Week 1: London

I spent the week of May 19-25 in London.  I arrived in London on May 19, went to my hostel, and fought jet lag instead of taking the nap that I really wanted.  Once I was able to check in to my hostel I went in search of some food and that evening I decided not to waste any time sight seeing since I knew I'd be busy working during the week and wasn't sure how much time I'd have to see London (good thing because I was buuuusy!)  So that first night I walked in the direction of Westminster Cathedral to see what I could see...

Westminster Cathedral

Inside Westminster Cathedral

I then walked toward Buckingham Palace (I had been there before, but I figured it would be neat to see again).

Buckingham Palace.

The guards were too far away (behind a gate) to try to make them smile. :)

When I decided to leave Buckingham palace, I turned around and saw this:

View from Buckingham Palace, looking out on the Thames.

I tried to figure out what that castly-palace thing is but never did, so if anyone knows, please tell me!


After my sight seeing excursion, I spent the week at the Natural History Museum in London laser scanning various Neandertal and early modern human crania and mandibles.  In case you have no idea what that means, here is a picture to illustrate:

Here I am with my trusty computer and laser scanner scanning the Gibraltar 2 Neandertal mandible.  On the right is what the scan looks like.  I can take measurements off of the scans to test hypotheses for my dissertation.

I had assumed I could only work at the museum from 10:30 - 4:30 every day, and while it was true that I didn't get to start working until 10:30 each day, I wound up staying and working until 7:30 or 8:00 most nights.  The curator was there until 11 several nights- apparently it was a very busy week for him!!

After a week of scanning mandibles, I had the better part of Saturday free to sight see before flying to Amsterdam.  With that time I decided to see some of the iconic landmarks of London, which even though I'd seen them before, it was fun to see them again!

Big Ben!

Houses of Parliament

Westminster Abbey

In all, it was both fun and productive.  I stayed in a hostel in London and wound up meeting a number of cool people from all over the place (Sweden, Germany, Australia, Spain, etc.).  I actually enjoyed the hostel living a lot more than I thought I would!  I felt a bit like an old person since I had to get up and work each day instead of being able to stay out late, but I wasn't the only one there working.  Hostels are interesting places because you get an interesting mix of people there for a variety of reasons, and because you share a room and kitchen, you actually meet them and learn about why they're there as opposed to hotel living where you're more isolated and may never know how cool the other people there are!

London was great: next stop, the Netherlands!

And so the Official Dissertation Research Begins...

I have decided to start a blog to chronicle my travels to museums to collect data for my dissertation in biological anthropology.  This summer I will be traveling to museums across Europe to laser scan fossil and recent crania and mandibles from humans and our nearest extinct relatives (i.e., members of the genus Homo throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs) to study why we have a chin.  I will be using this nifty device to collect data: the NextEngine Laser Scanner (be forewarned- when you click on this link a video will start playing with Jay Leno touting the awesomeness of this device- it is just a happy coincidence that this very "chinny" individual happens to be a proponent of the device I'm using to measure chins!)

A Homo sapiens chin.

For those of you wondering why on earth I'm studying this very specific topic, there are a number of important reasons.  The presence of a "chin," that is, the bony projection on the anterior surface of the midline of the mandible, or lower jaw, is something that within the human lineage, is predominantly only present in our own species, Homo sapiens.  Therefore, I am studying why we have this particular morphological feature in comparison to our closest relatives (more on this later) and how specifically the front of our lower jaw differs from our closest extinct relatives in order to assess whether features of the chin can be useful for making species determinations in the fossil record.  In addition to these important anthropological questions, better understanding the evolutionary development of the morphology of this region has implications for improving modern patient treatment, whether it be orthodontic treatments, or treatments of other craniofacial pathologies.

Specifically, I will laser scan a bunch of skulls from Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, Homo heidelbergensis (i.e., Middle-Pleistocene Homo), and Homo erectus.  These scans will render 3D images of the skeletal material on my computer screen so that I can take detailed measurements and assess the chin morphology across species as well as the relationships between the morphology of the chin and other aspects of the craniofacial skeleton.  For this research, I must travel to the places housing these priceless fossils to create the scans.

I will be gone May 18 - August 24, 2013.  First stop: London.  Last stop: London.  In between: A LOT.  You'll be updated as I go along. :)  In the future of my dissertation research, I may also travel to other parts of the world (including Asia and Africa), but that is to be determined.

And by the way, the blog name "Mentum Aweseum" is the result of super nerdy word play (surprise).  One of the fancy anatomical terms for the chin is "Mentum Osseum."  Various fellow nerdy bioanth friends (and Nick) are cool enough to tell me that because I study the chin I'm "Mentum Aweseum".  Get it?  

Depending on how this blog goes, I may move into discussing things in the future beyond just the chin.  But for the time being, Mentum Aweseum it is!