This past weekend was my annual weekend retreat with family and church friends to Ferry Beach in Saco, Maine. K1 drove up with friends and because K2 had Sunday morning soccer he didn’t want to miss, Mr. Brillig and I took two cars so we didn’t ALL have to leave at 6am. He had K2, so I drove up solo. I had the radio on and heard a story I’d never heard, about science that sparked joy in my inner latent biologist. Grab your beverage of choice and hop over the story break to hear what I later learned is not new news, but was new to me (and maybe you)...
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I can’t seem to find the radio link I heard anywhere (and I know I didn’t imagine it!) but I did find a recent Atlantic article about Matthew Collins and his study of animal DNA derived from parchment. Yes, parchment, aka specially prepared animal skins used for centuries as a writing medium until paper became common. From the article:
The team has since sampled 5,000 animals from parchment this way. They’ve found that a type of ultrafine parchment, sometimes purported to come from squirrels or rabbits, actually comes from the typical cow, sheep, or goat—and that the thinness of the parchment is the result of the parchment makers’ skill. They’ve compared the genomes of cows in parchment with that of modern ones, finding similarities to Norwegian Reds and Holsteins. They’ve found that the parchment comprising a 1,000-year-old book known as the York Gospels seemed to come mostly from female calves, which was puzzling because you usually want female calves to grow up to give birth to more cattle. A zooarchaeologist on the team suggested that an outbreak of cattle plague might have killed those calves first.
How cool is it that in order to make it easier to study economics, migration patterns, and the history of domestic animals in Europe, someone looked at a library of words and saw DNA. Then found a way to obtain that DNA without harming the books, which would have made librarians and book conservators cry:
In science and archaeology, destructive sampling is at least tolerated, if not encouraged. But book conservators were not going to let people in white coats come in and cut up their books. Instead of giving up or fighting through it, Sarah Fiddyment, a postdoctoral research fellow working with Collins, shadowed conservationists for several weeks. She saw that they used white Staedtler erasers to clean the manuscripts, and wondered whether that rubbed off enough DNA to do the trick. It did; the team found a way to extract DNA and proteins from eraser crumbs, a compromise that satisfied everyone.
The results from such studies aren’t limited to animals, either. From a 2017 Smithsonian article about the same scientist:
Gibbons also reports that 20 percent of the DNA extracted from the York Gospels was human— most of it from the bacteria that lived on the skin and noses of priests who took an oath by kissing certain pages. That and other bacteria could give some insight into the health of people in Middle Ages York.
A similar analysis of a Gospel of Luke manuscript by Collins and his colleagues revealed the book was made from the skins of eight-and-a-half calves, ten-and-a-half sheep, and half a goat, as well as a cover from roe deer and a strap from fallow or red deer. Such mixed parchment suggests that scribes had to carefully manage their resources since their favored skin was not always available.
I never would have thought “hey, what does the parchment tell me about the economy half a millenium ago?” And I love that someone DID think just that.
I know there are all sorts of other cool scientific processes and studies out there, and I’m hoping YOU will share the ones that caught your attention in the comments! Before that though, please peruse the trio of Top Comments, Mojo and Pictures brought tonight by BeninSC, a man whose curiosity and thirst for knowledge match mine and make for some interesting conversation threads.
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
Note: Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
From Holgar:
This comment by ruscle in durrati's diary on Trump's massive crowds deserves recognition. It was the perfect response.
From BeninSC:
Please consider reading this exchange between mbayrob and BoiseBlue with interesting thoughts on religions and beyond.
From elenacarlena:
I am recommending this comment by igualdad to TC because it's an important point and often lost in the struggle to fight racism. Thank you!
Highlighted by bklynlib:
Is this comment by RepublicanKos that paints a hilarious picture!
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, June 3rd, 2019, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
TOP PICTURES
Top Pictures for June 4, 2019! Thanks so much, jotter!
