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Editor's note
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When Columbus reached the New World, he found indigenous Americans, new crops and strange animal species. But there was one thing he didn’t find: “I have not found any monstrous men in these islands, as many had thought,” he wrote in his official report. University of Southern California historian Peter Mancall explains how fictionalized monster sightings and wildly exaggerated traveling accounts instilled a belief in monsters
in Columbus and his contemporaries.
Many Native American languages are dying. Alaska Gov. Bill Walker recently declared a “linguistic emergency” to save the state’s 20 native languages that are fast disappearing. University of Montana’s Rosalyn R. LaPier writes the language loss should be of concern to all of us, as they are “holders of complex systems of knowledge” with cultural insights crucial to our relationship with the natural world
embedded in them.
Key American values – liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness – are often associated with the Declaration of Independence, or with the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock. In fact, write archeologists Lewis Borck and D. Shane Miller, these ideals can be traced back thousands of years to the nomadic, freedom-seeking native peoples who occupied North America well before Christopher Columbus “discovered” it. In fact, write archeologists Lewis Borck and D. Shane Miller, these ideals can be traced back thousands of years to the nomadic, freedom-seeking native peoples who occupied North America well before Christopher Columbus “discovered” it.
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Nick Lehr
Arts + Culture Editor
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Top stories
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The statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Circle, New York City.
Zoltan Tarlacz/Shutterstock.com
Peter C. Mancall, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage was really a journey into the unknown. Centuries of conventional wisdom had conditioned him to believe that bizarre beasts and 'monstrous men' would be awaiting him.
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Dance is a unique way of passing on cultural stories to a younger generation.
Aaron Hawkins/Flickr.com
Rosalyn R. LaPier, The University of Montana
Many Native languages are dying, and their loss has deep and profound implications for our world.
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The 2016 Standing Rock protest was only the most recent manifestation of the indigenous American values inherited by European settlers on this land.
James MacPherson
Lewis Borck, Leiden University; D. Shane Miller, Mississippi State University
Anti-immigrant policies ignore that American ideals like liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness can be traced back to the indigenous pioneers who once moved freely across North America.
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Science + Technology
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Hua Lu, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Jessica Allison, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
A scientist explains how researchers use cloning in the lab and what is the difference between cloning a gene versus cloning an entire organism.
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Mary K. Feeney, Arizona State University
Progress has been made toward gender parity in science fields. But explicit and implicit barriers still hold women back from advancing in the same numbers as men to the upper reaches of STEM academia.
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Trending on site
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Daniel R. Weinberger, Johns Hopkins University
Separating children from their parents is not just a psychological stress, it's a DNA stress. Scientific research shows that early life stress may have irreversible effects on how DNA works in the cells of the body.
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Christopher H. Hendon, University of Oregon
The science behind why what your barista achieves at the cafe tastes better than what you can come up with at home.
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Peter Schumer, Middlebury College
Linguistic clues show how people around the world first developed mathematical thought.
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Today’s chart
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Mary K. Feeney
Arizona State University
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