Science Tuesday - Mummies, Dolphins, Polar Bears, and Yoga

Researchers at the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology preparing the frozen mummy of a 15-year-old girl, called La Doncella, “the maiden,” for exhibition.

In Argentina, a Museum Unveils a Long-Frozen Maiden
By DENISE GRADY, The New York Times, September 11, 2007

SALTA, Argentina — The maiden, the boy, the girl of lightning: they were three Inca children, entombed on a bleak and frigid mountaintop 500 years ago as a religious sacrifice.
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Rare Dolphin Seen in China, Experts Say
By REUTERS, The New York Times, August 30, 2007

BEIJING, Aug. 29 (Reuters) — A Chinese man has videotaped a large white animal swimming in the Yangtze River that experts say is a member of a dolphin species unique to China and feared extinct, the official Xinhua news agency said Wednesday.
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Warming Is Seen as Wiping Out Most Polar Bears
By JOHN M. BRODER and ANDREW C. REVKIN, The New York Times, September 8, 2007

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 — Two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will disappear by 2050, even under moderate projections for shrinking summer sea ice caused by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, government scientists reported on Friday.
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Yoga Is More Than Just Showing Up, but That Does Help
By NORA ISAACS, The New York Times, September 6, 2007

AFTER taking just a handful of yoga classes, Lisa Lew didn’t know the plow from the plank and wasn’t overly impressed with the age-old discipline. Still, she decided to tag along with a co-worker for the first day of a promotion at Levitate Yoga, a Manhattan studio, where students had committed to 21 consecutive days of yoga.

Ms. Lew, a 36-year-old administrator for an investment bank, sweated and stretched through three weeks of poses — all for a promotional price of $120. She fought aches and soreness, got stronger, and afterward she felt reborn: she lost waistline inches, but also shed stress and her tendency to overreact.

After reaping the benefits of a daily practice, she now heads to Levitate four times a week. “It brings a lot of peacefulness to me,” Ms. Lew said.

As a way of creating loyal regulars out of monthly drop-ins, studio owners recently have pushed the self-serving idea that yoga is not to be done lightly, casually or sporadically. They have stopped short of telling erratic classgoers to give it up, but their message is loud and clear: committing to a regular practice is the only way to progress in life and on the mat.
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