The plant that smells worse than Cluj has problems ● Even modern art is not what it once was ● Pikachu caused chaos at the Van Gogh Museum ● Science fiction may soon become Science ● Science magazine says crazy things
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The plant that smells worse than Cluj has problems
Most plants in the parasitic genus Rafflesia, which includes the world’s largest flower, may be at risk of extinction, according to a new study published in the journal Plants, People Planet and quoted by Smithsonian Magazine. Also known as “corpse flowers” or other unflattering names, they are infamous for their smell reminiscent of rotting flesh.
Currently only one of the 42 known species of Rafflesia, ‘Rafflesia magnifica’, is listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). But, using the same criteria as the IUCN, a team of researchers states in the aforementioned study that the number of endangered ones is much higher.
Scientists say 25 of the Rafflesia species should be considered critically endangered, 15 endangered and two vulnerable. Doing the math quickly, that means every species of the genus. They also estimate that at least 67% of the habitats in which these species are found are outside protected nature reserves, further endangering their fate.
“Plants are crucial to our existence – the air we breathe, the food we eat and the medicine we take. But many people barely notice them. The truth is that we are more used to seeing the animals around us. But plants are the basis for the habitats in which animals thrive,” says Chris Thorogood, deputy director of Oxford Botanic Gardens and co-author of the study.
As for the smell in Cluj, I can confirm as a local that it continues to be just as strong in some areas of the city, even though it seems to me that even the local press is tired of writing about the subject. The smell of dung is so strong that, as I work remotely, every morning when I go in to start work in the room I use as an office, I feel like I’m walking into a stable.
It even occurred to me to put some hay on the floor to open a kind of olfactory museum experience against the cost of corporatists who have nostalgia for childhood in the country or, on the contrary, entertain fantasies about moving to the cow’s tail because they never had grandparents in the countryside to see what this really means.
I might try to plant one in a pot (PHOTO: James Gritz / robertharding / Profimedia Images)
Even modern art is not what it once was
Going from your own fantasies with hypothetical museum experiences to a story as real as possible, also from Smithsonian magazine I learned another interesting story this week, one with protagonists from Denmark. What happened: In 2021 the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art gave the artist Jens Haaning about 70,000 Danish kroner to make two works of art.
The representatives of the museum had one thing very clear in mind: they wanted Haaning to recreate two of his earlier works, called not very creative “An Average Annual Salary in Austria” (2007) and “An Average Annual Salary in Denmark,” which used real bills to visually illustrate, you guessed it, how much money people in the two countries go home with each year.
But Haaning had other ideas, taking the money and sending two blank canvases to the museum as part of what he said was a performance art piece called “Take the Money and Run.” “I’ll go so far as to say I took the money. The two empty frames are actually a representation of the concept. So more important than the absence of money is that I took the money,” he explained.
Lasse Andersson, the museum’s director, agreed that the blank canvases were a work of art after receiving them in 2021 and decided to display them, even though he pointed out that they did not comply with the contract signed with Haaning. However, the artist denied the accusation, stating at the time that “I saw, from my artistic point of view, that I could create a much better piece for them than they could imagine.”
“We’ve created a piece of art that’s maybe 10 or 100 times better than what they planned. What is the problem?”, he also said in an interview for CNN. The problem was, after the exhibition was over, Haaning actually didn’t return the money, so the museum sued him, presenting the contract in which he agreed to do so.
But Haaning says he never intended to give the money back: “It’s not theft. It’s a breach of contract and breach of contract is part of the play.” Judges were not convinced, ordering him this month to return the sum, although they deducted $6,000 in payment for the time the “work” was on display. The artist now has 4 weeks to appeal the decision.
Pikachu has caused chaos at the Van Gogh Museum
Let’s see another piece of news from the world of museums that colleagues have written about before, but I really couldn’t not include it in Nerd Alert, in case you missed it: The Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has partnered with Pokémon to try and entice young people to learn more about the works of one of the country’s most well-known artists, if not, let’s be serious, the most well-known.
The museum on Thursday opened several themed exhibitions combining the painter’s works with the Pokémon universe, the project being included in the celebrations related to the cultural institution’s 50th anniversary. “This collaboration will allow the next generation to have the opportunity to know the art and life story of Vincent Van Gogh in a fresh way,” said the director of the museum.
Among many other things, visitors are also given the opportunity to learn more about the influences of the art of Japan, the country that gave the world Pokémon, on the work of Van Gogh, something less known to the general public. On paper it all sounds good, but since the first day of the exhibition speculators who wanted to get collectibles to sell online then formed impressive queues and this came out:
Obviously, the situation was due to the fact that almost anything new related to Pokémon often sells for huge prices in the United States and Japan, the biggest markets for collectors. IGN noted on Friday that there are already more than 100 listings for sale on eBay of a card featuring Pikachu wearing a gray felt hat in the style of one of Van Gogh’s famous self-portraits.
As for prices, they range from $100 to $1,500. “This makes me so sad and shows why we can’t have nice things. I saw so many people going there in the early days just to get any card or other items to resell. It is not acceptable. If you do, shame on you,” accused Joe Merrick of a site focused on Pokémon news.
Science fiction may soon become Science
Moving on to somewhat more serious matters, the fact that humanity might at some point switch to “production line” growth of newborns or even from the embryonic stage has been imagined over the years by numerous authors of science fiction, the idea also being taken up by films, series, video games or other forms of entertainment or art.
A major step in that direction may soon take place thanks to experiments with an artificial uterus that began 6 years ago at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), with researchers here now asking US regulators to approve the first clinical trials on man with the device they tested and named Extra-uterine Environment for Newborn Development, EXTEND, for short.
But the team of scientists stressed that the technology tested on sheep is not intended – or capable – of supporting embryonic development from conception to birth. Instead, researchers hope that simulating elements of the natural womb will increase the survival rate and improve the outlook for babies born extremely prematurely.
In humans this means earlier than the 28th week of pregnancy, when the fetus is not yet 70% of its full development by birth. A panel of the US Food and Drug Administration discussed CHOP’s request at a meeting on September 19-20, with its preliminary findings to be reviewed by other expert groups.
If approved, EXTEND would work by placing premature babies in what CHOP researchers call a “Biobag,” a bag filled with an electrolyte fluid to mimic amniotic fluid, and surgeons would connect blood vessels from umbilical cord with a system that oxygenates blood outside the little ones’ bodies, the magazine reports naturally.
Science magazine says crazy things
“If you think of ‘cowboy’ you might imagine John Wayne on horseback herding cattle in the American West. But the first cowboys lived in Mexico and the Caribbean, and most of them were black. That’s the conclusion of a recent analysis of DNA from 400-year-old cow bones excavated on the island Hispaniola and at sites in Mexico,” reads the introduction of a article published by Science magazine on September 22.
The analysis “changes the whole perspective of the mythical figure of the cowboy, which was whitewashed in the 20th century,” Nicolas Delsol, an archaeozoologist at the Museum of Natural History, among others, told Science magazine. of Florida and lead author of the study presenting the research, published in Scientific Advances. Small parenthesis: it’s never a good sign when a researcher uses a term like “whitewashing”.
As for the actual study, it’s as technical and boring as you can get about the first cattle populations of the Americas and their descendants, without even once using the word “cowboy.” Then where to where the revolutionary conclusions evoked by Delsol and Science magazine? DNA from a bone analyzed for the study was identified as belonging to a breed of cattle found exclusively in Africa, not Europe. Yes, it’s a single bone.
But that bone is a special one, being dated as belonging to a cow that lived around the beginning of the 17th century, 100 or so years after Columbus took the first specimens to Hispaniola, but a century before the historical attestation of the first imports of African cattle in the Americas. And in the early 1600s, the African slave trade also began, with historical records suggesting that Africans of cattle-raising tribes were targeted.
As far-fetched as extrapolating from a sample of one may seem, the journal Science nevertheless concludes that “the new study shows that at least one cow was brought directly from the region at the same time, suggesting that herders and their cattle would could have come in some kind of package”. Sure, using the conditional always gives you a window to take off your shirt when someone smacks you in the face for saying crazy things. But then there is another aspect, the cultural one.
When you say “cowboy” today, everyone thinks of a certain archetype related to the American Wild West of the second half of the 19th century, an image formed in the collective mind by over 100 years of literature, art and, let’s face it, Hollywood . Who thinks of cowboys as the 1600’s cow ranchers of America, even if you preface it with that “first”?
Let’s be serious, though (PHOTO: The Hollywood Archive / Hollywood Archive / Profimedia)
I hope you enjoyed this weekend’s Nerd Alert column a little different, without the usual news from the world of movies, series or video games. In case you are curious to also read last week’s column, you can find it here:
