Monthly Archives: April 2021

Jewish photographer makes it his mission to preserve legacy of Rosenwald schools – The Times of Israel

Posted: April 29, 2021 at 1:00 pm

ATLANTA (JTA) To the end of his life, the civil rights hero and later congressman John Lewis remembered the half-mile walk from his familys farm in rural Pike County, Alabama, to the Dunns Chapel School.

There was no school bus for Black children; Lewiss hike was short compared with the miles walked by many of his classmates. They were being educated in surroundings separate from whites, but hardly equal.

The school was a small, wooden, whitewashed building with a large window. An interior wall partitioned the space into two rooms, heated by potbelly stoves, burning wood that students fetched from a nearby forest. Water was drawn and carried from a farmers well up the road.

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Dunns Chapel was a Rosenwald school, one of nearly 5,000 such schools built across 15 Southern states from 1912 to 1932. This effort was an outgrowth of a collaboration between Julius Rosenwald, the son of German Jewish immigrants and a leading philanthropist of his time, and Booker T. Washington, the renowned educator born into slavery in Virginia.

In the years they operated, Rosenwald schools educated one-third of rural Black children in the South, an estimated number of more than 663,000 students. Lewis was one. Others included writer Maya Angelou, civil rights activist Medgar Evers, and playwright and director George Wolfe. A study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago found that the educational gains by Rosenwald school students spurred many Black young adults to migrate north, and those who remained in the South had wage gains over their peers who did not attend the schools.

The Rosenwald schools closed several decades ago, a process accelerated by the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that racially segregated, separate but equal schools were inherently unequal and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

Of the roughly 10 percent of the schoolhouses that remain, some have been repurposed as museums or community centers, while others have decayed with the passing years. A small number still operate as schools.

Atlanta-based photographer Andrew Feiler, a fifth-generation Georgian Jew, has spent several years traveling throughout the South documenting what remains of the school sites. Now the images have been compiled in his book A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America, published this month by University of Georgia Press. Lewis authored the foreword not long before his death in July from pancreatic cancer at age 80.

Rep. John Lewis, who represented Georgias 5th District for 33 years before his death in 2020, attended a Rosenwald school as a child. (Andrew Feiler/ via JTA)

The 136-page book, featuring 85 black-and-white images, is the product of 3 1/2 years of research and 25,000 miles of driving. Feiler photographed 105 of the structures that once housed Rosenwald schools, along with some of the men and women whose lives were changed by the education they received in their classrooms.

It simply became imperative that I share these stories as part of this endeavor, so each image or pair of images comes with a narrative written by me, the 59-year-old Feiler said. This is a book of photography, but it is also a book of stories.

Rosenwald, who was born in 1862 and died in 1932, was part owner and president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., back when the Sears, Roebuck mail-order catalog was the Amazon of its day. As a member of Chicago Sinai Congregation, he was influenced by the social justice teachings of Rabbi Emil Hirsch, one of which held that property entails duties.

A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America, by photographer Andrew Feiler. (Courtesy University of Georgia Press)

For his part, Rosenwald believed that Jews should uniquely sympathize with the plight of African-Americans.

The horrors that are due to race prejudice come home to the Jew more forcefully than to others of the white race, on account of the centuries of persecution which they have suffered and still suffer, he said.

In 1912, a couple of years after reading Washingtons autobiography, Up From Slavery, Rosenwald met its author, the founder of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (today called Tuskegee University). Together they set out to change the educational landscape of the region.

Rosenwald personally invested $4.3 million more than $80 million in todays currency to construct the schools. In varying ratios over the years, matching funds came from the Black community and white-controlled governments.

Rosenwalds philanthropic philosophy was give while you live, believing that a foundation should expend its funds within a predetermined period. To that end, he stipulated that the Rosenwald Fund, created in 1917 to support the schools and his other philanthropic projects, should cease operations within 25 years of his death.

By the time the fund stopped operating in 1948, some $70 million (equaling more than $700 million today) had been spent benefiting schools, colleges and universities, Jewish charities and institutions serving the Black community. Recipients of Rosenwald-funded fellowships included singer Marian Anderson; poet Langston Hughes; authors James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison and W.E.B. Du Bois; diplomat Ralph Bunche; photographer Gordon Parks; and choreographer-dancer Katherine Dunham.

The fund also financed early litigation by the NAACP, the nations oldest civil rights organization, that led to the historic Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka making integrated education the law of the land. The decision also began the close of the era of the Rosenwald schools.

Despite some recent efforts to tell the story of the Rosenwald schools, including the 2015 documentary Rosenwald, it remains a lesser-known piece of American history. Thats what attracted Feiler to the project.

Photographer Andrew Feiler at the Carver School in Coffee County, Ga., working on his project documenting the sites of former Rosenwald schools. (Jim Cottingham/ via JTA)

Feiler spoke to Jeanne Cyriaque, a historian of African-American culture, and she detailed her efforts to preserve what remained of the Rosenwald schools.

As the African-American Programs coordinator for Georgias Historic Preservation Division, Cyriaque sought out the oldest structures in Black communities in the states 159 counties.

In that quest I would ultimately become a preservationist of remaining [Rosenwald] schools and an advocate for documenting their powerful stories of African American achievement in education, she wrote in a contribution to Feilers book.

Feiler said the story of the schools shocked me.

How could I [have] never heard of Rosenwald schools? The pillars of this story Jewish, Southern, progressive, activist these are the pillars of my life, he said. That afternoon I sat at my desk in Atlanta and Googled Rosenwald schools. I quickly found there were a few books on the topic, but there was no comprehensive photographic account. I set out to create exactly that.

Feiler, a Savannah native, began taking photographs as a 10-year-old, wielding a Kodak Instamatic. His avocation has since become a vocation.

A restored classroom at the Pine Grove School in Richland County, South Carolina, one of the Rosenwald schools funded by the Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald to educate Black children in the segregated South. (Andrew Feiler/ via JTA)

Starting in mid-2008, I went through four-and-a-half very difficult years the death of a business partner, near-death of my brother, health collapse of my father and over three years of real estate workouts during the Great Recession, he said. Collectively these experiences caused me to ask what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I still manage our family real estate business, but I now do it part-time.

His first book, published in 2015, was Without Regard to Sex, Race, or Color: The Past, Present, and Future of One Historically Black College, a tour of abandoned classrooms and facilities at Morris Brown College in Atlanta. The school, on the citys west side, emerged relatively recently from bankruptcy and is seeking reaccreditation.

Feilers latest work was influenced artistically by the early history of the Rosenwald schools, specifically a pilot project built near Tuskegee.

Washington sent Rosenwald photographs of the children and teachers proudly gathered in front of their new schools, Feiler said. These deeply moved Rosenwald and contributed to his support for expanding the program. Making such photographs became common, and they are a prominent visual element of the programs history.

Feiler usually works in color, but I found this history so compelling that I decided to pay homage to these historical images and shoot my Rosenwald schools work entirely in black and white and horizontal, he said.

A portrait of Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald at the Noble Hill School in Bartow County, Georgia one of his namesake Rosenwald schools for Black children in the segregated South. (Andrew Feiler/ via JTA)

Feiler hopes his book can add to the steps that have been taken to preserve Rosenwalds memory. In 2002, the National Trust for Historic Preservation declared the Rosenwald schools a National Treasure, placing them on its list of Most Endangered Places and providing assistance to help save these icons of progressive architecture for community use.

On January 13, the day that he was impeached by the House of Representatives, US president Donald Trump signed the Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald Schools Act of 2020, which directs the Department of the Interior to study the sites of the former schools for preservation. Its a first step toward creating a multistate national park that would include some of the surviving schoolhouses and a visitors center in Chicago. Backers say it would be the first national park site to honor a Jewish American.

The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation has erected markers acknowledging the role played by the Jewish philanthropist at Tuskegee University in Alabama, and at the sites of Rosenwald schools in Warrenton and Rectortown, both in Virginia.

Rosenwald and Washingtons shared vision changed the educational landscape of the South and expanded the horizons for generations of students. That certainly was the case at the Dunns Chapel School, where the young John Lewis loved to read biographies and learned that there were black people out there who had made their mark on the world, as he wrote in the foreword to A Better Life for Their Children.

The structure itself may have been basic in design and lacking amenities, but as Lewis remembered: It was beautiful, and it was our school.

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Jewish photographer makes it his mission to preserve legacy of Rosenwald schools - The Times of Israel

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How the Human Life Span Doubled in 100 Years – The New York Times

Posted: at 12:59 pm

The sheer magnitude of that loss was a global tragedy, but it was made even more tragic because a relatively simple treatment for severe dehydration existed, one that could be performed by nonmedical professionals outside the context of a hospital. Now known as oral rehydration therapy, or O.R.T., the treatment is almost maddeningly simple: give people lots of boiled water to drink, supplemented with sugar and salts. (Americans basically are employing O.R.T. when they consume Pedialyte to combat a stomach bug.) A few doctors in India, Iraq and the Philippines argued for the treatment in the 1950s and 1960s, but in part because it didnt seem like advanced medicine, it remained a fringe idea for a frustratingly long time.

That finally changed in 1971, after Bangladeshs fight for independence from Pakistan sent a flood of refugees across the border into India. Before long, a vicious outbreak of cholera had arisen in the crowded refugee camps outside Bangaon. A Johns Hopkins-educated physician and researcher named Dilip Mahalanabis suspended his research program in a Kolkata hospital lab and immediately went to the front lines of the outbreak. He found the victims there pressed against one another on crowded hospital floors coated in layers of watery feces and vomit.

Mahalanabis quickly realized that the existing IV protocols were not going to work. Only two members of his team were even trained to deliver IV fluids. In order to treat these people with IV saline, he later explained, you literally had to kneel down in their feces and their vomit.

And so Mahalanabis decided to embrace the low-tech approach. Going against standard practice, he and his team turned to an improvised version of oral rehydration therapy. He delivered it directly to the patients he had contact with, like those sprawled bodies on the floor of the Bangaon hospital. Under Mahalanabiss supervision, more than 3,000 patients in the refugee camps received O.R.T. therapy. The strategy proved to be an astonishing success: Mortality rates dropped by an order of magnitude, to 3 percent from 30 percent, all by using a vastly simpler method of treatment.

Inspired by the success, Mahalanabis and his colleagues started a widespread educational campaign, with fieldworkers demonstrating how easy it was for nonspecialists to administer the therapy themselves. We prepared pamphlets describing how to mix salt and glucose and distributed them along the border, Mahalanabis later recalled. The information was also broadcast on a clandestine Bangladeshi radio station. Boil water, add these ingredients and force your child or your cousin or your neighbor to drink it. Those were the only skills required. Why not let amateurs into the act?

In 1980, almost a decade after Bangladeshi independence, a local nonprofit known as BRAC devised an ingenious plan to evangelize the O.R.T. technique among small villages throughout the young nation. Teams of 14 women, each accompanied by a cook and a male supervisor, traveled to villages, demonstrating how to administer oral saline using only water, sugar and salt. The pilot program generated encouraging results, and so the Bangladeshi government began distributing oral hydration solutions in hundreds of health centers, employing thousands of workers.

The Bangladeshi triumph was replicated around the world. O.R.T. is now a key element of UNICEFs program to ensure childhood survival in the Global South, and it is included on the World Health Organizations Model List of Essential Medicines. The Lancet called it potentially the most important medical advance of the 20th century. As many as 50 million people are said to have died of cholera in the 19th century. In the first decades of the 21st century, fewer than 66,000 people were reported to have succumbed to the disease, on a planet with eight times the population.

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How Long Can We Live? – The New York Times

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Given these statistics, you might expect that the record for longest life span would be increasing, too. Yet nearly a quarter-century after Calments death, no one is known to have matched, let alone surpassed, her 122 years. The closest was an American named Sarah Knauss, who died at age 119, two years after Calment. The oldest living person is Kane Tanaka, 118, who resides in Fukuoka, Japan. Very few people make it past 115. (A few researchers have even questioned whether Calment really lived as long as she claimed, though most accept her record as legitimate based on the weight of biographical evidence.)

As the global population approaches eight billion, and science discovers increasingly promising ways to slow or reverse aging in the lab, the question of human longevitys potential limits is more urgent than ever. When their work is examined closely, its clear that longevity scientists hold a wide range of nuanced perspectives on the future of humanity. Historically, however and somewhat flippantly, according to many researchers their outlooks have been divided into two broad camps, which some journalists and researchers call the pessimists and the optimists. Those in the first group view life span as a candle wick that can burn for only so long. They generally think that we are rapidly approaching, or have already reached, a ceiling on life span, and that we will not witness anyone older than Calment anytime soon.

In contrast, the optimists see life span as a supremely, maybe even infinitely elastic band. They anticipate considerable gains in life expectancy around the world, increasing numbers of extraordinarily long-lived people and eventually, supercentenarians who outlive Calment, pushing the record to 125, 150, 200 and beyond. Though unresolved, the long-running debate has already inspired a much deeper understanding of what defines and constrains life span and of the interventions that may one day significantly extend it.

The theoretical limits on the length of a human life have vexed scientists and philosophers for thousands of years, but for most of history their discussions were largely based on musings and personal observations. In 1825, however, the British actuary Benjamin Gompertz published a new mathematical model of mortality, which demonstrated that the risk of death increased exponentially with age. Were that risk to continue accelerating throughout life, people would eventually reach a point at which they had essentially no chance of surviving to the next year. In other words, they would hit an effective limit on life span.

Instead, Gompertz observed that as people entered old age, the risk of death plateaued. The limit to the possible duration of life is a subject not likely ever to be determined, he wrote, even should it exist. Since then, using new data and more sophisticated mathematics, other scientists around the world have uncovered further evidence of accelerating death rates followed by mortality plateaus not only in humans but also in numerous other species, including rats, mice, shrimp, nematodes, fruit flies and beetles.

In 2016, an especially provocative study in the prestigious research journal Nature strongly implied that the authors had found the limit to the human life span. Jan Vijg, a geneticist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and two colleagues analyzed decades worth of mortality data from several countries and concluded that although the highest reported age at death in these countries increased rapidly between the 1970s and 1990s, it had failed to rise since then, stagnating at an average of 114.9 years. Human life span, it seemed, had arrived at its limit. Although some individuals, like Jeanne Calment, might reach staggering ages, they were outliers, not indicators of a continual lengthening of life.

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Can We Live to 200? Here’s a Roadmap – The New York Times

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Possible in 0-5 years

A compound known as alpha-ketoglutarate extends life span in female mice and health span in mice of both sexes. A trial is testing its effects on markers of aging in humans.

Obesity can take more than 10 years off life expectancy, and semaglutide, a drug that could soon be approved for weight loss, is about twice as effective as current medications.

Elamipretide, a drug that helps restore function to flagging mitochondria, the cells power plants, is awaiting F.D.A. approval as a treatment for a rare mitochondrial disease.

Maintaining widespread mask-wearing practices could result in a long-lasting drop in influenza deaths, which numbered 12,000 to 61,000 annually in the United States in the decade before the pandemic.

Further decoding and analyzing the genomes of those who live to be 110 or older could provide useful insights into what accounts for their longevity.

A bill in Congress targets, in part, a disparity in which Black women in the United States are about three times as likely as white women to die during the period including pregnancy, childbirth and the first year postpartum.

A compound similar to MOTS-c a micropeptide that boosts physical fitness, prevents obesity and increases healthy life span in mice is in human trials and could be approved within four years.

New ways to mobilize the immune system against cancer and fresh combinations of existing treatments will bring the immunotherapy revolution to a wider variety of hard-to-treat cancers.

Devices that stimulate the brain using specific frequencies of light and sound might help treat Alzheimers disease and other causes of cognitive decline.

Vaccines that exploit mRNA technology, which found proof of concept with Covid-19, are in the pipeline for melanomas, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer and more.

Respiratory infections kill some 750,000 children under age 5 each year. The W.H.O. and UNICEF hope to reach their target of fewer than three deaths per 1,000 births through vaccination, breastfeeding, access to quality health care and reduced pollution.

Possible in 5-10 years

A bill in Congress that would put drunken-driver-detection technology, sometimes known as ignition interlocks, in all new cars sold in the United States could prevent some 10,000 deaths annually.

A third of the world is not yet protected by the kinds of tobacco-control measures that avert millions of deaths every year and the U.N. wants to change that by 2030.

Clinical trials are currently using the gene-editing tool to treat blood disorders, cancer and an inherited form of blindness; a heart-disease intervention is being researched.

Deep-brain stimulation to reduce the urge to eat and to boost metabolism could be approved to treat a subset of obese people who dont respond to other interventions.

Drugs that mimic some benefits of exercise are in development for conditions like acute kidney injury and Duchenne muscular dystrophy; someday they might help delay the effects of aging.

Based on studies in mice, treatments that mimic the chemistry of young blood by diluting plasma or regulating other factors could extend healthy life, maybe by decades.

Metformin already helps millions manage their Type 2 diabetes and alleviate risk from cancer, heart disease and even Covid-19. A clinical trial is testing whether it could lower mortality for all.

Hitting U.N. targets for the use of the therapy could help prevent diarrhea deaths in children under 5 which currently number around 500,000 annually by 2030.

A functional cure for H.I.V., suppressing the virus without the need for continuing treatment, could be F.D.A.-approved within 10 years.

Higher levels of education correlate with longer life spans. By 2030, the U.N. aims to ensure that all children worldwide complete primary and secondary school.

Personalized medications and diets could optimize the populations of microbes in our gut, which change as we age and are linked with nearly every system in the body.

The C.D.C. is helping efforts to boost to 80 percent the proportion of eligible Americans who are screened for colorectal cancer through at-home stool tests and other tools by 2030.

The U.N.s goal to end childhood malnutrition by 2030 could save the lives of more than two million children younger than 5 per year.

Possible in 10-20 years

Gene therapies may allow us to tweak genes or regulate their expression to prevent or treat common types of cancer, autoimmune diseases, diabetes and neurological conditions.

A study in The Lancet Global Health found that substantially broadening the services midwives can provide in developing countries could avert 41 percent of maternal deaths, 39 percent of neonatal deaths and 26 percent of stillbirths.

Tuberculosis killed about 1.4 million people in 2019. By 2035, the W.H.O. aims to reduce TB deaths by 95 percent.

Researchers are exploring multiple approaches to a drug that could prevent or sharply slow the progression of Alzheimers, which killed more than 120,000 Americans in 2019.

Drug cocktails in development could slow or reverse epigenetic clocks, which are molecular changes to DNA that influence what genes become expressed as you age.

The only malaria vaccine available today requires four shots to achieve at best 40 percent protection; new jabs in clinical trials, and mRNA vaccines further down the road, could do much better.

Bladders cultivated in labs already reside in humans. Once researchers figure out how to recreate the complex system of blood vessels in other organs like kidneys, livers and hearts many more could follow.

A new class of drugs might be able to kill or neutralize senescent cells, which emit molecules that hasten inflammation and other hallmarks of cellular decline.

Rapamycin, an antifungal first approved to prevent organ rejection, has stretched the lives of mice by more than a third. A trial is testing its effects in 350 dogs; human trials are being scheduled.

African-Americans are historically underrepresented in clinical trials. Fixing that disparity, alongside other health initiatives, could help narrow the life-expectancy gap between white and Black Americans (78 years vs. 72 years).

Possible in 20-50 years

Worldwide implementation of self-driving cars could reduce deaths from car accidents by an estimated 585,000 lives over a 10-year period.

Widespread transition to electric vehicles in the United States could improve air quality enough to save 6,300 lives annually by 2050.

Researchers estimate that addressing air pollution by eliminating fossil-fuel emissions and instead relying on wind, solar, nuclear and other low-emission energy sources, could raise life expectancy by 1.1 years.

Better ways to kill mosquitoes and mosquito larvae, more access to rapid tests and new artemisinin treatment therapies could end malaria and the 400,000 deaths it causes each year within decades.

Even if the U.N.s goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 is increasingly unlikely, ongoing economic growth combined with stronger global tax laws would help to extend life spans.

Possible in 50-100 years

Advanced robotic surgeons could suture wounds, remove tumors and repair tissue with unparalleled precision, reducing fatalities from medical errors.

One day, nano-scale robots inside our bodies could construct sensors and other devices that would help dissolve blood clots, fight cancer and deliver precisely targeted drugs.

Triggering a handful of genes can make cells young again and rejuvenate organs. With a carefully timed injection, researchers recently restored sight to mice with damaged optic nerves.

Advanced robotics and A.I. enable the ultimate personalized medical station: After morning saliva and urine checks, a home medical appliance designs and prints medicine to optimize your metabolism and microbiome for that day.

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Can We Live to 200? Here's a Roadmap - The New York Times

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Adrenomyeloneuropathy Treatment Market Size and Forecast 2027 | Top Key Players Ascend Biopharmaceuticals, Immatics Biotechnologies, Human Longevity,…

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Adrenomyeloneuropathy Treatment Market Size and Forecast 2027 | Top Key Players Ascend Biopharmaceuticals, Immatics Biotechnologies, Human Longevity,...

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These ‘creativity genes’ allowed humans to take over the world – Livescience.com

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Creativity could be one of the main reasons Homo sapiens survived and dominated over related species such as Neanderthals and chimpanzees, according to a new study.

The idea that creativity may have given Homo sapiens a survival edge over Neanderthals has been around a long time, said senior author Dr. Claude Robert Cloninger, a professor emeritus in the psychiatry and genetics departments at Washington University in St. Louis. But that's a tricky case to prove, as we still don't know how creative Neanderthals actually were, he said.

"The problem with evaluating creativity in extinct species is, of course, you can't talk to them," Cloninger told Live Science. So an international team of researchers, led by a group at the University of Granada in Spain and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, looked at genes to examine what distinguished humans, including their creative ability, from their distant relatives.

Related: Image gallery: Snapshots of unique ape faces

The researchers had previously identified 972 modern genes that regulate three distinct systems of learning and memory in Homo sapiens: emotional reactivity, self-control and self-awareness. The emotional reactivity network involves the ability to form social attachments and learn behaviors while the self-control network involves the ability to set goals, cooperate with others and make tools.

The self-awareness network, on the other hand, involves "episodic learning" or remembering and improving upon past behaviors and autobiographical memory of a person's life as a narrative with a past, present and a future "within which the person can explore alternative perspectives with intuitive insight and creative imagination," according to the study.

Self-awareness is "what enables us to have divergent, original creative thinking [and to] be very flexible," Cloninger said.

In the new study, the researchers analyzed DNA previously taken from Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) fossils, modern humans (Homo sapiens), and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). They found that the genes related to the oldest network emotional reactivity were identical among Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and chimpanzees. But the chimpanzees completely lacked the genes that led to self-awareness and self-control in humans.

Some, but not all, of those genes were present in Neanderthals. "The Neanderthals were about halfway between the chimps and modern humans'' in the number of these genes they carried, Cloninger told Live Science.

What's more, 267 of those 972 genes were unique to Homo sapiens, and they were all so-called regulatory genes. In other words, they dial the activity of other genes up or down. These genes which were absent in chimpanzees and Neanderthals regulate the brain networks involved in self-awareness and creativity.

The emotional reactivity network evolved in monkeys and apes about 40 million years ago, the self-control network evolved a little less than 2 million years ago, and the self-awareness and creativity network emerged just 100,000 years ago, when humans were under pressure from a changing climate that reduced the supply of food and other resources necessary for survival, Cloninger said.

Then, some 40,000 years ago, Homo sapiens with "unprecedented cultural and technological sophistication" began rapidly replacing Neanderthals around the world, according to the study. This sophistication was likely driven by our Homo sapiens ancestors' creativity and self-awareness, which enabled them to live longer, healthier lives, the authors said.

Such longevity would have allowed a longer learning period for kids and adolescents and thus more time to accumulate knowledge. Living longer, healthier lives would have also encouraged cooperation among individuals and extended communities to promote the success of their children, grandchildren and others in the community. That, in turn, would enable "the technological innovativeness, behavioral flexibility, and exploratory disposition needed to allow Homo sapiens to spread throughout the world more successfully than other human lineages," the authors wrote.

Still, the study comes with several limitations, including that traits such as creativity and self-awareness are complex and that Neanderthals are no longer around, making it difficult to assess them solely based on their genes. (For example, a person's environment can also influence their personality and behavior.) Indeed, some researchers are not convinced that comparing the modern human genome to that of an extinct species can lead to robust conclusions.

"We do not know the causal link between genetics and these higher traits, even if the authors identified networks of genes that are associated with some measures of self-awareness, creativity or prosocial behavior," said Thomas Suddendorf, a professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland in Australia who was not part of the study.

So, although the findings are interesting, "I would caution against drawing any firm conclusions from such data about extant, let alone about extinct, species," Suddendorf told Live Science in an email. It is "undoubtedly" the case that humans are more creative than other animals currently living, including chimpanzees, he said.

The authors noted in the study that they "cannot exclude the possibility that Neanderthals had genes that were not present in [Homo] sapiens and influenced their personality and learning abilities." In other words, Neanderthals may not have had the same genes for creativity and self-awareness, but rather their own set of genes that we don't understand.

The findings were published April 21 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Time to restore the earth through sustainable business practices | Wendy Green – MaltaToday

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As we celebrate the 51st anniversary of Earth Day, I reflect on the palpable lesson Mother Earth has imparted to us during the COVID-19 pandemic: nature does not need human beings, but human beings undoubtedly need nature its clean air, clean water, and healthy foods to survive. Yet, at the same time, we also need good jobs and a solid economy to flourish, particularly as we begin to recover from the economic impacts of COVID. As we face this paradox, it has never been more important for us to find the right balance between economic growth and environmental stewardship ensuring the sustainable longevity of our Mother Earth and our humanity.

Right now back in Washington D.C., the U.S. government is laser-focused on limiting or eliminating the ravages of climate change by encouraging sustainable business practices. Across the United States, governments and businesses alike have committed to creating good-paying jobs and an equitable clean energy future, while building modern and sustainable infrastructure, restoring scientific integrity, and implementing evidence-based policymaking.

In places like my home state of Texas, sustainable practices that benefit both the environment and the economy are becoming the cornerstone of business development. Texas, like Malta, is blessed with sunshine and is the fifth-largest producer of solar power in the United States. However, Texas most effective sustainable practice is wind energy, with Texas leading the nation in wind-generated power with more than 30 percent of U.S. electricity coming from wind. The Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute partners with the community to research and contribute to a new energy future, focused on carbon capture and reutilisation, energy conservation, and solar panel integration. These initiatives, and others like them, are examples of how that delicate balance between economic and sustainable development can be achieved. They are environmentally responsible and create jobs in green infrastructure, while also significantly reduce energy bills for businesses and citizens. Thats a win-win situation.

On the international front, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry promised the United States will partner with nations to solve the climate crisis and pass on the Earth in better shape for future generations. To do so, we must partner with countries around the world to limit the planets global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The United States is already working with international organisations, civil society, and governments to support policies and programmes that conserve and restore forests; promote sustainable agriculture and fisheries; stop illegal logging, mining, and fishing; and combat wildlife trafficking and marine plastic pollution. These policies and programmes help preserve our planets natural beauty and provide economic benefits for our children and future generations. More and more American students are earning degrees in environmental science because they are interested in improving the environment and attracted to the jobs in the green-tech sector in the United States.

Here in Malta, we support efforts to green Maltas economy. Together with the Ministry for Energy, Enterprise, and Sustainable Development, we recently organised a programme that addressed emerging energy technologies and intelligent solutions that will reduce Maltas dependency on fossil fuels and promote clean energy alternatives, significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions, and maximise the use of indigenous resources. Maltas renewable energy strategy will create jobs in sectors such as research, solar and wind farm technologies, and waste-to-energy installations.

Our work to promote sustainable practices in Malta is a priority and something we embrace every day at the U.S. Embassy. My colleagues and I are proud that our own embassy is a LEED Silver certified green building. It incorporates the latest strategies for sustainable site development, water conservation, energy savings, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality to combine environmentally-sound practices with economic efficiency. In this way, our greening initiatives compliment Maltas commitment to a sustainable economic model.

On Earth Day, we also celebrate the 26th birthday of the Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) and our fourteen-year partnership with the Ministry of Education and the University of Maltas Center for Environmental Education and Research in the GLOBE Malta programme. GLOBE is a worldwide international science programme that prepares students for careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, which are a major source of modern, sustainable economic growth. GLOBE repeatedly recognised Maltese and Gozitan students as top contributors of quality scientific data and analysis. Just recently, GLOBE selected a student from Gozo to be one of 12 international GLOBE student vloggers congratulations Hannah Vella! Hannah will join other GLOBE Student Vloggers to document their initiatives to safeguard the environment and raise awareness among their peers.

During the 2021 Malta Sustainability Forum, President George Vella praised businesses that are embracing Corporate Social Responsibility that focuses on sustainability. The U.S. Embassy recognised a number of U.S. firms in Malta for leading the way on sustainability programmes and for improving the environment of their workers, their customers, and communities. Among them is Baxter, which received the U.S. Ambassadors Award for Environmental Excellence in recognition of its initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint.

Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat we face in the 21st century and we must face this existential challenge with urgency and with commitment. Our governments must foster local economies that are viable, innovative, and embrace technologies and practices that encourage sustainability. And we cant wait any longer. Together we must restore our earth.

Wendy Green is United States Charg d'Affaires for Malta

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Tributes to former head of the Shipwrecked Mariners Society – Chichester Observer

Posted: at 12:58 pm

Commodore Malcolm Williams, 69, of Gains Road, Southsea, died following a collision on the A3(M) on Tuesday, April 20, Hampshire Police confirmed.

Paying tribute to the retired Royal Navy officer, his family said: Commodore Malcolm Williams CBE RN was a man of principle, fortitude and compassion and a loving husband, father, grandfather and brother.Both his naval career and his subsequent work were immensely important to him. He will be missed by those that had the privilege to know him.

Cdre Williams had a naval career spanning 31 years, during which he served in the Falklands War.

He was awarded CBE in the New Years Honours for coordinating the joint response to crises in Sierra Leone, Kosovo and humanitarian responses to natural disasters in Mozambique and Honduras.

Having left the naval service, he was appointed as chief executive of the Shipwrecked Mariners Society, a national charity based in Chichester, where he turned his attentions to the welfare of merchant seafarers and fishermen.

With others, he spearheaded the campaign to halt the abolition of the cheque by banks and was a staunch advocate for proper representation and coverage of merchant seafarers during the November Ceremonies.

He was later admitted into the Fraternity of the Younger Brethren of Trinity House.

Cdre Williams retired as the societys chief executive in 2018 after 14 years at the helm.

Members of the Shipwrecked Mariners Society paid tribute to him, and said: Commodore Malcolm Williams CBE RN was a man of principle, fortitude and compassion. Both his naval career and his subsequent work for the Shipwrecked Mariners Society were immensely important to him. He will be missed by those that had the privilege to know him.

During his Royal Navy service Cdre Williams served as operations officer on the Type 21 frigate HMS Ambuscade during the Falklands conflict.

He also served as navigator aboard aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and commanded both HMS Andromeda and HMS Scylla. He was commanding officer on HMS Fearless while she was deployed in the Far East for the handover of Hong Kong in 1997.

Following his naval retirement Malcolm took up his role with the Shipwrecked Mariners Society, focusing on the welfare of merchant seafarers, fishermen and their dependants in need.

He led a campaign to stop cheques being abolished by banks and called for acknowledgement of merchant seafarers during remembrance services.

Speaking following the news of Cdre Williams passing, society chairman Captain Nigel Palmer, said: Malcolm was a true gentleman and respected by all who knew him. He instigated reform and modernisation of the society during his time as chief executive and we have much to be thankful to him for. When he retired he left the Society on a solid foundation for the future and his legacy will live on.

His tireless campaigning for proper recognition of the role of the Merchant Navy in wartime was successful in raising the profile with the public. He will be very sadly missed by us all.

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Mars Facts | Temperature, Surface, Information, History …

Posted: at 12:57 pm

Key Facts & Summary

Mars has been observed by many different cultures from around the world since hundreds of years. Because of this it is impossible to credit anyone with its discovery, Mars being easily visible with the naked eye.

Observations date back to ancient Egyptian astronomers in the 2nd millennium BCE while Chinese records about the motions of Mars appeared before the founding of the Zhou Dynasty in 1045 BCE.

Detailed observations were made even by the Babylonians who developed arithmetic techniques to predict the future position of the planet while the ancient Greeks developed a geocentric model to explain the planets motions.

To the ancient Romans, the planet Mars was symbolic of blood and war, the equivalent of the Greek god of war Aries. In the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model for the Solar System in which the planets follow circular orbits around the Sun.

Johannes Kepler revised this creation, yielding an elliptic orbit for Mars that more accurately fitted the observational data. In 1610, Galileo Galilei first observed Mars with a telescope and within a century, astronomers discovered several features of Mars and determined the planets rotational period and axial tilt.

The idea of life on Mars started a long time ago, and in a way this helped fuel the drive for searching it upon Mars. Since 1877 onward, it was mistakenly thought that water was found on Mars and later the idea of life became popularized among the public.

Percival Lowell believed he could see a network of canals on Mars but they were proved to be optical illusions. Since then, many more details about the planet were gathered both exciting and disappointing, and the presence of todays robots on the planet are a testament of the will of the people who wish to finally find a trace of life on Mars, even if it means finding evidence of past life.

It is hypothesized that the Solar System formed from a giant rotating ball of gas and dust known as the pre-solar nebula. Much of it formed the Sun while more of its dust went on and merged to create the first proto-planets. Mars was one of these planets and after the gravity pulled enough swirling gas and dust, it became the fourth planet from the Sun.

Mars is about 227.9 million km / 141.6 million mi or 1.5 AU away from the Sun. It takes sunlight about 13 minutes to reach Mars. The diameter of Mars is 6.779 km or 4.212 mi, slightly more than half the size of Earth.

In a way, its diameter is about the width of the continent of Africa. Marss mass is 6.42 x 1023kilograms, about 10 times less thanEarth and avolumeof 1.6318 x 10 km (163 billion cubic kilometers) which is the equivalent of 0.151 Earths. Its entire surface area is similar to that of all the Earths continents combined

One rotation/day on Mars is completed within 24.6 hours while a whole trip around the Sun or year, is completed within 669.6 days.

Mars has a relatively pronouncedorbital eccentricityof about 0.09. Of the seven other planets in the Solar System, onlyMercuryhas a larger orbital eccentricity. It is known that in the past, Mars had a much more circular orbit. At one point, 1.35million Earth years ago, Mars had an eccentricity of roughly 0.002, much less than that of Earth today.

It is believed that the closest distance between Earth and Mars will continue to mildly decrease for the next 25.000 years.

Marss axis of rotation is tilted 25.2 degrees similar to Earth which has an axial tilt of 23.4 degrees. It has seasons though they last longer than on Earth since Mars takes longer to orbit the Sun. The seasons vary in length due to Marss elliptical, egg-shaped orbit around the Sun.

It is estimated that Mars has a dense core with a radius between 930-1.300 miles / 1.500 2.100 kilometers. It is made up primarily of iron and nickel with about 16-17% sulfur. The iron sulfide core is thought to be twice as rich in lighter elements then Earths core.

The core is surrounded by a silicate mantle which formed many tectonic plates and volcanic features on the planet that now appear to be dormant.

Besides silicon and oxygen, the most abundant elements in Martian crust are iron, magnesium, aluminum, calcium and potassium, an average thickness of the planets crust has been estimated to be about 50 km / 31 mi, with a maximum thickness of 125 km / 78 mi. In comparison, Earths average crust is about 40 km / 25 mi.

It is estimated that Mars lost its magnetosphere around 4 billion years ago. A possible reason for this is because of numerous asteroid strikes and the solar wind interacting directly with the Martian ionosphere, lowering the atmospheric density by stripping away atoms from the outer layer.

The atmosphere of Mars consists of about 96% carbon dioxide, 1.93% argon and 1.89% nitrogen, along with traces of oxygen and water. It is quite dusty. Recently methane has also been detected in the atmosphere, values of which indicate an active source of gas that should be present be it biological or non-biological.

If Mars had an Earth-like orbit, its seasons would be similar to Earth's because itsaxial tiltis similar to Earth's. Spring in the northern hemisphere (autumn in the southern) is the longest season lasting 194 days. Autumn in the northern hemisphere (spring in the southern) is the shortest at 142 days. Northern winter (southern summer) lasts 154 days while northern summer (southern winter) lasts 178 days.

On average, thetemperatureonMarsis about -80 degrees Fahrenheit / -60 degrees Celsius. In winter, near the polestemperaturescan get down to -195 degrees F / -125 degrees C. Mars has the largestdust stormsin the Solar System, reaching speeds of over 160km/h (100mph). These can vary from a storm over a small area, to gigantic storms that cover the entire planet. They tend to occur when Mars is closest to the Sun, increasing global temperature.

Though it is often referred to as the Red Planet, Mars actually has many colors. At the surface colors such as brown, gold and tan are present. Its surface is the same size as Earths dry lands combined, even though it is two times smaller.

Mars has many evidences of a watery past, with ancient river valley networks, deltas and lakebeds, as well as rocks and minerals on the surface that could only have formed in liquid water. Some features suggest that Mars experienced huge floods about 3.5 billion years ago.

Though liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars due to low atmospheric pressure, which is less than 1% that of Earths, except for short periods, the volume of water ice caps appear to be made largely out of water with a volume of water ice enough to cover, if melted, the entire planetary surface to a depth of 11 meters or 36 ft.

There are landforms visible that strongly suggest that liquid water has existed on the planets surface like hematite concretions (image above), or the Maadim Vallis, a valley of about 700 km / 430 mi thought to have been carved by flowing water long ago.

Near the northern polar cap is the 81.4 km / 50.6 mi wide Korolev Crater, where it was found to be filled with about 2.200 cubic km / 530 mi of water ice.

There are two permanent polar ice caps on Mars. During winter, the poles lay in continuous darkness and causing depositions of 25-30% of the atmosphere into slabs of carbon dioxide dry ice.

When they are exposed again to sunlight the carbon dioxide sublimates and sometimes create water-ice clouds. Both polar caps consist primarily of water ice, about 70%.

The dichotomy of Martian topography is striking, northern plains flattened by lava flows contrast with the southern highlands, pitted and cratered by ancient impacts.

Mars is scarred by a number of impact craters: a total of 43,000 craters with a diameter of 5km (3.1mi) or greater have been found. The largest confirmed of these is theHellas impact basin, a lightalbedo featureclearly visible from Earth.

The volcano Olympus Mons, is an extinct volcano in the vast upland region Tharsis, which contains several other large volcanoes. Olympus Mons is however the greatest, in fact it is the largest volcanoe detected in the entire Solar System, it has about three times the height of Mount Everest.

The large canyon,Valles Marinerisalso known as Agathadaemon in the old canal maps, has a length of 4,000km (2,500mi) and a depth of up to 7km (4.3mi). The length of Valles Marineris is equivalent to the length of Europe and extends across one-fifth the circumference of Mars. By comparison, theGrand Canyon is only 446km (277mi) long and nearly 2km (1.2mi) deep. Valles Marineris was formed due to the swelling of theTharsisarea, which caused the crust in the area of Valles Marineris to collapse.

It is 10 times longer and 10 times wider than the Grand Canyon. Mars also has sand on its surface, made up from basaltic rock, thus having a grey color.

When the wind blows, dunes are created including series of parallel ridges in crater floors, also horseshoe-shaped dunes are created. Mars also has dust devils, towering vortices of wind similar to tornadoes. When the dust devils blow the red dust around on the greyish basaltic plains, they can leave behind complex and beautiful curlicues.

Mars actually has avalanches. Cliffs towering above the surface that hold different materials can be dislodged in the spring when carbon dioxide thaws, creating tremendous cascades of rock and dust.

Mars has only 2 known moons named Phobos and Deimos after the horses that pulled the chariot of the god of war Mars. They are very small though, Phobos has a diameter of about 25 km or 15.5 mi, while Deimos just 15 km or 9.3 mi. They look very much like asteroids and it is strongly believed that they have been captured by Mars gravity from the nearby asteroid belt.

Phobos orbits Mars only 6.000 km or 3.728 mi over the surface, moving so rapidly in its orbit that it orbits faster than Mars rotates. Tides from Mars are also altering its orbit, slowly lowering Phobos closer and closer to the surface. It is believed that in a few million years Phobos will drop low enough that it will actually enter the atmosphere and impact the surface.

On June 7, 2018, NASA announced that theCuriosityrover had discoveredorganic compoundsin sedimentary rocks dating to three billion years old, indicating that some of the building blocks for life were present.

In July 2018, scientists reported the discovery of a sub-glacial lake on Mars, the first known stable body of water on the planet. It sits 1.5km (0.9mi) below the surface at the base of thesouthern polar ice capand is about 20km (12mi) wide. Out of all the planets in the Solar System, Mars appears to have the highest change of having life forms but still the conditions are harsh enough that nothing should be able to survive there, perhaps only beneath the surface.

Still, regardless of its habitability now, Mars was definitely once a planet filled with oceans and the right conditions of life. Most people would be happy if we could only find evidence of life that may have existed on the Red Planet.

Future astrobiology missions are planned, including theMars 2020andRosalind Franklinrovers. They have the mission to take soil samples and return them to Earth for further analysis. If we look into Marss history, it is one of the most actively observed planets in the Solar System and chances are it will remain so for a long time.

There are many plans for Mars, including terraforming and sending people on it, but it remains to be seen, hopes are high and missions continue.

- Mars is the most intensely studied planet with observations dating back to 4.000 years ago.

- It is about 50% farther from the Sun than Earth.

- Perhaps second only to Venus when it comes to visits, Mars has been visited over 16 times over about 39 attempts with the first successful mission happening in 1965 with the Mariner 4 spacecraft flyby.

- If you weigh 100kg on Earth, on Mars your weight would be 38kg.

- Mars is the outermost terrestrial planet, outside Earths orbit.

- Theoretically, Mars is populated by robots since we sent so many there.

- Mars has captured our imagination so much, that it has spanned countless adaptations on TV, literature and it may as well be the most popular planet after Earth.

- On Mars the Sun appears about half the size as it does on Earth.

- Pieces of Mars have fallen to Earth. Scientists have found tiny traces of Martian atmosphere within meteorites violently ejected from Mars, then orbiting the solar system amongst galactic debris for millions of years, before crash landing on Earth.

- A year on Mars is almost twice as long as a year on Earth.

- It would take more than six Mars to fill the volume of Earth.

- Almost 7 million Mars can fit in the Sun.

- The Mars One project hopes to colonize the Red Planet, beginning in 2022.

[1.] Wikipedia

[2.] NASA

[1.] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/OSIRIS_Mars_true_color.jpg

[2.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism#/media/File:Heliocentric.jpg

[3.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mars,_Earth_size_comparison.jpg

[4.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marsorbitsolarsystem.gif

[5.] https://sites.google.com/site/missiontomarsatvssec/home/mission-background-briefing-students/earth-vs-mars/structure-of-the-earth

[6.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USGS-MarsMap-sim3292-20140714-crop.png

[7.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spirit_Mars_Silica_April_20_2007.jpg

[8.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nasa_mars_opportunity_rock_water_150_eng_02mar04.jpg

[9.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%27adim_Vallis

[10.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Perspective_view_of_Korolev_crater.jpg

[11.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Martian_north_polar_cap.jpg

[12.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PIA23304-Mars-ImpactCrater-Sep2016-Feb2019.jpg

[13.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Olympus_Mons_alt.jpg

[14.] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles_Marineris#/media/File:Mars_Valles_Marineris.jpeg

[15.] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/05/mars-ice-age/484541/

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Mars (mythology) – Wikipedia

Posted: at 12:57 pm

For the planet named after this Roman god, see Mars.

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Mars (Latin: Mrs, pronounced[mars]) was the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome.[3] He was the son of Jupiter and Juno, and he was the most prominent of the military gods in the religion of the Roman army. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him (Latin Martius), and in October, which began the season for military campaigning and ended the season for farming.

Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares,[4] whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars. But the character and dignity of Mars differed in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, who is often treated with contempt and revulsion in Greek literature.[5] Mars's altar in the Campus Martius, the area of Rome that took its name from him, was supposed to have been dedicated by Numa, the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome. Although the center of Mars's worship was originally located outside the sacred boundary of Rome (pomerium), Augustus made the god a renewed focus of Roman religion by establishing the Temple of Mars Ultor in his new forum.[6]

Although Ares was viewed primarily as a destructive and destabilizing force, Mars represented military power as a way to secure peace, and was a father (pater) of the Roman people.[7] In the mythic genealogy and founding myths of Rome, Mars was the father of Romulus and Remus by his rape of Rhea Silvia. His love affair with Venus symbolically reconciled the two different traditions of Rome's founding; Venus was the divine mother of the hero Aeneas, celebrated as the Trojan refugee who "founded" Rome several generations before Romulus laid out the city walls.

The word Mrs (genitive Mrtis),[8] which in Old Latin and poetic usage also appears as Mvors (Mvortis),[9] is cognate with Oscan Mmers (Mmertos).[10] The oldest recorded Latin form, Mamart-, is likely of foreign origin.[11] It has been explained as deriving from Maris, the name of an Etruscan child-god, though this is not universally agreed upon.[12] Scholars have varying views on whether the two gods are related, and if so how.[13] Latin adjectives from the name of Mars are martius and martialis, from which derive English "martial" (as in "martial arts" or "martial law") and personal names such as "Marcus" and "Martin".[14][15]

Mars may ultimately be a thematic reflex of the Proto-Indo-European god Perkwunos, having originally a thunderer character.[16]

Like Ares who was the son of Zeus and Hera,[17] Mars is usually considered to be the son of Jupiter and Juno. However, in a version of his birth given by Ovid, he was the son of Juno alone. Jupiter had usurped the mother's function when he gave birth to Minerva directly from his forehead (or mind); to restore the balance, Juno sought the advice of the goddess Flora on how to do the same. Flora obtained a magic flower (Latin flos, plural flores, a masculine word) and tested it on a heifer who became fecund at once. She then plucked a flower ritually using her thumb, touched Juno's belly, and impregnated her. Juno withdrew to Thrace and the shore of Marmara for the birth.[18]

Ovid tells this story in the Fasti, his long-form poetic work on the Roman calendar.[18] It may explain why the Matronalia, a festival celebrated by married women in honor of Juno as a goddess of childbirth, occurred on the first day of Mars's month, which is also marked on a calendar from late antiquity as the birthday of Mars. In the earliest Roman calendar, March was the first month, and the god would have been born with the new year.[19] Ovid is the only source for the story. He may be presenting a literary myth of his own invention, or an otherwise unknown archaic Italic tradition; either way, in choosing to include the story, he emphasizes that Mars was connected to plant life and was not alienated from female nurture.[20]

The consort of Mars was Nerio or Neriene, "Valor." She represents the vital force (vis), power (potentia) and majesty (maiestas) of Mars.[21] Her name was regarded as Sabine in origin and is equivalent to Latin virtus, "manly virtue" (from vir, "man").[22] In the early 3rd century BCE, the comic playwright Plautus has a reference to Mars greeting Nerio, his wife.[23] A source from late antiquity says that Mars and Neriene were celebrated together at a festival held on March 23.[24] In the later Roman Empire, Neriene came to be identified with Minerva.[25]

Nerio probably originates as a divine personification of Mars's power, as such abstractions in Latin are generally feminine. Her name appears with that of Mars in an archaic prayer invoking a series of abstract qualities, each paired with the name of a deity. The influence of Greek mythology and its anthropomorphic gods may have caused Roman writers to treat these pairs as "marriages."[26]

The union of Venus and Mars held greater appeal for poets and philosophers, and the couple were a frequent subject of art. In Greek myth, the adultery of Ares and Aphrodite had been exposed to ridicule when her husband Hephaestus (whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan) caught them in the act by means of a magical snare. Although not originally part of the Roman tradition, in 217 BCE Venus and Mars were presented as a complementary pair in the lectisternium, a public banquet at which images of twelve major gods of the Roman state were presented on couches as if present and participating.[27]

Scenes of Venus and Mars in Roman art often ignore the adulterous implications of their union, and take pleasure in the good-looking couple attended by Cupid or multiple Loves (amores). Some scenes may imply marriage,[28] and the relationship was romanticized in funerary or domestic art in which husbands and wives had themselves portrayed as the passionate divine couple.[29]

The uniting of deities representing Love and War lent itself to allegory, especially since the lovers were the parents of Concordia.[citation needed] The Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino notes that "only Venus dominates Mars, and he never dominates her".[30] In ancient Roman and Renaissance art, Mars is often shown disarmed and relaxed, or even sleeping, but the extramarital nature of their affair can also suggest that this peace is impermanent.[31]

Virility as a kind of life force (vis) or virtue (virtus) is an essential characteristic of Mars.[32] As an agricultural guardian, he directs his energies toward creating conditions that allow crops to grow, which may include warding off hostile forces of nature.[33]

The priesthood of the Arval Brothers called on Mars to drive off "rust" (lues), with its double meaning of wheat fungus and the red oxides that affect metal, a threat to both iron farm implements and weaponry. In the surviving text of their hymn, the Arval Brothers invoked Mars as ferus, "savage" or "feral" like a wild animal.[34]

Mars's potential for savagery is expressed in his obscure connections to the wild woodlands, and he may even have originated as a god of the wild, beyond the boundaries set by humans, and thus a force to be propitiated.[35] In his book on farming, Cato invokes Mars Silvanus for a ritual to be carried out in silva, in the woods, an uncultivated place that if not held within bounds can threaten to overtake the fields needed for crops.[36] Mars's character as an agricultural god may derive solely from his role as a defender and protector,[37] or may be inseparable from his warrior nature,[38] as the leaping of his armed priests the Salii was meant to quicken the growth of crops.[39]

It appears that Mars was originally a thunderer or storm deity, which explains some of his mixed traits in regards to fertility.[16] This role was later taken in the Roman pantheon by several other gods, such as Summanus or Jupiter.

The wild animals most sacred to Mars were the woodpecker, the wolf, and the bear, which in the natural lore of the Romans were said always to inhabit the same foothills and woodlands.[40]

Plutarch notes that the woodpecker (picus) is sacred to Mars because "it is a courageous and spirited bird and has a beak so strong that it can overturn oaks by pecking them until it has reached the inmost part of the tree."[41] As the beak of the picus Martius contained the god's power to ward off harm, it was carried as a magic charm to prevent bee stings and leech bites.[42] The bird of Mars also guarded a woodland herb (paeonia) used for treatment of the digestive or female reproductive systems; those who sought to harvest it were advised to do so by night, lest the woodpecker jab out their eyes.[43] The picus Martius seems to have been a particular species, but authorities differ on which one: perhaps Picus viridis[44] or Dryocopus martius.[45]

The woodpecker was revered by the Latin peoples, who abstained from eating its flesh.[46] It was one of the most important birds in Roman and Italic augury, the practice of reading the will of the gods through watching the sky for signs.[47] The mythological figure named Picus had powers of augury that he retained when he was transformed into a woodpecker; in one tradition, Picus was the son of Mars.[48] The Umbrian cognate peiqu also means "woodpecker," and the Italic Picenes were supposed to have derived their name from the picus who served as their guide animal during a ritual migration (ver sacrum) undertaken as a rite of Mars.[49] In the territory of the Aequi, another Italic people, Mars had an oracle of great antiquity where the prophecies were supposed to be spoken by a woodpecker perched on a wooden column.[50]

Mars's association with the wolf is familiar from what may be the most famous of Roman myths, the story of how a she-wolf (lupa) suckled his infant sons when they were exposed by order of King Amulius, who feared them because he had usurped the throne from their grandfather, Numitor.[51] The woodpecker also brought nourishment to the twins.[52]

The wolf appears elsewhere in Roman art and literature in masculine form as the animal of Mars. A statue group that stood along the Appian Way showed Mars in the company of wolves.[53] At the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BCE, the appearance of the wolf of Mars (Martius lupus) was a sign that Roman victory was to come.[54]

In Roman Gaul, the goose was associated with the Celtic forms of Mars, and archaeologists have found geese buried alongside warriors in graves. The goose was considered a bellicose animal because it is easily provoked to aggression.[55]

Ancient Greek and Roman religion distinguished between animals that were sacred to a deity and those that were prescribed as the correct sacrificial offerings for the god. Wild animals might be viewed as already belonging to the god to whom they were sacred, or at least not owned by human beings and therefore not theirs to give. Since sacrificial meat was eaten at a banquet after the gods received their portion mainly the entrails (exta) it follows that the animals sacrificed were most often, though not always, domestic animals normally part of the Roman diet.[56] Gods often received castrated male animals as sacrifices, and the goddesses female victims; Mars, however, regularly received intact males.[57] Mars did receive oxen under a few of his cult titles, such as Mars Grabovius, but the usual offering was the bull, singly, in multiples, or in combination with other animals.[citation needed]

The two most distinctive animal sacrifices made to Mars were the suovetaurilia, a triple offering of a pig (sus), ram (ovis) and bull (taurus),[58] and the October Horse, the only horse sacrifice known to have been carried out in ancient Rome and a rare instance of a victim the Romans considered inedible.[59]

The earliest center in Rome for cultivating Mars as a deity was the Altar of Mars (Ara Martis) in the Campus Martius ("Field of Mars") outside the sacred boundary of Rome (pomerium). The Romans thought that this altar had been established by the semi-legendary Numa Pompilius, the peace-loving successor of Romulus.[60] According to Roman tradition, the Campus Martius had been consecrated to Mars by their ancestors to serve as horse pasturage and an equestrian training ground for youths.[61] During the Roman Republic (50927 BCE), the Campus was a largely open expanse. No temple was built at the altar, but from 193 BCE a covered walkway connected it to the Porta Fontinalis, near the office and archives of the Roman censors. Newly elected censors placed their curule chairs by the altar, and when they had finished conducting the census, the citizens were collectively purified with a suovetaurilia there.[62] A frieze from the so-called "Altar" of Domitius Ahenobarbus is thought to depict the census, and may show Mars himself standing by the altar as the procession of victims advances.[63]

The main Temple of Mars (Aedes Martis) in the Republican period also lay outside the sacred boundary[where?] and was devoted to the god's warrior aspect.[64] It was built to fulfill a vow (votum) made by a Titus Quinctius in 388 BCE during the Gallic siege of Rome.[65] The founding day (dies natalis) was commemorated on June 1,[66] and the temple is attested by several inscriptions and literary sources.[67] The sculpture group of Mars and the wolves was displayed there.[68] Soldiers sometimes assembled at the temple before heading off to war, and it was the point of departure for a major parade of Roman cavalry held annually on July 15.[69]

A temple to Mars in the Circus Flaminius was built around 133 BCE, funded by Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus from war booty. It housed a colossal statue of Mars and a nude Venus.[70]

The Campus Martius continued to provide venues for equestrian events such as chariot racing during the Imperial period, but under the first emperor Augustus it underwent a major program of urban renewal, marked by monumental architecture. The Altar of Augustan Peace (Ara Pacis Augustae) was located there, as was the Obelisk of Montecitorio, imported from Egypt to form the pointer (gnomon) of the Solarium Augusti, a giant sundial. With its public gardens, the Campus became one of the most attractive places in the city to visit.[71]

Augustus made the centrepiece of his new forum a large Temple to Mars Ultor, a manifestation of Mars he cultivated as the avenger (ultor) of the murder of Julius Caesar and of the military disaster suffered at the Battle of Carrhae. When the legionary standards lost to the Parthians were recovered, they were housed in the new temple. The date of the temple's dedication on May 12 was aligned with the heliacal setting of the constellation Scorpio, the sign of war.[72] The date continued to be marked with circus games as late as the mid-4th century AD.[73]

A large statue of Mars was part of the short-lived Arch of Nero, which was built in 62 CE but dismantled after Nero's suicide and disgrace (damnatio memoriae).[74]

In Roman art, Mars is depicted as either bearded and mature, or young and clean-shaven. Even nude or seminude, he often wears a helmet or carries a spear as emblems of his warrior nature. Mars was among the deities to appear on the earliest Roman coinage in the late 4th and early 3rd century BCE.[76]

On the Altar of Peace (Ara Pacis), built in the last years of the 1st century BCE, Mars is a mature man with a "handsome, classicizing" face, and a short curly beard and moustache. His helmet is a plumed neo-Attic-type. He wears a military cloak (paludamentum) and a cuirass ornamented with a gorgoneion. Although the relief is somewhat damaged at this spot, he appears to hold a spear garlanded in laurel, symbolizing a peace that is won by military victory. The 1st-century statue of Mars found in the Forum of Nerva (pictured at top) is similar. In this guise, Mars is presented as the dignified ancestor of the Roman people. The panel of the Ara Pacis on which he appears would have faced the Campus Martius, reminding viewers that Mars was the god whose altar Numa established there, that is, the god of Rome's oldest civic and military institutions.[77]

Particularly in works of art influenced by the Greek tradition, Mars may be portrayed in a manner that resembles Ares, youthful, beardless, and often nude.[78] In the Renaissance, Mars's nudity was thought to represent his lack of fear in facing danger.[79]

The spear is the instrument of Mars in the same way that Jupiter wields the lightning bolt, Neptune the trident, and Saturn the scythe or sickle.[80] A relic or fetish called the spear of Mars[81] was kept in a sacrarium at the Regia, the former residence of the Kings of Rome.[82] The spear was said to move, tremble or vibrate at impending war or other danger to the state, as was reported to occur before the assassination of Julius Caesar.[83] When Mars is pictured as a peace-bringer, his spear is wreathed with laurel or other vegetation, as on the Ara Pacis or a coin of Aemilianus.[84]

The high priest of Mars in Roman public religion was the Flamen Martialis, who was one of the three major priests in the fifteen-member college of flamens. Mars was also served by the Salii, a twelve-member priesthood of patrician youths who dressed as archaic warriors and danced in procession around the city in March. Both priesthoods extend to the earliest periods of Roman history, and patrician birth was required.[85]

The festivals of Mars cluster in his namesake month of March (Latin: Martius), with a few observances in October, the beginning and end of the season for military campaigning and agriculture. Festivals with horse racing took place in the Campus Martius. Some festivals in March retained characteristics of new year festivals, since Martius was originally the first month of the Roman calendar.[citation needed]

Mars was also honored by chariot races at the Robigalia and Consualia, though these festivals are not primarily dedicated to him. From 217 BCE onward, Mars was among the gods honored at the lectisternium, a banquet given for deities who were present as images.[citation needed]

Roman hymns (carmina) are rarely preserved, but Mars is invoked in two. The Arval Brothers, or "Brothers of the Fields," chanted a hymn to Mars while performing their three-step dance.[87] The Carmen Saliare was sung by Mars's priests the Salii while they moved twelve sacred shields (ancilia) throughout the city in a procession.[88] In the 1st century AD, Quintilian remarks that the language of the Salian hymn was so archaic that it was no longer fully understood.[89]

Mars gave his name to the third month in the Roman calendar, Martius, from which English "March" derives. In the most ancient Roman calendar, Martius was the first month. The planet Mars was named for him, and in some allegorical and philosophical writings, the planet and the god are endowed with shared characteristics.[91] In many languages, Tuesday is named for the planet Mars or the god of war: In Latin, martis dies ("Mars's Day"), survived in Romance languages as marte (Portuguese), martes (Spanish), mardi (French), martedi (Italian), mari (Romanian), and dimarts (Catalan). In Irish (Gaelic), the day is An Mhirt, while in Albanian it is e Marta. The English word Tuesday derives from Old English "Tiwesdg" and means "Tiw's Day", Tiw being the Old English form of the Proto-Germanic war god *Twaz, or Tr in Norse.[92]

In Classical Roman religion, Mars was invoked under several titles, and the first Roman emperor Augustus thoroughly integrated Mars into Imperial cult. The 4th-century Latin historian Ammianus Marcellinus treats Mars as one of several classical Roman deities who remained "cultic realities" up to his own time.[93] Mars, and specifically Mars Ultor, was among the gods who received sacrifices from Julian, the only emperor to reject Christianity after the conversion of Constantine I. In 363 AD, in preparation for the Siege of Ctesiphon, Julian sacrificed ten "very fine" bulls to Mars Ultor. The tenth bull violated ritual protocol by attempting to break free, and when killed and examined, produced ill omens, among the many that were read at the end of Julian's reign. As represented by Ammianus, Julian swore never to make sacrifice to Mars againa vow kept with his death a month later.[94]

Gradivus was one of the gods by whom a general or soldiers might swear an oath to be valorous in battle.[95] His temple outside the Porta Capena was where armies gathered. The archaic priesthood of Mars Gradivus was the Salii, the "leaping priests" who danced ritually in armor as a prelude to war.[96] His cult title is most often taken to mean "the Strider" or "the Marching God," from gradus, "step, march."[97]

The poet Statius addresses him as "the most implacable of the gods,"[98] but Valerius Maximus concludes his history by invoking Mars Gradivus as "author and support of the name 'Roman'":[99] Gradivus is asked along with Capitoline Jupiter and Vesta, as the keeper of Rome's perpetual flame to "guard, preserve, and protect" the state of Rome, the peace, and the princeps (the emperor Tiberius at the time).[100]

A source from Late Antiquity says that the wife of Gradivus was Nereia, the daughter of Nereus, and that he loved her passionately.[101]

Mars Quirinus was the protector of the Quirites ("citizens" or "civilians") as divided into curiae (citizen assemblies), whose oaths were required to make a treaty.[102] As a guarantor of treaties, Mars Quirinus is thus a god of peace: "When he rampages, Mars is called Gradivus, but when he's at peace Quirinus."[103]

The deified Romulus was identified with Mars Quirinus. In the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, however, Mars and Quirinus were two separate deities, though not perhaps in origin. Each of the three had his own flamen (specialized priest), but the functions of the Flamen Martialis and Flamen Quirinalis are hard to distinguish.[104]

Mars is invoked as Grabovius in the Iguvine Tablets, bronze tablets written in Umbrian that record ritual protocols for carrying out public ceremonies on behalf of the city and community of Iguvium. The same title is given to Jupiter and to the Umbrian deity Vofionus. This triad has been compared to the Archaic Triad, with Vofionus equivalent to Quirinus.[105] Tables I and VI describe a complex ritual that took place at the three gates of the city. After the auspices were taken, two groups of three victims were sacrificed at each gate. Mars Grabovius received three oxen.[106]

"Father Mars" or "Mars the Father" is the form in which the god is invoked in the agricultural prayer of Cato,[107] and he appears with this title in several other literary texts and inscriptions.[108] Mars Pater is among the several gods invoked in the ritual of devotio, by means of which a general sacrificed himself and the lives of the enemy to secure a Roman victory.[109]

Father Mars is the regular recipient of the suovetaurilia, the sacrifice of a pig (sus), ram (ovis) and bull (taurus), or often a bull alone.[110] To Mars Pater other epithets were sometimes appended, such as Mars Pater Victor ("Father Mars the Victorious"),[111] to whom the Roman army sacrificed a bull on March 1.[112]

Although pater and mater were fairly common as honorifics for a deity,[113] any special claim for Mars as father of the Roman people lies in the mythic genealogy that makes him the divine father of Romulus and Remus.[114]

In the section of his farming book that offers recipes and medical preparations, Cato describes a votum to promote the health of cattle:

Make an offering to Mars Silvanus in the forest (in silva) during the daytime for each head of cattle: 3 pounds of meal, 4 pounds of bacon, 4 pounds of meat, and 3 pints of wine. You may place the viands in one vessel, and the wine likewise in one vessel. Either a slave or a free man may make this offering. After the ceremony is over, consume the offering on the spot at once. A woman may not take part in this offering or see how it is performed. You may vow the vow every year if you wish.[115]

That Mars Silvanus is a single entity has been doubted. Invocations of deities are often list-like, without connecting words, and the phrase should perhaps be understood as "Mars and Silvanus".[116] Women were explicitly excluded from some cult practices of Silvanus, but not necessarily of Mars.[117] William Warde Fowler, however, thought that the wild god of the wood Silvanus may have been "an emanation or offshoot" of Mars.[118]

Augustus created the cult of "Mars the Avenger" to mark two occasions: his defeat of the assassins of Caesar at Philippi in 42 BCE, and the negotiated return of the Roman battle standards that had been lost to the Parthians at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.[120] The god is depicted wearing a cuirass and helmet and standing in a "martial pose," leaning on a lance he holds in his right hand. He holds a shield in his left hand.[121] The goddess Ultio, a divine personification of vengeance, had an altar and golden statue in his temple.[122]

The Temple of Mars Ultor, dedicated in 2 BCE in the center of the Forum of Augustus, gave the god a new place of honor.[120][123] Some rituals previously conducted within the cult of Capitoline Jupiter were transferred to the new temple,[124] which became the point of departure for magistrates as they left for military campaigns abroad.[125] Augustus required the Senate to meet at the temple when deliberating questions of war and peace.[126] The temple also became the site at which sacrifice was made to conclude the rite of passage of young men assuming the toga virilis ("man's toga") around age 14.[127]

On various Imperial holidays, Mars Ultor was the first god to receive a sacrifice, followed by the Genius of the emperor.[128] An inscription from the 2nd century records a vow to offer Mars Ultor a bull with gilded horns.[129]

Augustus or Augusta was appended far and wide, "on monuments great and small,"[130] to the name of gods or goddesses, including Mars. The honorific marks the affiliation of a deity with Imperial cult.[131] In Hispania, many of the statues and dedications to Mars Augustus were presented by members of the priesthood or sodality called the Sodales Augustales.[132] These vows (vota) were usually fulfilled within a sanctuary of Imperial cult, or in a temple or precinct (templum) consecrated specifically to Mars.[133] As with other deities invoked as Augustus, altars to Mars Augustus might be set up to further the well-being (salus) of the emperor,[134] but some inscriptions suggest personal devotion. An inscription in the Alps records the gratitude of a slave who dedicated a statue to Mars Augustus as conservator corporis sui, the preserver of his own body, said to have been vowed ex iussu numinis ipsius, "by the order of the numen himself".[135]

Mars Augustus appears in inscriptions at sites throughout the Empire, such as Hispania Baetica, Saguntum,[136] and Emerita (Lusitania) in Roman Spain;[137] Leptis Magna (with a date of 67 AD) in present-day Libya;[138] and Sarmizegetusa in the province of Dacia.[139]

In addition to his cult titles at Rome, Mars appears in a large number of inscriptions in the provinces of the Roman Empire, and more rarely in literary texts, identified with a local deity by means of an epithet. Mars appears with great frequency in Gaul among the Continental Celts, as well as in Roman Spain and Britain. In Celtic settings, he is often invoked as a healer.[140] The inscriptions indicate that Mars's ability to dispel the enemy on the battlefield was transferred to the sick person's struggle against illness; healing is expressed in terms of warding off and rescue.[141]

Mars is identified with a number of Celtic deities, some of whom are not attested independently.

"Mars Balearicus" is a name used in modern scholarship for small bronze warrior figures from Majorca (one of the Balearic Islands) that are interpreted as representing the local Mars cult.[190] These statuettes have been found within talayotic sanctuaries with extensive evidence of burnt offerings. "Mars" is fashioned as a lean, athletic nude lifting a lance and wearing a helmet, often conical; the genitals are perhaps semi-erect in some examples.

Other bronzes at the sites represent the heads or horns of bulls, but the bones in the ash layers indicate that sheep, goats, and pigs were the sacrificial victims. Bronze horse-hooves were found in one sanctuary. Another site held an imported statue of Imhotep, the legendary Egyptian physician. These sacred precincts were still in active use when the Roman occupation began in 123 BCE. They seem to have been astronomically oriented toward the rising or setting of the constellation Centaurus.[191]

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