Monday Cup Of Links #13 - Ancient chewing gum, tomato bushes, and the RWA
New Year New Me edition
Happy New Year, Again!
I’m back in the groove after the holidays, finishing my novel. My goals this year are to have San Francisco Serial done, and have a couple of drafts of India House done as well. I’m delving deeper into history now, and it seems like the world is full of free resources to study and understand how we used to live.
Onto our links!
They found prehistoric chewing gum in Denmark, and it had some DNA belonging to the girl who chewed it (and presumably stuck it under her school desk). Based on the DNA and other bits of food and germs in it, they found that she’s a dark-skinned, dark-haired, blue-eyed girl, who had mono. She had eaten duck and hazelnuts before chewing the birch pitch gum.
They bioengineered tomato bushes! Tomatoes grow as creepers, and if you’re not careful, they fill your entire garden and climb onto all the things. But researchers have edited the genes that controlled stem length, and now tomatoes can grow like a rose bouquet, except with tomatoes! I can’t wait for them to become commercially viable; I’d plant those everywhere.
Indians went to Australia 4000 years ago! Genetic evidence shows that native Australians have a gene found mainly in South Indian men. Further, they found that the method of preparing the cycad nut changed in Australia around this time - it used to be detoxified by soaking in water, and they began roasting it instead, which is how it’s detoxified in India. I know globalization didn’t begin with Christopher Columbus, but things like this always astound me.
ICYMI: Help me write strong, empowered immigrant characters!
If you haven’t yet caught up on the dramatic events that is upending the Romance Writers of America (RWA), here you go: a summary of events, and a Guardian article on one of the more dramatic twists in the story.
GIF of the week: Did you know an armadillo’s armor is not tickle-proof?