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Following are links to various U.S. government press releases.
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NASA Releases New High-Resolution Earthrise Image
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Statement by the President on the Death of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz | The White House
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Weekly Address: Fighting for Trade Deals that Put American Workers First | The White House
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U.S. Ratification of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism
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Remarks at a Briefing by the Chair of the UN Security Council’s Iran Sanctions Committee | usun.state.gov
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Obama Administration Approves NCLB Flexibility Requests for Delaware, Georgia, Minnesota, New York and South Carolina
Remarks by National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice “Africa and America: Partners in a Shared Future” | The White House
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Remarks by the First Lady at the Summit of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders | The White House
Remarks by National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice to the National Jewish Leaders Assembly | The White House
Message to Congress -- Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Lebanon | The White House
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Statement by the President on the Confirmation of Bob McDonald as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs | The White House
Monday, July 28, 2014
Remarks by the President at the Presentation of the 2013 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal | The White House
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Statement from the President on Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act | The White House
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Statement by Deputy National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan on Air Algerie Flight 5071 | The White House
Statement by Deputy National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan on Air Algerie Flight 5071 | The White House
Joint Statement by the Presidents of the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador | The White House
Guidance for Schools Issued on How to Keep Parents Better Informed on the Data They Collect on Students
Friday, July 25, 2014
Thursday, July 24, 2014
CDC Press Release: Safe and effective vaccine that prevents cancer continues to be underutilized
Remarks by the President and Vice President at Bill Signing of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act | The White House
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
U.S. Department of Education Expands Innovation in Higher Education through the Experimental Sites Initiative
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Updated: USDA Releases Request for Applications for Unprocessed Fruit and Vegetable Pilot (with RFA link)
Monday, July 21, 2014
Remarks by the President at Signing of Executive Order on LGBT Workplace Discrimination | The White House
SCIENTISTS BELIEVE THERE WAS A BABY BOOM FROM 500-1300 A.D. IN U.S. SOUTHWEST
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Press Release 14-082
Scientists chart a baby boom--in southwestern Native Americans from 500 to 1300 A.D.
Southwest U.S. experience holds lesson in over-population
Scientists have sketched out one of the greatest baby booms in North American history, a centuries-long "growth blip" among southwestern Native Americans between 500 and 1300 A.D.
It was a time when the early features of civilization--including farming and food storage--had matured to a level where birth rates likely "exceeded the highest in the world today," the researchers report in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Then a crash followed, says Tim Kohler, an anthropologist at Washington State University (WSU), offering a warning sign to the modern world about the dangers of overpopulation.
"We can learn lessons from these people," says Kohler, who co-authored the paper with WSU researcher Kelsey Reese.
The study looks at a century's worth of data on thousands of human remains found at hundreds of sites across the Four Corners region of the Southwest.
"This research reconstructed the complexity of human population birth rate change and demographic variability linked with the introduction of agriculture in the Southwest U.S.," says Alan Tessier, acting deputy division director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Biological Sciences, which supported the research through NSF's Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program.
"It illustrates the coupling and feedbacks between human societies and their environment."
CNH is also co-funded by NSF's Directorates for Geosciences and Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences.
While many of the remains studied have been repatriated, the data let Kohler assemble a detailed chronology of the region's Neolithic Demographic Transition, in which stone tools reflect an agricultural transition from cutting meat to pounding grain.
"It's the first step toward all the trappings of civilization that we currently see," says Kohler.
Maize, which we know as corn, was grown in the region as early as 2000 B.C.
At first, populations were slow to respond, probably because of low productivity, says Kohler. But by 400 B.C., he says, the crop provided 80 percent of the region's calories.
Crude birth rates--the number of newborns per 1,000 people per year--were by then on the rise, mounting steadily until about 500 A.D.
The growth varied across the region.
People in the Sonoran Desert and Tonto Basin, in what is today Arizona, were more culturally advanced, with irrigation, ball courts, and eventually elevated platform mounds and compounds housing elite families.
Yet birth rates were higher among people to the North and East, in the San Juan Basin and northern San Juan regions of Northwest New Mexico and Southwest Colorado.
Kohler said that the Sonoran and Tonto people eventually would have had difficulty finding new farming opportunities for many children, since corn farming required irrigation. Water from canals also may have carried harmful protozoa, bacteria and viruses.
But groups to the Northeast would have been able to expand maize production into new areas as their populations grew.
Around 900 A.D., populations remained high but birth rates began to fluctuate.
The mid-1100s saw one of the largest known droughts in the Southwest. The region likely hit its carrying capacity.
From the mid-1000s to 1280, by which time all the farmers had left, conflicts raged across the northern Southwest but birth rates remained high.
"They didn't slow down," says Kohler. "Birth rates were expanding right up to the depopulation. Why not limit growth? Maybe groups needed to be big to protect their villages and fields.
"It was a trap, however."
The northern Southwest had as many as 40,000 people in the mid-1200s, but within 30 years it was empty, leaving a mystery.
Perhaps the population had grown too large to feed itself as the climate deteriorated. Then as people began to leave, that may have made it harder to maintain the social unity needed for defense and new infrastructure, says Kohler.
Whatever the reason, he says, the ancient Puebloans show that population growth has clear consequences.
-NSF-
Labels:
ANTHROPOLOGY,
BABY BOOM,
HISTORY,
POPULATION,
RESEARCH,
SCIENCE,
SOUTHWESTERN NATIVE AMERICANS,
U.S. DESERT SOUTHWEST
The President and First Lady at the 2014 Kids' State Dinner
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Weekly Address: Equipping Workers with Skills Employers Need Now and for the Future | The White House
Readout of the Vice President's Call with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk | The White House
Friday, July 18, 2014
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Juvenile Arthritis: New Discoveries Lead to New Treatments (July is Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month)
Acting Secretary Gibson Outlines Problems, Actions Taken, and Budget Resources Needed to Ensure Access to Care
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Readout of the Vice President's Call with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko | The White House
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Launch of Orbital-2 Mission to the International Space Station
Monday, July 14, 2014
White House Report: Economic Analysis of Transportation Infrastructure Investment | The White House
Remarks As Prepared for Delivery by Dr. Jill Biden at Shalom Community School in Zambia | The White House
White House Report: Missed Opportunities and the Consequences of State Decisions Not to Expand Medicaid | The White House
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Weekly Address: Expanding Opportunity – It’s Time for Congressional Republicans to Do Their Part | The White House
FACT SHEET: The Vice President’s Address to the 115th National Conference of the Veterans of Foreign Wars | The White House
Friday, July 11, 2014
Readout of the Vice President's Call with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades | The White House
Statement by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on the FCC's Vote to Modernize the E-Rate Program
Message from First Lady Michelle Obama to the United States-China Consultation on People-to-People Exchange | The White House
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Monday, July 7, 2014
LANL News: Ribosome Research in Atomic Detail Offers Potential Insights into Cancer, Anemia, Alzheimer’s
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Remarks by the President at Naturalization Ceremony for Servicemembers and Military Spouses | The White House
VA Directs Monthly Meetings Between Local Health Facilities, Veterans Service Organizations in All 50 States
Friday, July 4, 2014
LANL News: Record $327,000 pledged by Los Alamos National Laboratory employees in 2014 LAESF scholarship drive
Thursday, July 3, 2014
U.S. Department of Education Approves Extensions for States Granted Flexibility from No Child Left Behind
Statement by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Remarks As Prepared for Delivery by Dr. Jill Biden at Shalom Community School in Zambia | The White House
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
IR-2014-77: New 1023-EZ Form Makes Applying for 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Status Easier; Most Charities Qualify
IR-2014-76: Unused ITINS to Expire After Five Years; New Uniform Policy Eases Burden on Taxpayers, Protects ITIN Integrity
Freedom Riders, Students Commemorate 50th Anniversary of Civil Rights Act with #civilrightsride
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