Mapping 61 Ancient Tattoos On A 5,300 - Year - Old Mummy

2/11/2015
Mapping 61 Ancient Tattoos on a 5,300-Year-Old Mummy - The Atlantic

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Mapping 61 Ancient Tattoos on a

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Scientists used a modified Nikon camera to reveal previously unseen markings on tzi the
Iceman's body.
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One of Melis' colleagues hunts for the iceman's many tattoos. (South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology)
Wearing a surgical mask and gown over a thick winter jacket, Marcello Melis
stood at a glass operating table in a tiny ice chamber and examination room in
Italys South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. His patient was a 5,300-year-old
mummy nicknamed tzi the Iceman. And though Melis wanted to look
beneath tzis caramel-colored skin, he held neither a scalpel nor forceps in his
gloved hands. Rather, the tool for this procedure was a modified Nikon camera.
tzi is legendary in science circles. Since finding the frozen mummy in the
Italian Alps in 1991, researchers have conducted numerous tests to piece
together his ancient tale. Genomic sequencing suggests that he had brown eyes,
and came from Central Europe, as well as was lactose intolerant and predisposed
for coronary heart disease. Analysis of a shoulder wound indicated he was fatally
shot with an arrow that pierced an artery. And a CT scan showed he also suffered
a hard blow to the head. Radiolab did a whole show about the murder mystery of
tzis demise. But what fascinated Melis and his colleagues most were the faded,
yet still visible black tattoos that covered the mummy's wrists, ankles, and lower
back.
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The thing is: Researchers never knew how many tattoos tzi had, or why exactly
he was inked in the first place. Theyd previously counted somewhere between
47 and 55 black simple charcoal lines rubbed into the icemans skin, mostly
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around his joints. Some scientists believe that the tattoos were made using a
sharp bone tool in an attempt to alleviate pain in these areas, perhaps an early
form of acupuncture.
JAMES FALLOWS
But what if tzis tattoos were there for another reasonand what if there were
more of them? The dozens of tattoos scientists could see might, they thought, be
accompanied by more marksones obscured by dark patches from thousands of
years of mummification.
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So Melis and his colleague Matteo Miccoli from Profilocolore, a spectral imaging
company in Rome, teamed up with the museums mummy experts and used a
camera technique called Hypercolorimetric Multispectral Imaging (HMI) to
investigate. The idea was to analyze tzi under infrared and ultraviolet light,
which might reveal details that couldn't otherwise be seen. Using specialized
lenses on an otherwise ordinary Nikon and imaging software, Melis and his
colleagues analyzed every pixel from the photos they took under seven different
wavelengths of light to map tzis tattoos.
And it worked. Not only did Melis and his team get a more complete view of
tattoos they already knew were therethey also uncovered new markings on
parts of tzis body they never knew were decorated.
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Images of the iceman's tattoos as seen under different wavelengths (Marco Samadelli)
At first we didnt know if we could find something, Melis said. But after
spending a whole day in a below-freezing operating room taking pictures, the
team had a breakthrough. Then, very suddenly we saw that there was
something more, something never seen before when we looked through the
infrared portion of the pictures.
Before his work on tzi, Melis had used the HMI technique to collect clues for a
more traditional sort of cold case. After Italian police found the bones of a
missing man who had disappeared years earlier, Melis used the camera
technique at the crime scene to identify traces of blood splattered on what
looked like clean walls. The finding led a judge to reopen the case as a homicide.
Melis also used the technique to reveal a Leonardo da Vinci mural hidden
beneath a thick layer of soot in an Italian castle. Doctors use the technique to
diagnose dermatological diseases such as melanoma that can be present beneath
the surface of the skinan application not unlike the method researchers used to
identify tzis tattoos. We thought we could use the same kind of technique to
discover the tattoos on the mummy, because the tattoos go under the skin,
Melis said.
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Melis and his team found a total of 61 tattoos across the mummys body
including a never before seen set located on his ribcage. They reported their
findings last month in the Journal of Cultural Heritage. The tattoo on the chest
was really surprising, we did not expect to find a completely new tattoo, said the
anthropologist Albert Zink, head of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman at
the European Research Academy in Italy, and an author on the paper.
The finding may challenge prevailing theories about the tattoos' therapeutic
properties. In the paper, Zink suggests that because of its location, the new chest
tattoo seems to contradict the idea that the markings only alleviated lower back
and joint pain. The question is now, Is this also a treatment? Or is this
symbolic, or even for a religious function?' Zink said.
Where the tattoo sets are located on tzi, with number 15 pointing to the new finding (Marco Samadelli)
Researchers already know from previous scans that tzi had early signs of heart
diseaseatherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteriesso perhaps, some have
theorized, tzis chest tattoos were connected to management of chest pain.
Walter Kean, a rheumatologist from McMaster University in Canada who was
not involved with the study, previously published a paper suggesting tzis
tattoos are related to pain in the icemans back, transitional vertebra, and legs.
If some or all of the icemans tattoos were used as markers for therapeutics
then the chest tattoos could easily be a marker for some form of chest pain which
troubled the iceman, he said in an email.
Frank Rhli, director of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine in Zurich,
Switzerland, who also was not involved with the most recent study, cautions
against interpreting the chest markings as pain management signs. It's
fascinating work, he said. But for me atherosclerosis is not a good enough
reasoning for the marks. I see it for the joints, but for the atherosclerosis Im not
very convinced.
As the debate on whether the tattoos served a therapeutic, religious, or symbolic
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Birds Are Mostly Cool With Drones - The Atlantic

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A white drone with red stripes ascended from grassy wetlands in southern
France. Equipped with a GoPro camera, it climbed 30 meters into the air before
buzzing across a green lagoon speckled with pink. Dozens of flamingoes perched
atop twig-thin legs bathed below, oblivious to the hovering observer homing in
on them.
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The flock's nonchalance shocked wildlife biologists who have worried about how
drones might disturb birds. I was amazed, I was absolutely amazed, said
seabird ecologist David Grmillet, who had watched the flamingos ignore the
drone. My hypothesis was that at such close range the birds would fly off, and in
most cases they didntthat was really a big surprise.
Grmillet and his research team from Frances National Center for Scientific
Research in Montpellier teamed up with the quadrocopter manufacturer
Cyleone to see how close unmanned aerial vehicles could get to different bird
populations without ruffling their feathers. The results from the research could
inform wildlife conservationists looking to create ethical guidelines for the use of
drones with birds, according to Grmillet.
To track the flamingo encounter, Grmillet used a laser rangefinder that showed
how close the quadrocopter, fittingly called a Phantom, could sneak up on the
birds. As he observed the aerial vehicle fly from 100 meters to only 10 meters
away from its target, Grmillet wondered whether the wild flamingos would
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disperse or continue nuzzling their feathers. But even as the drone hovered just
four meters awaythe equivalent of about 13 feetthe flock remained unfazed.

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In their study, the team launched three quadrocopters of different colors, toward
wild populations of flamingos, common greenshanks, and mallards in a zoo.
After more than 200 trials, the researchers found that the drones could get
within four meters of the birds without disturbing them 80 percent of the time.
It didnt matter whether the machine was white, black, or blueor, notably, how
fast it was flying.

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Wildlife ecologists prepare to launch the "Phantom" drone at a flamingo flock. (David Grmillet)
What did affect the birds, the team discovered, was the angle at which the drone
swooped into the swamp or zoo. The quadrocopter had little problem getting
close to the birds when it traveled at angles of 20 degrees, 30 degrees, and 60
degrees. But when it descended vertically at a 90-degree angle, it spooked the
birds, causing many to fly or move away.

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They just dont like something coming down upon them because you could
imagine it looks like a predator coming down trying to sneak attack, Grmillet
said. He suggested that in all other cases the machine looked so foreign to the
birds that they did not classify it as a threat unless if it came from directly
overhead. The team reported their findings this month in the journal Biology
Letters.
Grmillet said that in addition to providing first steps for creating ethical wildlife
guidelines, the findings could help in filming bird behavior. He also noted that
quadrocopters equipped with scanners could track birds that have been
implanted with identifier chips. You could have a mini research station just
above the birds you want to study, Grmillet said.
The ability to get that close to birds that cheaply
has a lot of potential to revolutionize bird
Because drones are the
censuses, said Kristoffer Whitney, a researcher at
latest installment in the
the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who looks at
field of wildlife
the history and ethics of wildlife biology. The
conservation, biologists
unmanned aerial machines could be particularly
useful when counting how many birds live in
should be finding ways
wetlands, which tend to be inaccessible to
to use this technology
researchers. Whitney said that because drones are
ethically.
the latest installment in the field of wildlife
conservation, biologists should be finding ways to
use this technology ethically. If it turns out to be true that these machines have
really little impact on the behavior of birds compared to older techniques like
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airplanes, he said. You will see more scientists imploring these techniques
more often because there would be less concern that they harm the birds.
Kevin McGowan, a scientist from the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology,
suggested another use for drones in wildlife research: inspectors of hard-toreach bird nests. McGowan observes the American crow, which often takes him
dozens of feet into tree canopies to study. It is dangerous and time consuming
and it bothers the birds, McGowan said. But if we can use a quadrocopter to
check within minutes after the parents leavethats a big plus for us.
But McGowan also says that in the United States, Federal Aviation
Administration rules are stifling the scientific use of drones. Unmanned aerial
vehicle restrictions vary in different countries, and in France, Grmillet is able to
use the quadrocopters in certain areas only under the supervision of a licensed
pilot.
He said that his team will next observe how close unmanned aerial vehicles can
get to other avian populations. Except for birds of prey, whichas many
YouTube videos showtend to mercilessly attack any drone that flies into their
airspace.
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NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR is an assistant editor at The Atlantic, where he covers science news. He has
previously reported for Science, NPR, and Scientific American.
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Carter Center Announces Advancement in Guinea Worm Eradication - The Atlantic

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A doctor examines a young patient with Guinea worm in her foot in Ghana. (L. Gubb/ The Carter Center)
For the past 30 years, Jimmy Carter has waged war on the Guinea worm, a
parasite that infects people who drink water contaminated with its larvae.
Carters first encounter with the worm was in the late 1980s during a trip to a
small village in Ghana, where more than two-thirds of inhabitants were infected.
I saw a young woman holding a baby in her arms But it was not a babyIt
was her right breast, he said to a group of reporters. It was [swollen to] about a
foot long. And coming out of the nipple of her breast was a Guinea worm.
Carter would later discover that the woman had 11 worms in her body. This
event, which he called one of the most unforgettable scenes of human suffering
he had ever seen, inspired him to create a new mission for his Carter Center
foundation: The complete eradication of Guinea worm disease.
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ADAM CHANDLER
Jimmy Carter comforts a six-year-old Ghanian girl infected with the parasite. (L.Gubb/The Carter Center)
In 1986, cases of Guinea worm disease numbered more than 3.5 million
worldwide. Now, globally, there are only 126 cases left, Carter announced this
week during the unveiling of a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural
History in New York, called Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease. The exhibit
showcases neglected tropical diseases such as Guinea worm, river blindness,
and polio, which have disappeared from wealthy nations but still plague the
developing world. Though most of the Western world has averted its attention
from the scourges, Carter said that these diseases are prime for eradication, and
his foundation is on track to make Guinea worm the second human disease after
smallpox to be entirely eliminated worldwide.
The disease was endemic in an
estimated 23,735 villages across
21 Asian and African countries
like Ghana, India, Pakistan and
Yemen in 1991. Now, only 30
villages in four countriesMali,
Chad, Ethiopia, and South Sudan
harbor the worms. The feat
comes from decades of publichealth intervention. Once inside a
human host, the Guinea larva
develops into a long, pale worm
within a year. Then, over the
course of 30 days, it emerges
from the infected persons skin
through painful, swollen welts.
Imagine a worm one meter long Thin, thread-like Guinea worms in a jar (The Carter Center)
coming out of your skin for, on
average, 11 weeks. That in itself is a nightmare to me, Craig Withers, a program
director at the Carter Center, said at the event. Its sort of like Alien in real
life. Its also common for people to suffer from more than one infection,
Withers said, adding that the worms can manifest in any part of the body. Use
your worst imagination: Roof of the mouth, breast, the head, scrotum. Any area,
it can come out, Withers said. Afflicted people often immerse themselves in a
watering hole in an attempt to wash the worm out of their bodies, but this allows
the worm to lay its eggs and start the cycle anew.
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Two young men use "pipe filters" while drinking water. (L.Gubb/The Carter Center)
The Carter Center helped interrupt this chain of events by educating affected
communities on the Guinea worm, and providing them with pipe filters to
wear around their necks and use like straws for filtering drinking water. The
outreach methods that helped the Carter Center decimate the disease may offer
insight into combating the explosive Ebola outbreak in West Africa, according to
Donald Hopkins, the Carter Centers vice president for health programs.
Hopkins noted that the most important lesson learned from Guinea worm is
how essential it is to engage with the afflicted community. He said that doctors
should reassure affected villages that Ebola is not a death sentence, and that
more than a third of the people infected recover. By dispelling those fears, health
officials can encourage those with the disease to seek treatment early, Hopkins
said.
MOST POPULAR
Youre not here to tell them what to do. You need to work with the
communities, he said. In the case of Ebola, its not just a problem for an
individual. Its a problem for the whole community. Even though the diseases
are very different in their incubation periods and in how theyre spread, they
both disproportionately affect rural areas in developing countries. The strongest
tool needed to combat Ebola is the same as one needed to combat Guinea worm,
Hopkins said. We need peace, and we need people to have faith and believe that
something can be done about this disease, he said. Were going to get after
some other diseases once we get this one to zero.

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New York City Eric Garner Protests - The Atlantic

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Eric Garners final words roared across Manhattan amid a symphony of traffic horns and police
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For the second time in two weeks, unrest erupted in New York City. Thousands
of protestors swarmed the streets on Wednesday night following a Staten Island
grand jury decision to not indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold
death of Eric Garner. Throughout the night Garners final words, I cant
breathe, I cant breathe, roared across Manhattan amid a symphony of traffic
horns and police sirens.
PHOTO
The rally was all-too reminiscent of the nationwide demonstrations after the
non-indictment of police officer Darren Wilson. Pockets of protesters mobilized
across the city around 5:00 p.m. in areas such as Grand Central Station, Times
Square, and Union Square. In Grand Central, dozens of activists laid sprawled
on the floor in a staged die in. At each gathering people brandished signs
against police brutality, many of which had marks and folds from previous use.
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JAMES FALLOWS

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ADAM CHANDLER
Demonstrators hold a "die in" in Grand Central Station (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
As sad as it is I think its good to come into a community like this where
everyone is fighting, not just for black lives but for all lives, said Jennifer Seide
who had first joined the protests at Union Square. This idea that police can do
anything without reproach is ridiculous, and I think people are starting to catch
on.
Then after 6:30 p.m. a group in Union Square began its march down the city
sidewalks. The thousand-strong crowd stretched several blocks and was followed
alongside by a straight-lined battalion of police officers on foot, scooter and
squad car. The sound of the chants, Justice For Eric Garner and No Justice,
No Peace alerted onlookers who lined against large office windows overlooking
the march underneath.
Protesters march through the streets in response to the grand jury's decision in the Eric Garner case (Seth
Wenig/AP)
One activist, Raquel Carter found herself a leader among a group of about 300
protesters. She recalled an interaction she had with a black officer standing in
line with about a dozen white officers. Tears were welling up in his eyes because
we all asked him Are you ashamed? she said. He knows he could have easily
not made it into the police force, and then hed have been one of us in the streets
or he could have been killed. Or that could have been his brother.
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Police officers form a line during a protest against the grand jury decision (Andrees Latif/Reuters)
After leaving Union Square, the group then marched toward the Rockefeller
Christmas Tree. But many hit a snag while navigating toward the ice rink as
NYPD officers had erected barriers to thwart demonstrators from disturbing the
Christmas tree lighting. The barriers prompted some demonstrators to chant,
No Christmas for Eric Garner! About 50 police officers, many with helmets,
batons, and zip-wire handcuffs, ordered the crowd to the sidewalks. Not
everyone obeyed. The crowd grew angrier and many lost the calm composure
that had carried them so far. And then in an instant, chaos erupted. The police
grabbed a few protestors still on the streets, slammed them on the back of police
scooters and handcuffed them. Media members were among those arrested and
taken away from the scene. The arresting blitz soon subsided.
Activists chant and hold signs on Times Square (Julio Cortez/AP)
After an hour trying to progress with no avail, many members gave up pushing
through to the tree and instead set their sights on Times Square. The
demonstrators congested city streets while traveling to their new rendezvous,
only parting for an ambulance that needed to race through. The crowd marched
toward the West Side Highway near Manhattan Cruise Terminal with the goal of
shutting the road down. Marcos Gonzales, who wore a black hoodie with the
words black lives matter painted in red, felt the protest still needed additional
momentum to be effective. Not enough people are doing enough, he said. Its
really upsetting that theres a younger generation and a lot of them are not here
right now. We need more numbers to fight this.
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2/11/2015
Demonstrators block the West Side Highway during a protest against the grand jury decision on the death
of Eric Garner, in New York December 3, 2014. (Andrees Latif/Reuters)
A short distance down the road, a line of police officers halted the marchers. By
this point, the highway's traffic had come to a standstill. The NYPD gave an
order to disperse or risk detainment. Again with batons and zip-ties they
advanced. The activists retreated up the highway towards the Henry Hudson
Parkway. Some ran. Others marched. But everyone chanted. And as they
commenced up the highway, cars stuck in traffic lowered their windows and
joined in approval.
Protestors enter the Henry Hudson Parkway during their march. (Andrees Latif/AP)
The entrance to the Henry Hudson Parkway was another tense moment for the
protestors. The NYPD, numbering close to 100, were nearing to their location.
About 40 feet in front of the group the police officers halted their movements.
Some of the activists walked toward the police and staged another die in lying
down on the asphalt before them. The standoff was short-lived as the police
announced that they were about to make more arrests and the demonstrators
continued to move. Some moved to the sidewalks by the parkway, while reports
state that the other members of the group then traveled to the Brooklyn Bridge
and successfully shut it down before being broken up and some arrested by cops.
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Activists head on the eastbound traffic lanes of the Brooklyn Bridge (Jason DeCrow/AP)
Jon Robinson from Brooklyn had contemplated coming to Union Square two
weeks ago following the Ferguson non-indictment, but then decided against it.
He said he felt a little hopeless at the time and that protesting was akin to a
child throwing a tantrum while the authorities watched from the sidelines fully
aware that things would go back to normal in a few days. "Weve had plenty of
opportunities to be upset and change, so how many more times are we going to
do this?And although he now stood outside the Henry Hudson Parkway, mere
inches away from arrest, having marched with more than a thousand people all
night, he still was not sure if his efforts would make a difference. Ive got this
rage and hunger for change," he said. "But I also dont know how you really
cause change when youve got a system so broken.
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The solar-powered space probe launched from the comet-hunting Rosetta craft is currently in
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Even after its gas thrusters and anchoring harpoons failed, the European Space
Agency probe Philae still managed to make a historic, albeit bumpy, landing on a
comet.
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But since the touchdown, times on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko have

been arduous for the little lander that could.
First, Philae almost bounced off of the space rocks surface on its first landing
attempt. The washing machine-sized lander, nearly weightless on the comet,
hopped more than a mile and a half through nothingness for two hours before
landing again, according to the European Space Agency. It then made another
smaller bounce, and finally settled in a precarious positionsideways with one
leg suspended toward space.
To make matters worse, the solar-powered robot ended up nestled beneath a
shadowy cliff. The location prevented the probe from recharging its batteries,
which are calculated to drain completely sometime later today. Now,
astronomers are racing to get Philae to conduct crucial experiments and beam
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The first panoramic image from the surface of a comet from Philae. Superimposed on top of the image is a
sketch of the Philae lander in the configuration the lander team currently believe it is in. (ESA)
On Friday the lander began drilling 10 inches into the comets rock and ice, the
AP reported. But communication poses a problem for the team of astronomers
charged with talking to the probe. Right now it takes about 28 minutes for
mission control to exchange signals with the lander. The team contacts Philae
through the Rosetta spacecraft hovering above the comet, but that connection
often gets interrupted. In fact, the next time the mothership will have contact
with Philae is around 4:00 pm ET today, according to Reuters.
"This will be exciting because we're not sure if the batteries will have enough
power to transmit this data," said Stefan Ulamec, Philae lander manager.
In order to retrieve the data, the team said it will have to take some risks. During
that communications window, the ESA astronomers are going to attempt a
daring hop to reposition the probe into a sunnier spot, The Guardian reported.
Using the built-in springs in Philaes legs, the team hopes to fire the probe out of
its dark crater. If that fails, The Guardian reported that the team might try to
have Philae cartwheel out of the crevice by spinning its flywheel. But that may
also prove futile if the lander is already out of juice.
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If the ESA exhausts all of those last-ditch efforts to prevent Philae from going
into hibernation, the team may still have one final opportunity to continue the
mission: The comet may pass close enough to the sun to wake up Philae. Comet
67p, which drifts between Mars and Jupiter, is on a six-and-a-half-year orbit
around the sun and is currently reaching a close point to the star.
Even if everything fails, and Philae does not survive the night, its creators insist
the operation was still wildly successful. ESA said that Philae has carried out
Page 2 of 5
11/21/14 4:19 AM
about 80-to-90 percent of the science that it was intended to do already.

"Let's stop looking at things that we could have done if everything had worked
properly," said flight director Andrea Accomazzo, to the AP. "Let us look at
things that we have done: what we have achieved and what we have on the
ground. This is unique and will be unique forever."
On Friday evening, the ESA announced that Philae's batteries have indeed been
depleted and lander is "asleep." The machine is now in a deep standby mode,
and will only make contact again if it manages to catch enough sunlight to
recharge its batteries (which may never happen, but is still a possibility.)
However, before shutting down, Philae was able to transmit all of the scientific
data it had gathered while on the comet's surface. In addition, the Rosetta craft
that delivered Philae will continue to orbit the comet as it continues its journey
around the sun.
Lander Manager Stephan Ulamec said, "This machine performed magnificently
under tough conditions, and we can be fully proud of the incredible scientific
success Philae has delivered."
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Lonesome George, the Last of His

Kind, Strikes His Final Pose
After the century-old giant tortoise died, Galpagos conservationists and a taxidermist had to
figure out how to continue his legacy
October 27, 2014 | By Nicholas St. Fleur
Tucked beside fossils of long-gone gigantic

sloths and knee-high horses stands a
newcomer to the American Museum of
Natural Historys extinction parade:
Lonesome George, the last known Pinta
Island giant tortoise.
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For four decades the 100-year-old reptile

served as a conservation icon on Ecuadors
Galpagos Archipelago. His subspecies,
hunted for meat and tortoise oil, all but
vanished in the 1900s. George was its only
survivor, and despite several attempts to get
him to reproduce with giant tortoises from
similar subspecies, he died without
descendants on June 24, 2012. Now, what
remains of Lonesome Georges legacy is a
lifelike mount at the American Museum of
Natural History (AMNH) in New York City.
Designed by an expert team of taxidermists,
the display depicts George at his most
majestic; with neck outstretched and shell
polished.
Away
Why Do People Believe in Conspiracy Theories?
Lonesome George is on view in the Museums 4th

floor Astor Turret through January 4, 2015.
Credit: AMNH/R. Mickens
More In This Article

Lonesome George, the
Last of His Kind, Strikes
His Final Pose
[Slideshow]
Serendipity brought him to the museum. On the same morning that Fausto Llerena,
Georges handler since 1983, found the tortoise sprawled out dead in his pen, a
congregation of conservationists had just arrived to Santa Cruz Island for a citizen
science workshop. Santa Cruz Island, where George drew millions of visitors over his
40-year tenure, is one of four inhabited islands in the Galpagos chain; the other more
than three-dozen islands and islets are untouched wilderness preserves. When Llerena
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lonesome-george-the-last-of-his-kind-strikes-his-final-pose/
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informed the Galpagos National Park Service of Georges passing, they shared the
sad news with their guests, many of whom began to cry. For Eleanor Sterling, a chief
conservation scientist at the AMNH who arrived on the island that day, the next 24
11/21/14 4:25 AM
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hours were filled with disbelief. We just witnessed extinction, she says.
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency) seeks methods to accurately
forecast the spread of
Galpagos tortoises can live up to 150 years, so Georges death came unexpectedly.
The park had made no prior arrangements. Its always hypothetical until youre in the
NIH Single Cell Analysis Challenge: Follow That
middle of it, Sterling says. Then suddenly youve got this big weight on your
shoulders.
Sterling and the other conservationists, many of whom were members of the
Galpagos Conservancy, shifted gears from conducting citizen science to making
postmortem arrangements. A veterinarian was called to conduct the necropsy; after
splitting Georges shell in half with a chainsaw it was determined he had died of
natural causes. Next the group needed to stabilize Georges carcass before the 100degree Fahrenheit tropical heat could rot his remains. For that, they needed plastic
freezer wrap and a refrigerator. So the group made frantic calls to local village
hardware stores on Santa Cruz Island.
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>> Click here to see a slideshow of Lonesome George's final adventure

The hardware stores were out of plastic freezer wrap, and it would take two weeks to
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get more. When the team explained that the supplies were for Lonesome George,
employees sniffed out some freezer plastic at a local pig farm. The group then wrapped
every centimeter of Georges 1.5-meter-long frame to keep him frozen and thwart
freezer burn; they had to protect each individual toe to prevent it from breaking off in
the refrigerator. For Sterling, the process was exciting and terrifying.
After 36 hours, the bulky, 75-kilogram tortoise was put in a large freezer, safely
wrapped and mummified. Meanwhile, word of his death went viral. The Galpagos
Conservancy was flooded with e-mails from impassioned fans suggesting next steps.
Some recommended burying Lonesome George on his home island. Others wanted to
parade him from country to country like a rock star on a world tour. One letter even
suggested barbecuing his remains for a celebratory ingesting George feast.
Members of both the conservancy and the Galpagos National Park System decided
the best option was to preserve George via taxidermy; that way, the thinking went,
George could continue to herald conservation efforts even in death. But the
restoration job would require a very special taxidermist.
George Dante was tinkering in his office at Wildlife Preservations, a taxidermy firm in
Woodland Park, N.J., when Steve Quinn, a senior diorama artist from the AMNH,
called. I could not believe what I was hearing, Dante says. Everything was moving
in slow-motion. I remember trying to process the fact that George had passed away
and this was the end of a species. And then this honor, that theyre asking me if Im
interested in doing this.
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Page 2 of 5
Sterling had recommended Dante for the job. After I had my 24 hours of sadness and
self-reflection, I realized the museum could and had the resources to make a
difference, she says. Dante had done the taxidermy restoration work on 2.5-metertall Alaskan brown bears and other creatures for the museums North American
Mammal Hall in 2012. Preserving George would be his biggest challenge since that
project.
Acting on Dantes instructions, the parks carpenters and mechanics built a custom
box made of hardwood tree bark to ship George from the Galpagos to Dantes New
Jersey office. Getting the tortoise there would require special permits from Ecuadors
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wildlife agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecuadors presidential office and
other authorities. It ended up taking nine months for George to be cleared for travel.
In the meantime all Dante could do was cross his fingers while the tortoise sat in a
freezer on an island with little infrastructure and frequent electrical blackouts.
On March 10, 2013, the morning of Lonesome Georges departure arrived. James
Gibbs, a conservationist from the State University of New York College of
Environmental Science and Forestry, had flown down to chaperone the corpse. Gibbs
had worked with George for a number of years but says that the tortoise had never
liked him. Gibbss job was to draw blood samples from George, so every time he would
approach the tortoise, George would recede into his shell.
Before dawn Gibbs helped load the frozen tortoise into his box and then onto a truck
that took them via ferry to the airport. Along the way, people asked what was in
Gibbss 225-kilogram box. When he told them it carried Lonesome George, they would
touch the box as if it were the casket of a loved one. Some people cried; many offered
to accompany George on his journey. I could actually see in the eyes of people that
they really believed in the importance of this, Gibbs says. It personalized the
meaning of extinction for me.
On March 11, after 28 hours of travel, Gibbs delivered George to Dante in New Jersey.
Opening the hardwood box was a nail-biter: What if the carcass had thawed en route?
But after Dante pried the box apart he found that Georges remains were still fully
frozen.
Dante defrosted the corpse. After Georges body thawed he measured every centimeter
of the tortoise before molding a replica of the body. He filled the mold with foam,
which would eventually become the base on which he would add a water-based clay to
create Georges features. On top of that clay he would stretch out Georges skinintact
in one whole piece. His biggest hurdle was working on a species that had never been
mounted before. Not surprisingly, taxidermy-supply companies do not make parts for
extinct giant tortoises. The beauty is that theres no handbook on how to do it, he
says.
Dante was well aware he was working on what he had dubbed the worlds pet. As
such, he knew there was no room for error. Every centimeter had to be scientifically
accurate, from his saddle-back shell to the missing toenail on his left front foot. We
Page 3 of 5
11/21/14 4:25 AM
couldnt just look at this as a project of mounting a Galpagos tortoise. Dante says.
We are re-creating this character.
He checked hundreds of pictures to fashion every wrinkle in Georges skin. He dashed
green stains around Georges mouth and neck to make it appear as if the tortoise had
just finished grazing. And he had a glass company create the worlds first pair of
custom-made glass tortoise eyeballs for George, which meant visiting a local zoo to
observe the intricate colors of a live tortoises eyes. When it came time for a pose,
Dante consulted Fausto Llerena, who was a part of the group that first found George
and the man who discovered he had died. Llerena advised Dante to portray George in
a familiar stance, with his neck outstretched in dominance and yet with his tail tucked
submissively. Llerena, who is also a well-known wood carver, sent Dante a handcarved wooden tortoise as a sign of gratitude for restoring his friend of 40 years. This
is my Oscar, Dante says of the softball-size carving.
On September 18, 2014, after 500 hours of labor conducted over more than a year,
Dante was finally ready to present George to the museum and the people who helped
bring him there. Among the congregation at Georges unveiling were several people
who were also present for his death, including Gibbs and Sterling. They were all
pleasantly surprised with Dantes work. You could see the look in his eye, and you
could see the pose, Sterling says. He brought Lonesome George back to life.
Surrounded by other species lost to time, George looked a little less lonesome. But the
difference between him and his neighboring specimens was not lost on anyone who
attended the unveiling. The other animals in the hall were driven to extinction by
changing climates. George and his kind disappeared because of man.
Editor's Note: Lonesome George is on temporary display at the museum until
January 4, 2015, after which he will be shipped and put on display in Quito,
Ecuador.
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EnvironmentalBiologist DashRiprock
October 27, 2014, 7:04 PM
That mentality is a big part of the problem with regards to extinction.

Think of it this way:
Panthera tigris is the species name for tigers.
Subspecies would be Bengal, Siberian, Caspian tigers, etc. They are NOT the same, and you cannot
just discount their importance and say they don't matter.
Page 4 of 5
11/21/2014
Science Notes 2014: Fireball Physics
Illustration: Mary Williams
The best-documented meteor was a blast for scientists to reconstruct. Nicholas St. Fleur retraces the
Russian shock waves. Illustrated by Mary Williams.
Peter Jenniskens paused as he reached for the front door to his hotel in Chelyabinsk,
Russia. Only a few jagged shards of thick glass stuck out from the wooden frame. He
collected the fragmentsthe first of many clues that the NASA scientist would gather
to understand the gigantic fireball that erupted over the city three weeks earlier.
I had in my hands pieces of glass that were destroyed by an asteroid impact. How unbelievable is that?
Jenniskens says.
The shards were tiny pieces of a puzzle assembled by Jenniskens and an international team about the most
startling cosmic encounter in decades. The Chelyabinsk meteor on February 15, 2013, came without warning.
It streaked across the dawn sky in a dazzling display of red and orange trailed by two columns of puffy
smoke. Then with a flash of light, it exploded mid-air. Moments later, a fierce shockwave rocked the one
million people below.
No one died, but the blast injured 1,600 peoplesome through flying glass like the shards Jenniskens
collected. Evidence about the intense physics of the blast came from patterns of damaged buildings, sound
recordings in the atmosphere, and pieces of the rock itselfincluding a 1,400-pound chunk fished from a
nearby lake. But the best clues came from security cameras and car-mounted dash cams that captured
footage of the meteor as it shot through the atmosphere and explodedmaking it, by far, the bestdocumented space impact in history.
We know that these events can be very violent, but to have this happen in our lifetime in this densely
populated of an area was incredible, Jenniskens says.
http://sciencenotes.ucsc.edu/2014/pages/meteor/meteor.html
1/8
11/21/2014
But to illuminate the extraordinary physics of a real fireball, the team had to spend weeks on the ground in
Siberia, tracing hints of the blasts imprints at every turn.
Examining the tapes

A tall, skinny man whose face brightens at the word meteorite, Jenniskens had led an expedition to recover
a space rock that crash-landed in Sudan in 2008. He also tracked down meteorites from the 2012 Sutters
Mill impact in the Sierra Nevada. Like nearly everyone else, he was alerted to the Chelyabinsk fireball
through headlines on the news and a flood of footage uploaded to YouTube. Thanks to social media, what
would have been an isolated explosion became the airblast heard, and seen, around the world.
Meteor expert Peter Jenniskens of NASA holds two keepsakes from the February 2013 fireball over Chelyabinsk,
Russia: a shard of blown-out glass and a fragment of the meteorite itself. (Photo: Nicholas St. Fleur)
By sheer coincidence, scientists were preparing for a much larger asteroid called 2012 DA14 to hurtle past
Earth that same day. But the Chelyabinsk fireball was a surprise. The asteroid was relatively small, and its
arrival was masked by the suns glare. It evaded detection of every satellite and radar when it pierced the
atmosphere.
Low frequency, long-distance vibrations called infrasound that emanated from the shockwave clued
scientists in to what had happened. Infrasound stations across the world detected the waves. The closest
detectors in Kazakhstan reported an explosion equivalent to the energy released by 500 kilotons of TNT,
bigger than most small nuclear blasts. In 1908 an impact perhaps 10 to 100 times more powerful had
flattened a huge tract of trees near Tunguska, Siberia. But that astral invasion was poorly documented.
Chelyabinsk was the first blast captured and shared in the social networking era. With a few clicks, footage
was seen by millions. It provided a wealth of evidence for remote scientists like Jenniskens to delve into
immediately.
2/8
11/21/2014
For the next few weeks, he pored over the films. Here's a perfect video, Jenniskens says, playing a clip from
the dash cam of a car stopped at a traffic sign. When the driver arrivesfor just a few framesyou see the
fireball appear. And from that moment on you get a beautiful record of the whole trajectory.
Jenniskens and his team combed through more than 400 such videos. Each one provided a different
perspective and viewing angle of the event. The videos created the foundation for his investigation. When
Jenniskens found one that met his criteriaa still, clear camera shot with points of reference, such as trees
or buildingshe downloaded it and extracted its individual frames. He narrowed his search to ten videos
that represented the locations he felt he needed to visit.
Chelyabinsk Infographic
Map data 2014 Google
Terms
3/8
11/21/2014
Click on this interactive graphic to see videos used by meteor hunter Peter Jenniskens and Nature authors J.
Borovika et al. to reconstruct the Chelyabinsk fireball. Yellow markers indicate where Jenniskens traveled to
map the night sky. Blue markers show the locations used by the Nature authors to calculate the trajectory. Blue
dots show places visited by both teams. The red line marks the fireball's trajectory, with dots marking key
moments. Data from Popova, O. P. et al. in Science 342, 10691073 (2013) and Borovika, J. et al. in Nature 503,
235237 (2013). (Infographic by Nicholas St. Fleur.)
The moment I saw the videos, my emotion was that I want to go there, Jenniskens says. Ideally I would
have liked to have been there when it happened. He found a host: meteor modeler Olga Popova of the
Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for Dynamics of Geospheres, who invited Jenniskens to join her team
in Chelyabinsk to reconstruct the meteorites trajectory.
Many videos caught the meteors entrance and exit, but missed its middle moments when the explosions
intense light blinded the cameras. To determine the rocks speed, Jenniskens analyzed traffic camera footage
that caught moving shadows from the backside of houses as the meteor blew up. This speed, and the
asteroids path as it punched through the atmosphere, let scientists trace the rock back to its origins in our
solar systems asteroid belt.
Jenniskens knew from his expedition in Sudan that sleuthing this meteor impact on the ground would be no
easy task. He needed to visit each site and take a photo of the scenery against the night sky, precisely
matching each reference point to triangulate the objects flight course. The stars, he says, act like a compass
for determining the direction of the fireball and deducing its orbit from space. Even small changes when
lining up his camera could have big consequences for accuracy.
But unlike his previous ventures, this one was a race against time. The data were rapidly disappearing: glass
was being repaired, chunks of meteorites were being recovered, and peoples memories were fading. Three
weeks after the fiery impact, Jenniskens embarked for Russia.
Cold case
After landing in bone-chilling Chelyabinsk, where the temperature dropped to 0F, Jenniskens and his team
first investigated a damaged zinc factory. The buildings walls had collapsed following the Chelyabinsk
explosion. It was one of more than 7,000 buildings to have its windows blown out by the shockwave.
The team marked the sites where they saw shattered glass to map the physical extent of the damage caused
by the shock. You see the pressure wave not just push against the glass, but also push the whole window
frame, Jenniskens says. You see people get blown off their feet from the shockwave. You wonder why more
people didnt get hurt. In a city of a million people, no one dieddespite the blasts intense power. But
many injuries did occur when people ran to their windows to see the bright flash of light, just before the blast
wave roared across the city.
The team traveled to more than 50 villages on the outskirts of the blast, some more than 50 miles away. They
visited local markets at each stop to speak with shop owners, who had spent three weeks discussing the
events with customers. The shopkeepers would summarize how the fireball impacted their town. When the
team heard other reports of damage, they traveled to those sites and assessed the impact.
Every person we spoke to had something to say
about it. Either they had seen the fireball or they
4/8
11/21/2014

felt the pressure wave coming towards them, says
Jenniskens. It was really an exceptional event.
The testimonies supplied information beyond what
the videos could capture, such as the smells,
sounds, and injuries in the blasts aftermath.
In some cases, Jenniskens met people who were
outside during the fireball. Many of them reported
smelling sulfur, like after a fireworks display. One
In this video produced by Nicholas St. Fleur, NASA

researcher Peter Jenniskens describes his trip to Russia
to document the dramatic Chelyabinsk fireball and
meteor explosion in February 2013.
coal miner was working in a snowfield right under

the blast; he suffered severe sunburns and peeling
skin. Jenniskens calls the airburst, which produced
brutally bright light, the most exceptional aspect of the entire event.
The team also collected fragments of the meteorites, which they sent back to labs around the world to
analyze. Geologist Qing Zhu Yin of UC Davis received a penny-sized fragment. He used intense X-rays to
examine the meteorites consistency. Its weakly bound layers of minerals and severe fragmenting revealed
why it exploded into thousands of pieces of debris. His team also looked at the rocks magnetic field and
determined that it was made of ordinary chondrite, a rocky asteroid containing little iron.
This is one of the bystander witnesses to the formation of the solar system four and a half billion years ago,
Yin says. Most asteroids that hit Earth will be like this one, he notes. Much more rare are solid iron bodies,
like the one that gouged Meteor Crater in Arizona 40,000 years ago.
Bursts and blasts

A week before Jenniskens left for Chelyabinsk, physicist Mark Boslough of Sandia National Laboratory in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, was already on his way. Boslough, a world authority on air blasts, uses computer
models to simulate how fireballs cascade toward the groundand their potential to kill people. Asteroids
that pierce the atmosphere release much of their kinetic energy as pressure, which creates the air blast. The
Chelyabinsk meteor provided a natural lab to test Boslough's ideas about how things blow up overhead.
Boslough was one of the first American scientists to find out about the meteor event. He too got the message
through social media. An hour after the fireball exploded, a Canadian friend who plays late-night chess
online with Russian players shared the news from a site documenting the explosion. Boslough immediately
identified it as an airburst.
It was an adrenaline rush from that moment I saw the first video, he says. The first thing I wanted to do
was set up a model and start simulating it.
A few days later, a team from the NOVA television program contacted Boslough to accompany them to
Chelyabinsk for three days as their meteorite expert. They wanted to detail the event in a short documentary
called Meteor Strike. But Boslough had more than just TV on his agenda. Equipped with a camera, tripod,
and warm winter clothes, he set out to track down data and learn more about the blast. During the day he
filmed with the NOVA crew, but at night Boslough sleuthed with a taxi driver across the countryside, looking
for clues.
I dont think of it so much as Sherlock Holmes, because he's all about solving mysteries with clues,
Boslough says. There was never a mystery about what this was. We just wanted to get the best possible data,
and we wanted to get it quickly so we could explain all the details surrounding the blast. In particular, the
airbursts path overheadcreated by the asteroids trajectorywould help test Bosloughs simulations of
explosions above the ground at different angles.
5/8
11/21/2014
astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California,

similar events may strike every 40 to 100 years, on average.
It makes you question at what size of an incoming object
would you want to evacuate or get out of the way and at what
size would you say Hey thats cool, lets go watch it. This was
right on the border between those two, he says.
The blast investigation, says Morrison, helps lay the
groundwork for preparing for the next event. Scientists now
can use models to run an ensemble of scenarios that vary in
meteorite size, impact angle, speed, and other variables, then
create risk assessments accordingly.
It's not that scientists didnt know this could happen,"
Morrison says. "Rather, now theres a broader community concerned about these impacts and saying Hey,
we need to understand this.
His colleague, Peter Jenniskens, holds two keepsakes from his time in Chelyabinsk: a small, smooth chunk of
the meteorite and a thick shard of glass shattered by the shockwave. The pocket-sized souvenirs are pieces to
a physics puzzle that he never thought he would be so fortunate to solve.
2014 Nicholas St. Fleur / UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program

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Biographies
Nicholas St. Fleur
B.S. (biological sciences; minor: communications) Cornell
University
Internships: National Public Radio, Scientific American
A magnitude-7.0 earthquake triggered my interest in science
writing. The sliding tectonic plates and severe aftershocks were
fascinating enough, but the human side of the seismological story
inspired me.
I was a first-year premed student when the quake devastated Portau-Prince, the capital of Haitiand the city where my parents were born. For the next week I was transfixed
as medical correspondents painted a morbid picture of the disease outbreaks and death following the
disaster. Though it was unsettling to watch, I found myself captivated by this juxtaposition of medicine and
media.
I soon enrolled in a science and health reporting course and developed a passion for storytelling. Only rare
science stories have tragedy at their epicenters, but they all have humanity beneath the surface, and I intend
to unearth it.
Nicholas St. Fleur's website
...................................................
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Where Jazz Was Born, Musicians Say

Obamacare Is Out of Reach
By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR, May 29, 2014 12:14 PM
When Raymond Weber, a New Orleans drummer, is on

stage, he cannot stop thinking about his music. When
he is off stage, he cannot stop thinking about his
growing pile of medical bills.
Mr. Weber, 47, has diabetes and high blood pressure,
and he is uninsured. His insulin pills can cost more
than $300 a month, and his three blood pressure
medications run $390 a month. The new health care
plan Mr. Weber qualifies for under the Affordable Care
Act would strangle his already tight budget, and he said
he could not afford another high monthly bill.
Its real
expensive,
he said. If it
was $200 a
month, I
could afford
that. Not
$400!
Mr. Webers 12-year-old son, Rodney, performed at a
Times were
RELATED
New Orleans Low-income Health

Program Could End in August
music workshop. Evan Ortiz | NYT Institute
not always so
tough for Mr.
Weber, who has played in New Orleans for over 40

years. He has toured with greats such as New Orleans
pianist and guitarist Malcolm John Rebennack Jr.,
more often called Dr. John. But now, the occasional
live show is harder to come across and often does not
pay enough to support his wife and three sons, who
also play instruments.
Im trying to work as hard as I can, Mr. Weber said.
Im taking every gig, even the kids parties.
Mr. Webers case is not unique. In 2012, musicians in
New Orleans made $17,800 on average, according to a
recent report from Sweet Home New Orleans, a
nonprofit organization that helps local musicians.
In the birthplace of jazz, life for musicians following
their passion pays very little and comes without health
benefits. And in many cases, national health care
initiatives have only aggravated their struggles.
The Affordable Care Act, which requires all Americans
to purchase health care, has pushed thousands of
musicians like Mr. Weber into the so-called sacrifice
zone. People inhabiting this area make too much
money to qualify for Medicaid in Louisiana but not
enough to afford a coverage plan under the new
national mandates.
But the coup de grace for these struggling artists came
when Gov. Bobby Jindal refused to accept legislation to
expand Medicaid coverage to low-income citizens. He
said that the cost of the expansion nearly $2 billion
over 10 years was too high.
Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans, who is
in favor of expanding Medicaid, has fought incessantly
against Governor Jindal, a Republican, to bring
Raymond Weber, 47, is an uninsured New Orleans drummer. He cannot

afford Obamacare, yet he makes too much to qualify for Medicaid. Evan Ortiz
| NYT Institute
medical coverage to more than 240,000 eligible

residents, including thousands of local entertainers.
Musicians are the heartbeat of this city, said Ms.
Cantrell, a Democrat. The rejection of the Medicaid
expansion feels like a rejection of the needs of those
human beings and the needs of their families.
The refusal, she said, could also stunt the citys
economy, which thrives largely in part because of its
music.
In 2012, entertainment in Louisiana generated more
than $395 million in gross sales, and it attracted nearly
four million people to festivals, according to the
Mayors Office of Cultural Economy.
Many of the medical facilities available to musicians
are struggling to sustain themselves under the states
new budgetary constraints.
The nonprofit New Orleans Musicians Clinic, which
provides musicians like Mr. Weber with free primary
care services, is no longer reimbursed for some of the
care it provides. And now, for the first time since it
opened 16 years ago, it is functioning at a $500,000
deficit.
The rejection affects the poorest of the poor, and
unfortunately, that sometimes includes musicians,
said Erica Dudas, managing director of the New
Orleans Musicians Assistance Foundation, which
provides aid to the Musicians Clinic. She estimates
that as many as 80 percent of the clinics patients fall
into the sacrifice zone.
Bethany Bultman, the founder and president of the
New Orleans Musicians Clinic, said that despite the
deficit, the clinic would continue to serve its patients.
Raymond Weber demonstrated drumming for a child at the jazz music

workshop. Evan Ortiz | NYT Institute
We are not going to say, Too bad, were not getting

reimbursed, so you cant come to our clinic, said Ms.
Bultman, who sees each of her patients as a cultural
icon. Every one of our 2,500 patients is as valuable as
Louis Armstrong, and each of them deserves medical
care if they need it, she said.
To that effect, the Musicians Clinic is helping some of
its clientele navigate, negotiate and become covered
under the Affordable Care Act, which Ms. Bultman calls
an honest-to-God life saver, for helping some of the
clinics sicker patients get health coverage despite their
pre-existent conditions.
During a recent visit at the Musicians Clinic, Mr.
Weber looked at the door as the nurse practitioner
opened it, her hands full of papers. She passed him a
sheet with the results of his most recent A1C test,
which showed how well he was managing his diabetes.
She smiled. This time his blood sugar, which normally
measures a dangerous 10 or 11 percent, came in at a
much safer level, 7.3 percent his best result in years.
Ive got to frame this, he said. If it wasnt for the
Musicians Clinic, Id be in shambles. Without this
place, a lot of us musicians would probably be dead.
As he left the clinicians office and walked past walls
lined with photographs of jazz legends who have been
treated there, Mr. Weber began to prepare for his next
gig, a workshop for children.
Mr. Weber took the stage under the white lights in
Tipitinas music club, where the pianist Professor
Longhair played out his final years. The venue was
filled with the smooth tunes of the saxophone and the
beats of his 12-year-old sons percussion. He looked
completely focused as he raised his microphone and
prepared for the conductors cue: Back to the music.
LATEST
NEWS
Mr. Weber performed with his band, the Raymond Weber Allstars, during
Louisiana Governor Blasts Obama Administration

on Education and Veterans Affairs
a Sunday jazz music workshop at Tipitinas. Evan Ortiz | NYT Institute
May 30, 2014 2:23 PM
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On an Island in the Bayous, Tabasco Sauce Holds

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May 30, 2014 2:00 PM
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treatments & tests
health inc.
policy-ish
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Former Foster Care Youth Get Help Paying For

Health Care
JUNE 20, 2014 12:39 PM ET
NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR
iStockphoto
When Joseph Hill turned 21, he went from being homeless to being homeless and
uninsured.
Hill grew up in foster care. He entered the system when he was 3 months old, and
lived in 10 different foster homes in San Diego. At 19, he aged out of foster care and
faced an abrupt transition into adulthood.
At first he received health insurance under Medi-Cal, California's version of Medicaid.
But those benefits disappeared when he turned 21.

Back then, Hill needed new prescription glasses so he could drive to work and see the
board at school. Losing medical coverage meant spending money that he did not have.
"It felt like a low blow it cost like $400," Hill says of paying out of pocket for his
glasses. "If I had coverage, I could have put that $400 to groceries."
Joseph Hill now gets health care with Medi-Cal coverage.

Courtesy of Joseph Hill
But now, because of a little-known provision in the Affordable Care Act, Hill and other
former foster youth can get free health care under Medicaid until age 26, regardless of
their income. In some states, coverage includes free vision and dental care. The new
provision mirrors a similar Medicaid expansion granted to young adults on their
parents' insurance.
About 55,000 former foster youth are expected to take advantage of the Medicaid
expansion this year, and that number is predicted to increase by 2017 to as many as
74,000, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
This coverage can be lifesaving, because young adults who grew up in foster care are at
higher risk of mental health issues, post-traumatic stress and chronic medical
conditions than their peers. And before the change in the law, in many states, former
foster youth would lose access to Medicaid services as early as age 18.
"These are kids who have not had an easy life," Tricia Brooks, senior research fellow at
the Georgetown Center for Children and Families in Washington D.C., tells Shots.
"There's definitely a higher need for physical and mental health services among this
population."
Brooks is an advocate for the expanded coverage, but she says the change does not
come without hiccups.
Although state governments must cover youth who age out of the foster care system in
their own states, Brooks says state governments are not required to extend coverage to
former foster youth who aged out in a different state.
The change also comes with challenges. Finding and notifying eligible members of this
notoriously hard-to-reach demographic is the biggest, says Fatima Morales of Children
Now, a California-based children's health advocacy group. Her organization's new
campaign, Coveredtil26, aims to inform California's estimated 27,000 former foster
youth, like Hill, about their new health care eligibility and ease their transition into
adulthood.
Hill, who is now 23 and covered under Medi-Cal, felt the provision's effects firsthand
during a recent trip to the eyeglass store.
"I got a free pair and a backup in case they break," he says. "And I didn't have to pay a
cent."
foster care
affordable care act
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your health
What's Going On In There? How Babies'

Brains Practice Speech
by NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR
July 15, 2014 5:08 PM ET
University of Washington
A baby's first words may seem spur of the moment, but really, the little
ones have practiced their "Mamas" and "Dadas" for months in their minds.
Using what looks like a hair dryer from Mars, researchers from the
University of Washington have taken the most precise peeks yet into the
fireworks display of neural activity that occurs when infants listen to people
speak.
They found that the motor area of the brain, which we use to produce
speech, is very active in babies 7 to 12 months old when they listen to
speech components.
"What we're seeing is that the babies are practicing because they want to
talk back," says Patricia Kuhl, a speech psychologist at the University of
Washington and the lead author on the paper, published Monday in the
Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.
Kuhl used a machine called a magnetoencephalograph, or MEG, that
measures the brain's magnetic field from outside the head. Unlike MRIs or
CTs, which require that patients be completely still, the MEG can scan
images in moving patients, which works out perfectly for fidgety babies.
University of Washington/YouTube
The scanner lets scientists glimpse at what's going on in that little head.
Babies undergo a huge transition from 7 months to 12 months that is very

important for language acquisition, Kuhl says. At the age of 7 months, a
baby can distinguish sounds from different languages, such as English or
Spanish. But by 12 months the baby focuses in on her or his native
language and begins to tune out foreign speech.
Kuhl placed 57 babies aged either 7 months or 12 months under the
machine and played repeated human sounds for them. The speakers
played repeated "da" and "ta" syllables in English and then "da" in Spanish.
They found that the motor part of the brain lit up when the baby listened to
the sounds, indicating that they were trying to mimic or respond to the
speech. By 12 months, the babies, who had English-speaking parents, had
a harder time responding to the Spanish-language sounds.
Susan Goldin-Meadow, a developmental psychologist from the University of
Chicago who was not involved in the study, says it furthers understanding of
how babies process language. "We've had the behavioral data for a while,"
she says. "But this provides evidence on the neural level."
Kuhl says that her research supports parent's use of "parentese," or baby
speak, a form of talking to babies with a higher pitch, slower pace and
exaggerated facial expressions. "This is a good way to promote their itty-
bitty social skills to develop," she says.
Not everyone sees this as an endorsement of parentese, though. Barbara
Lust, a cognitive scientist from Cornell University who was not involved in
the study, says the results "show more generally how important surrounding
your child with language is, but it doesn't make a strong enough argument
for needing to talk to a baby in a motherese way."
Kuhl says her next steps are to have researchers speak to the baby using
parentese and analyze the baby's reactions, to see if the children respond
more strongly to it.
The take-home message for new moms and dads, she says: "Talk to your
baby; you're prompting it to act on the world."
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