Splitting up the Codex Atlanticus

The world's top Leonardo Da Vinci expert on Tuesday spoke out in favour of dismantling a 12-volume collection of work by the Renaissance genius. Commenting on plans to reverse a controversial 1970s restoration project, which would leave the Codex Atlanticus as a bundle of loose pages, Carlo Pedretti said he approved of the proposal. ''The damage has already been done. The Codex Atlanticus was ruined when its pages were first assembled into 12 volumes,'' he said.

''Separating it now can only improve its conservation and make it easier to display at exhibitions''.

Full article here.

Excavating Kristallnacht

"The ninth of November is a symbol because it was the beginning of the end," Mr. Blumenthal said of Kristallnacht, a Nazi euphemism meaning "night of broken glass."

Curiously, though, physical evidence of the state-sponsored pogrom has always been extremely scarce. The Jewish Museum, for example, holds many letters describing the night. But the only other related object in its collection is a 38-second black-and-white film of a synagogue burning in Bielefeld, a university town in western Germany.

Last week, however, an Israeli researcher reported finding a trove of such evidence -- piles of looted Jewish possessions -- in this town 30 miles north of Berlin.

Finding it turned out to be as simple as asking one of Klandorf's 180 residents for the whereabouts of the local trash dump.

The day after Kristallnacht, trains loaded with personal and religious items arrived in the woods outside Klandorf. Political prisoners from a nearby camp unloaded the material and threw it all in a dump here.

From the NY Times.

Sequencing the Iceman

The oldest intact human mummy, the Iceman, comes from a genetic line that has either died off or become extremely rare, according to a new DNA study. . .

New analysis of a mere 0.002 ounces (70 milligrams) of this intestinal material has allowed scientists for the first time to sequence Ötzi's complete mitochondrial DNA.

Although until the DNA of more living humans has been fully analyzed, definitive claims of rarity or extinction may have to wait. From National Geographic.

Axolotl's last stand?

The axolotl, also known as the "water monster" and the "Mexican walking fish," was a key part of Aztec legend and diet. Against all odds, it survived until now amid Mexico City's urban sprawl in the polluted canals of Lake Xochimilco, now a Venice-style destination for revelers poled along by Mexican gondoliers, or trajineros, in brightly painted party boats.

But scientists are racing to save the foot-long salamander from extinction, a victim of the draining of its lake habitat and deteriorating water quality. In what may be the final blow, nonnative fish introduced into the canals are eating its lunch -- and its babies.

From Discovery News.

Sano di Pietro panels discovered near Sheffield

Two 15th-century Sienese panel paintings have been discovered in an English parish church in a Yorkshire mining village, outside Sheffield. They had hung unrecognised in the Church of St John and St Mary Magdalene in Goldthorpe . . .

The panels are five feet high and are among Sano’s largest works outside Italy. They remain in fine condition and have not required conservation. Nothing has been published on the paintings and they are reproduced here for the first time.

From the Art Newspaper.

Jacques Piccard obit

Swiss-based marine explorer and inventor Jacques Piccard, who was part of the deepest submarine dive in history, has died at his home aged 86.

In 1960, Piccard and US co-pilot Don Walsh took a submersible developed by his father to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific.

They went 11km (seven miles) beneath the surface of the sea.

Their discovery of living organisms at that depth led to a ban on the dumping of nuclear waste in ocean trenches.

From the BBC.

Jewish students in demand

College counselors and colleges alike -- particularly small liberal arts colleges -- are reporting explicit efforts to attract more Jewish applicants or build Jewish student life on campus, or both (since the two goals go hand in hand). For instance, Washington and Lee University, a decidedly Southern-influenced institution in Virginia, has identified “recruiting and supporting Jewish students at W&L” as a fundraising priority, and is constructing a $4 million Hillel House.

The trend is not without points of controversy, however, especially when the recruitment is taking place under the mantle of "diversity". From Inside Higher Education.

Innovative approaches to allergies

Food allergies among children are increasing at an alarming rate in the United States. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control, three million children in the United States had food or digestive allergies in 2007 -- an increase of 18 percent in a decade.

So researchers are taking on the allergies with new approaches -- including using Chinese herbs and dietary changes.

Children in the Duke study are treated with peanut proteins -- either in liquid or powdered form. The initial dose is only 1/1,000 of a peanut, but it is slowly increased to the equivalent of one peanut and more.

Four children who have completed years of the treatment are now able to tolerate 13 to 15 peanuts without showing even mild symptoms.

Full article here.

The Great Depression, reconsidered

Two UCLA economists say they have figured out why the Great Depression dragged on for almost 15 years, and they blame a suspect previously thought to be beyond reproach: President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

After scrutinizing Roosevelt's record for four years, Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian conclude in a new study that New Deal policies signed into law 71 years ago thwarted economic recovery for seven long years. . .

In an article in the August issue of the Journal of Political Economy, Ohanian and Cole blame specific anti-competition and pro-labor measures that Roosevelt promoted and signed into law June 16, 1933.

Press release here.

Silent Heroes of Berlin

A unique museum honouring Germans who helped persecuted Jews stay alive under the Nazi tyranny has opened in Berlin. The Silent Heroes Memorial Centre is the first of its kind dedicated to individuals who helped to hide, feed and care for people who otherwise would have gone to the gas chambers.

Tucked away in a tenement block on Rosenthaler Strasse, it lies in the heart of Berlin's pre-war Jewish quarter, not far from the site of the former paintbrush factory where an anti-Nazi activist helped deaf and blind Jews shelter from the Gestapo round-ups.

From the Observer.

It's not just your covers you're losing . . .

I thought I already posted this, but I guess my brain got drained first:

Sharing a bed with someone could temporarily reduce your brain power - at least if you are a man - Austrian scientists suggest.

Women seem better adapted to bed-sharing, it seems. From the BBC. More on sleeping separately at CNN.