I have been neglecting my blog in the past two months or so. Hence an update on today's activity, which was a trip to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Lucky me got invited to go there even for free. Apparently UIC students can get free admission for the main museal attractions in the city, and they may even bring along some company. Since I am not a student anymore, I had to be the company. I actually joined two graduate students, which are both from Iran - Homa, whom I have trained in the past, and her friend, Shabnam. You may have a look at them on the two small photos on the bottom left, as well as on the large one on the right. (Homa is the one with the shorter hair.)Now, the Field Museum is quite a big one. In order to dedicate enough attention to each and every exhibit, one needs to spend at least a week or so. Their range spans from Plants of the World over Minerals to Ancient Egypt and American Natives. Beyond these basics, there are special events, such as Pirates, and Water. (But those were not included in the free admission, so we skipped them, as we had plenty to see nevertheless!) We started out at perhaps the main attraction: Sue the Tyrannosaurus Rex. You see her in the top left. Apparently a big burger franchise has contributed to the effort of preparing Sue as an exhibit - that made people (ncluding me) wonder whether Sue's flesh has actually become a Bic Mac patty ... Perhaps that is why she looks so upset. The name, by the way, is a reference to the person who discovered the skeleton, which happens to be the most complete T-Rex skeleton that has been found thus far. The name of that person is Susan Hendrickson, for which reason the skeleton is considered a "she", while the sex is actually unknown. (I thought you could determine that from a DNA sample nowadays, but perhaps I am wrong. Or maybe it is because the DNA of T-Rex has not been decyphered yet.) Next we admired a decent collection of minerals, which was particularly appealing to me, since I am an avid collector. In the town of my parents, where I used to live until age 21, there is (or was) an annual convention on minerals, where I bought a few items for little money. But over the years I got a few things together. (Currently this collection is stored at my parents'.) Specifically I own a piece of hematite and a piece of pyrite, both of which I photographed also at the museum. Their chemical formulae are Fe2O3 and FeS2. If I may dwell on these names a little more, hematite is named after its color (cf. greek haima = red); hence also hemoglobin, the oxygen carrier molecule in the blood, which by the way also contains iron (Fe, from latin ferrum = iron) as the active center. Pyrite, on the other hand, is named after greek pyr = fire, because it was the material flintstones were hit against, in order to create sparks that would ignite a fire. - You may think that I am quite knowledgeable about these things, and perhaps that I like to brag about it, but I happen to have read the respective Wikipedia pages. Check them out yourself, they are quite instructive: pyrite, hematite, hemoglobin. After that we entered the sections on Plants of the World, but I didn't take any pictures there, because it was a bit dark in there. Then we admired the beauty of jade, followed by Ancient Egypt. There was even the mummy of a young boy (age 10 or so). While I did take a picture, I will refrain from posting it here, because after all it is a dead guy, and as far as I am concerned I would not like to become an exhibt after I have passed away. Anyways, from there we proceeded to the People of America (where I took the picture of Homa and Shabnam next to the two totem poles), ranging from the Arctic all the way to South America. Then finally all three of us were as exhausted as hungry, so we decided to end out tour there and head for some refreshments.
Taking advantage of the nationality of my company, we went for Persian food. It is quite funny, by the way, that the word Aryan is a cognate of Iran, which actually means Land of the Aryans. While there is some remote relationship between Farsi, the official language in Iran, and the Germanic languages like German and English, none of the Iranian students I have met in the US come anywhere near the idea of aryans that was worshipped in Germany a few decades ago. And neither do I, which, among other things, makes me tan much more easily than Hitler would have me allowed to ... Yet the name Iran is a rather new one, while in the past the country had been ruled for several thousands of years by the Shah of Persia. Homa had told me once that she prefers Persia over Iran, as to refer to the long-standing cultural tradition. Since that area was one of the first ever to be inhabited by a civilization, I tend to agree with her that this is justified and also a good idea. In fact, the level of sophistication of Persian cuisine is as you would expect from such an old culture. Boy, did we eat ourselves full! And the best thing was, we had an all-you-can-eat buffet, which kept the bill almost ridiculously low.
PS: I remember I once received a birthday card from my little sister, asking "did you cry a lot when the dinosaurs got extinct?" Finally I have the appropriate answer: "No, dear, because they make really cool showcases. But you have to be in Chicago to understand that." Ha!
