Viking Was a Job Description, Not Heredity

Curiosity Weekly

Learn about how being a “Viking” was actually a career choice, not an ethnicity, why it’s easy to plant false memories, and how the pandemic has made birdsong more complex.

"Viking" was a job description, not heredity by Grant Currin

• Helmets. (2020). National Museum of Denmark. https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/weapons/helmets/
• Curry, A. (2020, September 16). ‘Viking’ was a job description, not a matter of heredity, massive ancient DNA study shows. Science | AAAS. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/viking-was-job-description-not-matter-heredity-massive-ancient-dna-study-shows
• Margaryan, A., Lawson, D. J., Sikora, M., Racimo, F., Rasmussen, S., Moltke, I., Cassidy, L. M., Jørsboe, E., Ingason, A., Pedersen, M. W., Korneliussen, T., Wilhelmson, H., Buś, M. M., de Barros Damgaard, P., Martiniano, R., Renaud, G., Bhérer, C., Moreno-Mayar, J. V., Fotakis, A. K., … Willerslev, E. (2020). Population genomics of the Viking world. Nature, 585(7825), 390–396. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2688-8

It's Surprisingly Easy to Plant False Memories by Ashley Hamer

• Scientists and Practitioners Don’t See Eye to Eye on Repressed Memory. (2013). Association for Psychological Science - APS. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/scientists-and-practitioners-dont-see-eye-to-eye-on-repressed-memory.html#.WRJKslMrKi4
• And the Memory Wars Wage On. (2014, March 5). Nationalgeographic.Com. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2014/03/05/and-the-memory-wars-wage-on/
• Loftus, E. F. (2020). Elizabeth F. Loftus | Elizabeth F. Loftus. Uci.Edu. https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/eloftus/
• Creating False Memories. (2020). Washington.Edu. https://staff.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/sciam.htm

The Pandemic Has Made Birdsong More Complex by Steffie Drucker

• Simon, M. (2020, September 24). How the Pandemic Transformed This Songbird’s Call. Wired; WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/how-the-pandemic-transformed-this-songbirds-call/
• In San Francisco bay area, shutdown reduced anthropogenic noise, which changed birdsong quality. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-09/aaft-isf092120.php
• Stokstad, E. (2020, September 24). When COVID-19 silenced cities, birdsong recaptured its former glory. Science | AAAS. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/when-covid-19-silenced-cities-birdsong-recaptured-its-former-glory
• Derryberry, E. P., Phillips, J. N., Derryberry, G. E., Blum, M. J., & Luther, D. (2020). Singing in a silent spring: Birds respond to a half-century soundscape reversion during the COVID-19 shutdown. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd5777

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Ashley Hamer and Natalia Reagan (filling in for Cody Gough). You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/viking-was-a-job-description-not-heredity

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.