Sarah Goodell
Mr. Ippolito
AP Bio: Current Event #20
March 26th, 2018
Current Event #20
Zimmer, Carl. “Was a Tiny Mummy in the Atacama an Alien? No, but the Real Story Is Almost
as Strange.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Mar. 2018,
This week, I read the article “Was a Tiny Mummy in the Atacama an Alien? No, but the Real Story Is Almost as Strange” by The New York Times author Carl Zimmer. Nearly 20 years ago, a small skeleton, rumored to be a mummified alien, was found in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The skeleton is only 6 inches, but is almost complete. However, it has 10 ribs, instead of 12, large eye sockets, and an elongated skull. Despite the claims that Ata, as the skeleton is known, is an alien, scientists have investigated her DNA and claim that she was, in fact, human and even belonged to the local population. Scientists even discovered multiple mutations in her DNA that have been linked to defects in bone structure. The author writes that “Some of these mutations might be responsible for the skeleton’s bizarre form, causing a hereditary disorder never before documented in humans.” Dr. Antonio Salas Ellacuriaga, a geneticist at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, has also said that these “‘DNA autopsies’” could help humans better understand medical disorders “by looking to the past to understand the present.” DNA studies have shown that Ata is less than 500 years old, but many of her bones were as developed as those of a six-year-old. There is still much research to be done on Ata’s bone structure, DNA, and lifetime, but her discovery has helped scientists learn more about our past, present, and future.
This article is relevant because it proves that archaeologists are constantly discovering new remains of humans, animals, and artifacts from cultures that can help expand upon our knowledge of the world and our universe. Through these findings, scientists have been able to pinpoint genetic mutations never seen before amongst humans today, which can give researchers insight into how mutations function and can help prevent future mutations or find cures for current diseases and disorders. It is crucial to understand how these skeletons can help advance our technology and improve our comprehension of science-related topics that are not yet fully developed.
Zimmer wrote a very thorough and descriptive article on the discovery of Ata and how scientists have examined her DNA and bone structure to learn more about humans today. He successfully interviewed credible scientists, incorporated their statements, and included examples of studies that have been done regarding Ata’s DNA. Zimmer also did a great job providing his audience with an understandable summary and explanation of each scientific study. Although he wrote an informative article, Zimmer could have improved upon a few aspects of his article. Zimmer could have provided his readers with more information regarding where scientists will go from here. He also could have detailed how scientists have used Ata’s DNA to explore modern mutations.
Susie Goodell
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
AP Biology
4/12/18
Zimmer, Carl. “Was a Tiny Mummy in the Atacama an Alien? No, but the Real Story Is Almost
as Strange.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Mar. 2018,
www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/science/ata-mummy-alien-chile.html?rref=collection%2F
sectioncollection%2Fscience.
Current Event 21
For this current event, I decided to read my sister, Sarah’s, review of the article “Was a Tiny Mummy in the Atacama an Alien? No, but the Real Story Is Almost as Strange” by Carl Zimmer of The New York Times. This article discusses the DNA studies of a small skeleton, Ata, that was found in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile about twenty years ago. It is so interesting to scientists because it was rumored to be a mummified alien because it is only six inches, but almost completely developed. Sarah wrote a great paragraph detailing the value of these DNA studies and their results for our understanding of the past, present, and future of the human race. She thoroughly explained how the discovery pertains to ordinary humans. She also summarized the article very well, including both descriptions of Ata’s skeleton and information that the scientists discovered about Ata from it. Sarah successfully incorporated quotes from scientists that have worked with the DNA from the skeleton that backed up her claims.
Despite all of the good aspects of this review, there are a few things that Sarah could improve. First, she could have explained the actual procedures that the scientists used to study Ata’s bones. This would provide the readers with a clearer sense of what the researchers found the results they did. Also, she could have expanded more on her critiques of the article. She mentioned a few ideas of weakness, but didn’t give an example or a suggestion for how to improve. Overall, however, she did a great job on her review.
I chose to read this piece because the title caught my attention. I am very interested in early human fossils and what information they contain that can expand our knowledge about the world and the human race. I think it is extraordinary that, even today with all of the technology we have, we are still discovering more about our species and its history. Fossils and skeletons hold so much valuable history and it is so fascinating to learn about those secrets.
Robby Schetlick
ReplyDeleteAP Biology
CE Comment 21
Citation: Zimmer, Carl. “Was a Tiny Mummy in the Atacama an Alien? No, but the Real Story Is Almost as Strange.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Mar. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/science/ata-mummy-alien-chile.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience.
This cycle, I read Sarah’s Review of the NY times article “Was a Tiny Mummy in the Atacama an Alien?…” In her review, she did a good job of being brief in her summary and explanation; Modern readers often lack both the time and attention span necessary to read a fleshed out article. She included the important little details to make the writing more interesting instead of just stating facts that would turn an audience away from reading her article. Additionally, she used interesting quotes in her review, which were skillfully incorporated into her arguments. She also remembered to fully cite them which improved the credibility of her thoughts. Finally, she remained strong in her relevant paragraph, and had a critical mindset befitting of the Bronxville Promise in her critique paragraph, which is important to scientific peer review.
If improves could be made to her review, the first would be to improve the balance of the review. The summary takes up the major portion of the piece, while the actual “review” part took a backseat. As viewers on the blog, we like to hear more of our friends ideas, which are more interesting to us than those of the article which we can go and read ourselves. She could’ve added a lot more value to it with more of her own ideas. Secondly, she could have had more of a reaction in her piece in her critique/ third paragraph. While it was good, it was still not very personal to the author, and didn’t connect with the reader very much. More emotion and character in the writing could help make her pieces more interesting.
I choose her review because it seemed the most interesting of the new bunch, who could resist clicking on any science article title with “aliens?” And although it wasn’t the great big first contact revelation most people are looking for, the article does leave an impression on the reader. It reminds us that we need to ground ourselves in reality and use what we know to test our ideas. Instead of assuming it was an alien, researchers allied our knowledge and tools of DNA testing to debunk the mystery, and also lead the reader towards more questions of their own.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteChristopher Hutchins
ReplyDeleteAP Biology
9/18/18
Zimmer, Carl. “Was a Tiny Mummy in the Atacama an Alien? No, but the Real Story Is Almost
as Strange.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Mar. 2018,
www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/science/ata-mummy-alien-chile.html?rref=collection%2F
sectioncollection%2Fscience.
Current Event 2:
I chose to read Sarah's review of “Was a Tiny Mummy in the Atacama an Alien? No, but the Real Story Is Almost as Strange” because it included aliens and this interested me. Sarah's review was great to read. Her quick description of the article gave me a good understanding of what was going on. I didn't feel as though I had to read the article. It was also good that she provided details and writing techniques that didn't just make her review a list of the events that occurred in the article. Sarah did a good job summarizing the conclusions made by Zimmer. She was critical when addressing the science involved int he experiment.
Saying that, the first thing she could have done to improve her review would have been to be more specific when describing the procedures of the experiment. After only reading the review, the reader understands that the bones of Ata, are found and them concluded to be human. The review could have been focused on the science of the process rather than the results. Sarah could have also shortened her summary. It was much larger than her analysis. Overall, the review was well written and taught me a lot about a subject I hadn't previously known about.
I was captured to this article by its title. I am interested in aliens and space, and I was interested to hear about humans and possible alien skeletons on Earth. There is so much we can learn about ourselves from studying space. It is so vast and open for millions of new discoveries. That makes it so fascinating to me.