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How the Inca Leapt Canyons
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, May 8, 2007
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Conquistadors from Spain came, they saw and they were astonished. They had never seen anything in Europe like the bridges of Peru. Chroniclers wrote that the Spanish soldiers stood in awe and fear before the spans of braided fiber cables suspended across deep gorges in the Andes, narrow walkways sagging and swaying and looking so frail.
Yet the suspension bridges were familiar and vital links in the vast empire of the Inca, as they had been to Andean cultures for hundreds of years before the arrival of the Spanish in 1532. The people had not developed the stone arch or wheeled vehicles, but they were accomplished in the use of natural fibers for textiles, boats, sling weapons — even keeping inventories by a prewriting system of knots.
So bridges made of fiber ropes, some as thick as a man’s torso, were the technological solution to the problem of road building in rugged terrain. By some estimates, at least 200 such suspension bridges spanned river gorges in the 16th century. One of the last of these, over the Apurimac River, inspired Thornton Wilder’s novel “The Bridge of San Luis Rey.”
Although scholars have studied the Inca road system’s importance in forging and controlling the pre-Columbian empire, John A.Ochsendorf of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology here said, “Historians and archaeologists have neglected the role of bridges.”
( Read More... )
Jury Is Still Out on Gluten, the Latest Dietary Villain
By KATE MURPHY, The New York Times, May 8, 2007
Brandi Walzer, a 29-year-old cartographer in Savannah, Ga., loves bread, not to mention pizza and beer. But she tries to avoid them, because they contain gluten — a substance she says upsets her stomach, aggravates her arthritis and touches off depression.
She is among a growing number of Americans who believe that gluten — a protein found in wheat, barley and rye — is responsible for a variety of ills, from skin eruptions to infertility to anxiety to gas. Though diagnostic tests have not indicated she has an allergy or sensitivity to gluten, she nonetheless says she is better off without it.
“I struggle with sticking to a gluten-free diet,” she said, “but when I do, I feel much better.”
There is no question that eating gluten aggravates celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients. But doctors say it is unclear whether gluten can be blamed for other problems.
( Read More... )
From DNA Analysis, Clues to a Single Australian Migration
By NICHOLAS WADE, The New York Times, May 8, 2007
Geneticists re-examining the first settlement of Australia and Papua-New Guinea by modern humans have concluded that the two islands were reached some 50,000 years ago by a single group of people who remained in substantial or total isolation until recent times. The finding, if upheld, would undermine assumptions that there have been subsequent waves of migration into Australia.
( Read More... )
Vital Signs: Adolescence: No Link to Promiscuity Found in Youths Using Condoms
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times, May 8, 2007
A new study has found that adolescents who use condoms the first time they have intercourse do not go on to have more sexual partners than others, and that they have lower rates of sexually transmitted diseases than those who do not use condoms the first time.
( Read More... )
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, May 8, 2007
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Conquistadors from Spain came, they saw and they were astonished. They had never seen anything in Europe like the bridges of Peru. Chroniclers wrote that the Spanish soldiers stood in awe and fear before the spans of braided fiber cables suspended across deep gorges in the Andes, narrow walkways sagging and swaying and looking so frail.
Yet the suspension bridges were familiar and vital links in the vast empire of the Inca, as they had been to Andean cultures for hundreds of years before the arrival of the Spanish in 1532. The people had not developed the stone arch or wheeled vehicles, but they were accomplished in the use of natural fibers for textiles, boats, sling weapons — even keeping inventories by a prewriting system of knots.
So bridges made of fiber ropes, some as thick as a man’s torso, were the technological solution to the problem of road building in rugged terrain. By some estimates, at least 200 such suspension bridges spanned river gorges in the 16th century. One of the last of these, over the Apurimac River, inspired Thornton Wilder’s novel “The Bridge of San Luis Rey.”
Although scholars have studied the Inca road system’s importance in forging and controlling the pre-Columbian empire, John A.Ochsendorf of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology here said, “Historians and archaeologists have neglected the role of bridges.”
( Read More... )
Jury Is Still Out on Gluten, the Latest Dietary Villain
By KATE MURPHY, The New York Times, May 8, 2007
Brandi Walzer, a 29-year-old cartographer in Savannah, Ga., loves bread, not to mention pizza and beer. But she tries to avoid them, because they contain gluten — a substance she says upsets her stomach, aggravates her arthritis and touches off depression.
She is among a growing number of Americans who believe that gluten — a protein found in wheat, barley and rye — is responsible for a variety of ills, from skin eruptions to infertility to anxiety to gas. Though diagnostic tests have not indicated she has an allergy or sensitivity to gluten, she nonetheless says she is better off without it.
“I struggle with sticking to a gluten-free diet,” she said, “but when I do, I feel much better.”
There is no question that eating gluten aggravates celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients. But doctors say it is unclear whether gluten can be blamed for other problems.
( Read More... )
From DNA Analysis, Clues to a Single Australian Migration
By NICHOLAS WADE, The New York Times, May 8, 2007
Geneticists re-examining the first settlement of Australia and Papua-New Guinea by modern humans have concluded that the two islands were reached some 50,000 years ago by a single group of people who remained in substantial or total isolation until recent times. The finding, if upheld, would undermine assumptions that there have been subsequent waves of migration into Australia.
( Read More... )
Vital Signs: Adolescence: No Link to Promiscuity Found in Youths Using Condoms
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times, May 8, 2007
A new study has found that adolescents who use condoms the first time they have intercourse do not go on to have more sexual partners than others, and that they have lower rates of sexually transmitted diseases than those who do not use condoms the first time.
( Read More... )
