European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 3, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Ostrich eggs helping crack old mystery file the Ostrich and its useful egg Are helping scientists calculate the age of Man. Ostrich eggshells arc among the most commonly found objects at archaeological Sites in Africa. Primitive humans used the eggs As food and the shells for water containers bowls and beads. Now archaeologists Are finding them valuable for understanding the history of humans. A team of researchers headed by paleo Anth Rop Logist Allison s. Brooks of George Washington University and geophysicist p. Edward Hare of the Carnegie institution of Washington reported recently in the journal science that the slow decomposition of proteins in the eggshells can be used to Date archaeological Sites particularly in the Range of 40,000 to 100,000 years ago a a period for which there Are few usable dating techniques. Preliminary studies with Ostrich eggshell dating at two african Sites indicate that modern humans were present earlier than had previously been believed. One particular advantage of the new technique is that it is inexpensive so that a Large number of objects at a site can be dated to determine if artefacts from different time periods have been jumbled together by weather. Hooding or excavations a a problem that occurs frequently. Eggshell dating relies on a physical process called amino acid racemic action. Amino acids Are the individual molecules from which proteins Are formed. In nature virtually All amino acids Are present in Only one of two possible spatial configurations called d and a that have a three dimensional relationship to each other similar to the relationship of the right hand to the left. After an animals death the l amino acids will slowly undergo a chemical change to the d form until a 50-50 mixture of the two forms is present. The rate of this change is constant at any temperature so by measuring the ratio of d and l amino acids researchers can determine How Long ago the organism died. The chief advantage of the eggshells is that the protein they contained is locked into position by the Mineral portion of the Shell so it does not easily Leach out and contaminants do not easily get in. Scientists have done a series of tests with contemporary Ostrich eggshells heating them in the absence of water and determining the rate at which one amino acid called a Isoleucine is converted into its d analog. They found that this racemic action reaction proceeds at a steady predictable rate that can be used for dating As Long As it is compared to materials of known age at a Given site. The Brooks and Hare team has already been using the technique at african Sites. At shango in Zaire for example researchers have excavated skeletal fragments a which Are essentially similar to skeletons of modern East africans so they were thought to be fairly recent a Brooks said. Dating of eggshells found with them however shows that the Bones Are at least 25,000 years old. The research team has also found that every other Type of Bird egg they have studied gives similar results so those types of shells can be used As Well. They Are now beginning to study owl eggs which Are found at Many archaeological Sites in Northern Europe. Los Angeles times at a glance Copenhagen Sweden q Baltic o sea Denmark size 16,633 so. Miles Massachusetts and new Hampshire combined population 7,307,000 1989 est main language danish currency Krone 6.33=$ 1 travel restrictions passport or military id required. Overview Denmark is made up of the narrow Jutland Peninsula jutting out from West Germany and 406 islands a about 100 of which arc inhabited. It has no significant mountains or Rivers. Greenland which is 1,300 Miles away and the Faeroe islands North of Scotland Are self governing parts of the danish kingdom. The country has served As a Crossroads Between Europe and the rest of Scandinavia. The capital Copenhagen is a Lively City of Parks canals and Tivoli gardens. Its a fact Danes Are very Good at foreign languages. Many officials including police Are required to speak a second language usually English to be  questions a who lives longer married or unmarried people i confirming a Long held theory a comprehensive study of death rates As far Back As 1940 in 16 Industrial countries concludes that married people live longer than unmarried people. The study by two Princeton University researchers compared the death rates of single widowed and divorced men and women with the death rates of married men and women adjusting for age. In All the countries unmarried men had significantly higher death rates than married men. The average mortality rate for unmarried men was twice As High As for married men. The average death rate for unmarried women was 1 vhf times that of married women. Divorced people especially men had the highest death rates among All the unmarried groups. The death rate for divorced and widowed people in their 20s and 30s was up to 10 times higher than that for married people of the same age the study found. A Are your Odds of winning the lottery better if you play the same number week after week or if you change numbers every week a a there should be no difference a said Takahiro Shiota visiting scholar in the mathematics department of Harvard University. A if you Are flipping a Coin or throwing Dice the outcome should be totally Independent each time. A this of course depends on the randomness of the numbers. There might be some oversight in the process. You cannot Analyse it without knowing the individual selection  but if the numbers Are truly random he said each game is an Independent entity and the Odds do not depend on what happened in a previous game. New York times 0 c sunday june 3, 1990