Friday, 25 May, 2012

Before some building projects, salvage archaeologists save what they can. What can you learn with a quick-and-dirty dig? Is it worth the hassle?

War and civil strife make life difficult for archeologists and destroy archeological sites, but some archeology sites are strictly about war. We name names and give examples.

Coprolites — fossilized feces — are an important tool for archeology — and they don’t even smell!

How did agriculture start, and when did it reach chilly Scandinavia? When were crops domesticated, and what were the first crops? How did domestication change crop genes and human society?

What happens during the preparation and mounting of dinosaurs? What happened during the epic struggle over Sue, the queen of the T rexes? Can you do science with a jackhammer?

The dangers of fieldwork to natural and social scientists: Volcanoes, viruses, armed revolutionaries, wackos behind the wheel…

The science of Halloween: bats, brains and cemetaries. Mourn the bats. Earn some interest at the brain bank. Prowl the boneyard!

Isotope analysis help track monarch butterfly migration; also used for dating specimens in anthropology and biology.

Archeologists think they’ve found the wrecked flagship of Blackbeard the scurvy pirate. What else is hiding in Davy Jones’ Locker? Dive into the archeology of the deep.

Tyrannosaurus Sue, raised questions about who owns dinosaur fossils. Should they jut go to the highest bidder, or should they have special status as scientific objects?