I was watching a television program recently about two hikers in the Alps who had come across the remains of one of our ancestors. Actually, it would be incorrect to say remains, as there was quite a lot if him left, including clothing, skin, musculature and internal organs. He had been buried in the permafrost from the time that he had collapsed many thousands of years ago,which had resulted in the preservation of his body until he became the unwitting victim of global warming and was uncovered by an unusually deep thaw.
The scientific community thought our unfrozen ancestor provided quite a treasure-trove of information. As an unfrozen caveman, the anatomical and sociological dissection of our unfrozen ancestor was a little unsettling— it could have been me!
Anatomically, our ancestor's teeth were worn down, his lungs were blackened and he had numerous poorly mended bone fractures. Given our knowledge now, the interpretation of these findings was not difficult. What do you think your teeth would look like on a diet of nuts, roots and grain? Blackened lungs? No Habanas and voluntary acquisition of lung disease for him! No, it was sufficient just to sit and breathe the fumes and smoke from a fire used for cooking and keeping warm. And, by the way, life was really tough back then for a hunter/gatherer. No trip to the local supermarket for prepackaged food.
Sociologically, our unfrozen ancestor had coins and ornaments used and manufactured a long distance away from where he had been found. His clothes were made of simple cloth and animal hides. He carried a small sack of food containing grain and nuts, and a quiver of arrows. So, he was probably a trader moving from one settlement to another, dressed for traveling and carrying some provisions for the journey.
I was disappointed with this dissection. It was predictable and condescending. There seemed to be surprise in how sophisticated our ancestor was and self-satisfaction in how we could so effortlessly piece together his life.
Digging up the past is important. It can tell us a lot about what was and how far we have advanced relative to our past. It puts our current knowledge and ideas in perspective. Did you re-invent the wheel today? Not again,surely? Often the pace of advances is so rapid and memory so short term that we forget how much we knew last month - let alone several years ago. Reanalysis of previous observations and results can lead to new insights when they are placed in the light of current knowledge. Or, like me, you stand in awe of those who came before us, because of what they understood with such Neolithic equipment and procedures (if only we had such imagination and creativity coupled to the sophistication of our equipment now).
Occasionally someone makes a dramatic, intellectual leap forward, but discoveries are most often made on the basis of what was known before. In most cases, the advances are incremental and dependent upon each of us putting pieces of data and ideas together sometimes in isolation from others working on the same problem.
Reviewing the past is an important and necessary step in understanding today's science — scientific archeology. Digging around in old publications can often lead to new connections and shed light on the bigger problem. It is, as I have written before, a way to piece together how each part of the puzzle was brought together, an indication of which parts do not fit together (despite using force in some cases!), and how construction of other parts of the puzzle is going.
In the absence of scientific archeology we are left to re-invent the wheel,make the same mistakes, meander down the same old cul-de-sacs, and miss interconnections between different fields. We also acknowledge that we do not care about past accomplishments of our colleagues (we know more, and have better ways to look at problems) and demonstrate our lack of scholarship.
I admired my unfrozen, Alpine ancestor for what he told us about life thousands of years ago and how he put present society in perspective. What will be concluded when one of us, a victim of an avalanche, is dug up in a few thousand years time? The Gore-Tex clothes, a physiology compromised by toxic chemicals, teeth full of fillings, a few coins, an energy bar, a Swiss Army knife, and a pair of skis? In isolation, I worry that they will see our frozen, Alpine person as a relatively incremental advance on our prehistoric frozen ancestor. Hopefully, they will appreciate the advances that we had made because these provided the foundation for their modern society (assuming that they did not just re-invent the wheel - not again, surely!).
An occasional column, in which Caveman and other troglodytes involved in cell science emerge to share their views on various aspects of life-science research. Messages for Caveman and other contributors can be left at [email protected]. Any correspondence may be published in forthcoming issues.
