[Sca-cooks] "How to Deep Freeze A Mammoth

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

book from Oxbowbooks:

How to Deep Freeze a Mammoth
by Bjorn Kurten

How does bison meat taste after being frozen for 30,000 years? Were Ice 
Age cave painters trying to create "art" or just record history? How did 
ancient oil spills occur, before there were oil companies to create 
them? Those are just some of the questions renowned paleontologist Bjorn 
Kurten answers in this collection of lighthearted essays on fossils, 
ancient life, and related topics. Written for the general reader, these 
lively pieces range from a look at how scientific theories are created 
to some new views of old myths. Among the topics Kurten examines are the 
history of the Mediterranean Sea, the origin of birds, the theory of 
plate tectonics (continental drift), and the discovery of Piltdown Man, 
the "missing link" fossil forgery that fooled scientists for more than 
40 years. And, true to its title, the book offers a humorous "recipe" 
for freezing a mammoth that is tundra-tested, if not totally foolproof. 
"You may have to expend a few hundred mammoths before everything works 
out," the reader is cautioned, "But there are plenty of them." (Although 
the author hasn't tasted the fruits of his mammoth recipe, he did feast 
on some ancient bison meat that dated from 30,000 years ago. Kurten 
described the taste as "agreeable.") Throughout these essays Kurten 
brings the prehistoric world alive with enthusiasm and humor, 
emphasizing that paleontology is the study of those that lived long ago 
instead of those who are long dead. As he says, "Isn't it more fun to 
see a dinosaur as something that used to live, rather than as the 
monstrous heap of bones which it happens to be at present?" 121p 
(Columbia UP 1986)

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"I don't get the facts wrong.  It's everything else I screw up."
    -- _The Librarian: Quest for the Spear_