+ social media and eating disorders US Edition - Today's top story: What the 3.2 million-year-old Lucy fossil reveals about nudity and shame [View in browser]( US Edition | 21 June 2024 [The Conversation]
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- [Itâs the moment youâve been waiting for ⦠quiz time!]( Lead story Fifty years ago, paleoanthropologists discovered 3.2-million-year-old fossils of the genus Australopithecus afarensis. Christened âLucy,â the remains of the female hominin have solved some riddles about human evolution. To Kennesaw State University philosopher Stacy Keltner, one of the most interesting developments has been shifts in our understanding of how Lucy may have appeared. Most popular renderings dress her in thick, reddish-brown fur, with her face, hands, feet and breasts peeking out of denser thickets. However, it turns out that Lucy may not have had much hair at all. Humans didnât don clothing until roughly 83,000 to 170,000 years ago. For millions of years, humans and their direct ancestors roamed the Earth without coverings, relatively hairless â and it was no big deal. So how did clothing become mandatory? And why do so many depictions of our early ancestors default to blanketing them in thick fur? âThe modern quest to visualize our distant ancestors has been critiqued as a sort of âerotic fantasy science,â in which scientists attempt to [fill in the blanks of the past based on their own assumptions]( about women, men and their relationships to one another,â Keltner writes. The way Lucy has been depicted in newspapers, textbooks and museums may ultimately reveal more about us â our desire to police sexuality, our urge to control women â than it says about her. [ [Readers like you make possible our work to bring trustworthy information to the public, without a paywall.]( ] Nick Lehr Arts + Culture Editor
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Popular renderings of Lucy tend to dress her in thick, reddish-brown fur. Dave Einsel/Getty Images
[What the 3.2 million-year-old Lucy fossil reveals about nudity and shame]( Stacy Keltner, Kennesaw State University The way Lucy has been depicted in newspapers, textbooks and museums shows how todayâs cultural norms influence perceptions of the past. Science + Technology -
[Space radiation can damage satellites â my team discovered that a next-generation material could self-heal when exposed to cosmic rays]( Ahmad Kirmani, Rochester Institute of Technology Spacecraft exteriors that automatically heal from radiation damage would change the game â one material shows promise. Environment + Energy -
[Traffic engineers build roads that invite crashes because they rely on outdated research and faulty data]( Wesley Marshall, University of Colorado Denver A traffic engineer argues that, contrary to his professionâs view, âhuman errorâ is not the main cause of deaths in car crashes in the US. Health + Medicine -
[Surgeon generalâs call for warning labels on social media underscores concerns for teen mental health]( Emily Hemendinger, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus A growing body of research points to links between social media use and mental health harms, but establishing clear cause and effect is diffficult. Podcast ðï¸ -
[UK plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda may never happen but other European leaders still want to copy it]( Gemma Ware, The Conversation Nando Sigona and Michaela Benson argue Britainâs Rwanda plan was brought about as a result of a Brexit-made policy failure. Listen on The Conversation Weekly podcast. International -
[Kim-Putin deal: why this is a coded message aimed at China and how it worries Beijing]( Chee Meng Tan, University of Nottingham; Chi Zhang, University of St Andrews The Kim-Putin deal gives more power to Kim Jung Un and worries his neighbours. -
[Global pandemic treaty will help fight future threats: top negotiator on how talks are going]( Precious Matsoso, University of the Witwatersrand The 194 member states of the WHO are negotiating a pandemic accord, only the second health accord after the 2003 convention against tobacco. -
[The renaming of universities and campus buildings reflects changing attitudes and values]( Reuben Rose-Redwood, University of Victoria; CindyAnn Rose-Redwood, University of Victoria; Derek H. Alderman, University of Tennessee Students renaming campus buildings during ongoing protests follows years of campus renaming controversies. A study of campus naming policies proposes how to make naming more inclusive. Trending on site -
[Lawsuit could challenge trust in Ozempic and other popular weight loss drugs]( -
[US laws created during slavery are still on the books. A legal scholar wants to at least acknowledge that history in legal citations]( -
[How Bidenâs executive order to protect immigrant spouses of citizens from deportation will benefit their families and communities]( The Conversation News Quiz ð§ - Hereâs the first question of [this weekâs edition:]( Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays died on June 18 at the age of 93. What was the enduring nickname given to him by a sportswriter during his rookie year? - A. Swaggy M
- B. El Gigante de los Gigantes
- C. The Say Hey Kid
- D. Mister Met [Test your knowledge]( -
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