The BLT Episode 13: Meat the Ancestors

Beginning with a moral dilemma, this week’s BLT touches on some ham-related scandals, the future of tattoos, and some of the lesser-known, more bizarre implications of our warming world.

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Ever wondered what mammoth meat tastes like?

After roughly a 3900-year hiatus, the woolly mammoth may be due a return! This is the goal of Texas-based, Colossal Biosciences, which will genetically edit Asian elephants using DNA salvaged from mammoths. The return of mammoths could be very good news for Arctic environments and their ability to capture carbon.

That’s not why they’ve made the news this week, however. This week the question of whether or not we should eat these restored relics has come up. Some people are keener than others, and some benefits have been suggested. Would you eat mammoth meat?

The mystery of the missing hams

The law catches up with all of us. 7000 hams and €520,000 (£439,000) later, it finally caught up with one man from Huelva, Spain. For six years, he had been stealing hams from his employer, including the precious jamón de jabugo, and this week he was sentenced to jail time and the repayment of €529,900 to his former employer.

Can you tell your stars from your sausages?

Have you ever seen an animal in a cloud? What about a star in some chorizo? This week more than 91,000 followers of celebrated physicist, Étienne Klein, saw just that when he tweeted a photo he claimed was the star Proxima Centauri, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. It was actually a photo of some chorizo. When Klein admitted it was a prank, it’s fair to say that some followers were less than impressed.

Nice tattoo, what does it mean?

All the best tattoos have layers of meaning and design, but a new tattoo using nano technology takes this to another level. Created by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, the tattoo is made from liquid metal and carbon nanotubes and acts as a bioelectrode. It can transmit vital signs like heart rate and glucose readings.

The curious case of the sun and the sea turtles

Climate change threatens every part of our planet, from the icecaps to the delicate processes that make life what it is. We were made aware of yet another knock-on effect this week, by findings that show that due to hotter sand temperatures, most sea turtles in Florida are being born female. This is due to the way temperature affects sea turtle gender development, and is concerning scientists.

Lizards are losing years

The sun is also causing problems for lizards in the south of France. The south of France is heating fast, causing dangers such as wildfires. This is bad news for the viviparous lizard. The high temperatures are damaging their DNA while in the egg, meaning the lizards are being born old; their DNA is already damaged.

A Tribute to Raymond Briggs

Did you spot the snowman “working on the air (conditioning)”? This was our nod to the Snowman, a perennial favourite picture-book-turned-film that was a staple in the childhoods of many. Briggs, the writer and illustrator behind The Snowman, Fungus the Bogeyman, Father Christmas and more, died on Tuesday morning, leaving behind a magnificent legacy.   

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