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"Archeologists confront the emotional impact of their work."

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Russ Roberts (https://hawaiisciencejournal.blogspot.com).

May 3, 2024: Archeologists confront the emotional impact of their work, "smart gloves" teach piano, and why sourdough bread tastes the way it does.  —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor TOP STORIES

Heart-Led Archaeology

In mid-2021 the Indigenous government Tk̓emlúpste Secwépemc Nation in British Columbia announced that about 200 probable graves of children had been detected near the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Since that announcement, Indigenous communities in Canada and the U.S. have called on archaeologists to help find the unmarked graves of their children. This task has transformed archaeology, writes Kisha Supernant, who is the director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology at the University of Alberta. While they use technical tools like ground-penetrating radar to identify potentially unmarked graves of children, archaeologists must come to terms with the emotional aspects of their work, particularly in circumstances of tragedy.  The history: Beginning in the late 1800s and over the course of more than a century, Canadian authorities forcibly removed more than 150,000 Indigenous children from their families and placed them in government-funded, church-run residential schools. Thousands never came home, many dying from neglect, malnutrition, and abuse. Their graves were left unmarked or deliberately concealed.  What the experts say: “Though the journey is long, archaeological methods can be used to tell the stories of the past, both of ancient Indigenous lives and the impacts of colonization, to help build a brighter future,” writes Supernant. So far, several thousand unmarked graves have been discovered near the former sites of Indian residential schools. In 2021 the unmarked graves of about 200 Indigenous children were found near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Alper Dervis/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Play Like Me

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology invented piano-teaching “smart gloves” that use haptic technology, which incorporates physical sensations such as vibrations or force to help with tactile activities. The gloves record one pianist’s hand movements while playing and then relay those movements to a student musician through fingertip vibrations, helping the learner build muscle memory and perform the piece with greater precision. How it works: Researchers embedded small wires linked to a pressure-sensing material in the gloves to detect hand motions. A piano teacher wearing the gloves repeatedly performed a piece of music and a machine-learning algorithm processed their movement on the keys and translated it into instructional vibrations. Students wearing their own gloves then attempted to play the same tune, with the fingertip vibrations guiding them through proper movements.    What the experts say: “Hand-based movements like piano playing are normally really subjective and difficult to record and transfer,” says Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student Yiyue Luo, who designed the gloves with colleagues. “But with these gloves we are actually able to track one person’s touch experience and share it with another person to improve their tactile learning process.” TODAY'S NEWS • Some common medications can make people more vulnerable to heat. | 6 min read • A wild orangutan used herbal medicine to treat his own wound--probably the first documented case of a nonhuman animal treating its own injuries. | 3 min read • These are the microorganisms that give sourdough bread its distinctive taste. | 3 min read • One percent of scientific articles published in 2023 showed signs of a chatbot's involvement, according to a recent analysis. | 5 min read • The science of Netflix's show "3 Body Problem": What’s fact and what’s fiction? | 6 min read Particle physicist Saul Durand (played by Jovan Adepo) and nanotechnology specialist Augustina (Auggie) Salazar (played by Eiza González) look to the sky for a signal from the alien San-Ti civilization. BFA/Ed Miller/Netflix/Alamy Stock Photo More News EXPERT PERSPECTIVES • Recent research shows that Black people in the U.S. who have frontotemporal dementia (the disease afflicting Bruce Willis and Wendy Williams) have a higher degree of severity and more significant functional impairment. They are also diagnosed less quickly and experience more bias from their physicians, write medical residents Ashley Andreou and Minali Nigam. "Doctors must learn how to provide culturally informed care, counteract diagnostic biases and recognize FTD," they say. | 4 min read More Opinion OUR MOST POPULAR STORIES OF THE WEEK • The Threat of a Solar Superstorm Is Growing—And We’re Not Ready | 5 min read • There Are Safer Ways to Bed-Share with a Baby | 6 min read • Do Insects Have an Inner Life? Animal Consciousness Needs a Rethink | 4 min read Science plays an important role in righting the wrongs of the past. It's one of the reasons we at Scientific American say that every story is a science story. This is the particular power of science: To bring clarity to convoluted issues, and resolution to injustices.  Thank you for reading Today in Science this week. Have a restful weekend and reach out anytime with your feedback and suggestions for me: newsletters@sciam.com. See you on Monday! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters here. Scientific American One New York Plaza, New York, NY, 10004   Support our mission, subscribe to Scientific American here   Unsubscribe Email Preferences