Monthly Archives: January 2020

On the morning of April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. readied to head to Memphis, Tennessee, for the third time in as many weeks in support of the city's striking sanitation workers.

The first trip had brought a crowd of 15,000 to hear the weary but still commanding civil rights leader speak at Bishop Charles Mason Temple on March 18. He had returned to lead a march 10 days later, only to see the demonstration dissolve into rioting and chaos that left a high school student dead.

Dismayed by the outcome and discouraged by staffers who wanted him to focus on the upcoming "Poor People's Campaign" in the nation's capital, King nevertheless was determined to lead a second, successful march in Memphis to prove that his method of nonviolent demonstration still had teeth.

As recounted in the bookRedemption: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Last 31 Hours, MLK's Memphis plans faced hurdles from the get-go, starting with the bomb threat that delayed his flight out of Atlanta, Georgia.

After arriving, King and his cohorts were slapped with an injunction that prevented them from leading a demonstration in the city. He huddled with his legal team at the Lorraine Motel to discuss strategy, and followed with another meeting with a local black power group called the Invaders, aiming to head off a potential repeat of the riot-instigating actions that had torpedoed his last effort.

Fighting a cold, and exhausted after weeks of traveling, King sent his chief lieutenant, Ralph Abernathy, to speak on his behalf at Bishop Charles Mason Temple that evening. Although the stormy weather had depressed the turnout, Abernathy sensed the crowd's disappointment with King's absence and convinced the celebrated orator by phone to make an appearance.

In what became known as his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, King took the audience on a time-traveling journey through the highlights of human civilization and revealed that here, amid the struggle for human rights in the second half of the 20th century, was exactly where he wanted to be. He then recalled how he had been stabbed 10 years earlier when a mere sneeze could have ruptured his aorta and prevented him from being part of civil rights history.

"I don't know what will happen now; we've got some difficult days ahead," he said, nearing the prescient climax. "But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do Gods will. And so I'm happy tonight; I'm not worried about anything; I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Utterly spent, King was helped back to his seat, tears welling in his eyes. However, the emotional speech was cathartic for a man who had endured so much stress. In the biography Bearing the Cross, Abernathy recalled how his friend seemed "happy and relaxed" at dinner after the rally, and King found the energy to stay up well into the night, joking around with the others.

Martin Luther King delivering his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech on April 3, 1968.

Photo: Getty Images

After waking up late on April 4, King discussed organizational matters with his staffers, before hearing the good news: His lawyers had persuaded the judge to lift the injunction, allowing for a tightly controlled march on April 8.

At around 6 p.m., as he prepared for dinner with a local minister, King stepped out to the balcony of room 306 at the Lorraine to chat with colleagues waiting in the courtyard below. A gunshot suddenly pierced the air, and the others recovered from their momentary confusion to find King prone on the balcony, bleeding profusely from the right side of his face.

Although he was rushed off to St. Joseph's Hospital relatively quickly, the bullet had punctured several vital arteries, fractured his spine, and 39-year-old King was declared dead at 7:05 p.m.

READ MORE: 17 Inspiring Quotes by Martin Luther King Jr.

King's assassination led to the outbreak of violence across American cities, with reports of more than 40 casualties, another 3,500 injuries and 27,000 arrests accumulating over the next several days. But there were also noble tributes to the slain civil rights leader: President Lyndon B. Johnson decreed April 7 a day of national mourning, while opening day of the Major League Baseball season and the Academy Awards telecast were both suspended.

The April 8 march went through as planned, with the widowed Coretta Scott King leading an estimated 42,000 demonstrators through the Memphis streets. The following day, another 50,000 supporters accompanied King's mule-drawn casket through downtown Atlanta, to South-View Cemetery.

On April 16, the cause that had consumed the final days of King's life realized its goal, as the city of Memphis agreed to improved wages and the recognition of the sanitation workers' union.

James Earl Ray being led to his cell by Shelby County Sheriff William Morris on July 19, 1968.

Photo: Getty Images

Meanwhile, a massive manhunt led the FBI from Bessie Brewer's Rooming House, across from the Lorraine Motel, to California, Alabama, Canada, Portugal and finally to London's Heathrow Airport, whereJames Earl Ray was apprehended on June 8. He pleaded guilty the following March, earning a 99-year prison sentence, but almost immediately recanted the plea, insisting he was part of a larger conspiracy.

In a twist, many members of King's family and inner circle eventually went public their belief that Ray was not the killer. In 1999, the family won a wrongful death suit against Memphis cafe ownerLoyd Jowers, who claimed to have hired the true assassin. This spurred the launch of a new investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice, which ultimately determined that there was no reason to reopen the case.

More than 50 years after King's final breath, the full story behind his killing remains unknown. Nevertheless, the tragedy cemented his place as an icon of the transformative era, forever frozen on the mountaintop as a man who lived out his life in the service of others.

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The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. - Biography

Evolutionary anthropologist and geneticist Jenny Tung, a 2019 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship winner, will be the keynote speaker at the 15th Biological Sciences Research Symposium at UB. The fellowship is often referred to as the MacArthur genius grant.

Tungs lecture, titled Social interactions in primate genomics, life history and evolution, will take place at 4 p.m. Jan. 23 in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.

The event is presented by the Biology Graduate Student Association in association with the Department of Biological Sciences.

Tung is an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology and biology at Duke University and an affiliate of the Duke Population Research Institute and the Center for Genomic and Computational Biology.

According to her biography on the MacArthur Foundations website, she researches the interplay between social experiences, genomics and health. Combining field research with cutting-edge techniques for studying many genes at once, Tung is revealing the molecular mechanisms by which social and environmental stressors have long-lasting impacts on health, longevity and evolutionary fitness.

The lab is particularly interested in how social environmental variables of known biodemographic importance, such as social status and social connectedness, feed back to influence gene regulation and population genetic structure.

Most of her teams work centers on a longitudinally studied population of wild baboons in Kenya Tung co-directs the Amboseli Baboon Research Project and captive rhesus macaques at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Her research has implications for understanding human health.

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MacArthur 'genius grant' winner to speak at UB - UB Now: News and views for UB faculty and staff - University at Buffalo Reporter

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. As communities look to restore their waterways after centuries of human alteration, many are turning to nature for inspiration.

River restoration projects utilizing nature-based solutions, like the Big Spring Creek restoration project in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, revitalize their ecosystems by reintroducing natural materials like wood and debris into their design. These materials over time often amass into complex, porous structures that offer many ecological benefits but are not well understood, according to Xiaofeng Liu, associate professor of civil engineering and co-hire of the Institute of Computational and Data Sciences at Penn State.

Thanks to a $297,791 grant from the National Science Foundation, Liu will examine the nature-based solution of engineered log jams to quantitively describe the flow and sediment dynamics around these systems.

Xiaofeng Liu, associate professor of civil engineering

These are expensive projects, but theres not too much of a scientific understanding of what really is going on, Liu said. How does the water move around the in-stream structures? How does it carry solute and sediment?

In contrast to restoration projects that use concrete and steel, water and sediment are able to flow through the pores in the nature-mimicking structure, creating unique turbulent flow patterns.

The porosity creates more complexity and richness in the flow features, Liu said. Water can go through them and around them. This complex flow field is important for the functionality and longevity of the structure.

As these flow patterns develop, sediment is transported and sometimes filtered by the wood and debris. This sediment movement around the log jam can also result in scour holes that can become habitats and shelters for fish, a desirable characteristic of nature-based solutions. However, Liu noted, these holes develop differently than they would around traditional impervious structures, such as bridge piers, and can have an effect on the longevity of the structure.

For engineers looking to install an engineered log jam, the lack of fundamental understanding of these complex flow patterns means relying on educated guess. Formulas that currently exist to predict scour hole size and depth do not account for porosity.

Its a lot of trial and error at this stage right now, Liu said.

Based on preliminary results, Liu developed his own formula using porosity as a parameter to help predict scour hole size for nature-based solutions. He will test this by developing a high-fidelity 3D model to simulate the flow and sediment dynamics in a river containing an engineered log jam.

Mathematically resolving all of the geometric details found in an engineered log jam requires a lot of computing power, so Liu will rely on the ICS-ACI, Penn States high-performance research cloud, to run the simulations.

The mathematical equations in the model are just the descriptions of the physical processes in this problem, Liu said. Flow carries the sediment and creates a hole. When holes are enlarged, water has more space to go. Our model describes this co-evolution with the presence of a complex restoration structure.

Liu will also run physical experiments in a 15-meter flume, an artificial water channel in the Penn State Hydraulics Laboratory, using scaled-down engineered log jam models. After each experiment, he will drain the flume and use a laser to scan the bed. The results of the flume experiments will then be cross-referenced with the computational model and with field measurements to validate results.

If Liu succeeds and is able to establish a fundamental understanding of the physical processes occurring around these structures, future research will then be able to link that to ecological processes, which should give scientists a better idea of how well these solutions are achieving their sustainability goals.

Thats the final goal, Liu said. Hopefully, with the introduction of nature-based solutions, nature can start to re-establish itself. When nature is working, you dont need too much human intervention.

Last Updated January 16, 2020

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NSF grant funds research to study nature-based solutions for river restoration - Penn State News

Archaeological work at the Border Cave site has revealed the earliest evidence for cooked root vegetables. Border Cave lies between South Africa and eSwatini and has a remarkable record of human habitation.

Hot, roasted root vegetables are comfort food, and a plateful of carbohydrate is both satisfying and nutritious. Archaeologists have found that our ancestors thought so, too. A team working at the site has discovered and documented the remains of starchy underground plant stems (called rhizomes) cooked 170,000 years ago.

Border Caves roasted rhizomes were identified as Hypoxis angustifolia (yellow stars). This was done by comparing their shape and internal anatomy to those of modern rhizomes which today grow in countries along the eastern flank of Africa. The distribution extends much further too, for example into Yemen.

If, as seems likely, Hypoxis had a similar distribution in the past, it would have provided a secure staple food for people travelling within and out of Africa.

Our findings suggest that the food was transported to the cave and then cooked. The food could easily have been consumed directly in the field by the collectors, but our findings suggest this wasnt the case, adding extra information about social behaviour and sharing and a glimpse into ancient communal behaviour 170,000 years ago. Food was the focus for satisfying physical and social hunger.

Hypoxis angustifolia plants are gregarious so many can be harvested at once. Wooden digging sticks or sharpened bones may have been used to dig rhizomes from the ground.

The food was carried home to the cave, perhaps as a hide-wrapped parcel or a simple bunch tied with leaves.

Wood was also collected for the cooking fire that probably burned to small coals and hot ash before the rhizomes were added directly to the ashes for roasting. Some South Africans are familiar with this cooking technique: as children we made askoek (ash cakes) directly on coals and tapped them on rocks to dislodge the ash before garnishing our culinary treasures with apricot jam.

Some of the thumb-sized Border Cave rhizomes were lost in the ashes where they were burned and thus preserved for archaeologists. We know that they were burned while still fresh and green because the charred rhizomes have split surfaces. This was caused by shrinkage when moisture was rapidly expelled. Many starchy root vegetables can be eaten raw, but their nutritional content is much greater when cooked (the human gut can then access the glucose better and absorb much more of it).

Cooking made Hypoxis rhizomes easy to peel, and rendered them digestible by releasing glucose and breaking down the fibre. Such treatment was particularly important for the aged members of the group and small children that might otherwise have had difficulty chewing the rhizomes.

The Border Cave occupants were modern humans (Homo sapiens) with the same nutritional needs as people today. To enable our large brains to function we need to consume about 100g of carbohydrate per day. Hypoxis rhizomes may have fulfilled that need in the past.

We know, too, that Border Cave dwellers also ate meat because we have recovered the cooked bones of wild animals that were eaten in the cave. In Africa, game meat is lean, especially in the dry season when animals lose weight. Lean meat protein cannot be metabolised by humans in the absence of either carbohydrates or fat.

The addition of some carbohydrate to their diet would then have enabled early humans to process protein effectively. A balanced, healthy diet with a combination of cooked carbohydrate and protein the real palaeo-diet - increased human fitness and longevity.

We discovered the first of the rhizomes in 2016 while digging in Border Caves ashy sediments. The sediments date between 170,000 and 100,000 years ago.

In total, 55 whole charred rhizomes were recovered, all from the same species. We worked together in the field over a period of four years, collecting modern plants with rhizomes so that we could compare these with the Border Cave ones in order to identify them.

With a permit from local wildlife authorities, we surveyed the Lebombo Mountain hillside near the cave for interesting plants with appropriate rhizomes. When a plant could not immediately be identified it was planted in a vegetable garden to await flowering. When each plant was securely identified, its rhizome was charred, examined microscopically, and compared with Border Cave specimens.

Eventually patience was rewarded, and a combination of morphological and anatomical evidence showed that the Border Cave rhizome was a Hypoxis.

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How we deduced that our ancestors liked roast vegetables too - The Conversation Africa

Rafael Nadal said passion and positivity had helped him reach an unprecedented third decade ranked world number one, after defying the ravages of injury and the critics who said his all-action game was too tough on his body.

Despite a steady stream of foot, knee, back, arm, hand and wrist injury setbacks, the 33-year-old has returned time and again to become the only player to top the rankings in three different decades.

"I can't say I have been lucky with injuries, because I have not," the Spaniard said on Saturday, when asked about his longevity in the game.

"But there is no secret, no? There is only about passion, about love for the game, and about being able to stay positive in the tough moments."

Nadal's physical, uncompromising approach is often contrasted with his great rival Roger Federer, who appears more effortless on court and -- after far fewer injuries -- is still going strong at 38.

But the fighting qualities that have taken Nadal to 19 Grand Slam titles on court have often been evident off it, as he was repeatedly able to recover from injury and return to the top.

"It's true that I went through some tough situations during all my career. But I was able to always, with probably the positive attitude and with the right people around -- they were the key -- I was able to find a way to keep going, no?" he said.

"It's difficult for me to imagine because for my style of game, as a lot of people said, my career should be little bit shorter. But here we are. Happy for that.

"Even for me is a big surprise to be where I am at my age."

Spain's Rafael Nadal said even he was surprised at his longevity in the game

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'Passion, love' - Nadal's tips after defying injury to reach third decade on top - Yahoo News Australia