What Misspellings Reveal About Cultural Evolution

[View this email in your browser]( [Nautilus logo]( Sunday, August 08, 2021 Dear Nautilus Reader, Seventy-six years ago, on August 6, the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. In “Life Always Wins. Follow Me,” plant biologist Stefano Mancuso relates a personal story about a visit to Hiroshima and an encounter with some of the bombing’s “escapees.” Also: When we misspell a word, does the mistake tell us something about our culture? Does your first language ever really leave you? Those articles and more in some of the most popular stories on Nautilus this week. [Life Always Wins. Follow Me]( [Stefano Mancuso]( I knew that in Japan survivors of the bomb attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki held a fundamental position as witnesses to those atrocities. But I couldn’t understand the reason he was so insistent that I should meet them. The mystery did not last long. [What Misspellings Reveal About Cultural Evolution]( Helena Miton]( [Something about me must remind people of a blind 17th-century poet.]( THE NAUTILUS COLLECTION LAST CHANCE to Own a Piece of Science History! The Nautilus Collection is auctioning two rare first editions from Sydney Perkowitz’s "The Math of Living Things” to support NautilusThink, the non-profit educational arm of Nautilus. Erwin Schrödinger’s 1944 first edition of [What Is Life?]( was a benchmark leading to the discovery of DNA—and we are auctioning a rare copy. [On Growth and Form]( is D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s pioneering use of mathematics in biology. We are offering a 1917 first edition of this classic science book. [BID ON WHAT IS LIFE?]( [BID ON ON GROWTH AND FORM]( [Oceans Channel]( [The Earth-Shaping Animal Migration No One Ever Sees]( [Jason Bittel]( [Each night, as the sun goes down behind the horizon, a tidal wave of life rises up out of the deep ocean—everything from crustaceans smaller than a grain of rice to see-through jellies, blood-red squid, and gigantic, boiling schools of glow-in-the-dark lanternfish.]( BECOME A SUBSCRIBER Subscribe to Nautilus! We are a magazine of scientific ideas that matter. Join a community of curious readers exploring scientific subjects in profound, unexpected ways, and experience science, connected. If you subscribe now, you'll also get a free copy of our Ocean special issue! [SUBSCRIBE TODAY]( [Science Philanthropy Alliance Channel]( [Exponentially Important: The Scientific Origins of PCR]( [Wendy Kagan]( [In the age of COVID-19, we all know the drill. Even if we haven’t done it ourselves, we’ve heard of others going to a clinic or a drive-through site for virus testing—offering a nostril or throat for a quick, confident swab by a PPE-clad health-care professional.]( [Friendship Is a Lifesaver]( [Lydia Denworth]( [My mother-in-law, Carol, lives alone. It was her 75th birthday the other day.]( [The Strange Persistence of First Languages]( [Julie Sedivy]( [Several years ago, my father died as he had done most things throughout his life: without preparation and without consulting anyone.]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( [Web Site]( Copyright © 2021 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from [nautil.us](. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext 360 W 36th Street, 7S, New York, NY 10018 Don't want to hear from us anymore? [Click here to unsubscribe.](