontologists find a complete long-necked dinosaur fossil, the head is often thrown back over its body and the tail arches upwards. No one has been sure how this ‘opisthotonic death pose’ came about, though some have attributed it to muscle spasms in the final moments of death. Now, Swiss and German scientists have submerged plucked chicken necks and thoraxes in water, and found them to adopt a similar posture, which suggests that the position develops once the dinosaur has died and its remains encounter water.

SPACE

Handedness, apparently, can influence how we think. When study participants were asked to choose which of two products to buy, which of two job applicants to hire, and which of two alien beings looked more trustworthy, righthanded people tended to prefer the option presented to their right, and vice versa. The American cognitive scientist behind the research says the phenomenon could even influence voting behaviour, as many US states use ‘butterfly ballots’ with candidate names listed on the left and right sides.

MARINE LIFE

Buckyballs – carbon atoms in the form of hollow spheres, under investigation for a vast range of industrial uses – have been spotted floating as solids in space. Previously, they had only been observed floating freely in their gaseous form. Astronomers were able to detect the solids 6500 light years away using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The work shows that buckyballs are more common in space than once thought and could be an important source of carbon – a building block for life. 28

PSYCHOLOGY

August 2012

The iridescent layer of nacre, or mother-of-pearl, produced by some molluscs could provide an insight into climates millions of years ago. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that if the nacre was formed at higher temperatures, its crystal orientations appear more disordered when viewed under a microcope. Furthermore, the nacre layers form more thinly at greater water depths. As nacre is widespread in the fossil record going back 450 million years, longago climates might be revealed.

GENETICS

Even healthy people carry about 100 ‘broken’ genes – a mutation that renders DNA incapable of producing a particular protein. The geneticists who analysed the genes of 185 people in order to make the discovery say that in many cases only one gene carries the mutation, so the effect of the damage may not be seen. In some cases, neither copy of the gene functions. That said, even when certain genes are completely missing, many still do not appear to affect an individual’s health.

HISTORY

Nazi Germany could almost be described as a ‘Metamphetamine Dictatorship’, say Dutch academics who have studied the use of speed by its population. The stimulant was regularly prescribed by German doctors from 1939, and was even put into praline chocolates. By 1941, the regime had begun to regulate the drug, concerned about the antisocial behaviour of some users. Speed, conclude the authors, was “not a drug pushed on the German people in the Third Reich by a totalitarian regime…” but was used out of choice.

COUNT

DOWN

190,000,000

GEOLOGY The Ubehebe Crater in Death Valley, California, was thought to be 6000 years old, but new research indicates it may actually have been formed just 800 years ago. Geochemists analysed levels of beryllium isotopes in rock that would have been hurled into the air when rising magma hit underground water. Beryllium is formed at a predictable rate, as cosmic rays strike oxygen, so can be measured. The scientists say their discovery indicates that a modern explosion is more likely than had been previously assumed.

HEALTH Even mild dehydration, where there is just a 1.5 per cent loss in normal water volume in the body, can have a detrimental effect on concentration, reasoning and mood – particularly on women. Volunteers at the University of Connecticut’s Human Performance Laboratory were asked to walk on a treadmill to induce dehydration and were then put through a battery of cognitive tests. Although both sexes were affected, the effects were substantially greater in females than males. The mechanisms are currently unclear.

years is the age of a nesting site of the prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus discovered within the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, South Africa. It is 100 million years older than any other nesting site previously found.

200,000 years is the possible age of the giant seagrass Posidonia oceanic in the Mediterranean Sea, DNA sequencing shows. The plant is likely to be the ‘oldest’ living, owing its longevity to the fact it reproduces asexually, producing genetic copies of itself.

29,000 kilometres (18,000 miles) is the distance that a tiny songbird, the northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe), has been found to migrate. It flies from Alaska to spend the winter in Africa, and then back again.

73 minutes is the decline in the average nightly sleep time of children over the past century. Recommended sleep times have fallen over that period, too, but have always remained about 30 minutes above the actual length of sleep.

6.5 minutes is how much longer Earth’s ‘twin’, Venus, is taking to rotate than it was 16 years ago, the most recent measurements show. It is currently not clear why the rotation has slowed.

insights

vineet bhatia

“You always cook for the ego of your guest” When did you decide to become a chef ? I just chanced upon an opportunity in hotel management. Starting off, the kitchen always repelled me and I wanted to become a bartender. But in the Oberoi kitchen I realised the amount of respect that was given to food. I liked the discipline in there. Since I am particular about discipline in my own life, I knew I’d like my time in the kitchen. Your approach to your work is? My primary focus always is to understand the foundation of cooking. This includes the ingredients, the technique and also the psyche of the people I’m cooking for. This is the most important element - the ones you cook for are pivotal. You always cook for the ego of your guest. What’s your biggest challenge? It’s when I serve Indians. They have a very blinkered approach, a rigid one; they never come to a restaurant for an experience but merely to eat exactly what they want. Now, that is a task. In spite of all the accolades a chef receives, to earn one happy and satisfied guest is vital. A moment that affected your outlook towards work? I strongly believe that the Khansama way of working where sharing of knowledge is discouraged is highly incorrect. This learning I took from my first job and have incorporated it in my style of working. Is talent nature or nurture? Both. I wasn’t born to cook but I learned it in the kitchen. While natural talent grows faster, with the right attitude, motivation and inclination to excel, even acquired talent can succeed. What is your most marked characteristic? I strongly believe that people like to eat clean flavours. Indian chefs emulate their international counterparts and overdo the elements on the plate. So the flavours are lost and it leads to a confused palate of the consumer. I consciously bring out only three flavours in one dish. What is your ideal meal? It would be with my family where my wife and I would cook together. She would make her special yellow dal and thin chapatis and I’d cook a chicken dish and rice. Vineet Bhatia is a chef who started his career with the Oberoi Hotel Group before moving to London in 1993. He is among the first Indian chefs to gain a Michelin star for his restaurant Rasoi by Vineet Bhatia.

August 2012

Comment & Analysis Steven Novella believes electrical stimulation can enhance our minds

“Applying small electric currents to the human brain can make healthy people more capable” function and create a dependence on the stimulation.

Should students be looking at artificial ways to succeed?

he brain is an amazingly complex chemical and electrical organ. For about the last century, scientists have been studying ways to alter its function to compensate for disease, damage and dysfunction, largely through pharmacological means. More recently, drugs have been developed that can enhance the brain’s abilities, even when there is no fault to correct. Now, we are at the beginning of an era in which we are exploring a new technique for altering brain function using direct electrical stimulation. Researchers at the University of Oxford have found that applying small electric currents to the human brain can make healthy individuals more capable. People read more fluently, are better at solving problems and remember more. wIn transcranial direct cortical stimulation (tDCS), as it is known, electrodes strapped to the head are used to apply specific frequencies of electrical current to certain parts of the brain, increasing or decreasing their activity. This has proved to be a useful research tool, helping neuroscientists figure out how the different brain regions contribute to the function of the organ as

Alamy

August 2012

a whole. To act as a therapeutic tool, as it was in Oxford, the activity of specific brain regions involved in certain tasks, such as reading, maths or memory, must be increased while the subject is performing the task. Degenerative conditions So far, most of the research on the clinical uses of tDCS have focused on those with brain damage caused by a stroke or a degenerative condition, such as Parkinson’s disease. Studies have mostly shown that tDCS has the potential to compensate for motor and other neurological deficits. However, applying tDCS to improve the function of healthy brains is a much newer research area. Studies like the one at Oxford have consistently shown that tDCS, when applied in the right way to the correct part of the brain, can improve our abilities. Research in this field is preliminary, but very encouraging. The technique appears to be safe so far, but more long-term follow-up would be reassuring. It would be good to establish whether routine brain stimulation could exhaust brain cells, or reduce baseline

Academic performance The real-world applicability of tDCS also needs more study. Will it improve a student’s long-term academic performance, for example? tDCS should still be considered experimental, and more research is vital to see if the results hold up under larger, more rigorous studies. I think there are several advantages to tDCS and it is worth further research. The technique is non-invasive and appears so far to be very safe. Such attributes do make tDCS ripe for abuse, however. It would be easy for unscrupulous salesmen to sell cheap tDCS devices with alluring claims unbacked by good research. Further, improper application can have the wrong effect – stimulating the wrong part of the brain or even inhibiting brain activity. Used incorrectly, it could worsen mental performance and possibly induce seizures. Brain hacking Public acceptance may also be an issue. Some may find it preferable to using drugs to alter brain function, but others may see it as ‘hacking’ into the brain. I suspect there are those who simply will not like the rather blatant reminder that we are our brains. Our thoughts, memories, moods and feelings are all the result of electrical currents in our brains – currents that can be altered with a small electrical device. Ethical issues are likely to arise. Is performance enhancement – in any form – cheating? If tDCS turns out to be a safe, effective and accessible method of enhancing learning and brain function, the allure of its benefits is likely to overshadow resistance. Steven Novella is Assistant Professor of Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine and host of the podcast The Skeptics’ Guide To The Universe.

Principal Speak

Sudeshna Chatterjee, Principal of Jamnabai Narsee School, Mumbai discusses the education system in India

“By seeking excellence through endeavour, am I not re-defining competition in a more positive manner?” end of term. With this children have developed a regularity of work, taking small units at a time and making things very achievable. The fear of failure has gone away completely.

What are your views on the current education scenario in the country? I think that there are two Indias. One is this very small percentage of people in the country who are doing a great job for a very small population of privileged children. And then there are these vast numbers of children who are growing up without any form of education. It is not dearth of money but rather a dearth of will that is the cause of this. Intent, from the top-most rung of decision makers to the common teacher, has to improve in such a way that the law can be shunted into a more human level to turn it into a reality. Not on paper as it is now, but actually from the human point of view. There is quite a bit of confusion with the Right To Education (RTE) Act. Your views? The RTE Act has to be implemented properly. Right now, every single one of us is mired in the confusion of its interpretation. The law has a tremendous number of provisions, which has to be interpreted in the right manner for it to be really of effective use. The biggest question in my mind is what has been the government’s role so far? While we, as private schools, don’t want to abjure the responsibility, we would definitely like an astute reciprocal shift in the way the government is handling the law… to make it into a reality. What is the next step for the schools that have to implement this? As we know, a national law is being interpreted at a state legislature level. The Maharashtra Government’s notifications are out. Even in the interpretation of those laws there are so many grey areas that they can become the loopholes. Is this Act the solution though? Unless it is put to good use by the government, the passing of the buck is not going to stop. It has to come very largely from the government and then let the corporate and the philanthropists of our society take up the cause.

What would fix the problem? You look at the western world, you look at the huge campaign, ‘No child gets left behind’. Look at the example of Canada or the States. Education is the government’s responsibility. They are the ones who are providing everything. The private schools there are very expensive and not imperative for the whole system to function smoothly. In India, if the government machinery cannot handle the responsibility of education, then who can? Not the biggest corporate. The biggest corporate in our country is the government. In what way have schools changed to adapt to a contemporary living? How has your school changed? Continuous and Competitive Evaluation (CCE) is not something new; even before, from class 1 to class 4 we always had primary children doing a little bit of work, and they all ended with some kind of a grade at the end of the term. We really struggled with CCE for three years to understand it - it is nothing but Formative and Summative Evaluation, formative during the term and summative at the

Do you think children are stressed because of the competitive environment around? We don’t sign you up in this school because there is a board exam to pass, but because there is so much more to education. It is about how a child grows with life values. Competition is there in the environment. If I say that a part of school mission is to seek excellence through endeavour, am I not re-defining competition in a more positive manner? And what is wrong with that? Schools are now challenging environments where everyone is just striving for excellence. Competition is understood as a very negative term. In every stage of life, see how you can mould it in a more positive way. How involved should a parent be with the school? We would prefer parents to be involved. I am reading a book by Dr. Gordon Neufeld and Dr. Gábor Máté, called Hold On To Your Kids, which provides a fresh perspective on how comfortable we are in giving our kids away to peers and then recognising peers to be their biggest friends rather than holding onto our kids and having a lot to do with them. We let them go away from us too fast and too early. How are today’s students different from their peers from an earlier time? The children now are very keen, responsible and mature. They are intelligent; they are miles ahead. They lend themselves more to core values thanks to close human interaction. So as schools are going gaga over technology in education, in our school the emphasis is on the warmth of human interaction. That is what our children need and that is what they get. August 2012

World News in context America’s clash of cultures

Former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, at a Tea Party event in Iowa, September 2011

As the United States gears up for this year’s presidential elections, David Keys looks at the background to its political polarisation and the growth of the populist right s America moves ever closer to its presidential elections at the end of this year, the country is politically more polarised than it’s been for almost half a century. The degree of left/right polarisation may be new, but the divisions themselves are rooted in, and emblematic of, ideologies that have been in conflict throughout American history. On the populist right is a new movement with an old name – the so-called Tea Party, named after the Boston Tea Party that helped trigger the American Revolutionary War. Currently, it has support from up to 30 per cent of the nation’s adult population. On the left are many of those Americans who voted for Barack Obama at the 2008 presidential election, but have been disappointed at the lack of radical reform, which they had hoped he would deliver. Tea Party activists – essentially the right wing of the Republican party – often tend to favour a lower tax, personal-liberty-oriented political system in which the federal government is much smaller and less powerful, and in which individual states’ rights are more protected. By contrast, the left – including many Democratic party activists – had hoped to see an expansion in the role of the US federal government to combat poverty, economic and social inequality, ill health and unemployment.

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This division in attitudes towards ‘big government’ is perhaps the single most fundamental political product of American history. In essence, America’s story has that fundamental contradiction and conflict built into it. Many people went to America to flee political and economic oppression and suffering. They flourished in their newfound freedom, and organised themselves in separate colonies, which became states. Success and the almost unlimited availability of land led to an acceleration of that process, as more immigrants poured in, hungry for freedom and land. But, as America grew, the needs of internal organisation and the development of external problems and threats forced the states to form an ever stronger federal government. This led to recurrent tensions between individual states on the one hand and the role of the federal government on the other. The process that gave birth to this political collision started with the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers in the New World in 1620. These were religious non-conformists who had suffered substantial oppression and persecution in England at the hands of the established church. Although there were only around 100 of them, they were followed in the 1630s by

an estimated 20,000 other Puritans. This time they were ‘low church’ Anglicans who feared disadvantage in England at the hands of the quasi-Catholic ‘high church’ Anglican establishment. More refugees from religious persecutions followed – Austrian Salzburgers, German Mennonites, French Huguenots, German/Swiss Amish, English Quakers and others. Sometimes the search for freedom would repeat itself in the New World as some Puritans persecuted other Puritans and forced them to continue their search for freedom elsewhere in America, sometimes by forming their own colonies. Muddy waters This tradition of independent-minded thinking contributed to the break with Britain in the 1770s and to the economic and political success of the newly founded United States. But, from the beginning, the aforementioned tensions between the rights of states as sovereign entities and the powers of central government, which circumstances had forced them to form, muddied the political waters. The initial pressure to form a ‘central’ authority was driven by the need to coordinate – and raise an army to support – the anti-British independence struggle. But after the conflict was over, the money that had been borrowed from foreign powers to fund this action had to be repaid. The central government ended up having to use force to gather the money from the citizens of the individual states.

A history of division 1630s First major immigration by radical Protestants to North America 1775-83 American Revolutionary War 1789 Federal government established

In addition, the need for the new nation to operate a larger standing army and navy increased as the USA found its interests threatened economically or territorially by French, Spanish, British and other armed forces – and by pirates in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and even in the Mediterranean. Adding to the military need was the fact that, as economic and political success attracted more immigrants from Europe, expansion into the country’s West accelerated. As it did, the federal government had to further expand its armed forces to counter the Native American reaction. On the non-military front, expansion required ever greater federal oversight or involvement in aspects of foreign trade, Native American affairs, banking, westward expansion, land ownership, railway development, taxation, interstate highways and employment initiatives. Tensions between federal power and the interests of individual states or groups of states ultimately contributed to the outbreak of the American Civil War in the mid-19th century. With the victory of anti-slavery politicians in the 1860 presidential election, southern states perceived a long-term threat to the institution of slavery and they seceded from the Union. Southern slave owners objected to the federal government quashing what they saw as their rights to migrate with their slaves into federally held western lands – the so-called territories – which had not yet achieved statehood.

28 August 1963: 200,000 Americans join the Freedom March on Washington

In a sense, the battle lines between the federally oriented ‘Unionist’ North and the ‘Confederate’ South – which saw itself as defending the concept of states’ rights – have endured to this day. The Tea Party has some of its greatest support among southern whites, while Obama draws much of his support from the North – especially the Northeast. But there is another key historical factor that has fed into the American right’s tradition of personal freedom and individual rights: the frontier spirit. As white colonisation moved westward, successive generations experienced the relative lack of government interference and protection – and the feelings of personal freedom and self-reliance that this encouraged. Frontier Thesis White America’s expansion westwards was ideologically symbolised by the concept of ‘manifest destiny’ – the ‘self-evident’ right to take over the continent. In the 1890s, the idea of rugged individualism being generated by the frontier experience of successive generations was ideologically reinforced by an American historian, Frederick Jackson Turner, in his ‘Frontier Thesis’. Indeed, the thesis itself helped to ideologically elevate ‘frontier’ ideas of personal freedom and self-reliance as parts of Americans’ political self-image. The process was also helped by the image of the cowboy or even the outlaw as portrayed in the 20th century by countless western films, beginning with 1903’s The Great Train Robbery. But these traditions of ‘rugged individualism’ and local rights have gradually collided with other identities and aspirations. In the 1860s, the American Civil War ended slavery but not racial oppression. Black people soon faced renewed discrimination, terrible violence and murder at the hands of southern white secret societies like the Ku Klux Klan – as well as appalling poverty. It was only in the 1960s that the federal government passed laws to bring southern racial segregation to an end. As the civil rights movement peaked in the 1960s, the anti-Vietnam war movement, rock music, sexual liberation, drugs and other factors combined to create an anti-authoritarian youth counter-culture, which in turn helped provoke a right-wing Christian

1790-1850 Major early political conflicts between federal and individual states’ interests 1861-65 American Civil War 1875-1964 Racial segregation in southern states 1880s Trades union movement gains momentum 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner’s ‘Frontier Thesis’ 1903 First ‘western’ movie, The Great Train Robbery 1930s The New Deal 1960s Civil rights and counter-culture provoke rightwing Christian backlash, especially in the Bible Belt 2008 Democratic candidate Barack Obama elected the USA’s first black President 2009 The Tea Party movement emerges

backlash – notably in the South – the socalled Bible Belt. Economically, American industrial growth had created a large, mainly northern, working class that often valued pan-US politico-economic initiatives and nationwide trade union organisation rather than individuals’ and states’ rights. The New Deal (President Roosevelt’s nationwide initiative to end the Great Depression) has iconic status in that northern working-class tradition. And it is organised labour, civil rights organisations, and activists for other liberal causes that make up much of the modern Democratic Party. In a sense, it’s the clash between the Tea Party on the right and those on the left who selected and voted for Obama in 2008 that represents the great rift that has determined so much of America’s history. That ideological division is in a way even more significant than the historic rivalries between Democrats and Republicans. While conflicting attitudes to federal power has been a recurrent theme in US history, the Democratic/Republican dichotomy itself has, of course, not always been the same ideological battleground that it is today. David Keys has worked on more than a dozen BBC TV history and archaeology documentaries and is a specialist correspondent for The Independent.

find out more E The Story of American Freedom by Eric Foner (WW Norton, 1998) August 2012

Dickens: a brief history

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Born: 7 February 1812, Portsmouth Married: 1836 to Catherine ‘Kate’ Hogarth Died: 9 June 1870 Children: Ten – Charles Jr, Mary, Kate, Walter, Francis, Alfred, Sydney, Henry, Dora and Edward

E The second of six children, Charles Dickens spent his early years in Chatham, Kent, before the family moved to London when he was 11. When his father was imprisoned for bad debts, young Charles was forced to leave school and work in a boot polish factory, the grim experience of which was revisited in novels like David Copperfield and Great Expectations. Obsessed by books as a child, in adult life Dickens became a parliamentary journalist for

The Morning Chronicle before, in 1836, seeing his debut novel, The Pickwick Papers, begin its serialisation. Its success was followed by a string of equally well-received novels, making Dickens the best-loved author of his generation. Phenomenally prolific, he also published autobiographies, travel books and plays, and edited periodicals. He died from a stroke in 1870 at the age of 58.

charles Dickens

Greatest writers

Charles Dickens On the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’s birth, Jonathan Grossman explores the ways in which the 19th-century transport revolution in the United Kingdom impacted on Dickens’s life, and how it became the backdrop for many of his classic novels

was in the carriage that did not go down, but that hung inexplicably suspended in the air over the side of the broken bridge,” Charles Dickens reported. “It was caught upon the turn by some of the ruin of the bridge, and hung suspended and balanced in an apparently impossible manner.” On 9 June 1865, the South Eastern Railway’s timetable showed the Saturday tidal train from Folkestone would arrive at Headcorn station, in the county of Kent in south-east England, at 5.20pm. A foreman working near Staplehurst, down the line from Headcorn, calculated there was plenty of time for his crew to replace the last of the baulks of the small viaduct on which they were working. So they took up the track. But 9 June 1865 was not a Saturday. It was a Friday. The foreman had the day wrong and had looked at the wrong timetable. The tidal train would arrive in under half an hour. The front of the doomed train managed to leap the trackless little bridge – Charles Dickens, in the second passenger carriage, barely made it across. The next eight passenger carriages did not. Dickens carefully clambered out onto the step of his carriage. “Some people in the two other

“I

compartments were madly trying to plunge out at a window, and had no idea that there was an open swampy field 15 feet down below them and nothing else! The two guards (one with his face cut) were running up and down… quite wildly. I called out to them.” Rescue mission The guards recognised the famous writer and gave him the key to open and empty his carriage (in those days train carriages were locked from the outside). He spent hours helping the hurt and dying, and removing the dead. One blood-soaked man had “such a frightful cut across the skull that I couldn’t bear to look at him”. Dickens cleaned his wound and gave him drink, but to no avail. Ten died in total and 40 were injured. “No imagination can conceive the ruin of the carriages, or the extraordinary weights under which the people were lying, or the complications into which they were twisted up among iron and wood, and mud and water,” Dickens noted. “I don’t want to write about it,” he confided to a friend. Charles Dickens was born in 1812 in E Portsmouth on the south coast of England.

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charles Dickens

E During his lifetime, he saw huge advances in technology as the Industrial Revolution brought about great change in the way people lived, worked and travelled. Their impact on Dickens’s life and works cannot be underestimated. He brilliantly observed the revolution in public transport of his time – and its potential to bring disparate people together. The development of the smooth, waterproofed ‘macadamised’ roads, combined with a system of turnpikes erected to fund road repair, produced Britain’s improved highways and its professional road engineers. For the stagecoaches running on the roads, the decisive boost came in 1784 when theatre manager John Palmer observed: “The post at present, instead of being the swiftest, is almost the slowest conveyance in this country; and though from the great

improvement in our roads, other carriers have proportionally mended their speed, the post is as slow as ever.” Palmer decried mail delivery being “trusted to some idle Boy… mounted on a worn-out Hack.”

Dickens spent hours helping the hurt and dying, and removing the dead

Instead, he successfully proposed that the government implement a swift network of Royal Mail carriages. Some incidental revenue would come from selling inside seats to passengers and, almost by accident,

the new Royal Mail coaches ignited commercial competition among stagecoaches. A race in networking the nation was on. It soon became quicker to ride as a passenger in a wheeled vehicle than to head out on horseback. The stagecoaches travelled at an unprecedented average speed of 16km/h (10mph), with top speeds of around 22km/h (14mph). Inns, stationed roughly every 16km (10 miles), provided a fresh set of horses at each stage. Rail revolution In 1829, in speed trials at Rainhill in the north west of the country, George Stephenson’s Rocket locomotive out-raced horsedrawn coaches. The following year, commercial steam railway commuting began, with passenger coaches that had been ‘trained’ together, providing services between

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Transport in Dickens’s novels How the travel revolution affected the great man’s writing

The Pickwick Papers

The Old Curiosity Shop

Little Dorrit

written 1840-41

written 1855-57

Dickens’s first novel celebrates the comingtogether of a regional public transport system. Its hero takes his name from the Bath stagecoach line run by Moses Pickwick. The story’s adventures are structured as five separate round-trip journeys from London. These generate a sense of community radiating from the transport network as Dickens reflects on the possibilities of how mobility can unify people.

A young girl, Little Nell, walks from London to just beyond Birmingham. As one character warns her, the long, macadamised highways are “paths never made for feet like yours”. This fatal trek severs her from the family, friends, and even enemies that she leaves behind in London. They simply cannot track her down. In this story, Dickens recounts a tragedy about the limits of the network and those whom it excludes.

Dickens carefully plots the criss-crossing lives of fellow travellers who will never know they were all in Marseille together at their story’s opening. Little Dorrit is the first of Dickens’s novels to open in an overseas location and, appropriately enough, on the illustrated cover of the original serialised version, a steamer crosses the far horizon, as if to acknowledge this new and exciting international connectivity.

written 1836-37

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A Tale Of Two Cities

Great Expectations

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” How to define the period of the French revolution? Dickens’s answer is partly to show that, looking back from the railways and steam ships of the 1850s, the revolution that mattered most was not a political one. There was another revolution freeing the people, one that allowed them to travel to and experience other places, a privilege previously reserved for the aristocratic elite.

Great Expectations tells the story of an orphan boy, Pip Pirrip, who mistakenly believes he has grown up in an isolated village and who must learn that he cannot account for his life simply by what happens to him locally. The invisible activity of others also defines his life. At the novel’s climax, Magwitch, the stranger Pip encounters in the marshes as a boy, returns from Australia to reveal unexpectedly that it is he who is Pip’s benefactor.

written 1859

written 1860–61

Ten transport milestones Key staging posts along the revolutionary highway of Dickensian times

In 1829, George Stephenson’s Rocket raced – and beat – horse-drawn coaches

Manchester and Liverpool. In 1836, just as Dickens put quill pen to ink pot and began his first novel, the first railway station in London opened. By then, a whole new set of railed roads were rapidly being cut, embanked, spanned and levelled across the nation’s landscape. The new rail system was fast. Dickens celebrated an 1851 journey from London through Staplehurst to Folkestone: “Here we are – no, I mean there we were… Flash! The distant shipping in the Thames is gone. Whirr!… Dustheaps, market gardens, and waste grounds. Rattle! New Cross Station. Shock! There we were at Croyden. Bur-r-r-r! The tunnel… I am… flying for Folkestone… Reigate Station… Bang!… Everything is flying.” “The hop-gardens turn gracefully towards me, presenting regular avenues of hops in rapid flight, then whirl away. Now a wood, now a bridge, now a landscape, now a cutting – Bang! There was a cricket match somewhere with two white tents, and then four flying cows, then turnips – now the wires of the electric telegraph are all alive, and spin, and blur their edges, and go up and down… Corn sheaves, hop gardens, Stations… now fresher air, now the sea, now Folkestone at a quarter after ten.” By the 1850s, London to Folkestone was an easy two-anda-half-hour rail journey. It had taken five hours by coach in the 1820s, 11 hours in the 1770s and a matter of days before that. Paris became three times closer to London. As Dickens observes, telegraph lines run next to the rail tracks, meaning that the two cities could communicate instantaneously.

No wonder Dickens decided to tell the history of Paris and London by merging them together into a single story: A Tale Of Two Cities (1859). The world was shrinking and foreign travel soon grew in both popularity and regularity – among those who could afford it. In Rome, Dickens observed of some English visitors: “Mr and Mrs Davis, and their party, had, probably, been brought from London in about nine or ten days. Eighteen hundred years ago, the Roman legions under Claudius protested against being led into Mr and Mrs Davis’ country, urging that it lay beyond the limits of the world.” Dickens was seeing those limits swallowed by a passenger transport network. Dickens is reported as remarking that “the world was so much smaller than we thought it; we were all so connected... without knowing it; people supposed to be far apart were so constantly elbowing each other.” Endless possibilities Dickens’s novels, with their gallery of characters and their multi-stranded, intersecting plots, teach us about the act of imagination required to grasp this bewildering, bustling interconnectivity. For his first novel, 1837’s The Pickwick Papers, Dickens’s hero Pickwick was sent out to journey around the regional stagecoach system. The novel celebrates a public transport system that brought people together and sped them on their ways. “The only question,” Pickwick wonders, “is where do we go next?” As a well-off, E jovial, roaming spirit, Pickwick

Dickens lived in, and wrote about, exciting times in transport history

1 Turnpikes

A series of parliamentary acts establish turnpike trusts – tolls erected to fund road repair – during the 18th century. As a consequence, roads return to a level of repair not seen since Roman times.

2 Mail coaches In 1784, Royal Mail coaches begin carrying the post. Passengers embrace riding in these new, speedy and tightly scheduled vehicles. 3 Steam paddle ships

Henry Bell’s steam paddle ship Comet begins a commercial commuter service on the River Clyde between Glasgow and Greenock in 1812, the year of Dickens’s birth.

4 Horseback eclipsed

The fast-driving stagecoaching network peaks in the 1820s and ’30s. Inter-city travelling as a post or stagecoach passenger supersedes horseback riding.

5 Channel crossings The first steam-powered, cross-channel passenger packet ship, Rob Roy, puffs out of Dover for Calais in 1821, marking the era of international steam travel. 6 Rocket George Stephenson’s steam locomotive Rocket officially defeats the stagecoach at the Rainhill Trials in 1829. 7 Railway mania

Speculative ‘railway mania’ in the 1840s, creating financial bubbles, accompanies the establishment of a national rail network.

8 Atlantic crossing Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s SS Great Britain crosses the Atlantic in 1845. The ship launches an era of leviathan steam liners. 9 The great railways The Great Indian Peninsula Railway and the American transcontinental railway open for coast-to-coast travel in the 1860s. Both serve an international network, as well as domestic passengers. 10 Ocean ‘shortcuts’ Royal Mail stagecoaches offered unrivalled speeds of 22km/h (14mph)

The Suez Canal opens in Egypt in 1869. Ocean ‘shortcuts’ dramatically speed global passenger travel.

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charles Dickens

E represents the transport network’s sunny, unifying side. By contrast, in The Old Curiosity Shop from 1840, Dickens exposed the network’s darker, exclusionary side, focusing on a vulnerable young girl, targeted by others for exploitation. The tale recounts the brutal trek of Little Nell from London to Birmingham by foot. Meanwhile, the heroes and villains chasing her grimly expose that the network binds them all together, regardless of who they are or what they are trying to do.

Going international In 1857’s Little Dorrit, Dickens rendered the complexity of crisscrossing plots across an international terrain. His plan was for “people to meet and part as travellers do, and the future connexion between them in the story, not to be

now shown to the reader but to be worked out as in life.” It showed how people never see enough to know how they might be connected to the strangers they pass on their journeys. In the calamity at Staplehurst, the public transport system made itself abruptly felt on a train full of strangers who found their fates bound together. On the train with them was Dickens’s manuscript of Our Mutual Friend and, in a postscript to the 1865 novel, he described the accident, playfully evoking the crash as interrupting his imaginary characters’ lives: “On Friday the Ninth of June in the present year, Mr and Mrs Boffin (in their manuscript dress of receiving Mr and Mrs Lammle at breakfast) were on the South Eastern Railway with me, in a terribly destructive accident. When I had done what I could to help others, I climbed back

rex, Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA

“The world was much smaller than we thought it; we were all so connected... without knowing it”

Many of Dickens’s novels have been dramatised, including this 1988 movie version of Little Dorrit

into my carriage – nearly turned over the viaduct, and caught aslant upon the turn – to extricate the worthy couple. They were much soiled, but otherwise unhurt. The same happy result attended Miss Bella Wilfer on her wedding day, and Mr Riderhood inspecting Bradley Headstone’s red neckerchief as he lay asleep.” As Dickens knows the reader knows, the characters’ time inside the story cannot really be coordinated with events outside the book – the foreman misreading the schedule or the train plummeting off the bridge. Only inside the novel does the writer reveal the characters’ lives interweaving in time. Yet the serious message lurking behind Dickens’s playful description is perhaps that an accident in the public transport system offers a reminder that as we go here and there about our different activities, we are all connected. Jonathan Grossman is Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.

find out more E Charles Dickens’s Networks: Public Transport and the Novel by Jonathan Grossman (OUP, 2012)

Dickens attends to the gravely injured at the 1865 Staplehurst rail disaster 38

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E www.dickens2012.org Overview of the many ways the bicentenary of Dickens’s birth is being celebrated this year

Snapshot

McFlurry of activity 31 january 1990

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It was chaos on both sides of the counter as McDonald’s opened its first restaurant behind the increasingly flimsy Iron Curtain 20 years ago. The branch, situated in Moscow’s Pushkin Square, instantly became the chain’s largest, able to serve 700 diners at a time. Its first day of trading also set a new record for the company with 30,000 eager customers, their enthusiasm undented by the prices – a Big Mak, kartoffel-fries and ice-cream koktel (milkshake) cost 5.5 rubles, half an average daily wage. Following the success of this first Moscow branch (the Russian capital is now home to over 100 McDonald’s restaurants), the chain set up shop in China 10 months later.

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History

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“The view is amazing, way better than I thought,” said Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner after one of a series of practice jumps. Baumgartner, whose previous leaps include hurling himself from the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro, is seen here moments before jumping from Red Bull Stratos over Roswell, New Mexico, at a height of 21,800m (71,500ft) on 15 March. Even this is still nothing more than a test leap ahead of the big one. Later this summer, Baumgartner hopes to jump from a staggering 36,500m – 23 miles. The feat will see him free fall for five minutes 35 seconds, reaching a speed of Mach 1 (690mph) to beat the record held by US pilot Joe Kittinger since 1960.

Above New Mexico

On top of the world

Science

Nature

Fish face Bridled parrotfish

David doubilet / national geographic

This otherworldly grin is perhaps unexpectedly to be found in the waters of the Caribbean, on the face of a bridled parrotfish (Scarus frenatus). The brightly coloured tropical fish, which generally reaches up to 50 centimetres (20in) in length, uses its teeth as a tool to scrape algae from rocks and coral. While sometimes destructive to individual corals, the parrotfishâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efforts are mostly beneficial, as algae growth could otherwise smother the reef. The fishâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s teeth grow continuously as they are worn down by the grinding action, and it excretes the ground-up coral as sand.

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An Asiatic lioness and her cubs, pictured at the subspeciesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lone haunt â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a forested reserve in north-west India. DNA studies show that the closest living relatives of Asiatic lions in the wild are those in West Africa

asiatic Lions

The teak forest of Gir is now the sole refuge for a big cat that hunted across swathes of Asia just a century ago. Luke Hunter considers the future of the Asiatic lion. Photos by Uri Golman

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asiatic Lions

Sisterly love: grooming strengthens social bonds. As in Africa, related lionesses form the heart of every Gir Forest pride

ixteen years ago I hosted a delegation from India to South Africa’s Phinda Private Game Reserve. Led by Ravi Chellam, an expert on Asiatic lions, the expedition tapped into South Africa’s extraordinary expertise in transporting big game. Phinda’s forte was recreating thriving populations of lions that had disappeared decades earlier due to conflict with people. By the time of our visit, the technique – scientists call it ‘wild-wild translocation’ – was so polished that restoring lions to their former range in southern Africa had become virtually routine. Ravi’s team left with a wealth of insights into the complex business of rehoming wild lions. This knowhow would be critical if their assignment was to have any chance of

success. The task? To establish a new population of the famed lions of India’s Gir Forest, the only members of the species left outside Africa. We tend to forget that, though lions are probably the ultimate symbols of the African savannah, they were once just as iconic in southern Asia. Roughly 2,000 years ago, their range extended across much of Africa and from modern-day Greece around the southern shores of the Black Sea, through the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula, and deep into north-east India (see map, p50). But as wave upon wave of human empires rose and fell across the region, the lions inexorably faded away. Like most powerful, expansionist cultures, the Romans, Mughals, British and others were passionate about

as wave upon wave of human empires rose and fell across the region, the lions inexorably melted away. 48

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hunting – and large, dangerous carnivores such as lions were highly prized quarries. By the end of the 19th century, the cats’ last North African outpost was in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, and their Asian range had shrunk to a few fragments in Iran, Iraq, India and, possibly, Pakistan.The region’s leonine subspecies (Asiatic lions are genetically distinct from, and slightly smaller than, their African counterparts) was clinging to survival by the tips of its retractable claws. Saved by a prince By 1900, Gir held the last viable population of Asiatic lions, just two dozen strong.The district’s ruling prince, Nawab Rasulkhanji of Junagadh, was reputedly a great marksman who had hunted leopards, but fortunately he had no desire to finish off their larger relatives. Instead, he placed strict restrictions on hunting the Gir lions, a moratorium that would save them. After its independence in 1947, India formalised the nawab’s edicts by E

asiatic Lions

A cub scrambles up a tree, perhaps enticed by a bird. Adult lions also climb trees, but less capably than leopards, the only other big cats in the Gir Forest

fa c t f i l e Lion distribution IN AFrica, europe and asia Greece ad c100 Turkey 1874 Tunisia 1891

Mediterranean Sea

Morocco 1942

Syria 1837 Iraq 1918

Iran 1957 Pakistan 1935?

ASIAtic LION Panthera leo persica

 Length Head and body (average): 2.75m (male); 2.6m (female).

INDIA AFRICA Junagadh

 Weight Adult male: 160–190kg; adult female: 110–120kg.  Diet Chital, sambar, nilgai and wild boar; also domestic livestock.

Gir Main forest areas

Atlantic Ocean

 Life-cycle Breeds all year; births peak February–early April. Litters of 1–5 cubs are born after a gestation of 110–116 days.  Habitat Forest and semi-arid scrub.  Status Endangered; threats include forest degradation, drowning in wells and retaliatory killings by local herders.

 setting up lion reserves on the southern tip of the Kathiawar Peninsula in Gujarat, starting with the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in 1965. Later additions brought 1,450km2 under protection, and this tract of dry, hilly forest became known as the Gir Conservation Area. In 2010, the lion census identified 411 individuals in Gujarat – though this tally is deceptively high: it included about 150 sub-adults and cubs, many of which will never reach breeding age. To appreciate how close to oblivion the Gir lions came, one need only take a good look at their appearance. Most of them – males in particular – have a prominent ridge of loose skin along their bellies. A limited number of African lions share this characteristic, but its near ubiquity in Gir lions points to their genetic homogeneity. Hunting forced the handful of animals saved by the nawab through what biologists refer to as a ‘population bottleneck’, 50

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Indian Ocean

Current range in Asia Known and possible range in Africa Probable range in first century AD Date of regional extinction

causing inbreeding; today’s descendants are all closely related. Size matters Physical differences notwithstanding, Asiatic lions display much the same ecological hallmarks as African ones. Related females form the nucleus of each pride and defend stable territories from other matrilines. Meanwhile, adult males – also usually related – establish small coalitions that co-operate to guard the females in their prides from rival groups. But, in Gir,

Fossil evidence suggests that the lion evolved in East Africa perhaps 3.5 million years ago. But, just as early humans left Africa during the Pleistocene epoch (1.8 million–10,000 years ago) to colonise much of the world, so, too, did the lion. By the Late Pleistocene, it was one of the most widely distributed large mammals, with a range encompassing most of Africa, Eurasia and – thanks to the Bering land bridge – the Americas. Eventually, the species occurred as far south as what is now Peru. The lion vanished from North America 12,000 years ago, and in Europe held out in the mountains of northern Greece until the first century AD.

everything is downsized. Lion coalitions here normally comprise just two males, compared with up to nine (but usually two to four) in East and Southern Africa. Similarly, most prides in the Gir Forest have two or three lionesses, with six considered a very large number; by contrast, 4–11 lionesses is typical for East and Southern African prides, and some have as many as 20. Gir lions of both sexes also spend much more time alone than their more gregarious African cousins. The reason is food. As a rule, the larger their prey, the more sociable lions are likely to be. In African savannahs teeming with large herbivores such as zebra, wildebeest and This bloodied male was hurt during the mating season. Male Gir lions’ manes are rarely as luxuriant as African ones

asiatic Lions

Lionesses and their cubs slake their thirst. Water is scarce in the Gir, so Forest Department staff keep a network of drinking pools topped up for the wildlife

buffalo, the need to defend big kills was probably a key factor compelling lions to band together at an early stage in their evolution. A lone lioness on a zebra kill in the open attracts unwanted attention, so it makes sense to team up with related females: it’s better to share with family than to have your meal stolen by unrelated lions or other scavengers. By the same token, small prey items are less likely to be lost to competitors, simply because they can be eaten faster. Sure enough, the main food of Gir lions – the chital, or spotted deer – is among the smallest preferred lion prey anywhere (a female chital weighs on average about 50kg). A further factor that keeps the Gir lions small is the landscape itself – the rolling hills and valleys covered with a dense mosaic of teak forest and semi-arid scrub help to conceal kills from

other predators. It has been suggested, based on these observations, that lion sociality in Gir is gradually breaking down, as if these cats are somehow becoming less leonine. But in fact this behavioural shift reflects the inherent flexibility of the species’ social system. Asiatic lions are no less successful than the great prides of buffalo hunters in Kruger National Park, or the elephant-killing lions of northern Botswana. Conflict... and recovery Unfortunately, there is another parallel between India’s last lions and those in Africa: the ubiquitous presence of people and their livestock. Gir lions sometimes take domesticated buffalo and cattle belonging to the local Maldhari people, leading to inevitable conflicts in which lions are rarely the winner.

A cub snarls defensively to warn a sub-adult that it is getting too rough

Asiatic lions are no less successful than the prides of buffalo hunters in kruger, or the elephant killers of botswana.

In the early 1970s, a radical policy was implemented. At the time, there were about 4,800 pastoralists and 25,000 head of livestock within the boundaries of Gir. But between 1972 and 1987, two-thirds of the Maldhari families were moved out of the area. Though hugely controversial and plagued by long-term problems, this resettlement programme was, nevertheless, pivotal in saving the Gir Forest and its lions. Livestock compete with native herbivores for food, and this E August 2012

asiatic Lions

Cubs toy with meat from a kill, under the attentive gaze of their mother

pressure is exacerbated by the local people’s need to cut down trees for cattle fodder and fuel for cooking fires. Before the resettlement policy, Gir held only 5,600–6,400 wild grazing animals – mostly chital and other lion prey such as wild boar and the larger sambar deer. In 2010, the estimate was nearer 65,000: a spectacular ten-fold increase made possible by the recovery of the forest. But the human pressures are fast reaching boiling point again.Today, Gir

is home to 6,000 people and almost the same number of livestock as in 1970 (herders and their animals have access to most of the conservation area, apart from the National Park at its heart). Another 100,000 people, together with their 95,000 cows and buffalo, live in villages on the forest’s boundaries. Astonishingly, despite these changes, the lions have managed to establish satellite populations in wooded areas outside Gir, which now hold one in four of the cats. Most

All photos by urigolman.com

As in Africa, mortality among sub-adult lions and cubs is high – many won’t survive to breed

fragments of suitable habitat have been occupied, though, leaving fewer options for new prides to establish territories. Human frailties This brings us back to Ravi’s 1996 mission. After years of conservation initiatives that have filled Gir to capacity, there is still only one population of wild Asiatic lions. The endangered subspecies has yet to benefit from the translocation techniques learned in South Africa. Gujarat’s neighbour to the east, the state of Madhya Pradesh, has been readying the Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary to receive surplus lions from the Gir Forest, which lies 830km away. Though the reserve covers only 347km2, it is surrounded by a forested landscape 10 times that size, and so represents probably the last realistic hope for Asiatic lions anywhere outside Gujarat. Madhya Pradesh and the Indian Government have spent millions of pounds restoring Kuno-Palpur. As in the Gir Forest, this work has involved resettling villages (a total of 24 were moved), leading to forest regeneration and booming numbers of herbivores. All that’s missing is the lions.

asiatic Lions

Each year thousands of tourists see the Gir Forest’s lions

Gujarat has done a remarkable job rescuing Asiatic lions from extinction – so much so that the felines have outgrown their only home in a century Sadly, they may never roam this reserve.The obstacles are neither biological nor socio-economic – the main reasons why large carnivore translocations are typically so challenging – but political.The state government of Gujarat refuses to part with its lions. Depending on who you believe, its motives range from fervent Gujarati pride in its enviable record of protecting Asiatic lions, to maintaining its tourism monopoly over these handsome cats. It’s a high-stakes gamble: small, isolated populations of animals are vulnerable to catastrophes such as disease epidemics.Without doubt, Gujarat has done a remarkable job of

rescuing Asiatic lions from extinction – so much so that the felines have outgrown their only home in a century. Whether their roars will still reverberate through the teak trees of Gir in 100 years’ time remains to be seen. Luke Hunter is president of Panthera, a charity dedicated to big cat conservation, Luke is on a mission to save large felines in an ever more crowded world. For more details, visit www.panthera.org

find out more E www.discover wildlife.com Enjoy more of Uri’s stunning photos of the Gir lions online.

now you do it Getting there  Internal flights serve Diu and Porbandar; continue by road to the Gir Forest. When to go  November to February is best for wildlife viewing.  Extremely hot summer (April–May) is followed by monsoon (June– September).

information on Gir; www.gujaratlion.com  Velavadar National Park, 240km north-east of Gir, is a stronghold for the rare blackbuck (below). The rut is in February.  Dhrangadhra Sanctuary, to the north, supports the endangered Asiatic wild ass.

Wildlife highlights  Gir Forest is home to leopards, striped hyenas and small carnivores such as mongooses as well as lions.  Gir’s open grassland is home to many herbivores: chital and sambar deer, wild boar, chinkara gazelles and two species of antelope – nilgai and four-horned.  Gujarat State Lion Conservation Society has

August 2012

The unblinking eye of a Papuan forest dragon keeps watch over a habitat that has remained unchanged since New Guinea and Australia formed one continent

Nature’s survivors

Travels in

NATURE’S

time machine

How do some lineages endure for millions of years? Delving into the past, Piotr Naskrecki reveals what it takes to be a survivor. Photos by Piotr Naskrecki other moose and her calf pulled their heads out of the water and began to chew mouthfuls of aquatic plants. The crowd at the edge of a shallow pond in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, gasped in adoration, and a staccato of camera shutters filled the air. I glanced at my watch and decided that it was time to go. In less than an hour, the sunset would trigger a spectacle even more arresting than this, and I did not want to miss it. I had come to Wyoming to hear the evening song of a chubby, cricket-like insect known as the grig Cyphoderris, whose direct ancestors were possibly the very first land animals to use sound communication to attract mates.To me, listening to grigs feels almost like a trip back in time. Sing when you’re winning The last relics of an insect group that thrived in the Jurassic (200–140 million years ago), grigs are now found in only a few cold areas of the Rocky Mountains and the Himalaya. Their wings lack the sophistication of those of modern crickets, preserving a snippet of an evolutionary history that has produced the choruses we enjoy every summer. Fossils from the Mesozoic era (250–65 million years ago) are almost indistinguishable from today’s grigs, evidence of how little the species’ appearance has changed in the past 150 million years. Since then, other, younger groups – crickets and katydids – have become the dominant singers of the insect world, having developed efficient, highly August 2012

E 57

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Nature’s survivors

Visit the mountain meadows of Wyoming to hear the planet’s oldest singing insect. The lineage of the sagebrush grig dates back at least 180 million years

E complex sound-producing structures on their wings. Grigs, meanwhile, have almost disappeared completely. Almost. For some – still poorly understood – reasons, certain very old groups of organisms are much better at long-term survival than others. Trilobites (marine arthropods) and horseshoe crabs scuttled side by side in the seas of the Paleozoic era (540–250 million years ago), but only one of these lineages made it to the present. Crocodiles outlived dinosaurs; nautiluses outlasted ammonites. Charles Darwin called such organisms ‘living fossils’, though contemporary biologists shy away from this virtually indefinable term and prefer to call them ‘phylogenetic relics’ instead (phylogenetic meaning the evolution and diversification of a group of organisms). After all, none of the surviving members of the once-dominant but now largely extinct old lineages is the same species as those that we know from prehistoric fossils. They are all modern animals and plants, perfectly adapted to current environmental conditions and shaped by recent selective forces.Yet their bodies still bear baggage – older, less efficient or simpler 58

August 2012

structures and organs than those of their more recently evolved peers. The existence of these relics helps us to reconstruct the evolutionary paths that lead back to their long-gone ancestors. But one big question remains: what makes one ‘species river’ dry out completely, leaving behind only faint impressions in old, sedimentary rocks, while other old lineages survive? Cold Comforts A few tiny islands off New Zealand provide a clue.They are home to the tuatara Sphenodon punctatus – the last living member of the Sphenodontia, a reptile group that roamed the land and seas of the Mesozoic.That group all but vanished when modern lizards appeared The tree-sized on the scene; today, only the tuatara carries the ancestors of genetic heritage of this lineage. today’s horsetails Despite its ancient provenance, the tuatara were among the has been able to keep pace with the younger dominant plant lizards flourishing in New Zealand because species in the E Devonian period it is a modern, highly evolved animal,

Natures survivours A century of intensive harvesting has drastically reduced populations of horseshoe crabs – here, the Atlantic species – whose ancestors scuttled the shores of 450 million years ago

5 ways to live forever No single feature unites all relic lineages, but there are some common strategies that help them to survive. 1 live on the edge With fewer rival species, extreme habitats provide refuges for many relics:  Cold Alpine environments are home to organisms such as ice crawlers and grigs.  Deep oceans provide a safe haven for frilled sharks and vampire squids.  Hot hydrothermal vents are inhabited by archaeabacteria.

2 Protect yourself Some relics have exceptionally effective defence mechanisms:

 Amoebocytes in horseshoe crabs’ blood create clots when exposed to bacterial toxins, protecting the internal organs from infection.  Scorpions have a beta-carboline coating on their bodies that limits ultraviolet penetration.  Yews contain toxins that make them unpalatable to almost any herbivores.

3 Have a back-up plan Relics can often survive long periods of dormancy or major damage to their bodies:  Lungfish spend months buried in the sand if water becomes unavailable.  Cycads can spend many months without leaves and roots, and can survive almost complete burning.  Tadpole shrimp eggs can live for years out of water, hatching and reproducing with amazing speed when rehydrated.

4 Form alliances Some relics have become more adaptable and competitive by developing partnerships:  Cycads have a symbiotic relationship with cyanobacteria. These take nitrogen from the air, enabling the plants to grow in virtually sterile conditions.  Termites have flourished since the Jurassic thanks in part to their symbiosis with protozoans, which help them to digest wood.

5 Be flexible Members of very old lineages can often live in a range of environmental conditions:  Tardigrades (water bears) can withstand complete desiccation, very high pressure and temperatures ranging from –272°C to 150°.  Ferns grow in both full sun and shade, thanks to their unique photoreceptors. August 2012

Nature’s survivors

E with features that give it a competitive edge. True, it shares many characteristics – such as its primitive skull and lack of ear membranes – with its Mesozoic ancestors. But it has evolved advanced assets, too. One of these is a tolerance of cool weather.Tuataras can hunt, mate and live generally fulfilling lives even when conditions fall below 20°C, the lowest optimal temperature for any reptile.The ability to cope in the cold is the reason why many other ancient groups have been able to survive in the face of competition from their modern relatives. Grigs, the last survivors of the first singing insects, have not been surpassed by younger crickets because their contemporary cousins cannot move, let alone sing, when temperatures fall below freezing. By contrast, grigs have been recorded chirping in a decidedly nippy –8°C, enabling them to colonise alpine habitats that rivals cannot. Similarly, the ice crawlers Grylloblatta spp., also survivors of the Mesozoic insect fauna, have made a home on North America’s glaciers where, unperturbed by competitors or predators, they feed on insects blown onto the ice. Pines and spruces, which date back to the Triassic (the first period of the Mesozoic), also dominate cold alpine and sub-Arctic ecosystems.We know that Mesozoic Earth was much warmer than the planet is today, thus the tolerance for cold weather is a more recent adaptation, reflected in changes to these organisms’ physiology and behaviour.They may look old, but they’ve been keeping up with the times.

Tough and Toxic Coping with cold is not the only successful strategy.The lowly horsetails Equisetum spp. resemble smaller versions of their tree-like ancestors from the Carboniferous period (360–300 million years ago), and have retained most of their features. But they have reinforced their tissues with strips of crystalline silica, a compound that damages herbivores’ teeth and mandibles. Few animals can munch on horsetails. Making yourself virtually unpalatable is a great way to stay alive, and the cycads are another group to have adopted this strategy. These ancient plants have hardly changed since the Permian period (300–250 million years ago). Their tissues are permeated with toxins so powerful that they will alter the DNA of anything that ingests them. They can spawn deadly tumours and damage nervous systems, causing death or debilitating diseases, and these effects even pass down to the offspring of an unfortunate consumer. Unsurprisingly, then, no large herbivores feed on cycads, and only a handful of insects can digest them. The best survival strategy, however, is to be a generalist.The one constant of all Earth’s environments is their continuous evolution. Climates change, foods disappear and entire ecosystems vanish following cataclysmic events.There is no faster way to become part of the fossil record than to specialise too narrowly, be it on specific foods or a limited temperature range. E

Ice crawlers rarely suffer from competition in their glacial habitats

A pair of giant leaf frogs prepare to mate in a rainforest in Guyana, part of a still-wild portion of South America’s Guiana Shield

The common cuscus is a possum-like marsupial of New Guinea

Nature’s survivors

The quiver tree is one of perhaps 9,000 plant species crammed into an area of only 90,000km2 in South Africa’s Cape Floral Kingdom

living museums AROUND THE WORLD Individual organisms and lineages are not the only relics of our planet’s past. Entire ecosystems, or ecological sanctuaries, can act as ‘time capsules’ – examples of environmental conditions that have disappeared elsewhere due to climatic changes, the movement of tectonic plates or human activity.

1 Guiana Shield Situated on some of the oldest rocks

on Earth, the forests of the Guiana Shield in the northern portion of South America preserve the pre-Columbian conditions of the continent. The human population across most of this region is similar to that of the Arctic and, as such, many areas remain pristine and unexplored.

2 Cape Floral Kingdom

1 2 3 4

One of the richest plant communities in the world, the fynbos and succulent karoo biomes are the result of the Miocene climate change that took place in southern Africa about six million years ago. They have remained almost unchanged ever since. More than 9,000 species of plants can be found here, nearly three-quarters of which are endemic.

3 Atewa Forest This small forest reserve in Ghana preserves one of the last fragments of the massive rainforest that once covered most of the continent. For at least the past 10 million years, Atewa has acted as a forest refugium, sheltering rainforest flora and fauna during dry periods that caused the disappearance of most of West Africa’s forests.

4 New Guinea

A bright yellow orb-web spider perches on a leaf skeleton in Atewa Forest, Ghana

The island’s forests preserve a fragment of the ancient continent Sahul that included both New Guinea and Australia before rising sea levels separated the two landmasses. Rainforest communities of New Guinea resemble those of Eocene Australia 40 million years ago, before rising temperatures turned it into a much drier environment. August 2012

Nature’s survivors

The ancestors of the tuatara survived largely because New Zealand has been isolated for the past 80 million years

Cycads use toxins to deter herbivores. Their scale-coated trunks are relatively soft and easily damaged

E Conversely, organisms that are able to quickly adapt or survive long periods of adverse circumstances in a dormant state are better equipped to carry their genetic lines into the future. Take horseshoe crabs.The ancestry of these magnificent marine animals dates back to the Ordovician period, around 450 million years ago.They can live in fresh and salt water, in cold seas and tropical coral reefs, survive for days on land, feed on virtually anything organic and withstand attacks from most enemies, including many bacteria. Or consider fairy shrimps Eubranchipus spp., whose eggs are capable of incredible feats of survival.They can remain dormant for many years, in or out of water, and can tolerate being dipped in liquid air (–195°C) and boiling water (100°C).They can be dispersed by wind and, once they’ve landed in the right habitat (even a tyre filled with stagnant water), hatch and complete their development within a few weeks. Hardly surprising, then, that their ancestors were abundant in the seas of the Cambrian period 500 million years ago. There are branches on the tree of life that, for one reason or another, refuse to wither away. They keep on living, producing new leaves for hundreds of millions of years, while other limbs on the tree simply die out. These very old lineages preserve in their genes and morphology evidence that illuminates and helps us to understand the evolution of life on Earth. They give us insight not only into what life was like before us, but also what makes an organism more successful in passing 62

August 2012

Fairy shrimps thrive in the vernal pools of Massachusetts – but they can survive water temperatures up to 100ºC

fairy shrimp eggs can REMAIN DORMANT FOR many YEARS AND tolerate being dipped in liquid air and boiling water

on its genes. Faced with the current demise of global biodiversity, it is more important than ever to spotlight these ancient lineages. Phyletic diversity (the variety of disparate genetic lines and body forms of animals and plants) is more important than a simple richness of species.What, for instance, is more worthy of preservation: three types of parrot, or an ostrich, a parrot and a hummingbird? Such choices should never become a reality but, tragically, often do. It is vital that we allocate our limited resources towards the preservation of the greatest genetic diversity possible. Relics, by default, should always be a conservation priority. Piotr Naskrecki is a writer and entomologist based at Harvard University. His interest in ancient lineages comes from his work on conservation and the evolution of insect behaviour.

find out more www.discoverwildlife.com Enjoy more of Piotr’s astonishing pictures of nature’s survivors in our online gallery.

Animal behaviour

I love whooper swans. Not just for their beauty â&#x20AC;&#x201C; elegant and pure â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but for their fascinating behaviour, at rest and during migration. I traversed the northern hemisphere to tell the transfixing story of three seasons in the life of this elegant bird. I spent six chilly weeks on the island of Hokkaido, northern Japan, to capture the swans in perfect wintry conditions. Then I followed European whoopers on their migration through Sweden to remote central Finland where, over the course of two months, I watched a couple raise their brood.

Staying close Whooper swans are highly sociable in winter, here gathering on a frozen estuary in Odaito, Hokkaido, Japan.

August 2012

landing formation  A trio of swans prepares to land on the frozen surface of Lake Kussharo, alongside some open water – essential for feeding and drinking, and as a safe resting place in the depths of winter. The repetitive calling and signalling that whoopers use to stay in close contact are particularly evident before flight – take-off is often announced by a series of loud honks.

Ice warriors F Two whoopers tussle on the frozen waters of Lake Tofutsu, Hokkaidoˉ. In winter, competition for food or position occasionally leads to vociferous altercations. Though posturing and bluff are common, real physical aggression is relatively rare. When it does occur, it can be prolonged and severe, an assailant gripping its victim by the wing, tail or body with its bill and pursuing, or being towed along by, the fleeing victim.

winter warmer  In late January, flocks of whooper swans gather on Lake Kussharo, Hokkaido. Japan’s largest crater lake is the site of intense geothermal activity that keeps parts ice-free during even the harshest winters. Here, in dawn temperatures below –30°C, swans cluster on a narrow strip of water at the shore when elsewhere in northern Japan plummeting temperatures have caused waters to freeze and forced the swans to depart. In winter whooper swans often gather together in flocks of considerable size. They are highly vocal, producing a range of different calls, both for maintaining contact and for display.

Animal behaviour

August 2012

Swan lake By the beginning of March, the ice on the surface of Lake Kussharo is in retreat. The whoopers are making the most of the open water, feeding and resting to prepare for their springtime migration north to eastern Russia later that month. Couples come together and fights erupt with increasing frequency â&#x20AC;&#x201C; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an exciting period, when the change in atmosphere is palpable. During the winter there are numerous sites in the Far East, particularly in Japan (notably on Hokkaido, my base for this shoot), where the whooper swans are not wary of people; during the breeding season, though, they prefer remote sites away from human populations.

August 2012

Animal behaviour

Cold Comfort Resting swans lose very little heat: such a tiny amount of warmth escapes their insulating feathers that snow settling on their backs doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t melt. This bird, which was photographed on Lake Akkeshi, Hokkaido, has adopted a typical posture: bill buried deep in its plumage, feet tucked up to minimise heat loss. Whoopers usually rest on the ice at the waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edge, huddled close together for protection against the intense chill. Even so, during the harshest winters whoopers have been known to freeze to death overnight, sometimes in large numbers, as occurred at Odaito in the 1960s.

Animal behaviour

Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s out G Newborn cygnets in central Finland follow their mother on their first foray from the nest, to feed and to explore their new environment. Whooper swans typically lay a single clutch of four or five eggs each year, incubated by the female mother for 35 days while the male stands guard. The young benefit from a prolonged bond with both parents, joining them on their first annual migration south in October and the return journey the following spring, assimilating knowledge about the routes as well as suitable feeding, resting and wintering areas. At the age of four or five years, each swan may breed for the first time â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and the cycle begins afresh.

The photographer Stefano Unterthiner spent his early years photographing the mountains near his home in north-west Italy. Trained as a zoologist, he is now an award-winning wildlife photographer.

find out more E www.stefanounterthiner.com Stefano Unterthiner's official website

August 2012

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The man behind the empire

CHANAKYA

The Man Behind the Empire

avn suresh

Himanshu Prabha Ray introduces the brahmin who authored the Arthashastra and defined the rules of Indian politics

August 2012

The man behind the empire

he story of Chanakya starts in its modern avatar with the discovery of the Arthashastra in the early twentieth century and has all the makings of a whodunit. Little was known, either of the treatise on the ‘science of wealth or artha’ or of the author of the text, the Arthashastra except through references by later writers. Rudrapatnam Shamasastry (1868–1944), Sanskrit scholar and librarian of the Oriental Library at Mysore discovered the manuscript of the Arthashastra and published a translation of it in 1906-08. This proved to be a major turning point in the study of India’s ancient past.

Who wrote the Arthashastra? Traditionally, the Arthashastra is believed to have been written in the fourth century BCE by Chanakya, identified as a minister of Chandragupta, the founder of the Mauryan dynasty. The text of the Arthashastra contains four passages, which makes references to its author variously termed Kautilya and Vishnugupta in a verse after the colophon. The colophon itself only refers to the composition of the text or science by him who helped regenerate the earth, which had been under the control of the Nanda dynasty in the fifth and fourth century BCE. The chapter on royal edicts again mentions Kautilya who is credited with the formulation of rules about edicts for the enlightenment of kings. The association of the author of the Arthashastra with political power is further confirmed by the Puranas, the earliest of which date to the fourth century CE. They prophesise that ‘a brahmin Kautilya will uproot them all (i.e. the Nandas) - after they have enjoyed the earth one hundred years, it will pass to the Mauryas. Kautilya will anoint Chandragupta as King in the realm.’ How does one reconcile the different names of the author of the text? Are Kautilya and Chanakya the same person, the former being the gotra (clan) of the latter? Who was Vishnugupta or is his inclusion in the colophon a later interpolation in the manuscript? Finally, how is the author of the Arthashastra associated with the Maurya dynasty?

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Who was Chanakya? The basic elements of the Chanakya narrative describe him as a brahmin who was born with a complete set of teeth. This feature suggested that he would be king,

August 2012

a situation that his father wanted to save him from and had his teeth ground down. The omens now predicted that he would rule through another. Chanakya was known for his learning, but lived in penury, which was a constant source of embarrassment to his wife. He had heard of the generosity of the Nanda kings and set out to visit the court in an attempt to make his fortune. In the royal court, Chanakya occupied the king’s seat and was unceremoniously thrown out. In anger, he vowed Nanda’s destruction. In order to fulfil his promise, he learnt alchemy and amassed wealth to hire mercenaries; and secondly looked for a suitable ‘king’ who could be enthroned at Pataliputra. The search for the latter led him to Chandragupta Maurya. The first attempt at defeating the Nandas resulted in failure and Chanakya was left wandering incognito to learn from his mistake. The mistake, as was pointed out to him, was to attack the centre of power without first starting at the periphery and gradually working his way inwards. Acting on this advice Chanakya tried again and was successful in proclaiming Chandragupta Maurya king. The story of Chanakya also occurs in the Pali Chronicle from Sri Lanka, the fourth century Mahavamsa, where he is described as a native of the city of Taxila in the northwest and as a son of a brahmin. Important for our purposes are the writings of Hemachandra (1089-1172), perhaps the most illustrious Jain monk of the period who was both learned and well travelled and has left a large corpus of writings in Sanskrit and Prakrit. His last major work was Trishastishalaka-purusha-caritra or The Lives of Jain Elders, which is an epic poem in Sanskrit. In this rendering, Chanakya is referred to as a pious Jain known for his learning and wisdom. The story also occurs in Kashmir in Somadeva’s eleventh century Kathasaritsagara or Ocean of the Rivers of Story and in the prose work of his contemporary Kshemendra’s Brhatkathamanjari. The most elaborate treatment of the life and work of Chanakya, which undoubtedly contributed in keeping his legend alive is to be found in the sixth

The man behind the empire

Chanakya was born with a complete set of teeth; it suggested he would be king. His father had his teeth ground down

a The Arthashyarelsatetr s it to the

ition of econom The accepted defin services and ution of goods and trib production and dis early Indian e Th . cs liti ct from po considers it as distin hashastra evident from the Art view of the world, as d allied tea ins d ferentiation an did not make this dif l power ca liti po to s es cc su rldly artha or wealth or wo as ha art d hashastra accepte life, or kingship. The Art of its rsu pu le and desirab one of the legitimate ich wh was attached to this goal, though riders were to be s wa the quest of artha not absolute. Thus, ich upholds wh at ‘th or a t of dharm subordinated to tha seeking the d of the universe’, an that of the regulatory order to ted na rdi bo was to be su of kama or pleasure tra usly nslated Artha has been vario artha and dharma. as the or and human capital, as material, social : Arthashastra states n is wealth elihood (vritti) of me The source of the liv ans of the ce which is the me (artha) … the scien is arthashastra. rth tection of the ea acquisition and pro

compiler of the Arthashastra. But perhaps looking for historicity for the tradition of the shastras is a twentieth century legacy that needs to be discarded for a more holistic approach attempting to understand the science of wealth and its place in Indian society. Himanshu Prabha Ray is a Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her research interests include Archaeology of Religion, the History of Archaeology and the Maritime History and Archaeology of the Indian Ocean.

find out more E Kautiliya’s Arthastra: A Study III by Kangle, K.P., (University of Bombay, 1965) E Is the Arthastra a Mauryan Document, Re-imagining Ashoka: Memory and History by McClish, Mark, Patrick Olivelle, Janice Leoshko and Himanshu Prabha Ray edited (Oxford University Press, 2012)

thinkstock, dreamstime, avn suresh

century Sanskrit play, the Mudrarakshasa or Signet Ring of Rakshasa written by Vishakhadatta. The play in seven acts is a celebration of the human goal of artha or worldly advancement and deals with the plan of the shrewd minister Chanakya in winning over Rakshasa, the exiled minister of the deposed dynasty of the Nandas to pledge his loyalty to the Mauryan kings. The prologue of the play opens with the impending invasion of Pataliputra ruled by Chandragupta by the armies of King Malayaketu and his supporters. Chanakya succeeds in defeating Malayaketu’s plans, but not by force, but by his effective political tactics. At the end of the prologue, the angry Chanakya enters with his top-knot undone and vowing to destroy the ruling house of the Nandas. The plot is complex and is marked by intrigue and counter intrigue, but the superb portrayal of the main characters and masterful handling of the narrative by the author has ensured its appeal well into the present. The brahmin Chanakya is the protagonist of the play, but is also referred to by the names Kautilya and Vishnugupta. For example, in the Mudrarakshasa,‘This [man Chanakya] is Kautilya or of crooked intellect [Sanskrit, kutilamati], by whom the race of the Nandas was, perforce, burnt up in the fire of his wrath…’ Within the Sanskrit Shastric tradition, the science of wealth has a long and hallowed lineage and Chanakya is known from several other texts for his close association with the ascendancy of the Mauryas and for his deep knowledge of political stratagem. The kathamukha or introductory section of the Pancatantra, a collection of animal fables for edification of royal princes, dated around fourth to sixth century CE starts by paying homage to Chanakya, ‘who wrote great works on kingship’. Historians have debated the authorship of the Arthashastra and its attribution to a minister of the Mauryas and suggest that we are dealing with two distinct figures, the minister Chanakya of legend and Kautilya the

cities

Alamy x2, Corbis x3, thinkstock x10

THE CITY THAT... ...pioneered government

...transformed commerce

...created democracy

...modernised construction

...united an empire

Uruk Mesopotamia

Memphis Ancient Egypt

Athens Ancient Greece

Rome Italy

Cuzco Peru

Heyday: 3000 BC

Heyday: 2686-2181 BC

Heyday: 1st century BC

Heyday: 1st century AD

Heyday: 15th century

Situated in modern-day Iraq, Uruk pioneered the idea of individual settlements banding together and forming an organised government. Between 40,000 and 50,000 people lived in the city at its peak. Changes in government – and possibly a shift in the course of the Euphrates river – meant its importance declined from around 2000 BC. The city was completely abandoned by 700 AD.

Memphis was a commercial and trading hub and a thriving capital, port town and religious centre. Located near the mouth of the Nile, it was the biggest city in the world during the Old Kingdom. Its power declined first when the Pharaoh moved his seat further south to Thebes and later with the foundation of Alexandria in 331 BC – although it retained religious significance for several centuries more.

Evidence of lavish Iron Age burials shows Athens was a prosperous trading city for several centuries. An earlier system of government that created a sharp divide between the noble-born and the common folk had provoked widespread unrest, but a later system, which granted even the poorest men the right to vote, formed the basis of modern democracy and Western civilisation.

The city of Rome formed the heart of one of the largest ancient empires in history. It conquered or assimilated territories across swathes of Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor. The construction achievements of the Romans are legendary and include the introduction of the use of concrete for building and the creation of road networks, sewers, aqueducts and bathing complexes.

For almost a century, Cuzco – located in the Andes at an elevation of 3400m (11,200ft) – was the capital of the Incan Empire, which ruled a vast part of South America. Cuzco is best known for its architecture of enormous cut-stone blocks fitted so precisely that they needed no mortar. The first Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1533, destroying much of its Incan infrastructure and many public buildings.

The ruins of Mesopotamia are still visible today

The Pyramid of Djoser, a relic from Memphis’s heyday

Athens was the crucible of debate and democracy

The Romans were the masters of infrastructure

Incan building techniques still line Cuzco’s streets

August 2012

THE GREATEST OF ALL T CITIES IME

...ruled the world

...created the skyline

...rebuilt itself

...outnumbers the rest

...redefined innovation

London Great Britain

New York USA

Tokyo Japan

Shanghai China

Dubai UAE

Heyday: 19th century

Heyday: early 20th century

Heyday: mid 20th century

Heyday: late 20th century

Heyday: 21st century

By the early modern age, London was the largest city in the world, thanks to the Industrial Revolution and burgeoning Atlantic trade from Britain’s colonies. Iconic constructions included Tower Bridge and the world’s first metro system. The city’s population rose from 1 million to 6.5 million between 1801 and 1901, with the construction of water and sewerage networks revolutionising public health.

The skyscraper became the greatest technological aid to the business districts of cities, made possible thanks to steel-frame construction and the invention of the elevator. The first skyscraper, the Woolworth Building, was actually in Chicago, but was quickly surpassed by evertaller buildings in New York City, including 40 Wall Street, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building.

Following the 1944-45 bombing of Tokyo, the city was completely rebuilt. Its population surged, its subway and rail networks became the busiest in the world, and high-rise buildings soared. The 1980s saw property prices also skyrocket – but by the 1990s the bubble had burst and a major recession ensued. Today, Japan is gradually recovering from the 1990s, which is often dubbed its ‘Lost Decade’.

China has been the world’s largest exporter of goods since its 1978 economic reforms. Shanghai, at the mouth of the Yangtze River Delta, is its industrial hub and financial centre – and the world’s busiest river port. The city also has more buildings topping 400m (1300ft) than any other. More than 23 million people now call Shanghai and its suburbs home, easily making it the world’s most populous city.

Amid all the ambitious construction taking place this century despite the recession, Dubai has a particular reputation for innovative architecture. It currently houses the tallest tower in the world, the Burj Khalifa (829.84m/723ft). Other creations include ‘The World’, an archipelago of 300 artificial ‘islands’ constructed with sand dredged from the sea and formed into a map of the Earth.

London boasted the first underground railway

The sky was no limit for New York City’s architects

Tokyo is unrecognisable from how it looked pre-war

23 million and counting... Shanghai keeps growing

Dubai’s locals examine their unusual neighbourhood

What do you think? Which city would you nominate to be the world’s greatest?

Email: bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in

August 2012

DECADE OF THE

Planet dinosaur

dinosaur

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More new dinosaurs have been unearthed in the past decade than over the previous two centuries. Paul Chambers celebrates this golden age of discovery

The sensational discovery of a giant Jurassic pliosaur dubbed â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Predator Xâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sent shock waves around the world in 2008. Its 30cm-long fangs were useful for tackling plesiosaurs, such as this Kimmerosaurus 80

August 2012

ur world, according to some commentators, has entered a new epoch: the ‘Anthropocene’. For the first time in recent geological history, the activities of one species – Homo sapiens – have left an indelible mark on the planet. And a by-product of the spread of our civilisations has been the discovery of geological treasure troves, some of which have fundamentally changed our understanding of the fossil record – and, in particular, our knowledge of dinosaurs. Indeed, a growing number of palaeontologists have come to refer to the past decade as a golden age of dinosaur discovery.

Supersize me Big is beautiful – at least, it was during the early years of dinosaur research, when museums pushed scientists to find ever-larger exhibits for their galleries. A century ago, the biggest species on display were the plant-eating Apatosaurus (popularly known as Brontosaurus), which weighed in at 30 tonnes, and the fearsome 6-tonne predator Tyrannosaurus rex. However, despite an expectation that even mightier specimens would be found, many decades of scouring the bone beds of Europe and North America revealed no new giants. By the 1980s, T. rex had retained its crown as king of the prehistoric E August 2012

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planet dinosaur

BBC, Rex Features, Corbin17/Alamy, Jaime Chirinos/Science Photo Library; Roger Harris/Science Photo Library

Planet dinosaur

E carnivores, but the heaviest known herbivore was Supersaurus which, at 35 tonnes, was only marginally heavier than Apatosaurus. With the established fossil sites apparently exhausted, palaeontologists turned their attention towards the unexplored badlands of Asia, Africa and South America. One notable success came in southern Argentina, where a rancher stumbled upon the largest fossilised bones the world had ever seen. In 1993 palaeontologists unveiled the results of their research: Argentinosaurus, an absolute monster of a dinosaur with an estimated 90-tonne mass – three times that of Apatosaurus. Its eggs were the size of rugby balls. Hot on its heels, and at a nearby site in Patagonia, came the discovery of Giganotosaurus, a massive carnivore with razor-sharp teeth that, at 7 tonnes, would have flattened T. rex (had the two species actually met – in fact, they were separated by some 30 million years). As the behemoths of South America reared their scaly heads, many established beliefs had to be questioned. For example, the maximum size of dinosaurs was long thought to be constrained by physiological factors; some two decades ago, scientists were sure that no larger species would be discovered. Since then, though, it has been speculated – albeit amid some controversy – that Bruhathkayosaurus, unearthed in India a few years before Argentinosaurus, might have weighed as much as 170 tonnes, and that the African carnivore Spinosaurus could have reached 20 tonnes. Terrestrial habitats were not alone in nurturing giants. The marine reptile dubbed ‘Predator X’, excavated in Arctic Norway and revealed to an astonished world in 2008, was a muscular, 15m-long pliosaur that roamed Jurassic seas. But even this creature was dwarfed by Shastasaurus, a 22m-long, dolphinlike ichthyosaur from China and Canada. Gigantic reptiles populated the skies, too: in E 2002, the 70-million-year-old pterosaur

The cranial horns of the 8.5m-long Allosaurus may have shaded its eyes while hunting – here, the beaked herbivore Camptosaurus falls victim

Defining moments: 10 years of discoveries

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Microraptor (right), 2000 the first unequivocally feathered dinosaur, is discovered in China.  Jeholosaurus, also from China, is found to have teeth adapted for eating meat and plants – it is the first known omnivorous dinosaur.

August 2012

Paralititan, unearthed in 2001 Egypt, is the first known dinosaur to have inhabited coastal mangrove swamps.  CT scans show that some species had crocodilelike rains; others were bird-like.

 Studies of a fossil of the large predator Daspletosaurus (below left) reveal that its last meal was a small hadrosaur (a ‘duck-billed dinosaur’).  Several fossils of the carnivore Mapusaurus are found together – did it hunt in packs?

planet dinosaur

The dinosaursâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sheer size holds us in their thrall, but they also serve as a reminder of the fragility of the natural world

Hatzegopteryx is discovered. With a wingspan of 12m, it is the largest flying animal known to science.

In Mongolia Predator X is found; 2005 2006 the 8m-tall, two years later the bird-like Gigantoraptor pliosaur is revealed as the largest (left) is found to have walked on two long legs. It would have been able to outrun any of its predators.

predatory marine reptile. It is estimated that Bruhathkayosaurus may have weighed 170 tonnes (later revised to 100 tonnes).

A new study produces 2007 a revised estimate of the weight of the African predatory giant Spinosaurus (left). At 20 tonnes it was some three times the weight of Tyrannosaurus rex. August 2012

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2002 The pterosaur

Planet dinosaur

BBC, Zhao Chuang & Xing Lida;, National Geographic Image Collection/Alamy, Emily Willoughby/Wikimedia Commons; Martin Shields/Alamy, Frank Robichon/Corbis

E Hatzegopteryx was declared to be the largest flying animal of all time, with a possible wingspan of 12m – as large as a light aircraft.

Micro Marvels Confusingly, as well as yielding this giant pterosaur, the bone beds of Romania’s Hatzeg province have, over the past few years, seen a parade of miniature dinosaurs emerge from the Cretaceous rocks. Here, fossils revealed a diverse dinosaur community in which the largest herbivore, Magyarosaurus, was the height of a cart horse and the largest carnivore, Balaur, the size of a dog. But why so small? This miniaturisation echoes traits exhibited by modern species living on remote oceanic islands such as the Galápagos. Here, isolation from the mainland caused some animals (for example, tortoises) to evolve bigger or smaller forms than their mainland cousins. Similarly, geological evidence suggests that Hatzeg was once a remote island, cut off from the rest of Europe. The absence of large predators and limited food resources lent an advantage to smaller species – so the Hatzeg dinosaurs shrank in order to increase their survival chances, creating a Lilliputian world that existed in isolation for millions of years. And Hatzeg’s dinosaurs are not the tiniest: earlier this year, a chicken-sized dinosaur – currently the world’s smallest known species – was found in Sussex. Advances in knowledge have not all been about size, of course. Technological developments have enabled scientists to detect and examine features that were previously hidden or inaccessible, revealing new aspects of biology and behaviour. For example, computerised tomography (CT) scans of skulls have proved useful in understanding the size and function of predatory dinosaurs’ brains. Allosaurus was a big predator – 8.5m long or more, and with a huge head lined with dozens of large teeth – that hunted during

Microraptor may have used its plumed limbs to pursue this Xianglong lizard – which also had gliding apparatus – between trees

Defining moments: 10 years of discoveries

eeeeeee

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2008 Epidexipteryx (right) is

found in China. Dating from the middle to late Jurassic, it is the oldest known feathered dinosaur.

August 2012

The grooved teeth of 2009 Sinornithosaurus (right) suggest that it may have had a

venomous bite.  Injuries on the horned dinosaurs Triceratops and Centrosaurus show that they were more liable to hurt their partners during mating than to be attacked by predators.

A horned dinosaur 2010 found in Canada is named Mojoceratops – its cool

name inspired by its large, intricate and all-round funky head-crest. The name was reportedly proposed by a palaeontologist ‘over a few beers’.

planet dinosaur

Read in tooth and claw The use of technology has revealed much about dinosaur physiology, but to understand their behaviour we must look to the skeletons themselves. Fossil bones and teeth can tell us much about the way in which a dinosaur moved and what it ate, and can provide subtle insights that lead to the most remarkable revelations and theories. The fossil bones of Majungasaurus, a medium-sized predator found in Madagascar, were scored by numerous tooth marks made by others of the same species – suggesting that it cannibalised, and possibly even hunted, its own. Another surprise came from examination of the Chinese dinosaur Sinornithosaurus. The surfaces of its teeth are grooved, and evidence suggests that a small gland may have been embedded in its jaw. The same arrangement can be seen in living poisonous reptiles: a gland in the jaw produces venom that is injected via grooved teeth. Could Sinornithosaurus also have inflicted a poisonous bite – and so be the first venomous dinosaur to be discovered? The unearthing of six skeletons of the large predatory species Tarbosaurus, lying together at a site in the Mongolian desert, prompted a more controversial theory. Claims that this

HOW TO build a dinosaur Once the bones are excavated and cleaned, how do museums reconstruct the skeletons of extinct species? First, they check that all of the pieces are present. Generally, the larger the animal, the less complete it will be, so it is common practice to build a single skeleton using bits from several individuals. Where bones are entirely missing, models are made by looking at the anatomy of closely related species. The shape of most dinosaurs is well known nowadays, so there should be a basic blueprint to follow. The bones themselves may also hold clues – wear patterns, for example, or evidence of ligament and muscle connections. Museum dinosaurs used to be exhibited in passive poses. Modern revelations about dinosaur behaviour have led skeletons to be constructed in more active, life-like positions.

species lived and hunted in social groups – like lions – are not universally accepted: some scientists believe that the animals only died together because they were caught out by a catastrophic event such as a flash flood. But possibly the most fiercely contested scientific feud, which rumbled on for decades, concerned the theory that small predatory dinosaurs such as Velociraptor might have been the ancestors of living birds. In 1996 a small species named Sinosauropteryx was found in Liaoning province, China. Its remains, dating back some145 million years, are so beautifully preserved that many of its soft parts can still be seen – including a layer of hair-like material covering parts of its body. Study suggested that it may have sported primitive feathers, possibly for insulation. Still, the hair-like nature of the ‘feathers’ left room for doubt. Then, in 2000, Microraptor arrived. The arms and legs of this chicken-sized

Piecing together a 17m-long Spinosaurus skeleton is akin to completing a (very) big jigsaw

dinosaur, discovered in the same quarry as Sinosauropteryx, were covered in long, distinctly bird-like feathers: in effect, four ‘wings’ that enabled it to glide like a flying fox. The discovery of this and other ‘feathered dinosaurs’ from this site led to a general acceptance that not only are birds descended from these ancient reptiles, but that they are themselves types of ‘avian dinosaurs’. For over 150 years the human race has been fascinated by these ‘terrible lizards’. The dinosaurs’ sheer size undoubtedly holds us in their thrall, but they should also serve as a reminder of the fragility of the natural world. For millions of years our planet was home to hundreds of dinosaur species – then, in the geological blink of an eye, they were gone.

The first Australian Balaur (left), a carnivore 2011 fish-eating dinosaur is 2010 the size of a domestic dog, discovered. It lived in the early is found in the rocks of Hatzeg province, Romania – it is one of several ‘dwarf dinosaurs’. The fossil site was probably a remote oceanic island during the Cretaceous period, leading to the evolution of these miniature species.

Paul Chambers writes about fossils. He worked on the smash-hit BBC series Walking with Dinosaurs and its sequels.

Cretaceous period, and may have been similar to the huge European predator Baryonyx.

 A Triceratops fossil (below left) is excavated from rock strata formed at exactly the time that the dinosaurs became extinct. This Triceratops might have been one of the last individual dinosaurs ever to have lived. August August 2012 2012

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the late Jurassic period around 150 million years ago. In common with many older carnivores, its brain resembled that of a crocodile, which has led some scientists to speculate that it was a primitive hunter. By contrast, study of the crania of more recent Cretaceous species such as Velociraptor suggests that they had better sight, smell and hearing. By those measures, Velociraptor would have been an efficient hunter, perhaps using complex social behaviour such as mating displays or pack hunting. The brainiest, though, was Troodon, which may have possessed intelligence approaching that of modern birds.

The Aryan Invasion:

Myth or fact? Michel Danino points out significance historical evidence that demystifies the Indian subcontinent’s greatest fable ost Indian history textbooks tell us that about 1500 BCE, semi-barbarian, Sanskrit-speaking nomads called ‘Aryans’ poured from Central Asia into the Indian Subcontinent. There, they came upon the Indus or Harappan cities, destroyed them and drove survivors southward (where they became ‘Dravidians’), although softer versions propose that the Aryans arrived after the decline of the Indus cities. Either way, they swept across the Indus plains, composed the Vedas over a few centuries, spread Sanskrit and their caste system over India, and built the mighty Ganges civilization. This neat tale, known as the ‘Aryan invasion

ravi satpute

August 2012

theory’ (AIT) or ‘Aryan migration theory’ (AMT) was first propounded in the nineteenth century by European scholars, notably F Max Müller. It was a convenient way to explain obvious similarities between Sanskrit and Greek or Latin, since another branch of the Aryans were assumed to have migrated towards Europe. But it also allowed India’s British masters to portray themselves as ‘one more Aryan wave’ destined to bring about a ‘reunion of the great Aryan family’ and to bring once more true civilization to this land! Besides, the Aryan theory proved useful in deepening divisions among Indians between high-caste E (supposed descendants of the Aryans)

Aryans

E and low-caste or tribal (supposed descendants of India’s original inhabitants), also between North and South Indians. In Europe, meantime, an obsession with racial superiority and the mythical ‘Aryan race’ added grist to the mill of a rising German nationalism, until Hitler declared that the said race was the ‘master race’ destined to rule the world—with the consequences we know. But let us leave those aberrations and examine the theory in its Indian context.

Wikipedia, Michel Danino X2, ASI X2, mahesh benkar

The silence of the Indian texts It rested not just on linguistics but also on clues that European Indologists claimed to find in the Rigveda, India’s most ancient text, consisting of hymns to various gods and goddesses. But some Indians disagreed. Swami Vivekananda, for instance, asserted, ‘There is not one word in our scriptures, not one, to prove that the Aryan ever came from anywhere outside India.’ Indeed, the Rigveda’s geography is limited to northwest India. Moreover, as Sri Aurobindo pointed out, its rich spiritual symbolism and the complexity of its Vedic Sanskrit language are quite incompatible with the cultural status of supposed Aryan nomads. Curiously, the earliest Tamil (or ‘Sangam’) literature is also silent about a clash with Aryans, and on the contrary lavishes praise on the Vedas. In other words both supposed aggressors and supposed victims carry no memory of the alleged invasion—a strange case of double amnesia! Archaeology shows no evidence Had an Aryan people entered the Subcontinent, they would have brought new types of tools or weapons, new styles of pottery, figurines and other art forms; but archaeologists working in the Indus basin have detected no such intrusive culture in the 1st millennium BCE. The preceding millennium (2600–1900 BCE to be precise) saw in the same region the rise and decline of Harappan cities, but in none of them has evidence of manmade destruction come to light. For these two reasons, the current consensus among archaeologists is to reject the invasion / migration theory. The verdict of archaeology is not just 88

August 2012

A manuscript of the Rigveda, India’s most ancient text. Harappan cities, like Dholavira here (in the Rann of Kutchh), show no evidence of having been destroyed by invaders

negative, however. Had Aryans come, the Indus civilization would be culturally preVedic, while the Gangetic civilization of the first millennium BCE would be Vedic, so that we would have a wide cultural gulf between the two—a gulf earlier referred to as a ‘Dark Age’ or ‘Vedic Night’. But in recent decades, numerous bridges have, on the contrary, come to light, both in technical fields (from construction or metallurgy to water systems and agriculture) and in cultural areas: Harappan seals depicting deities seated in yogic postures, female figurines with sindoor (vermilion) applied at the parting of the hair, male figurines in various asanas (some doing a namaste), fire and sacrificial altars, worship of a Mother

goddess, reverence for the swastika, a lingalike object, the trishula and the ashvattha (or pipal) tree, and ornaments, such as anklets, among many others. (For further information, see article ‘The Harappan Legacy’, BBC Knowledge, April 2012) The emerging picture is that of a cultural continuum from India’s prehistory to its historical phase in the Indo–Gangetic plains. As the US archaeologist Jonathan Mark Kenoyer puts it, “Current studies of the transition between the two early urban civilizations claim that there was no significant break or hiatus.” The British archaeologist Colin Renfrew went further by stating, “It is difficult to see what is particularly non-Aryan about the Indus Valley civilization.” While the origins of

A Harappan figurine doing a namaste

The cultural and technological continuum of India’s history debunks the Aryan invasion theory

Aryans

Vedic culture remain a complex and openended issue, the Aryans have quietly bowed out of the archaeological literature of the Subcontinent: not only are they so elusive as to be invisible, but they are simply not needed to explain the evolution of cultures from proto-historical to historical India. The Sarasvati The Rigveda lavishes praise on Sarasvati, the goddess-cum-river, as ‘flowing from the mountain to the sea’, while a ‘hymn in praise of rivers’ specifically locates the Sarasvati between the Yamuna and the Sutlej. Intriguingly, the rivers listed are from east to west, while Aryan immigrants would have listed them from west to east. Later literature, such as the Mahabharata, describes the Sarasvati as disappearing in the desert; in time, the river becomes a metaphor for loss. However, since the nineteenth century, its dried-up bed has been traced by geologists, topographers and archaeologists, and more recently by satellite photography: it runs from the Shivalik Hills in Haryana (where a petty stream called ‘Sarsuti’ still exists today), is joined by several tributaries, proceeds through Punjab, Rajasthan and Pakistan’s Cholistan desert in a course south of the Indus, all the way to the Rann of Kutch. At its widest, the Ghaggar-Hakra, as it is locally called, exceeds six kilometres, and most experts have proposed that the Sutlej and the Yamuna once contributed to it. When was the Sarasvati reduced to a seasonal stream in its upper reaches? Archaeology again provides an answer, as some 360 Harappan settlements have been enumerated in the river’s basin since

A map of the rivers listed in the Rigveda’s ‘Hymn in praise of rivers’

Part of a bronze figurine from Mohenjo-daro, with an anklet

Nothing in our knowledge of India’s protohistory warrants a sharp demarcation between Aryan and non-Aryan races the 1940s. And almost all the settlements located in that basin’s central part, such Kalibangan in north Rajasthan, were abandoned around 1900 BCE, which points to a collapse of the river system. But then, how could Aryans, reaching the Sarasvati sometime after 1400 BCE, have worshipped it as a ‘mighty river’, ‘flowing from the mountain to the sea’? There is a fatal chronological impossibility. In any case, only one culture—the Harappan—was identified in the Sarasvati’s basin while the river was active, strongly suggesting a connection between Harappan and Vedic (even if the exact nature of that connection remains to be defined). The real question There is more evidence from anthropology and genetics. Apart from rejecting the notion of ‘race’ altogether (and therefore of an Aryan or a Dravidian race), they have recently demonstrated a biological continuity in populations of the Northwest around the time of the supposed Aryan immigration; both disciplines have failed to detect the arrival of a new people, forcing proponents of the migration theory to shrink it down to a ‘trickling in’ by a few Afghan tribes, few enough to avoid detection by archaeology, anthropology or genetics.

But how few? Can we picture a small number of nomads imposing their culture and language on the whole of north India? In historical times, just the opposite happened with sizeable invaders from Persians to Hunas: their cultural impact on India was minimal, while they often found themselves ‘Indianized’ like the Kushans. Although many questions remain to be answered, nothing in our knowledge of India’s protohistory warrants a sharp demarcation between Aryan and nonAryan ‘races’, cultures, even deities (Shiva is Dravidian, Vishnu is Aryan!). Whatever migrations may have taken place to and from India, a rigid break between pre- and post-Aryan India finds justification neither in early literature nor in archaeology. French-born Michel Danino has been living in India since 1977. He lectures on Indian civilization at several higher educational institutions, and writes in French and English. His recent book is titled The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati (Penguin India, 2010).

find out more E The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The IndoAryan Migration Debate by Edwin Bryant (OUP, 2001) E The Sarasvati Flows On: The Continuity of Indian Culture by B.B. Lal (Aryan Books International, 2002) August 2012

Buzz We have always tried to make BBC Knowledge an interactive read. Here’s just a snippet of what we’ve been upto

Announcing winners o Winners receive a 2nights /3days holiday package to select destinations in India

Ruel D’Souza Chennai

Reading Ruel’s entry made us wish for a summer exactly like his. Snorkelling and scuba diving in the Andaman Islands, visiting the historic Cellular Jail and of course, playing laser tag with buddies

Ananya Kar Mumbai

Ananya’s summer was all about experiences. From the sprawling hills of Europe where she played in snow for the first time at Mt. Matterhorn to a touching experience at the Jagannath Temple in Puri and to enjoying the early batch of delicious litchis

of BBC Knowledge Summer Calendar Contest We would like to thank our readers for the enthusiastic response to the contest. Here are the winners that stood out for their sheer creativity and effort. Congratulations winners!

Nandan Vanara Gandhinagar

Our youngest winner, Nandanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s calendar won us over with his judicious notes and mementoes; posing next to the new car his uncle purchased, his visit to the enchanting water and laser show at Akshardham along with his brilliant drawings that captured his creativity

Ankita Das Chennai

Beginning her trek from the Gangotri Glacier, Ankita spotted a Himalayan blue sheep whilst on her trail, met a lone woman trekker and camped by the Ganges for the night. Ankitaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s winning entry summarised the spirit of adventure for us

superscopes

SUPERSCOPES

The next generation of ground-based telescopes will be bigger and more impressive than ever before. These are the top five under construction right now... By Alastair Gunn, radio astronomer at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Manchester, UK.

E-ELT

(European Extremely Large Telescope)

Completion date: Cost: Location: Altitude: Diameter of main mirror: Number of mirror segments:

2020 £950m ($1.5bn) Cerro Armazones, Chile 3060m (10,000ft) 39.3m (128.9ft) 1000

E The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) is an optical and near-infrared telescope. Its main mirror is almost 40m (131ft) in diameter – four times greater than the biggest mirror in use today and easily the largest mirror ever constructed. It is practically impossible to build such an enormous mirror in one piece so, instead, the E-ELT’s collecting surface will be made up of around 1000 hexagonal segments, each 1.4m (4ft 6in) wide. Although sited high above most of the water vapour that absorbs starlight, the E-ELT will still be gazing through a blanket of air. To compensate, the mirror will have more than 6000 actuators (automatic motors) that can change its shape a thousand times a second. Additionally, a very bright laser beam will be projected into the sky above the telescope to form an artificial star. By tracking how this point of light twinkles, the telescope will automatically correct itself.

GMT

(Giant Magellan Telescope)

Completion date: Cost: Location: Altitude: Number of mirror segments: Diameter of main mirror:

2019 £438m ($700m) Cerro Las Campanas, Chile 2516m (8255ft) 7 24.5m (80ft)

F The most notable non-European optical superscope is the GMT, developed by the US, Australia and South Korea. Not quite on the same scale as the E-ELT but still impressively huge, the reflecting surface of its main mirror will be made up of seven circular mirrors, each 8.4m (27.6ft) in diameter and weighing 20 tonnes. It will take a year of grinding and polishing to shape each mirror, which will be accurate to within the thickness of aluminium foil. The GMT’s resolving power will be so sensitive that it will be able to see a candle on the Moon. Its dry, clear location in the Chilean Andes is arguably the best site in the world for astronomy – five of the world’s most important observatories are already sited there. 94

August 2012

(Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array)

Completion date: Cost: Location: Altitude: Number of dishes: Diameter of array:

Size matters

2013 £812m ($1.3bn) Atacama Desert, Chile 5059m (16,597ft) 66 16km (10 miles)

G Radio and sub-millimetre astronomers often use an interferometer – an array of widely separated telescopes combined to form a ‘virtual dish’. ALMA is such an array. Still under construction but already making images, ALMA will ultimately consist of 5412m (39ft)-dishes and a dozen 7m (23ft)-dishes spread over 16km (10 miles). It already boasts the most powerful non-military computer on Earth. ALMA is designed to detect ‘cool’ objects, which emit most of their energy in the millimetre wavelength range. It will pick out the dust created by exploding stars in the very earliest phases of the Universe, as well as peering through dense gas clouds to catch stars and planets in the act of formation.

FAST

(Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope) Completion date: Cost: Location: Altitude: Number of dishes: Diameter:

2016 £67m ($107m) Guizhou Province, China 1000m (3281ft) 1 500m (1640ft)

H FAST is a huge radio antenna. Once finished, it will become the largest single-dish telescope on Earth. FAST is being built in a natural depression in the ground in southwest China and has a collecting area equal to 30 football pitches. The telescope will help in the hunt for dark matter and search out the faint signals of Jupitersized planets in other star systems. It will also be used to find new ‘pulsars’ – the extremely dense, rapidly spinning cores of dead stars – as well as looking for signs of extraterrestrial civilisation.

SKA

(Square Kilometre Array)

Completion date: 2022 Cost: £1.25bn ($2bn) Location: either Karoo, South Africa or Boolardy, Australia Altitude: 1000m (3281ft) if South Africa; 460m (1509ft) if Australia Number of antennas: 3000 Diameter of array: 3000km (1864 miles) GThe SKA will be the most powerful telescope in history. Like ALMA, it will be an interferometer, but on a far larger scale. Up to 3000 separate radio antennas will spread over an area some 3000km across, linked to a supercomputer so complex that its technology doesn’t yet exist. As its name suggests, the SKA will have a collecting area equivalent to a single dish of one square kilometre (the equivalent of more than 2200 basketball courts), pushing sensitivity to 50 times that of any other currently available radio telescope. The SKA is the result of an international partnership between 67 organisations in 20 countries. Its location requires it to be far removed from human-generated radio interference.

H When considering telescopes, bigger tends to mean better. Large telescopes have a bigger ‘bucket’ for collecting light, so they are more able to detect fainter objects and hence peer more deeply into space. The problem is that the Earth’s atmosphere absorbs, refracts and scatters light, making images fuzzy. One solution is to locate instruments above the atmosphere and into orbit, like the Hubble Space Telescope (below), but this is both expensive and restrictive. Recent advances in technology, however, coupled with high-elevation sites, mean the next generation of ground-based superscopes will perform almost as well as those in space. There are two main kinds of ground-based superscope in development. Those like the E-ELT are optical, operating in the visible and infra-red part of the spectrum and using a large mirror to collect the rays. To compensate for the blanket of air, the mirror relies on actuator motors to make minute adjustments, changing its shape many times per second. “The E-ELT will be capable of detecting life on planets around the nearest stars to our Solar System,” says Markus Kissler-Patig, Project Scientist for the E-ELT at the European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany. Those like ALMA and the SKA are radio- and sub-millimetre telescopes, used by astronomers who study wavelengths of radiation many thousands of times longer than those seen by optical astronomers. An array of widely separated telescopes often functions together to form an ‘inferometer’, which acts as a huge, virtual dish. “The SKA will be able to pick up faint cosmic whispers from the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang,” says Richard Schilizzi, Director of the SKA Project Development Office, Manchester, UK. “It will be capable of detecting gravitational waves created by merging, massive black holes, and could help unravel the mysteries of dark energy.” Expensive and restrictive: orbiting telescopes like Hubble

NASA / ESA, ESO, GMTO, ESO / NAOJ / NRAO, SPDO / SWINBURNE, NDRC / NAOC / cas

ALMA

Extreme Value Theory is a mathematical system used to predict the unprecedented

May/Jun 2012

The Big Idea

exploring life’s great mysteries Robert Matthews investigates

Extreme Value Theory From hurricanes to global economics, every so often a freak event quite unlike anything seen before emerges out of the blue. Is there any possible way that we can predict them? This is the question answered by the astonishing mathematical technique known as Extreme Value Theory of future banking crises and gauge the size of reserves that institutions need to survive them. The theory also gives insights into the worst weather events we can expect and how to build defences against them. It can even cast light on the maximum lifespan of humans, as well as predicting the ultimate record for running a marathon. Extreme prejudice EVT takes records of past extremes and turns them into insights into what the future might hold, such as estimating the magnitude of the most extreme event likely to occur in the next century. It sounds

almost miraculous; perhaps not surprisingly, EVT is still regarded with suspicion by some mathematicians. Yet advocates of the method point out that it’s mathematically rigorous and specifically designed to deal with extremes – the very phenomena where predictions based on more familiar approaches are liable to break down. The need to treat extremes differently from other events was recognised over 300 years ago by the brilliant Swiss mathematician and pioneer of probability theory, Nicolaus Bernoulli. Yet it wasn’t until the 1920s that the mathematical E

corbis, Press association

e are living through extraordinary times. Hardly a day goes by without news of a fresh extreme event, from financial disasters to political upheaval. The credit crunch that began in 2007 has triggered financial losses banks believed they would never see, while entire nations are being hit by recordbreaking weather events – the United States usually gets three or four billion-dollar weather disasters; in 2011 it was battered by 12. Meanwhile, the UK is preparing for a drought after experiencing its lowest winter rainfall for 40 years. What on Earth can we expect next? And can we do anything to protect ourselves from what the fates hurl at us? Extreme events always prompt such questions, reflecting our dread of what the future might hold and our feelings of impotence to prevent their worst effects. But help is at hand, in the form of a mathematical technique with the power to do the seemingly impossible. Known as Extreme Value Theory (EVT), it can give insights into extreme events that lie years, decades or even centuries in the future. In the financial world, EVT is being used to assess the risk

A trader charts the dramatic demise of Lehman Brothers stock in 2008 August 2012

The Big Idea

exploring life’s great mysteries

E foundations for EVT started to emerge. At their core is the concept of the ‘distribution’, a mathematical formula giving the relative frequencies of different values for some quantity. Most of us are familiar with at least one distribution: the so-called ‘bellcurve’, more properly called the normal distribution. It’s familiar because it’s ubiquitous. From the outcome of throwing dice to the heights of kids in a classroom, the graceful peaked curve of the normal distribution reveals both the most likely outcome – shown by the position of its peak – and the chances of getting more unusual outcomes. Just how likely these are depends on how the bell curve spreads out to either side of the peak, a feature captured by a number dubbed ‘sigma’. Once the

value of one sigma is known, the normal distribution spits out the corresponding probabilities. Any quantity following a normal distribution has a 32 per cent chance of being more than one sigma above or below average, falling to five per cent chance for more than two sigmas, and just a one-in-two-million chance of an outcome over five sigmas away from the average. Perplexing anomaly Small wonder, then, that David Viniar, CFO of Goldman Sachs, admitted his perplexity in August 2007 after announcing that the loss of 27 per cent of the value of one of the firm’s flagship funds represented a 25-sigma event. Such an event would not normally be expected to have occurred even once since the birth of the Universe.

Suspicious minds Despite its clear practical value in so many fields, EVT was regarded with suspicion for many years, but during the 1940s two events took place which helped overcome those doubts. First, the formulas were put on a rigorous mathematical footing by the Soviet mathematician Boris Gnedenko. Then the German-born American mathematician Emil Gumbel began applying EVT to the problem of predicting flood levels from past records. He had great success. The importance of this application of EVT was brought into stark focus in February 1953 when a huge storm surge off the Dutch coast broke through centuries-

Alamy, getty, press association, rex, the national archives

EVT was used to assess Dutch sea defences following the 1953 storm, which claimed 1800 lives

TIMELINE Extreme Value Theory

August 2012

A more reasonable conclusion, of course, is that these unprecedented losses weren’t following a normal distribution. And, in general, extreme events do not, a fact first pointed out by mathematicians in the 1920s. Among them were the Cambridge mathematician Ronald Fisher who, together with his colleague Leonard Tippett, published a paper in 1928 that helped launch what became known as EVT. They showed that extreme events follow special distributions (which still reflect the intuitive idea that the more extreme an event, the less likely it is), but which can give very different results from those based on the normal distribution. These EVT distributions E are arrived at by fitting their shape to data on past extremes – anything from historical flood records to the personal best performances of athletes. The formulas of EVT then give estimates for the likely size of future extreme values, and their probability.

1709

1953

1995

Mathematician and probability expert Nicolaus Bernoulli, from Switzerland, highlights the need for special care when calculating extreme values in so-called actuarial problems, which involve estimating the ultimate lifespans of people.

A severe storm surge breeches the sea defences of the Netherlands, killing more than 1800. A study of how to prevent a recurrence is commissioned and Extreme Value Theory is made central to designing the new defences.

E The discovery of financial fraud at Barings Bank and elsewhere prompts Allan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, to suggest EVT be taken more seriously in financial risk assessment.

1928 G Ronald Fisher (above) and Leonard Tippett publish the basic mathematics of Extreme Value Theory, stressing its implications when estimating unusual events.

peak performances

Human limits Extreme events are welcomed at sporting occasions like the Olympics in the form of world records. But given the limitations of the human body, there must be ultimate records for every event – and statisticians John Einmahl and Jan Magnus of Tilburg, Netherlands, have used Extreme Value Theory to find out what they might be. To do it, they collected the personalbest performances of hundreds of toplevel male and female athletes to gauge how performances would improve over time. The results, published in 2008, suggest this year’s Olympics in London

old sea defences. The inundation killed more than 1800 people and destroyed 47,000 homes, leading to demands for action to prevent a recurrence. A panel of experts set about studying past records of floods to gauge the size of the problem, and discovered that the 1953 event was far from being the worst ever. On All Saints Day in November 1570, the country had been one of several in western Europe devastated by a storm surge in which the height of the sea increased by over four metres (13ft) – at least 15cm (6in) above that of the 1953 event. An estimated 400,000 people lost their lives. The challenge facing the expert panel lay in deciding just how high to build the sea defences. Set the level too high and building the sea walls would be

EVT predictions suggest that Usain Bolt’s 100m world record will be smashed at this summer’s Olympics

may have some surprises in store. Usain Bolt’s current 100m world record time of 9.58, set in 2009, could have around 0.3 seconds shaved off, while the women’s

marathon record – 2hr 15m 25s, set by the UK’s Paula Radcliffe in 2003 – could get within a minute of the men’s record of 2hr 03m 38s.

unnecessarily expensive. Set it too low and the country could soon face a repeat disaster. The panel concluded that coastal defences around five metres (16ft) above sea level should protect the country for thousands of years to come. But how reliable was their estimate? To find out, a team led by Laurens de Haan at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, used EVT theory to estimate the risk of a flood exceeding the five-metre level proposed by the panel. Analysis of the historical flood data allowed the team to find an EVT distribution that accounted for past extreme floods – and to extrapolate into the future. Their calculations showed that the panel’s recommendations could be expected to protect the country for many centuries to come, which, so far, have proved correct.

EVT is now widely used to assess the risk of flooding and the adequacy of defences against it. Even so, it has to be used with care. In 1996, mathematicians at Lancaster University, UK, found subtle flaws in the way EVT had been used to design Britain’s 800km (500 miles) of sea defences. The team concluded that some parts of the defences would need to be two metres (6ft 6in) higher to protect coastal areas from serious flooding. So far, the sea defences have been fine – but that doesn’t mean the EVT calculations were wrong, of course. It won’t be clear for decades who was right.

2000

2007

2008

The official enquiry into the 1980 sinking of the huge ship MV Derbyshire is told that the vessel foundered when its forward hatch cover gave way in heavy seas – a conclusion reached via the application of Extreme Value Theory.

H Financial guru Nassim Taleb publishes The Black Swan which highlights the dangers of using the conventional ‘bell-curve’ methods widely used by the banking industry to gauge the risk of financial disaster.

The world economy is hit by series of calamities judged all but impossible according to standard risk assessment techniques. Calls for more use of EVT by banks in gauging their exposure to risk go unheeded.

Using EVT, statisticians at Tilburg University, Netherlands, estimate that the men’s 100m race could be run in 9.29 seconds, a remarkable 0.29 seconds faster than the current world record held by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

The ‘20-80’ rule Not surprisingly, insurance companies have been among the first to exploit the power of EVT. For many years, actuaries gauged the likely risk posed by various forms of disaster by using empirical rules of thumb such as the ‘20-80’ rule. This states that 20 per cent of the severe events account for over 80 per cent of the total payout. In the mid-1990s, financial mathematician Paul Embrechts and colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich decided to check the validity of such rules with EVT. They found that the 20-80 rule does work well for many insurance sectors, but when it fails, it does so very badly. For example, using EVT to study past data on claims, the team found that a ‘0.1-95’ rule applies to hurricane damage. In other words, the E real threat comes from the one-in-aAugust 2012

The Big Idea

exploring life’s great mysteries

MV Derbyshire, before it sank during a typhoon in 1980

A video still of the hatch door smashed in by extreme waves

extreme oceans

getty, press association x3

How EVT saves lives at sea EVT is helping to protect the lives of the thousands of merchant seamen who risk their lives transporting cargo across the world’s oceans. Just how perilous this can be was graphically demonstrated by the loss in 1980 of the 91,000-tonne MV Derbyshire, which sank with all 44 on board in a typhoon off the south coast of Japan. In 2000, an enquiry found that the vessel’s forward hatch cover had collapsed, allowing water to flood in and sink the ship. It was a conclusion based on research undertaken by Jonathan Tawn and Janet Heffernan of Lancaster University, who used EVT to examine scenarios in which the ship was exposed to waves violent enough to break the hatch covers. Tawn and Heffernan also used EVT to show that safety recommendations proposed after the Derbyshire tragedy were inadequate, with hatch strengths needing to be 35 per cent higher to prevent a recurrence.

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E thousand storm, which can devour 95 per cent of the total payout in one go. Such discoveries are helping insurance companies to optimise their risk coverage, broadening the range of threats they can cover at sensible premiums – with benefits for the companies and their clients alike.

Averting crises EVT is also being used to protect those whose very lives are put at risk by such calamities, such as merchant seamen F. And there are signs that – somewhat belatedly – the theory is being recognised as a means of preventing a repeat of the calamity that is currently affecting us all: the global banking crisis. Calls for EVT to be put at the heart of financial risk calculations first made headlines in the mid-1990s. In February 1995, the Singapore subsidiary of Barings, the world’s most famous merchant bank, lost the equivalent today of around £1.4bn ($2.2bn) through the dealing of a single trader named Nick Leeson. Just a few months later, the Daiwa Bank of Japan discovered a similarly huge hole in its accounts through the activities of another rogue trader, Toshihide Iguchi. These two events prompted Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, to talk of the potential benefits of using EVT in financial risk assessment. Few heeded the call. Three years later, the financial sector witnessed the $4.6bn collapse of Long Term Capital Management, a hedge fund that fell foul of extreme events. But now such ostrichlike attitudes are no longer possible. This is due in no small measure to the success

EVT estimates the maximum human lifespan at 124 years, two more than reached by Jeanne Calment

explaining winning streaks

Arguing the toss Anyone who follows American football knew something extraordinary was going to happen at this year’s Super Bowl – and it didn’t disappoint. The New England Patriots won the toss, making them the first American Football Conference team to do so in an astonishing 15 Super Bowls. In the event, the Patriots lost the game, but the coin-toss victory prompted much debate about the rarity of long winning and losing streaks. One mathematician claimed that fans would have to wait on average another 32,000 Super Bowls before witnessing so long a streak. Yet Extreme Value Theory warns us to not to be fooled by these ‘average’ results. In the case of the Super Bowl, EVT shows that over the event’s 46game history, a winning streak up to eight coin-tosses long was perfectly possible, with even longer ones being much more likely that we’d expect. The surprising length of winning and losing streaks is all too familiar

of financial guru Nassim Taleb’s 2007 best-seller The Black Swan (the title being his term for extreme events). As Taleb has made clear, these recent banking disasters have exposed the dangers of expecting the normal distribution to be reliable when gauging the chances of extreme events. The core of the problem is revealed by EVT. In essence, the bell curve is just too graceful to handle extreme events. EVT shows that the bell curve’s ‘tails’ are too thin when applied to extreme events – and thus radically underestimate their magnitude. The recent global financial calamities have triggered a surge of work applying EVT methods. Some researchers are focusing on using EVT to boost the reliability of so-called Value at Risk calculations widely used by financial institutions. These are defined as the biggest loss that could occur over a fixed time-period (typically 10 trading days) with a probability of, say, 1 in 100. If the calculations assume normal distributions,

5 February 2012: the New England Patriots win the toss – the first AFC team to do so in 15 years

Question Time Paul Embrechts is Professor of Mathematics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, specialising in actuarial mathematics and quantitative risk management.

How did you come to work on Extreme Value Theory (EVT)? My PhD research concerned actuarial ruin theory for catastrophic lines of business. During my PhD studies, I benefited enormously from lectures by young Dutch visiting professors like Laurens de Haan, who contributed fundamentally to the modern version of EVT.

Why should people know about EVT?

to gamblers, but even they can struggle to cope with the implications of EVT. Among British horse-racing enthusiasts, Tom Segal is a legend. Under the moniker Pricewise, Segal has a reputation for being a first-rate tipster who regularly turns a profit. But last year, he hit a losing streak of 20 losing tips on the trot. Many gamblers believed Segal had lost his touch. In fact, the losing streak

was entirely predictable – because Segal issues hundreds of betting tips each year, each of so-called ‘value long-shots’: horses whose winning chances are low, but still higher than bookmakers believe. EVT shows that Segal could easily experience a streak of 32 losing bets on the trot, yet still make his subscribers a tidy profit each year.

Modern society in all its complexity is increasingly faced with decisions which involve extreme events: be it finance or insurance, the environment – even daily life. At a minimal level, EVT yields a language for objectively discussing such events. At the more advanced level, it allows for contributing in an essential way to solutions of important societal problems. It points to misunderstandings and limitations of standard ‘bell curve’ theory and provides scientific tools to help describe and understand low-probability events.

Would the financial sector benefit from EVT? they run the risk of leaving investment banks feeling over-confident that they can cope with future misfortunes. Other researchers are using EVT to gauge the contribution of individual banks to the overall stability of the financial system, as well as to estimate how big their reserves need to be to survive future crashes. Extreme lifespan The power of EVT is also being recognised far beyond the financial sector, however – and small wonder, given its ability to make sense of the extraordinary, from freak storms to bizarre losing streaks G. At Erasmus University, de Haan and his colleagues have used EVT to tackle the mystery of the maximum lifespan of humans. By analysing life-span records for the ‘oldest old’, they have found evidence that the ultimate, most extreme lifespan of humans is around 124 years. And, so far, it seems to be true: the oldest person with authenticated records was Jeanne Calment of France, who died in 1997 – aged 122.

Not everyone is convinced of the power of EVT; ironically, sceptics include Nassim Taleb, who is wary of putting too much trust even in EVT distributions based on historical data. But anyone looking for a demonstration of confidence in the theory should visit the low-lying Netherlands, where today 16 million people live under the protection offered by this extraordinary mathematical technique. Robert Matthews is a science journalist and holds the position of Visiting Reader in Science at Aston University, UK. www.robertmatthews.org

find out more E Extreme Value Theory: an introduction by Laurens de Haan and Ana Ferreira (Springer 2006) E www.bit.ly/EVT_tutorial Online tutorial on EVT by David Harper E bit.ly/Statistics_of_extremes Free PDF of Statistics of Extremes by Richard Smith (2003)

EVT-based research warned early on that there was – and still is – considerable model uncertainty in products that bet on rare events, such as certain types of financial derivatives. A better understanding of EVT would show the financial sector its over-reliance on widely used concepts of the ‘normal’ world.

So why did the financial sector not use EVT? In the run-up to the subprime crisis, the financial sector refused to learn as “the music was playing and everyone was dancing”. No-one wanted to spoil the fun.

What uses of EVT are you investigating? I have mainly been working on the modelling of catastrophic events resulting from combinations of rare events all happening at the same time. Such models use so-called ‘multivariate EVT’, which is still insufficiently understood. That means the financial industry should be warned to avoid building up huge positions where the underlying trigger is set off by a combination of low-probability events. May/Jun 2012

Resource

A feast for the mind

The legends of the Titanic continue to cause waves

Remembering the Titanic

Press association

The centenary of the ship’s sinking has sparked a publishing frenzy. Juliet Gardiner leafs through some of the best new additions K RMS Titanic was the largest moving object in the world in 1912. It was also a tragedy, hubris and a microcosm of Edwardian society. And ever since the ‘unsinkable’ liner hit an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic on its maiden voyage, it has been a publisher’s and film maker’s treasure trove. Now, in the centenary year of that terrible night, the trove threatens to overwhelm. Books pour from the presses. Yet the story is already well known: the Titanic took more than two hours to sink but, since there was a gross insufficiency of lifeboats, around 1500 passengers and crew died, with only around 700 104

August 2012

surviving. The wreck of the Titanic was finally located in 1985, but despite endless speculation, reconstructions and forensic examination, there are no startling revelations to upend what has already been endlessly pored over. So what can this centenary publishing bonanza bring to the familiar story? The answer is a pleasing amount. Allen Gibson’s The Unsinkable Titanic (The History

Press) is the work of a selfconfessed ‘hungry enthusiast’ fascinated by stiff upper lips, navigational details, and mechanical and scientific information. Indeed, surprisingly small details – such as how many and of what quality were the rivets that welded the ship together – can become quite addictive. And for addicts, The Rough Guide to the Titanic by Greg Ward (Rough Guides) provides as

useful a handbook to this quest as for any travel destination. It is packed with information from statistics to conspiracy theories. Profiles and myths are examined – was the band really playing Nearer My God to Thee as the ship slipped beneath the waves, lights still ablaze? Fans of the faux authentic will delight in the facsimile documents – including the ‘Marconigram’ received from the Titanic by its twin ship, the Olympic, a fatal 500 miles away, announcing “we have struck an iceberg” – as well as the rich array of photographs and a DVD in Beau Riffenburgh’s Titanic Remembered 19122012 (Andre Deutsch). Meanwhile, aficionados of the current penchant for the great moments in history recounted in the words of ‘ordinary’ people will warm to Hannah Holman’s Titanic Voices (Amberley), an assemblage of the often heartstopping accounts of 63 survivors. Titanic Style: dress and fashion on the voyage (Moonrise). Her story is adduced in part from the claim forms submitted by passengers for such lost garments as a “baby blue dotted lawn dress with lace” (value $150), “white appliqué lace parasol from Paris” ($300), and the odd mink or ermine wrap. Though this fashionista’s tale might appear frivolous, it is a fascinating optic through which to view the strand that runs true through all Titanic studies: class. Juliet Gardiner is the author of The Thirties: an intimate history and The Blitz: the British under attack, both published by HarperPress.

Get your clicks H WEBSITE

Our pick of internet highlights to explore

H VIDEO

Natural History Museum

Quirkology

H WEBSITE

US presidential elections

www.nhm.ac.uk

www.youtube.com/user/Quirkology

www.historycentral.com/elections

If you’re not planning a visit to London in the near future, stay abreast of the goings-on at the mighty Natural History Museum with its informationpacked website. It’s chock-full with interactive elements to get you involved with the natural world, whether inviting you to join in debates about Earth Summit 2012 or to contribute to surveys on trees in your neighbourhood. The ‘Kids Only’ section is a particular hotspot for engaging children in the world around them.

Whether you’re trying to wow your friends at a party or get young ones interested in science, Quirkology, hosted by British psychologist and author Richard Wiseman, has an absolute arsenal of science stunts, illusions and tricks that even the most cynical will struggle to remain unimpressed by. See if you can solve the mystery of the amazing floating deck of cards. Be sure to heed Wiseman’s advice and practise before attempting his ‘Amazing Glass of Water’ stunt over your laptop.

As the heat begins to rise on the 2012 American presidential election, fill that knowledge gap about elections past with this thoroughly comprehensive site that delves deep into US politics. Why, for example, did Kennedy win the first televised presidential debate, yet come out second-best at the same debate to those listening on the radio? With this enlightening analysis at your fingertips, the 2012 electioneering that is currently gathering pace will make much more sense.

H BLOG

H PODCAST

H WEBSITE

The Lay Scientist

In Our Time

Conservation photography

www.guardian.co.uk/science/ the-lay-scientist

www.bbc.in/pXRG4J

www.danielbeltra.com

Sharpen your mind and broaden your knowledge with these podcasts of the evergreen BBC Radio 4 show devoted to the history of ideas. Since its launch in 1998, 500 episodes have aired, with audiences of over two million. It is presented by the long-standing BBC arts broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, and the debates cover history, culture, philosophy, religion and science – everything from Aristotle’s Poetics to women scientists during the Enlightenment.

Most nature photography tries to capture the natural world in all its grace, power and majesty. Daniel Beltrá’s work concentrates on the devastating effect that the human race has had on the environment. The Spanish lensman’s extraordinary portrait of pelicans covered in crude oil as a result of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico won him the 2011 Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer Of The Year competition.

Martin Robbins is a science writer, podcaster and journalist who blogs for UK national newspaper The Guardian about science, pseudoscience and the role of science in politics. “Bad science reporting isn’t just an irritant to nerdy pedants like me,” he writes in his ‘Lay Scientist’ column, “it’s something that risks people’s health and undermines their ability to make informed choices.”

If you have a favourite website, blog or podcast that you’d like to share with other readers, please email bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in August 2012

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g n i c oun

Ann

s r e n win It’s time to announce the winners of PIXELS, our first student photo contest. Keeping ‘Nature’s beauty in midst of an urban enviornment’ as the theme, below are the six weekly winners that have been selected from your overwhelming response on Facebook. We are also pleased to announce Akash Ajgaonkar as the overall winner

winner: 1st week ola Amit Am

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5th wee k wi Ruk nne shik r: a Ka dya n

2nd week w inner: Anmol Kaur

4th week winner: Himanshu Sharma

School in Focus

Podar International School CIE (Pune)

Podar International School CIE in Chinchwad Pune was established on 19 June 2008 to nurture students and provide them with an holistic approach to education. As part of their mission to build responsible, global citizens through a widely accepted curriculum and principles based on learning-centered education, the school introduced the Cambridge International Exam (CIE) in the year 2009. The school is CBSE-affiliated and is recognised by the Government of India and provides education to students from pre-nursery to Standard 10th.

 A school trip to the loca l zoo

la interacting  Director Dr. Vandana Lul lti-disciplinary mu the at ts den stu with the ool sch the by exhibition held

ns included Day celebratio  Christmas g out the Nativity scene tin students enac

 Students introduc pottery making

ed to the art of

 Young actors playing their roles in the musical Cinderella for the Annual Day celebrations  Confidence building skywalk

climbing as rtake in rock e  Students pa ical education programm ys ph e th of part

 Early mornings begin with students performing suryanamaskar

If you would like us to visit your school and have it featured on this page, write in to us at bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in

Gadgets New Tech The latest gizmos and apps creating buzz in the market

digitalwish.com, damngeeky.com, gdgt.com, ecoustics.com, bigpicturebigsound.com, www.elecstore.fr, Apple x3

 say no to boring lectures Livescribe launches their newest smartpen, Echo. With a sleek design and enhanced features like built-in speaker, USB connector, microphone, binaural recording and a soft rubber grip, the Echo, is perfect when you don’t want to miss a single word in your lectures. You can record the boring lectures and listen to them later at the comfort of your home by plugging in your earphones in the audio jack. The OLED display makes it easy to navigate the latest smartpen apps without letting your smartpen go out of date. With storage capacity of 4 GB and 8 GB and a replaceable ink tip, this smartpen can never go out of ink or memory. Price: `8,175 • www.livescribe.com

 How does that sound? The Ultimate Ears Personal Reference Monitors by Logitech are the world’s first earphones, which can be personally tuned to exact needs, look and sound. These earphones have an exclusive Personal Reference Tuning Box that allows you to adjust the sound based on your listening preferences thanks to the 26 dB of isolation and passive noise cancellation. Designed and custom-based using the latest technology, Ultimate Ears will let you adjust the highs, mids and lows of the songs while the Y-joint connectors are tightly braided to reduce friction and tangling. The striking design feature is, of course, the wooden faceplates which are available in four bold colours. Price: `1,11,794 • www.logitect.com

 Go Green

 Music in my pocket Matrix Audio introduces its new range of portable speakers called the iPro. Slightly larger than a golf ball in size, these speakers are akin to carrying your own personal boom box around. The iPro is a wired 3-watt speaker shaped into an aluminium cube. Thanks to its rubberised body design, multiple iPro’s can be stacked upon each other to further enhance the volume. A single charge allows for 11 hours of music play and the iPro is compatible with most audio devices and cell phones. Price: `2,721 • www.matrixaudio.com

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Be it a trip to the supermarket or to run a few errands or even to go to school, why bother waiting for a bus or taking out the car. Myway Quick is an easy and convenient way to travel. Designed by Nimrod Sapir, an Israeli entrepreneur and inventor, this electric scooter weighs only 12.3kgs and manages to fold into a compact carrier with the touch of a button locking it without the use of bolts and locks, making it manageable and easy to handle. With an attractive body; in green and silver, the Myway Quick can be charged at any socket point. This cool electric scooter is an eco-friendly, light and fun way to travel. Price: `1,16,363 • www.mywayi.com

Free apps to discover, learn and share Scribble away

 Record the moment

Make notes or write a story. Why write, draw a story. Even better, write and draw a story at the same time! Inkflow, a handwriting and drawing app with top-quality inking engine, retina graphics and editing features lets you select, move and resize anything with just a touch and a swipe. Use the pen to draw a story, sketch out the characters and settings and with a couple of taps you can email or tweet your creation with your friends. Like a sentence? Cut, copy and paste it anywhere you want. Inkflow also allows you to view and edit books on the go. Users: iPad and iPhone

Sony introduces a new set of full HD digital recording binoculars with the latest Exmor R CMOS sensor that allows you to capture still images as well as full HD video in AVCHD 2.0 format. The 10x digital zoom with 3D image capture allows this set of high-tech binoculars to take clear pictures with the help of optical steady technology, which offers image stabilisation. Seamless recording of live action allows one to relive the exhilarating moment when your team scored the winning run or when you were the first to spot the elusive animal in the wild. Plug it into your television and share the excitement. Price: `76,320 • www.sony.com

Level up

 Game on!

Space in your hands

If you are the kind to devote an entire Sunday just for online gaming then the new Razer Mamba is for you. The Razer Mamba gaming mouse is equipped with wireless technology coupled with a 6400dpi 4G dual sensor system, which makes it easy to calibrate on various surfaces. Game addicts rejoice, as the mouse offers 16 hours of nonstop gaming action. After an exhausting gaming session just place it on its dock for charging which also serves as the wireless unit. So get ready to exterminate, anihilate and destroy your opponents! Price: `7,036 • www.razerzone.com

Have suggestions for any gadget/application? Share with other readers, please email bbcknowledge@wwm.co.in

Addicted to your Playstation? Now carry it around. Not the Playstation, but the game. Cuboid, the 3-D puzzle game by Herocraft, is now available with 77 new exciting levels and interesting challenges as an app. Transport yourself into the world of ancient ruins and challenge your mind with the single task that lies ahead: to save your ancient artefact, the Cuboid. The game starts off easy but as it advances, complex obstacles like fragile tiles and teleporting mushroom make it not only tough but also a mind-boggling experience. Users: iPhone

Experience the thrills of space as you see the future of space exploration unfold in front of your eyes. With over 1,55,000 images of our galaxy to browse over and live streaming of NASA TV and NASA officials available to answer your space travel queries or the latest on Mars, the final frontier is finally at your fingertips. Users: Android, iPad and iPhone

The

last word

Ruskin Bond writes about Charles Dickens, the purveyour of great storytelling

Charles Dickens:

Tribute to a Genius or me, Charles Dickens was, and always will be, the greatest novelist in the English language, and for one simple reason. When I was twelve, I discovered David Copperfield, read it right through (complete and unabridged) whenever the routine life of a boarding school permitted, and decided I was going to be a writer. And in a single-minded, determined, Dickensian sort of way, I became one. Not a major writer, but one for whom literature was religion. Before I was fifteen I’d read Oliver Twist, Pickwick Papers, A Tale of Two Cities, Nicholas Nickleby, Sketches By Boz, and the unfashionable Barnaby Rudge. I still dip into Pickwick Papers from time to time; it’s an antidote for depression and various other ailments. I have read Copperfield several times. For the sheer joy of its youthful exuberance. And recently I read Our Mutual Friend for the first time. London’s dockland came to life again for me. I don’t think Dickens ever wrote a bad novel; certainly not a dull one. He was consistently brilliant, from the time he took up his pen to create Mr. Pickwick and friends to the time in his fifties when he collapsed in the middle of writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood. His greatest E

Leighton, George C.: “Illustrated London News Vol 56” (1870), dreamstime, The granger collection, NYC

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When I was twelve, I discovered David Copperfield... and decided I was going to be a writer Ruskin Bond

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“MY favourite extracts”

Oliver Twist

Mr. Charles Dickens’s last reading

Oliver Twist and his compan ions suffered the tortures of slow star vation for three mon ths; at last they got so voracious and wild with hun ger, that one boy, who was tall for his age, and had n’t been used to that sort of thing (for his father had kept a sma ll cook-shop), hinted dark ly to his compan ions, that unless he had another basi n of gruel per diem, he was afra id he might some night happen to eat the boy who slept nex t him, who happened to be a wea kly youth of tender age. He had a wild, hungry eye; and they imp licitly believed him. A council was held; lots were cast who shou ld walk up to the master after supper that even ing, and ask for more; and it fell to Oliver Twist. The even ing arrived; the boys took thei r places. The master, in his cook’s uniform , stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistan ts ranged themselves behi nd him; the gruel was serv ed out; and a long grace was said over the shor t com mons. The gruel disappea red; the boys whisper ed each other, and win ked at Oliver; whi le his nex t neighbou rs nudged him. Child as he was, he was desp erate with hunger, and reck less with misery. He rose from the table; and advanci ng to the master, basi n and spoon in hand, said, somewhat alarmed at his own temerity: “Please, Sir, I want some more.” The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied astonish ment on the sma ll rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assi stants were para lysed with wonder; the boys with fear . “What!” said the master at leng th, in a faint voice. “Please, Sir,” replied Oliver, “I want some more.” The master aimed a blow at Oliv er’s head with the ladle; pinioned him in his arm s; and shrieked aloud for the bead le. The board were sitti ng in solemn conclave, when Mr. Bumble rushed into the room in great excitement, and add ressing the gentlema n in the high chai r, said, “Mr. Limbkins, I beg you r pard on, Sir! Oliver Twist has asked for more!”

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last word “MY favourite extracts”

E novel? The fact that no one seems to agree on it, implies that they are all great in their different ways: Bleak House the most mature; The Old Curiosity Shop the most moving; A Christmas Carol the most exuberant; Hard Times the most powerful in terms of exposing social injustices; Great Expectations the most dramatic; Dombey and Son the most innovative. Every lover of Dickens will have his or her favourite. Sometimes our choice may be influenced by external factors, such as the many outstanding films that have been based upon the novels, for the characters, themes and situations lend themselves to dramatic treatment. Dickens himself was a powerful orator, whose readings made him personally popular on both sides of

dreamstime, Halbot knight browne

He was consistently brilliant, from the time he took up his pen to create Mr. Pickwick and friends to the time in his fifties when he collapsed in the middle of writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood the Atlantic. In his wonderful voice he could, by turn, be Micawber, or Sam Weller, or Scrooge, or Marley’s ghost, or Mrs. Gamp. “What a face is his to meet in a drawing room!” exclaimed the writer Leigh Hunt. It has the life and soul in it of fifty human beings.” This energy, this light and motion, comes through in all his books, and especially in my own favourite. “In David Copperfield,” wrote Virginia Woolf, “characters swarm and life flows through into every cranny, some common feeling – youth, gaiety, hope – envelops the tumult, brings the scattered parts together, and invests the most perfect of all the Dickens novels with an atmosphere of beauty.” Ruskin Bond is a celebrated Indian author. He has been the recipient of Sahitya Akademi award in 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra and the Padma Shri in 1999 for his contribution to children’s literature. 114

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The Pickwick Papers

selves not in the habit of devoting them To ladies and gentlemen who are no easy task; it is r lette a ing writ , ship man practica lly to the science of pen recline y in such cases for the writer to being always considered necessar possible as ly near as eyes his e plac to his head on his left arm, so as he is glancing sideways at the letters on a level with the paper, whi le rs to correspond. acte char ry gina ima ue tong constructing to form with his ce to ionably of the greatest assistan These motions, although unquest the writer; and of ress prog the ee degr e som orig inal composition, reta rd in ds in sma ll full hou r and a half writing wor Sam had unconsciously been a in new ones ing putt and er, fing little his text, smearing out letters with ugh the often to render them visible thro which requ ired going over very the entrance and door the of ing open the by old blots, when he was roused

of his parent. “Vel l, Sam my,” said the father. pen. onded the son, layi ng dow n his “Vel l, my Prooshan Blue,” resp w?” in–la her– mot t “What’s the last bulletin abou , and night, but is uncommon perwerse “Mrs. Veller passed a very good ire, Sen ior. That’s Esqu er, Vell S , oath upon ed unpleasant this mornin”. Sign his shawl. my,” replied Mr. Weller, unty ing the last vun as was issued, Sam . “No better yet?” inqu ired Sam head. ,” replied Mr. Weller, shak ing his “All the symptoms aggerawated er difficulties, und ge wled kno of suit Pur of? “But wot’s that, you’re a doin’ Sam my?’ a slight embarrassment; “I’ve been “I’ve done now,” said Sam, with writin’.” to any you ng ‘ooman, I hope, “So I see,” replied Mr. Weller. “Not

Sam my?” e.” t,” replied Sam, “It’s a walentin “Why it’s no use a sayi n’ it ain’ the by en trick or–s horr ly appa rent “A what!” exclaimed Mr. Weller, word. “A walentine,” replied Sam. ’t er, in reproach ful accents, “I didn “Sam ivel, Sam ivel” said Mr. Well er’s fath r you o’ had ve warnin’ you’ thin k you’d ha’ done it. Arter the wer y subject; I’ve said to you upon this here wicious propensities; arter all her–in–law, mot own r you o’ y ’ in the compan arter actiwally seei n’ and bein could never ha’ man no as on less al mor a vich I shou ld ha’ thought wos I didn’t ’t thin k you’d ha’ done it, Sam my, forgotten to his dyin’ day! I didn the good old for h muc too e wer s ction refle thin k you’d ha’ done it!” These ents. to his lips and dran k off its cont man. He raised Sam’s tumbler