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Maltase

Maltase is an informal name for a family of enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of disaccharide maltose into two simple sugars of glucose. Maltases are found in plants, bacteria, yeast, humans, and other vertebrates.

Digestion of starch requires six intestinal enzymes. Two of these enzymes are luminal endo-glucosidases named alpha-amylases. The other four enzymes have been identified as different maltases, exo-glucosidases bound to the luminal surface of enterocytes. Two of these maltase activities were associated with sucrase-isomaltase (maltase Ib, maltase Ia). The other two maltases with no distinguishing characteristics were named maltase-glucoamylase (maltases II and III). The activities of these four maltases are also described as alpha-glucosidase because they all digest linear starch oligosaccharides to glucose.

Structure
Maltases are members of a group of intestinal enzymes called FamilyGH13 (Glycoside hydrolase family 13) that are responsible for breaking apart the α-glucosidase linkages of complex carbohydrates into simple to use glucose molecules. The glucose molecules would then be used as a sort of "food" for cells to produce energy (Adenosine triphosphate) during Cellular respiration. The following are genes that can code for maltase:

 * Acid alpha-glucosidase which is coded on the GAA gene is essential to breakdown complex sugars called Glycogen into glucose.
 * Maltase-glucoamylase which is coded on the MGAM gene plays a role in the digestion of starches. It is due to this enzyme in humans that starches of plant origin are able to digested.
 * Sucrase-isomaltase which is coded on the SI gene is essential for the digestion of carbohydrates including starch, sucrose and isomaltose.
 * Alpha-amylase 1 which is coded on the AMY1A gene is responsible of cleaving α-glucosidase linkages in oligosaccharides and polysaccharides in order to produce starches and glycogen for the previous enzymes to catalyze. Higher quantities of this gene in the brain have been shown to lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Mechanism
The mechanism of all FamilyGH13 enzymes is to break a α-glucosidase linkage by hydrolyzing it. Maltase focuses on breaking apart maltose, a disaccharide that is a link between 2 units of glucose, at the α-(1->4) bond. The rate of hydrolysis is controlled by the size of the substrate (carbohydrate size).

Industrial applications
Alpha-amylase has an important function in degradation of starches, so it is used frequently in the baking industry. It is mostly used a means of flavor enhancing to improve bread quality. Without alpha-amylase, yeast would not be able to ferment.

Maltose-glucoamylase is commonly used as a fermentation source as it is able to cut starch into maltose, which is then used for brewing beers and sake.

Other than brewing, maltose glucoamylase has been studied by introducing specific inhibitors to stop the hydrolysis of the α-glucosidase linkages. By inhibiting the cleave of the linkages, scientists are hoping to devise a drug that is more efficient and less toxic to treating diabetes.

History
The history of maltase discovery began when Napoleon Bonaparte declared a continental blockade in his “Berlin decree” in 1806. This initiated the search for alternative sources of sugar. In 1833 French chemists Anselm Payen and Jean-Francois Persoz discovered a malt extract that converted starch into glucose which they called diastase at the time. In 1880, H.T. Brown discovered mucosal maltase activity and differentiated it from diastase, now called amylase. In the 1960s advances in protein chemistry allowed Arne Dahlqvist and Giorgio Semenza to fractionate and characterize small intestinal maltase activities. Both groups showed there were four major fractions of maltase activity that were intrinsic to two different peptide structures, sucrase-isomaltase and maltase-glucoamylase. Fifty years later entering the genomic age, cloning and sequencing of the mucosal starch hydrolase confirmed Dahlqvist and Semenza's findings.

Maltase deficiency
Acid maltase deficiency (AMD) also known as Pompe disease was first described by Dutch pathologist JC Pompe in 1932. AMD is a non sex linked autosomal recessive condition in which excessive accumulation of glycogen build up within lysosome vacuoles in nearly all types of cells all over the body. It is one of the more serious glycogen storage diseases affecting muscle tissue.

AMD is categorized into three separate types based on the age of onset of symptoms in the affected individual. Infantile (Type a), childhood (Type b), and adulthood (Type c). The type of AMD is determined by the type of gene mutation localized on 17q23. Mutation type will determine production level of acid maltase. AMD is extremely fatal. Type a generally die of heart failure prior to age one. Type b die of respiratory failure between ages three to twenty-four. Type c die of respiratory failure 10–20 years of the onset of symptoms.

Comparative physiology
Vampire bats are the only vertebrates known to not exhibit intestinal maltase activity.

title: Maltase


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Aquatic respiration

Aquatic respiration is the process whereby an aquatic organism exchanges respiratory gases with water, obtaining oxygen from oxygen dissolved in water and excreting carbon dioxide and some other metabolic waste products into the water.

Unicellular and simple small organisms
In very small animals, plants and bacteria, simple diffusion of gaseous metabolites is sufficient for respiratory function and no special adaptations are found to aid respiration. Passive diffusion or active transport are also sufficient mechanisms for many larger aquatic animals such as many worms, jellyfish, sponges, bryozoans and similar organisms. In such cases, no specific respiratory organs or organelles are found.

Higher plants
Although higher plants typically use carbon dioxide and excrete oxygen during photosynthesis, they also respire and, particularly during darkness, many plants excrete carbon dioxide and require oxygen to maintain normal functions. In fully submerged aquatic higher plants specialised structures such as stoma on leaf surfaces to control gas interchange. In many species, these structures can be controlled to be open or closed depending on environmental conditions. In conditions of high light intensity and relatively high carbonate ion concentrations, oxygen may be produced in sufficient quantities to form gaseous bubbles on the surface of leaves and may produce oxygen super-saturation in the surrounding water body.

Animals
All animals that practice truly aquatic respiration are poikilothermic. All aquatic homeothermic animals and birds including cetaceans and penguins are air breathing despite a fully aquatic life-style.

Echinoderms
Echinoderms have a specialised water vascular system which provides a number of functions including providing the hydraulic power for tube feet but also serves to convey oxygenated sea water into the body and carry waste water out again. In many genera, the water enters through a madreporite, a sieve like structure on the upper surface but may also enter via ciliary action in the tube feet or via special cribiform organelles.

Molluscs
Molluscs commonly possess gills that allow exchange of respiratory gases from an aqueous environment into the circulatory system. These animals possess a heart that pumps blood which contains hemocyanin as its oxygen-capturing molecule. The respiratory system of gastropods can include either gills or a lung.

Arthropods
Aquatic arthropods generally possess some form of gills in which gas exchange takes place by diffusing through the exoskeleton. Others may breathe atmospheric air while remaining submerged, via breathing tubes or trapped air bubbles, though some aquatic insects may remain submerged indefinitely and respire using a plastron. A number of insects have an aquatic juvenile phase and an adult phase on land. In these case adaptions for life in water are lost at the final ecdysis. A number of orders of insects such as mayflies, caddis flies and stone flies have aquatic juvenile stages while some orders such as Lepidoptera have just a few examples such as China mark moths. A very few arachnids have adopted an aquatic life style including the diving bell spider. In all cases, oxygen is provided from air trapped by hairs around the animal's body.

Fish
Most fish exchange gases using gills on either side of the pharynx (throat), forming the splanchnocranium, the portion of the skeleton where the cartilage of the cranium converges into the cartilage of the pharynx and its associated parts. Gills are tissues which consist of threadlike structures called filaments. These filaments have many functions and are involved in ion and water transfer as well as oxygen, carbon dioxide, acid and ammonia exchange. Each filament contains a capillary network that provides a large surface area for the exchange of gases and ions. Fish exchange gases by pulling oxygen-rich water through their mouths and pumping it over their gills. In species like the spiny dogfish and other sharks and rays, a spiracle exists near the top of the head that pumps water into the gills when the animal is not in motion. In some fish, capillary blood flows in the opposite direction to the water, causing countercurrent exchange. The muscles on the sides of the pharynx push the oxygen-depleted water out the gill openings. In bony fish, the pumping of oxygen-poor water is aided by a bone that surrounds the gills called the operculum.

Amphibians
Both the lungs and the skin serve as respiratory organs in amphibians. The skin of these animals is highly vascularized and moist, with moisture maintained via secretion of mucus from specialized cells. While the lungs are of primary importance to breathing control, the unique properties of cutaneous respiration supplements rapid gas exchange when amphibians are submerged in oxygen-rich water.

Aquatic reptiles, birds and mammals
All aquatic amniotes (reptiles, birds and mammals) have thick and impermeable cutes that preclude cutaneous respiration, and thus rely solely on the lungs to breathe air. When underwater, the animal is essentially holding its breath and has to routinely return to the surface to breathe in new air. Therefore, all amniote animals, even those that spend more time in water than out, are susceptible to drowning if they cannot reach the surface to breath.

The anatomical structure of the lungs is less complex in reptiles than in mammals, with reptiles lacking the very extensive bronchial tree found in mammalian lungs. Gas exchange in reptiles still occurs in alveoli, but reptiles do not possess a diaphragm, therefore ventilation occurs via a change in the volume of the body cavity which is controlled by contraction of intercostal muscles in all reptiles except turtles. In turtles, contraction of specific pairs of flank muscles governs inspiration or expiration.

Diving birds and pelagic seabirds breath air using lungs like reptiles and mammals, but avian lungs are fairly rigid structures that do not expand and contract as elastically. Instead, the structures that act as bellows that ventilate the lungs are the avascular air sacs, which are distributed throughout much of the birds' bodies and move air unidirectionally through the parabronchi, where gas exchange happens. Although bird lungs are smaller than those of mammals of comparable size, the air sacs account for 15% of the total body volume, whereas in mammals, the alveoli (which act as the bellows) constitute only 7% of the total body volume. Like their reptilian cousins, birds also lack a diaphragm and thus rely on the intercostal and abdominal muscles to change the volume of the entire thoracoabdominal cavity. The active phase of respiration in birds is exhalation, which requires contracting of respiratory muscles, while the relaxation of these muscles causes inhalation.

Gills
Many aquatic animals have developed gills for respiration which are specifically adapted to their function. In fish, for example, they have: In osteichthyes, the gills contain 4 gill arches on each side of the head, two on each side for chondrichthyes or seven gill baskets on each side of the fish's head in lampreys. In fish, the long bony cover for the gill (the operculum) can be used for pushing water. Some fish pump water using the operculum. Without an operculum, other methods, such as ram ventilation, are required. Some species of sharks use this system. When they swim, water flows into the mouth and across the gills. Because these sharks rely on this technique, they must keep swimming in order to respire.
 * A large surface area to allow as much oxygen to enter the gills as possible because more of the gas comes into contact with the membrane
 * Good blood supply to maintain the concentration gradient needed
 * Thin membrane to allow for a short diffusion pathway
 * Each gill arch has two rows (hemibranchs) of gill filaments
 * Each gill filament has many lamellae

Bony fish use countercurrent flow to maximize the intake of oxygen that can diffuse through the gill. Countercurrent flow occurs when deoxygenated blood moves through the gill in one direction while oxygenated water moves through the gill in the opposite direction. This mechanism maintains the concentration gradient thus increasing the efficiency of the respiration process as well and prevents the oxygen levels from reaching an equilibrium. Cartilaginous fish do not have a countercurrent flow system as they lack bones which are needed to have the opened out gill that bony fish have.

Control of respiration
In fish neurons located in the brainstem of fish are responsible for the genesis of the respiratory rhythm. The position of these neurons is slightly different from the centers of respiratory genesis in mammals but they are located in the same brain compartment, which has caused debates about the homology of respiratory centers between aquatic and terrestrial species. In both aquatic and terrestrial respiration, the exact mechanisms by which neurons can generate this involuntary rhythm are still not completely understood (see Involuntary control of respiration).

The respiratory rhythm is modulated to adapt to the oxygen consumption of the body. As observed in mammals, fish “breathe” faster and heavier when they do physical exercise. The mechanisms by which these changes occur have been subject to debate. The views can be classified as either that the major part of the respiratory changes are pre-programmed in the brain, which would imply that neurons from locomotion centers of the brain connect to respiratory centers in anticipation of movements, or that the major part of the respiratory changes result from the detection of muscle contraction, and that respiration is adapted as a consequence of muscular contraction and oxygen consumption. The latter view would imply that the brain possesses some kind of detection mechanisms that would trigger a respiratory response when muscular contraction occurs.

Many now agree that both mechanisms are probably present and complementary, or working alongside a mechanism that can detect changes in oxygen and/or carbon dioxide blood saturation.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Aquatic respiration


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Shell Centre

The Shell Centre in London is the global headquarters of oil major Shell plc. It is located on Belvedere Road in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a prominent feature on the South Bank of the River Thames near County Hall, and now forms the backdrop to the London Eye.

The original Shell Centre comprised the tower building and three now-demolished adjoining nine-storey wings (collectively formerly known as the "Upstream Building"). The original development also included the "Downstream Building", which had the same nine-storey slab block form but was separated from the Upstream Building by the railway viaduct between Charing Cross and Waterloo East.

Since 2004/05, a New Year 60-second countdown has been projected onto the Shell Centre at 11:59pm every New Year's Eve as part of the Mayor of London's fireworks celebrations centred on the stretch of the Thames in front of the London Eye.

The Downstream Building was disposed of by Shell in the 1990s. It has been heightened by one storey and is now a block of residential apartments known as the Whitehouse Apartments.

Site history and layout
The Shell Centre occupies part of the site cleared for the 1951 Festival of Britain. The areas closer to the River Thames now include Jubilee Gardens and the South Bank Centre. Jubilee Gardens remained undeveloped prior to its laying out as an open space, largely because of a restrictive covenant in favour of Shell that restricts any building on the part of the site directly between the Shell Tower and the River Thames.

The naming of the Shell Centre buildings perpetuated the split of the Festival site into distinct Upstream and Downstream areas, separated by the railway viaduct approach to Hungerford Bridge.

During construction, parts of abandoned works for the Waterloo and Whitehall Railway were discovered. This was a prototype for a proposed pneumatic railway that would have run under the River Thames linking Waterloo and Charing Cross. Digging was started in 1865, but was stopped in 1868, due to financial problems.

Visible in the Thames at low tide just in line with the tower as water turbulence at one point a few feet into the river bed is the outflow point of the Shell Centre's air conditioning system, which sucks in river water from just outside County Hall and sends it via a pipe within a bolt iron tunnel (built exactly like a tube railway tunnel), to a point convergent with the outfall, beyond which both the intake pipe and the outflow pipes continue under the embankment and Jubilee Gardens to the basement of the tower.

From here the water is sent through filters and heat exchangers to provide cooled air in the building. The pipes had to be specially supported on adjustable jacks, during excavation work for the extension of the Jubilee line in 1995, because of settlement during the driving of an access tunnel out from Jubilee Gardens, to the main running lines in York Road via Chicheley Street.

Architecture and design
The choice of Portland Stone cladding, and bronze framed individual upright windows were denounced by Modern Movement critics, and the centre's buildings have generally been regarded as dull. However, the extremely traditional cladding has meant that the buildings have weathered better than most of their contemporaries with concrete or aggregate faced façades or curtain wall glazing.

The original interiors were luxuriously appointed, and as well as contributions from a British design team (many of whom had worked on the Festival of Britain), they included work by Ernesto Nathan Rogers who had worked on the Torre Velasca in Milan. Facilities for staff were lavish by the standards of the time, and the basement of the building was designed with a full size swimming pool and a spacious gymnasium.

The basement also originally housed a rifle range, snooker room, a small supermarket for staff and a host of other facilities. Until 1998, there was also a fully equipped theatre (designed by Cecil Beaton) which – unusually for a space dedicated to amateur productions – had full fly tower facilities.

The courtyard of the Upstream Building included two notable sculptures:
 * "Torsion Fountain" (also known as The Shell Fountain) by Franta Belsky is a tall bronze column of shell like forms, which once poured water into one another; and
 * "Motorcyclist" by Siegfried Charoux – a larger than life figure of a rider astride his machine.

The public realm of the Upstream Building was steadily degraded over the years, with the generous space between the columns of the entrance from York Road enclosed to enlarge the foyers. Textured paving in contrasting colours was installed to assist partially sighted pedestrians navigate the complex steps and ramps of the site, but also served to deter rough sleepers and skateboarders.

Construction
The Shell Centre was constructed by Sir Robert McAlpine between 1957 and 1962, to a design by Sir Howard Robertson, and the tower stands at 107 m with 27 storeys (26 numbered and a mezzanine level) and extends three storeys below ground. The tower was the first London office tower to exceed the height of the Victoria Tower of the Palace of Westminster.

It replaced the Midland Grand Hotel as the tallest storied building in London, and the Royal Liver Building as the tallest in the United Kingdom. On completion the building also held the record for the largest office building, by floor space, in Europe.

Functions and occupation of the buildings
In addition to being the headquarters for the group, it also acts as the main offices of the following Shell businesses; refining and marketing, along with a number of functional support activities such as finance and human resources. The Shell Centre is also the head office of Shell's United Kingdom business (Shell UK Ltd.), which was formerly located in Shell Mex House.

Redevelopment of the Upstream Building
In 2004, a planning application was approved to convert the lower floors of the Upstream Building courtyard and the former staff cafeteria into a shopping centre, and to construct a contrasting new glazed office building on the Podium Site to the south, which was then a paved open space above underground car parking.

In July 2011, Shell announced that a joint venture of Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar had bought a virtual freehold (an 999-year lease) on the Shell Centre for £300m, and would redevelop the site. The tower was to be left in place, but the rest of the site was replaced by a new scheme of offices, shops and restaurants. The new development is called Southbank Place.

The 9-storey ranges of the Upstream Building have now been replaced by a cluster of new predominantly glazed towers around the original Shell tower. They are considerably taller than the earlier buildings, but are all lower than the Shell Tower.

The staff amenities of the swimming pool and theatre in the basements have not been re-provided in the new development.

The Charoux 'Motorcyclist' sculpture was reinstated on the Chicheley Street side of the development in May 2019 but (as at April 2024) Franta Belsky's 'Shell Fountain' has not yet been re-erected.

title: Shell Centre


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Steve Hansgen

Steve Hansgen is an American musician from Washington, D.C. He is best known as a member of the hardcore punk band Minor Threat. He also played briefly in the D.C. hardcore band Government Issue, and joined Youth Brigade for their short reunion in 2012.

Early days and Minor Threat (1980–1983)
Hansgen became involved in the Washington, D.C. hardcore scene in the early 1980s. He joined Minor Threat as bass guitarist in August 1982 when original bassist Brian Baker, Hansgen's childhood friend, switched to second guitar. Hansgen appeared on the Out of Step LP and toured extensively with the band over the next year. He left Minor Threat in 1983 when its founding members decided to return the band to its original configuration, a few months before their breakup.

Second Wind, Government Issue (1983–1989)
Hansgen formed Second Wind with Minor Threat roadie Rich Moore in 1984. They released the Security 12" record later that year. In 1984, he was also a roadie for the reformed Meatmen.

Hansgen played bass in Government Issue in 1986. He appears on several tracks on their 1986 self-titled LP. He left the band later that year.

Work in production and Emmapeel (1990–1999)
In the 1990s, Hansgen continued to work as an engineer and producer. Notably, he worked with Tool on their first demo tape and EP, Opiate (1992).

He played bass around this time in Emmapeel with Government Issue vocalist John Stabb. Emmapeel released the "Avenging Punk Rock Godfathers" 7" in 1993.

Middle Aged Brigade, Youth Brigade reunion, other later activity (2000–present)
In 2003, Baker and Hansgen began playing in the side project Middle Aged Brigade, with whom they recorded some demos. The band was active sporadically in the years that followed. In 2009, Steve Hansgen joined Mike Dolfi, Boyd Farrell (both from Black Market Baby) and Phil Ricche (of The Intentions) in the band Rustbuckit.

On 29 December 2012, Hansgen reunited with three original members of the seminal DC hardcore band Youth Brigade, vocalist Nathan Strejcek (formerly of seminal band Teen Idles), drummer Danny Ingram and bassist Bert Quieroz for a show at the Washington, D.C. club The Black Cat. The show was a benefit for the D.C. hardcore documentary Salad Days and also featured Scream and Government Issue. That same foursome continued as Youth Brigade and did a second show at the 9:30 Club shortly thereafter as part of the "Punk-Funk Throwdown" series.

Hansgen later played in Dot Dash.

title: Steve Hansgen


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Aquatic insect

Aquatic insects or water insects live some portion of their life cycle in the water. They feed in the same ways as other insects. Some diving insects, such as predatory diving beetles, can hunt for food underwater where land-living insects cannot compete.

Breathing
One problem that aquatic insects must overcome is how to get oxygen while they are under water. Almost all animals require a source of oxygen to live. Insects draw air into their bodies through spiracles, holes found along the sides of the abdomen. These spiracles are connected to tracheal tubes where oxygen can be absorbed. All aquatic insects have become adapted to their environment with the specialization of these structures
 * Aquatic adaptations
 * 1) Simple diffusion over a relatively thin integument
 * 2) Temporary use of an air bubble
 * 3) Extraction of oxygen from water using a plastron or blood gill
 * 4) Storage of oxygen in hemoglobin and hemocyanin molecules in hemolymph
 * 5) Taking oxygen from surface via breathing tubes (siphons)

The nymphs of the hemimetabolous orders mayflies, dragonflies and stoneflies, and the larvae of the holometabolous orders megalopterans and caddisflies, possess tracheal gills, which are outgrowths of the body wall containing a dense network of tracheae covered by a thin cuticle through which oxygen in the water can diffuse.

Some insects have densely packed hairs (setae) around the spiracles that allow air to remain near, while keeping water away from, the body. The trachea open through spiracles into this air film, allowing access to oxygen. In many such cases, when the insect dives into the water, it carries a layer of air over parts of its surface, and breathes using this trapped air bubble until it is depleted, then returns to the surface to repeat the process. Other types of insects have a plastron or physical gill that can be various combinations of hairs, scales, and undulations projecting from the cuticle, which hold a thin layer of air along the outer surface of the body. In these insects, the volume of the film is small enough, and their respiration slow enough, that diffusion from the surrounding water is enough to replenish the oxygen in the pocket of air as fast as it is used. The large proportion of nitrogen in the air dissolves in water slowly and maintains the gas volume, supporting oxygen diffusion. Insects of this type only rarely need to replenish their supply of air.

Other aquatic insects can remain under water for long periods due to high concentrations of hemoglobin in their hemolymph circulating freely within their body. Hemoglobin bonds strongly to oxygen molecules.

A few insects such as water scorpions and mosquito larvae have breathing tubes ("siphons") with the opening surrounded by hydrofuge hairs, allowing them to breathe without having to leave the water.

Orders with aquatic or semiaquatic species

 * Collembola - springtails (which are not technically insects, but are closely related)
 * Ephemeroptera - mayflies
 * Odonata - dragonflies and damselflies
 * Plecoptera - stoneflies
 * Megaloptera - alderflies, fishflies, and dobsonflies
 * Neuroptera - lacewings
 * Coleoptera - beetles
 * Hemiptera - true bugs (water striders, giant water bugs)
 * Hymenoptera - ants (e.g. Polyrhachis sokolova) and wasps (e.g. Microgaster godzilla)
 * Diptera - flies
 * Mecoptera - scorpionflies
 * Lepidoptera - moths
 * Trichoptera - caddisflies

EPT insects, an acronym for Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies), are sensitive to pollutants and are used as an indicator of water quality in streams, rivers and lakes.

Marine aquatic insects
The aquatic insects live mostly in freshwater habitats since there are very few marine insect species. The only true example of such insects are the sea skaters, which belongs to the Hemiptera order.

title: Aquatic insect


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Battle of Oudenarde

The Battle of Oudenarde, also known as the Battle of Oudenaarde, was a major engagement of the War of the Spanish Succession, pitting a Grand Alliance force consisting of eighty thousand men under the command of the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy against a French force of eighty-five thousand men under the command of the Duc de Bourgogne and the Duc de Vendôme, the battle resulting in a great victory for the Grand Alliance. The battle was fought near the city of Oudenaarde, at the time part of the Spanish Netherlands, on 11 July 1708. With this victory, the Grand Alliance ensured the fall of various French territories, giving them a significant strategic and tactical advantage during this stage of the war. The battle was fought in the later years of the war, a conflict that had come about as a result of English, Dutch and Habsburg apprehension at the possibility of a Bourbon succeeding the deceased King of Spain, Charles II, and combining their two nations and empires into one.

The engagement itself came about after a series of offensive and defensive manoeuvres between an Allied army under the command of Marlborough and a French army under the command of the Duc de Bourgogne. The two French commanders quarrelled about the direction their army should take, although roughly a month before the battle, the French army moved westwards and captured the Allied-held fortresses of Bruges and Ghent. This proved to be an unexpected and worrying action to Marlborough, who waited until Eugene had joined his army before he decided to undertake any offensive operations. The French moved to attack again, aiming to capture the city of Oudenarde, which would cut off communication and supply routes between Marlborough and England and thus allow for a significant victory over the Grand Alliance. Marlborough managed to figure out the French plan of action, and forced marched his men towards Oudenaarde to defend it from the expected French attack. On 11 July, the two forces met near the city.

During the engagement, Allied cavalry moved to engage the French forward positions, killing or capturing many French soldiers and pushing them back. For unknown reasons, a significant portion of the French army kept in reserve was never ordered to move up and engage, thus leading to a significantly weakened French force facing the Allies. The infantry battalions on both sides moved to engage each other, with skilled deployment of cavalry by Cadogan ensuring the rout of many of the French infantry battalions, weakening the French positions. Both sides settled into an engagement on opposing sides of the river, with several further mostly fruitless cavalry charges attempted by both sides. Marlborough initiated a flanking manoeuvre, gaining the allies a significant tactical and strategic advantage. Faced with mounting casualties, the French commanders made the decision to withdraw from the field. The battle was the third major victory that Marlborough had obtained during the war; boosting his military renown alongside that of Eugene, whose tactical contributions were vital to this victory.

Background
The War of the Spanish Succession, fought from 1701 to 1714, was a European conflict in the early 18th century, triggered by the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, the last Habsburg monarch of Spain. His closest heirs were members of the Austrian Habsburg and French Bourbon families; acquisition of an undivided Spanish Empire by either threatened the European balance of power and thus the other leading powers became involved. Charles bequeathed an undivided monarchy of Spain to his grandnephew Philip, who was also grandson of Louis XIV of France. Philip was proclaimed King of Spain on 16 November 1700. Disputes over territorial and commercial rights led to war in 1701 between the Bourbons of France and Spain and the Grand Alliance, whose candidate was Charles, younger son of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. The primary opponents of the Bourbon succession were the Kingdom of England (later the Kingdom of Great Britain after the Acts of Union with Scotland), the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic. In addition, many Spaniards opposed the idea of a Bourbon ruling Spain, and threw their lot in with Charles. Initially, the war went favourably for the French, given their vast army and navy and extremely advantageous geopolitical position. However, crushing defeats at Blenheim and Ramillies caused the war to settle into a stalemate, as the forces of the Grand Alliance could not advance into French territory, not could the French advance into Habsburg territories either.

As the French army moved closer to the border with the Spanish Netherlands in 1708, the two French commanders began quarrelling over which battle plan they should adopt. Vendôme wished to attack the city of Huy, which could draw Marlborough in pursuit of his forces and weaken the overall allied position. The eventual plan adopted, however (under direct orders from Louis XIV), was to attack Flanders. The French army moved eastward, until they reached the city of Braine-l'Alleud, which was about twenty-five kilometres south of Brussels, and allowed the French to threaten the nearby city of Leuven. Marlborough moved his forces to a few miles south of Leuven, in order to sufficiently protect both cities from a potential French assault. The French army then remained inactive for more than a month, not making any major movements whatsoever. This allowed the much-delayed Eugène to bring his forces across the Rhine and head towards Marlboroughs position. On 5 July, however, the French unexpectedly moved westward, quickly capturing the cities of Bruges and Ghent (although about three hundred British soldiers held out in Ghent for a few days). This unexpected move both demoralised and confounded Marlborough and his army, and he did not make any offensive moves until Eugène along with his army arrived to join him. The French army had control over the entire length of the Scheldt from the French border to the newly taken city of Ghent.

Only one Allied fortress remained: the city of Oudenaarde. If the French managed to capture that city, Marlborough's army would be cut off from the coast, causing them to lose communication with England. Marlborough managed to guess the French battle plan, and also correctly guessed the method by which the French army would attempt to take Oudenarde—they would march down the east bank of the Scheldt (closer to Marlborough's troops), while leaving a large covering force between the two opposing armies. The French army set out on 8 July, marching toward the city of Lessines. However, Marlborough made one of the most impressive forced marches in history, capturing the city on 10 July. This forced the French commanders to attempt to simply to wade across the Scheldt and take Oudenaarde from that position. Marlborough again ordered a forced march of his troops. This time, though, he ordered eleven thousand troops to hold the main crossing point across the Scheldt, under the command of his Quartermaster General, William Cadogan. Cadogan's force built five additional pontoon bridges to allow Marlborough to get his eighty-thousand-strong army across the river, until French foragers discovered the allied presence around 9:00 a.m., initiating the battle.

Battle
Cadogan, a superb cavalry commander, ordered some dragoons under the command of Danish general Jørgen Rantzau to capture men from the French advance guard. Many of those troops managed to escape and alerted Lieutenant General Charles-Armand de Gontaut, duc de Biron, who commanded the French vanguard to the presence of Allied troops on the west bank. When de Biron advanced, he was disagreeably surprised by the large number of Allied cavalry already across the river, along with the approaching Allied infantry. Although he was ordered to attack by Vendôme, he hesitated upon seeing the reinforced line of twenty infantry battalions (including the four that had been left to guard the pontoon bridges). Biron's own forces comprised only seven infantry battalions and twenty cavalry squadrons. He had been given reliable advice that cavalry could not negotiate the marshy terrain in the area and decided not to attempt a crossing. At this time, Eugène, along with twenty squadrons of Prussian cavalry, moved across the river and occupied crucial positions. While Biron's troops were manoeuvring, the leading British infantry brigade had arrived, under the command of John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll. Cadogan, given authority from Marlborough, attacked Biron's seven infantry battalions of Swiss mercenaries with his division (consisting mainly of cavalry). The isolated Swiss mercenaries were immediately pushed back and the Allied force destroyed Biron's units, until they reached a large mass of French cavalry, at which point they were forced to retire, outnumbered. The force which performed this action was Rantzau's cavalry, with the future King George II among them.

Burgundy, making another mistake, decided to launch an attack (over protests by Vendôme). The French right wing began to attack the Allied positions near Eine, while the left wing (for unknown reasons) remained stationary near Huise. A very strong position was held by the Allied left wing. Twenty-eight cavalry squadrons protected the right flank of Cadogan's infantry, which would receive the attack (which proceeded at about 4:00 p.m.). Burgundy ordered the assault, which landed on Prussian cavalry squadrons under Dubislav Gneomar von Natzmer. Although intense fighting ensued, the attack was dispersed. Then, Vendôme made a dubious tactical decision to personally lead an attack of twelve infantry regiments, fighting hand-to-hand with a half-pike. This meant that while one commander (Burgundy) was in his headquarters with no view of the ongoing battle, the other commander was personally fighting in the field, with no possibility of directing his men. Most historians agree that had the French left wing attacked the weakened Allied right wing, it would have been forced to retreat. Vendôme realized this, asking Burgundy for permission to attack with the left wing. Burgundy sent back a messenger with a message of refusal but the messenger failed to deliver the message. The situation worsened with Vendôme believing that support would arrive for his troops, who were lengthening their line of battle and threatening to envelop the Allied left flank. As French infantry regiments approached, they lengthened the Allied line but too slowly and not great enough in extent to prevent the French from threatening the Allied positions.

Around this same time, the Dutch field deputies Sicco van Goslinga and Adolf Hendrik van Rechteren were moving near where Marlborough was leading the action. They noted, rightly or wrongly, that he made an unsteady and indecisive impression, presumably as a result of an accident he had had the previous night. He had then fallen into a deep ditch with his horse and had been trapped under the animal. Together the two field deputies decided to ask Eugene, who had so far remained in the background, to intervene and assume supreme command. After some urging, as he was not in the service of either of the Maritime Powers, he replied: 'Well now gentlemen, ... I will do what you ask of me.'

Marlborough thus moved his headquarters to the left flank, while Eugène assumed command of the right flank (which still checked the left wing of the French army). While the right wing was under pressure, Marlborough placed eighteen newly arrived Hessian and Hanoverian infantry battalions in the left flank to replace twenty of Prussian General Carl von Lottum's battalions, ordered them to move to support Eugène's men. This moved fresh troops to the critical Allied left flank, while reinforcing the Allied right flank and allowing Lottum's troops to be granted a vital rest. Marlborough then began formulating a new plan of double encirclement. He had now under his command 25,000 fresh troops of the Dutch Army, under Field Marshal Hendrik Overkirk, an experienced military officer and ordered them to flank the French right wing. Overkirk was unable to cross the collapsed pontoon bridges near Oudenaarde, forcing him to use the stone bridges in the city, delaying him for an hour. Marlborough went ahead with his plan, having Eugène's cavalry charge towards Burgundy's headquarters. The French Household Cavalry, the Maison du Roi, were only just able to turn them back and Marlborough, with only the eighteen Hessian and Hanoverian battalions, was unable to do much other than keep the French right in check. At about 18:00, Overkirk's troops had arrived and were in a position to flank the French right wing. This was in conjunction with a dual attack by Marlborough and Eugène.

Overkirk had sent his two leading infantry brigades under Major General Coenraad Weck through a gap in the woodlands to strengthen Marlborough’s left, while he himself had made a circumferential move, more to the left, with the rest of his troops. However, Eugene became concerned about the left wing and sent the two field deputies there with orders to attack the French. Arriving there, Sicco van Goslinga discovered an exhausted Overkirk. The old general did not seem to see the urgency of an attack. Unsatisfied, Van Goslinga then rode off to a line of six battalions where he encountered Lieutenant General Bengt Oxenstierna. He too had no intention of attacking, arguing that the terrain was too rugged to pass through and that they were better off waiting for the French. Van Goslinga then decided to take it upon himself to launch the attack and he placed himself at the head of two Swiss battalions which he ordered to advance. Five other Dutch battalions followed and the Prince of Orange placed eight others alongside Van Goslinga in battle order. The Deputy and the young Prince marched down the slope with roughly 10,000 infantrymen and crashed into the French infantry, whom they quickly swept aside. A French counter-attack by the elite horsemen of the Maison du Roi did little to change the situation. "Our Swiss, [who] were determined to wait for them with the bayonet fixed on the rifle and only shoot at the very last moment were so quiet that I was amazed. ... the hail of musket balls, with which he [the French cavalry] was received, cut down some and routed the rest" At the same time, the Dutch cavalry under the Count of Tilly cut off the French retreat route to Kortrijk. Much of the French army was routed or captured, with lack of daylight preventing the completion of the manoeuvre. The battle also ended in confusion for the Allies. The darkness caused the Allied right and left wings to mistake each other for the enemy and they began firing at each other. Eugene on the right and the Prince of Orange on the left wing managed, through their intervention, to stop the firing and prevented the army from doing any real damage to itself.

Aftermath
The French army retreated in disorder towards Ghent, with the Duc de Bourgogne and the Duc de Vendome quarreling amongst themselves on who was to blame for the defeat. Only nightfall and a few broken pontoon bridges saved the French army from total annihilation. For unknown reasons, about half of the total forces the French had at their disposal during the battle were kept in reserve, never being called up to participate in the battle. There was a great mass of French cavalry and infantry in some raised ground north of the Norken River along with many of Burgundy's troops that remained inactive in the battle and did not advance forwards to assist their fellow Frenchmen, even when the tactical situation of the battle had turned against the French with the arrival of Overkirk's Dutch troops. Many of the French cavalry squadrons had remained in reserve, mainly because of the advice that they had been given of the ground before them being impassable by their horses.

The French commanders had made several catastrophic tactical errors during the battle: The entire French left wing (the troops under Burgundy and the large mass north of the Norken) was kept in reserve. They could easily have destroyed the weakened right wing of the Allied army. Had a concerted attack been carried out, with Vendôme attacking with his main body to envelop the Allied right flank and Bourgogne attacked with the left wing (before Overkirk and the rest of Argyll's troops arrived), the French army could have easily won. The decision of Bourgogne to march personally into battle may have provided a welcome boost to French morale, but it denied him for the rest of the battle the opportunity to command his troops, which proved disastrous when the Allies overwhelmed the French via a flanking manoeuvre. The French army had lost about fourteen to fifteen thousand soldiers overall (with about eight thousand of whom becoming prisoners-of-war) and twenty-five artillery guns, while the Allies lost roughly three thousand men. Bodart gives roughly similar numbers for the French casualties (6,000 killed or wounded and 8,000 captured), but higher numbers for allied ones (6,000 killed or wounded).

On the other hand, the reputation of the Allied commanders were greatly enhanced by the victory. For Marlborough, his eye for choosing the correct ground, his sense of timing and his keen knowledge of the enemy were again amply demonstrated. Eugene's reputation was also enhanced—while Marlborough remained in overall command, Eugene had led the crucial right flank and centre. Once again the Allied commanders had co-operated remarkably well. "Prince Eugene and I," wrote the Duke, "shall never differ about our share of the laurels." The success restored the strategic initiative to the Allies, who now opted to besiege Lille, the strongest fortress in Europe. While the Duke commanded the covering force, Eugene oversaw the siege of the town, which surrendered on 22 October; however, it was not until 10 December that the resolute Boufflers yielded the citadel. Yet for all the difficulties of the winter siege, the campaign of 1708 had been a remarkable success by requiring superior logistical skill and organisation. The Allies retook Brughes and Ghent, and the French were driven out of almost all the Spanish Netherlands: "He who has not seen this", wrote Eugene, "has seen nothing".

title: Battle of Oudenarde


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Damselfish

Damselfish are those within the subfamilies Abudefdufinae, Chrominae, Lepidozyginae, Pomacentrinae, and Stegastinae within the family Pomacentridae. Most species within this group are relatively small, with the largest species being about 30cm (12 in) in length. Most damselfish species exist only in marine environments, but a few inhabit brackish or fresh water. These fish are found globally in tropical, subtropical, and temperate waters.

Habitat
Many species live in tropical rocky or coral reefs, and many of those are kept as marine aquarium pets. Their diets include small crustaceans, plankton, and algae. However, a few live in fresh and brackish waters, such as the freshwater damselfish, or in warm subtropical climates, such as the large orange Garibaldi, which inhabits the coast of southern California and the Pacific Mexican coast.

Foraging
The domino damselfish D. albisella spends the majority (greater than 85%) of its daytime hours foraging. Larger individuals typically forage higher in a water column than do smaller ones. Damselfish of all sizes feed primarily on caridea and copepods. Males have relatively smaller stomach sizes during spawning season compared to females due to the allocation of resources for courtship and the guarding of nests. When current speeds are low, the damselfish forages higher in a water column where the flux of plankton is greater and they have a larger food source. As current speeds increase, it forages closer to the bottom of the column. Feeding rates tend to be higher when currents are faster. Smaller fishes forage closer to their substrates than do larger ones, possibly in response to predation pressures.

Territoriality
There are many examples of resource partitioning and habitat selection that are driven by aggressive and territorial behaviors in this group. For example, the threespot damselfish S. planifrons is very defensive of its territory and is a classic example of extreme territoriality within the group. One species, the dusky damselfish S. adustus spends the majority of its life within its territory.

Domestication of mysid shrimps
Longfin damselfish (Stegastes diencaeus) around Carrie Bow Cay, Belize (16°48.15′N, 88°04.95′W) are shown to actively protect planktonic mysids (Mysidium integrum) in their reef farms. The mysids fertilize the algae grown in the reef farms with their excretes which in turn helps the damselfish who feed on algae to be healthier. In the reef farms that house mysids, damselfish aggressively defends the farm area against other fish that would prey on the mysids, significantly more so than they do when their farms do not house mysid shrimps. These damselfish would eat similar small invertebrates. Despite that, they are docile towards mysid shrimp. In the area, mysid shrimps are not found in swarms except in the farms maintained by damselfish. All these observations point to a pet-like relationship between the mysid shrimps and longfin damselfish in the area, with damselfish being the domesticator and mysids being the domesticate.

Courtship
In the species S. partitus, females do not choose to mate with males based on size. Even though large male size can be advantageous in defending nests and eggs against conspecifics among many animals, nest intrusions are not observed in this damselfish species. Females also do not choose their mates based upon the brood sizes of the males. In spite of the increased male parental care, brood size does not affect egg survival, as eggs are typically taken during the night when the males are not defending their nests. Rather, female choice of mates is dependent on male courtship rate. Males signal their parental quality by the vigor of their courtship displays, and females mate preferentially with vigorously courting males.

Male damselfish perform a courtship behavior called the signal jump, in which they rise in a water column and then rapidly swim back downward. The signal jump involves large amounts of rapid swimming, and females choose mates based on the vigor with which males do so. Females determine the male courtship rates using sounds that are produced during signal jumps. As the male damselfish swims down the water column, it creates a pulsed sound. Male courtship varies in the number and rates of those pulses.

In the beaugregory damselfish S. leucostictus males spend more time courting females that are larger in size. Female size is significantly correlated with ovary weight, and males intensify their courtship rituals for the more fecund females. Research has shown that males that mate with larger females do indeed receive and hatch greater numbers of eggs.

Mating
Male bicolor damselfish, E. partitus, exhibit polygamy, often courting multiple females simultaneously. Among this species, evolutionary selection favors those males that begin mating as soon as possible during spawning seasons even if the most favorable egg clutches are spawned at later times. Females often choose which males to mate with depending on the males’ territory quality. Shelter sites are essential for the bicolor damselfish in avoiding predation, and females may evaluate the suitability of these sites at a male territory before depositing their eggs.

Effect of distance on spawning
In the species S. nigricans, females usually mate with a single male each morning during spawning seasons. At dawn, they visit males’ territories to spawn. The distance to the territory of a mate influences the number of visits that a female engages in with a male. At short distances, females make many repeated visits. At longer ones, they may spawn their entire clutch in one visit. This plasticity in mating behavior can be attributed to two factors: (1) intrusions by other fish to feed in the females’ territories while they are away, which could make the females return frequently to their habitats in order to defend their resources, and (2) predatory attacks on the females, which increase in frequency as the distances that the females travel become longer. Intrusion by other fish into a female’s territory can diminish the habitat of its food and render it unstable. Thus, a spawning female should return to its home as often as possible. However, a greater number of spawning visits increases the chance of being attacked, especially when mating with males that are far away. To minimize overall costs, females change their number of spawning visits depending on male territory distance.

Filial cannibalism
The male cortez damselfish, S. rectifraenum, is known to engage in filial cannibalism. Studies have shown it typically consumes over twenty-five percent of its clutches. The males generally consume clutches that are smaller than average in size, as well as those that are still in the early stages of development. Female cortez damselfish tend to deposit their eggs with males who are already caring for early-stage eggs, rather than males with late-stage eggs. This preference is seen particularly in females that deposit smaller-sized clutches, which are more vulnerable to being consumed. For the males, filial cannibalism is an adaptive response to clutches that do not provide enough benefits to warrant the costs of parental care.

title: Damselfish


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Choanocyte

Choanocytes (also known as "collar cells") are cells that line the interior of asconoid, syconoid and leuconoid body types of sponges that contain a central flagellum, or cilium, surrounded by a collar of microvilli which are connected by a thin membrane. They make up the choanoderm, a type of cell layer found in sponges. The cell has the closest resemblance to the choanoflagellates which are the closest related single celled protists to the animal kingdom (metazoans). The flagellae beat regularly, creating a water flow across the microvilli which can then filter nutrients from the water taken from the collar of the sponge. Food particles are then phagocytosed by the cell.

Location
Choanocytes are found dotting the surface of the spongocoel in asconoid sponges and the radial canals in syconoid sponges, but they comprise entirely the chambers in leuconoid sponges.

Function
By cooperatively moving their flagella, choanocytes filter particles out of the water and into the spongocoel, and out through the osculum. This improves both respiratory and digestive functions for the sponge, pulling in oxygen and nutrients and allowing a rapid expulsion of carbon dioxide and other waste products. Although all cells in a sponge are capable of living on their own, choanocytes carry out most of the sponge's ingestion, passing digested materials to the amoebocytes for delivery to other cells.

Choanocytes can also turn into spermatocytes when needed for sexual reproduction, due to the lack of reproductive organs in sponges (amoebocytes become the oocytes).

Evolutionary Significance
Choanocytes bear a superficial resemblance to Choanoflagellates. Molecular phylogenies indicate that choanoflagellates and metazoans are sister groups. One can see some modern choanoflagellates living in small colonies. The evolutionary relationship between the two cell types is debated.

title: Choanocyte


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Orio Mastropiero

Orio Mastropiero (died 13 June 1192), forename sometimes rendered as Aurio and surname as Malipiero, was a Venetian statesman who served as the Doge of Venice from 1178 to 1192. He was elected by the Council of Forty in 1178 following the retirement of Sebastiano Ziani. Prior to this he had been an ambassador to Sicily in 1175, tasked with drawing up a treaty with King William II. He had also been the electors' first choice for doge following the death of Vitale II Michiel in 1172, but stepped aside in favour of Ziani, an older and wealthier man.

His time in office was mostly unremarkable, apart from a revolt against Venetian rule in Zara, supported by King Béla III of Hungary. For a long while Venice remained passive, being in financial difficulty, but took action at last in 1187 or 1188 when, having secured loans from the Venetian nobility, Mastropiero launched a siege against the Zaratines. This was short-lived, however, owing to an order from Pope Gregory VIII that their warring cease immediately: the Third Crusade was about to begin and Christian soldiers would be required in plenty.

In May 1192, having taken ill, Mastropiero abdicated as doge and retired to the monastery of San Croce. He died there on 13 June 1192.

title: Orio Mastropiero


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Field Museum of Natural History

The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational and scientific programs, and its extensive scientific specimen and artifact collections. The permanent exhibitions, which attract up to 2 million visitors annually, include fossils, current cultures from around the world, and interactive programming demonstrating today's urgent conservation needs. The museum is named in honor of its first major benefactor, Marshall Field, the department-store magnate. The museum and its collections originated from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and the artifacts displayed at the fair.

The museum maintains a temporary exhibition program of traveling shows as well as in-house produced topical exhibitions. The professional staff maintains collections of over 24 million specimens and objects that provide the basis for the museum's scientific-research programs. These collections include the full range of existing biodiversity, gems, meteorites, fossils, and extensive anthropological collections and cultural artifacts from around the globe. The museum's library, which contains over 275,000 books, journals, and photo archives focused on biological systematics, evolutionary biology, geology, archaeology, ethnology and material culture, supports the museum's academic-research faculty and exhibit development. The academic faculty and scientific staff engage in field expeditions, in biodiversity and cultural research on every continent, in local and foreign student training, and in stewardship of the rich specimen and artifact collections. They work in close collaboration with public programming exhibitions and education initiatives.

History
In 1869, and before its formal establishment, the museum acquired the largest collection of birds and bird descriptions, from artist, and ornithologist Daniel Giraud Elliot. In 1894, Elliot would become the curator of the Department of Zoology at the museum, where he worked until 1906.

In order to house, for future generations, the exhibits and collections assembled including those for the World's Columbian Exposition, Edward Ayer convinced a merchant named Marshall Field to fund the establishment of a museum. Originally titled the Columbian Museum of Chicago in honor of its origins, the Field Museum was incorporated by the State of Illinois on September 16, 1893, for the purpose of the "accumulation and dissemination of knowledge, and the preservation and exhibition of artifacts illustrating art, archaeology, science and history". The Columbian Museum of Chicago occupied the only building remaining from the World's Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park, the Palace of Fine Arts. It is now home to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

In 1905, the museum's name was changed to Field Museum of Natural History to honor its first major benefactor and to reflect its focus on the natural sciences. Stanley Field was the president in 1906.

During the period from 1943 to 1966, the museum was known as the Chicago Natural History Museum. In 1921, the Museum moved from its original location in Jackson Park to its present site on Chicago Park District property near downtown Chicago. By the late 1930s the Field Museum had emerged as one of the three premier museums in the United States, the other two being the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

The museum has maintained its reputation through continuous growth, expanding the scope of collections and its scientific research output, in addition to its award-winning exhibitions, outreach publications, and programs. The Field Museum is part of Chicago's lakefront Museum Campus that includes the John G. Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium.

In 2015, it was reported that an employee had defrauded the museum of $900,000 over a seven-year period to 2014.

Attendance
The Museum received 1,018,002 visitors in 2022, ranking it 11th in the List of most-visited museums in the United States.

Animal Halls
Animal exhibitions and dioramas such as Nature Walk, Mammals of Asia, and Mammals of Africa allow visitors an up-close look at the diverse habitats that animals inhabit. Most notably featured are the man-eating lions of Tsavo. The Mfuwe man eating lion is also on display.

Evolving Planet
Evolving Planet follows the evolution of life on Earth over 4 billion years. The exhibit showcases fossils of single-celled organisms, Permian synapsids, dinosaurs, extinct mammals, and early hominids. The Field Museum's non-mammalian synapsid collection consists of over 1100 catalogued specimens, including 46 holotypes. The collection of basal synapsids includes 29 holotypes of caseid, ophiacodontid, edaphosaurid, varanopid, and sphenacodontid species – approximately 88% of catalogued specimens.

Inside Ancient Egypt
Inside Ancient Egypt offers a glimpse into what life was like for ancient Egyptians. Twenty-three human mummies are on display as well as many mummified animals. The exhibit features a three-story replica (featuring two authentic rooms with 5,000-year-old hieroglyphs) of the mastaba tomb of Unas-Ankh, the son of Unas (the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty). Also displayed are an ancient marketplace showing artifacts of everyday life, a shrine to the cat goddess Bastet, and dioramas showing the afterlife preparation process for the dead.

The Ancient Americas
The Ancient Americas displays 13,000 years of human ingenuity and achievement in the Western Hemisphere, where hundreds of diverse societies thrived long before the arrival of Europeans. In this large permanent exhibition visitors can learn the epic story of the peopling of these continents, from the Arctic to the tip of South America. The exhibit consists of six displays: Ice Age Hunters, Innovative Hunters and Gatherers, Farming Villagers, Powerful Leaders, Rulers and Citizens, and Empire Builders. Visitors are encouraged to begin with Ice Age Hunters and conclude with Empire Builders. In this way, visitors can understand the cultural and economic progression of the Ancient Americas. Throughout the exhibit, collections are displayed in a way that emphasizes the cultural context of the artifacts.

The six displays draw from the Field Museum's massive North America collection. Significant collections utilized by the exhibit include pre-Columbian artifacts gathered by Mayanists Edward H. Thompson and John E. S. Thompson. Additionally, former curator Paul Sidney Martin's American Southwest collection makes up a significant portion of the "Farming Villagers" display. The Empire Builders display includes Aztec and Incan artifacts gathered in the 19th century.

The Ancient Americas exhibit transitions to the Alsdorf Hall of Northwest Coast and Arctic Peoples and eventually the Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories exhibit. This emphasizes the thematic unity of the Field Museum's American collections.

Cultural Halls
Cultural exhibitions include sections on Tibet and China, where visitors can view traditional clothing. There is also an exhibit on life in Africa, where visitors can learn about the many different cultures on the continent, and an exhibit where visitors may "visit" several Pacific Islands. The museum houses an authentic 19th-century Māori Meeting House, Ruatepupuke II, from Tokomaru Bay, New Zealand. Additionally, the Field Museum's Northwest Coast Collections showcase the early work of Franz Boas and Frederic Ward Putnam's work with the Kwakwakaʼwakw (Kwakiutl) people in the Alsdorf Hall of Northwest Coast and Arctic Peoples. Finally, the Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories permanent exhibition displays the Field Museum's current collaborative efforts with the indigenous people of North America.

Africa
The Africa cultural hall opened at the Field Museum in November 1993. It offers 14 different displays that are primarily ethnographic in nature. Several African countries are exhibited as well as a variety of geographical areas including the Sahara and East African rift valley. The final section is dedicated to the African diaspora with a particular focus on the impact of the slave trade on the continent. The Africa permanent exhibit owes most of its collection to the efforts of Wilfred D. Hambly.

Peoples of the Arctic and Pacific Northwest
This extensive permanent exhibition covers two culture areas that were vitally important to the early work of the Field Museum—the Arctic and Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest collection is more extensive, but both collections are organized into four categories: subsistence, village and society, the spiritual world, and art. Major displays include a variety of dioramas and a large collection of totem poles. The current permanent exhibition has its origins in the Maritime Peoples hall created by the Field Museum's curator of North American archaeology and ethnology James VanStone.

Cyrus Tang Hall of China
The Cyrus Tang Hall of China opened as a permanent exhibition in 2015. The hall consists of five sections: Diverse Landscapes, Ritual and Power, Shifting Power, Beliefs and Practices, and Crossing Boundaries. The first three sections are organized chronologically while the final two sections are organized by theme. Three hundred and fifty objects are displayed throughout the five galleries. These artifacts are a sample chosen from the Field Museum's significant China collection. This collection was gathered by the sinologist Berthold Laufer.

Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories
Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories opened as a permanent exhibition in 2021. This exhibit is an extensive renovation of the former Native American Hall at the Field Museum. Native Truths utilizes about 400 artifacts to interpret Native American culture and history while also addressing modern-day challenges. The exhibition is a result of a changing attitude towards Native Americans that emphasized Native peoples instead of Native artifacts.

Regenstein Halls of the Pacific
This exhibit is dedicated to the natural and cultural history of the Pacific Islands and is organized into five different sections: the natural history of the islands, the cultural origins of Pacific Islanders, a canoe display, an ethnographic collection showcasing New Guinea's Huon Gulf, and a modern Tahitian market. The final portion of the exhibit is dedicated to the ceremonial arts of the Pacific peoples. The majority of the collection was gathered by curator Albert Buell Lewis. Building upon Lewis' desire to portray cultures as living and participative, the exhibit was intentionally designed to demonstrate how the Pacific Islands interact with the contemporary world.

Geology Halls
The Grainger Hall of Gems consists of a large collection of diamonds and gems from around the world, and also includes a Louis Comfort Tiffany stained glass window. The Hall of Jades focuses on Chinese jade artifacts spanning 8,000 years. The Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies contains a large collection of fossil meteorites.

Underground Adventure
The Underground Adventure gives visitors a bug's-eye look at the world beneath their feet. Visitors can see what insects and soil look like from that size, while learning about the biodiversity of soil and the importance of healthy soil.

Working Laboratories

 * DNA Discovery Center – Visitors can watch real scientists extract DNA from a variety of organisms. Museum goers can also speak to a live scientist through the glass every day and ask them any questions about DNA.
 * McDonald's Fossil Prep Lab – The public can watch as paleontologists prepare real fossils for study.
 * The Regenstein Pacific Conservation Laboratory – 1600 sqft conservation and collections facility. Visitors can watch as conservators work to preserve and study anthropological specimens from all over the world.

Sue, the Tyrannosaurus rex

On May 17, 2000, the Field Museum unveiled Sue, the largest T. rex specimen discovered at the time. Sue has a length of 40.5 ft, stands 13 ft tall at the hips, and has been estimated at 8.4 - 14 MT as of 2018. The specimen is estimated to be 67 million years old. The fossil was named after the person who discovered it, Sue Hendrickson, and is commonly referred to as female, although the dinosaur's actual sex is unknown. The original skull is not mounted to the body due to the difficulties in examining the specimen 13 feet off the ground, and for nominal aesthetic reasons (the replica does not require a steel support under the mandible). An examination of the bones revealed that Sue died at age 28, a record for the fossilized remains of a T. rex until Trix was found in 2013. In December 2018 after revisions of the skeletal assembly were made to reflect new concepts of Sue's structure, display of the skeleton was moved into a new suite in The Griffin Halls of Evolving Planet.

Scientific collections
Professionally managed and maintained specimen and artifact collections, such as those at the Field Museum of Natural History, are a major research resource for the national and international scientific community, supporting extensive research that tracks environmental changes, benefits homeland security, public health and safety, and serves taxonomy and systematics research. Many of Field Museum's collections rank among the top ten collections in the world, e.g., the bird skin collection ranks fourth worldwide; the mollusk collection is among the five largest in North America; the fish collection is ranked among the largest in the world. The scientific collections of the Field Museum originate from the specimens and artifacts assembled between 1891 and 1893 for the World Columbian Exposition. Already at its founding, the Field Museum had a large anthropological collection.

A large number of the early natural history specimens were purchased from Ward's Natural History Establishment in Rochester, New York. An extensive acquisition program, including large expeditions conducted by the museum's curatorial staff resulted in substantial collection growth. During the first 50 years of the museum's existence, over 440 Field Museum expeditions acquired specimens from all parts of the world.

In addition, material was added through purchase, such as H. N. Patterson's herbarium in 1900, and the Strecker butterfly collection in 1908.

Extensive specimen material and artifacts were given to the museum by collectors and donors, such as the Boone collection of over 3,500 East Asian artifacts, consisting of books, prints and various objects. In addition, "orphaned collections" were and are taken in from other institutions such as universities that change their academic programs away from collections-based research. For example, already beginning in 1907, Field Museum accepted substantial botanical specimen collections from universities such as University of Chicago, Northwestern University and University of Illinois at Chicago, into its herbarium. These specimens are maintained and continuously available for researchers worldwide. The Index Herbariorum code assigned to this botanic garden is F and it is used when citing housed specimens. Targeted collecting in the US and abroad for research programs of the curatorial and collection staff continuously add high quality specimen material and artifacts; e.g., Dr. Robert Inger's collection of frogs from Borneo as part of his research into the ecology and biodiversity of the Indonesian fauna.

Collecting of specimens and acquisition of artifacts is nowadays subject to clearly spelled-out policies and standards, with the goal to acquire only materials and specimens for which the provenance can be established unambiguously. All collecting of biological specimens is subject to proper collecting and export permits; frequently, specimens are returned to their country of origin after study. Field Museum stands among the leading institutions developing such ethics standards and policies; Field Museum was an early adopter of voluntary repatriation practices of ethnological and archaeological artifacts.

Collection care and management
Field Museum collections are professionally managed by collection managers and conservators, who are skilled in preparation and preservation techniques. Numerous maintenance and collection management tools were and are being advanced at Field Museum. For example, Carl Akeley's development of taxidermy excellence produced the first natural-looking mammal and bird specimens for exhibition as well as for study. Field Museum curators developed standards and best practices for the care of collections. Conservators at the Field Museum have made notable contributions to conservation science with methods of preservation of artifacts including the use of pheromone trapping for control of webbing clothes moths.

The Field Museum was an early adopter of positive-pressure based approaches to control of environment in display cases, using control modules for humidity control in several galleries where room-level humidification was not practical. The museum has also adopted a low-energy approach to maintain low humidity to prevent corrosion in archaeological metals using ultra-well-sealed barrier film micro-environments. Other notable contributions include methods for dyeing Japanese papers to color match restorations in organic substrates, the removal of display mounts from historic objects, testing of collections for residual heavy metal pesticides, presence of early plastics in collections, the effect of sulfurous products in display cases, and the use of light tubes in display cases.

Concordant with research developments, new collection types, such as frozen tissue collections, requiring new collecting and preservation techniques are added to the existing holdings.

Despite the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990, the Field Museum is estimated to hold more than 1000 Native American remains that have not been repatriated.

Collection records
Collection management requires meticulous record keeping. Handwritten ledgers captured specimen and artifact data in the past. Field Museum was an early adopter of computerization of collection data beginning in the late 1970s. Field Museum contributes its digitized collection data to a variety of online groups and platforms, such as: HerpNet, VertNet and Antweb, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (also known as GBif), and others. All Field Museum collection databases are unified and currently maintained in KE EMu software system. The research value of digitized specimen data and georeferenced locality data is widely acknowledged, enabling analyses of distribution shifts due to climate changes, land use changes and others.

Collection use
During the World's Columbian Exposition, all acquired specimens and objects were on display; the purpose of the World's Fair was exhibition of these materials. For example, just after opening of the Columbian Museum of Chicago, the mollusk collection occupied one entire exhibit hall, displaying 3,000 species of mollusks on about 1260 sqft. By 1910, 20,000 shell specimens were on display, with an additional 15,000 "in storage".

Only a small fraction of the specimens and artifacts are publicly displayed. The vast majority of specimens and artifacts are used by a wide range of people in the museum and around the world. Field Museum curatorial faculty and their graduate students and postdoctoral trainees use the collections in their research and in training e.g., in formal high school and undergraduate training programs. Researchers from all over the world can search online for particular specimens and request to borrow them, which are shipped routinely under defined and published loan policies, to ensure that the specimens remain in good condition. For example, in 2012, Field Museum's Zoology collection processed 419 specimen loans, shipping over 42,000 specimens to researchers, per its Annual Report.

The collection specimens are an important cornerstone of research infrastructure in that each specimen can be re-examined and with the advancement of analytic techniques, new data can be gleaned from specimens that may have been collected more than 150 years ago.

Library
The library at the Field Museum was organized in 1893 for the museum's scientific staff, visiting researchers, students, and members of the general public as a resource for research, exhibition development and educational programs. The 275,000 volumes of the Main Research Collections concentrate on biological systematics, environmental and evolutionary biology, anthropology, botany, geology, archaeology, museology and related subjects. The Field Museum Library includes the following collections:

Ayer collection
This private collection of Edward E. Ayer, the first president of the museum, contains virtually all the important works in the history of ornithology and is especially rich in color-illustrated works.

Laufer Collection
The working collection of Dr. Berthold Laufer, America's first sinologist and Curator of Anthropology until his death in 1934 consists of about 7,000 volumes in Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, and numerous Western languages on anthropology, archaeology, religion, science, and travel.

Photo archives
The photo archives contain over 250,000 images in the areas of anthropology, botany, geology and zoology and documents the history and architecture of the museum, its exhibitions, staff and scientific expeditions. In 2008 two collections from the Photo Archives became available via the Illinois Digital Archives (IDA): The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and Urban Landscapes of Illinois. In April 2009, the Photo Archives became part of Flickr Commons.

Karl P. Schmidt Memorial Herpetological Library
The Karl P. Schmidt Memorial Herpetological Library, named for Karl Patterson Schmidt is a research library containing over 2,000 herpetological books and an extensive reprint collection.

John James Audubon's Birds of North America
The Field Museum's Double Elephant folio of Audubon's The Birds of America is one of only two known copies that were arranged in taxonomic order. Additionally, it contains all 13 composite plates. The Field's copy belonged to Audubon's family physician Dr. Benjamin Phillips.

Education and research
The Field Museum offers opportunities for informal and more structured public learning. Exhibitions remain the primary means of informal education, but throughout its history the Museum has supplemented this approach with innovative educational programs. The Harris Loan Program, for example, begun in 1912, reaches out to children in Chicago area schools, offering artifacts, specimens, audiovisual materials, and activity kits. The Department of Education, begun in 1922, offers classes, lectures, field trips, museum overnights and special events for families, adults and children. The Field has adopted production of the YouTube channel The Brain Scoop, hiring its host Emily Graslie full-time as 'Chief Curiosity Correspondent'.

The Museum's curatorial and scientific staff in the departments of Anthropology, Botany, Geology, and Zoology conducts basic research in systematic biology and anthropology, besides its responsibility for collections management, and educational programs. It has long maintained close links, including joint teaching, students, seminars, with the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Professional symposia and lectures, like the annual A. Watson Armour III Spring Symposium, present scientific results to the international scientific community and the public at large.

Academic publication
The museum used to publish four peer-reviewed monograph series issued under the collective title Fieldiana, devoted to anthropology, botany, geology and zoology.

title: Field Museum of Natural History


text:
Valga, Estonia

Valga (Walk) is a town in southern Estonia and the capital of Valga County and Valga Parish. Until their separation in 1920, Valga and the town of Valka in northern Latvia were one town. They are now twin-towns. The area of Valga is 16.5 km² and that of Valka is 14.2 km². Their populations are respectively 12,261 and 6,164. On 21 December 2007 all border-crossing points were removed and roads and fences opened between the two countries with both countries joining the Schengen Agreement.

Location and transport
The distance to Tartu is 89 km, Pärnu 144 km, Tallinn 245 km, Riga 175 km and Pskov 170 km.

Valga is situated at the junction of roads and railways.

The Valga-Võru-Koidula railway runs to the town. Trains stopped running in 2001. Freight trains on the Valga-Võru-Koidula line have been cut back significantly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Tartu-Valga railway line also serves this station. After closing April 2008 for extensive repair work Edelaraudtee railway services from other parts of Estonia to Valga re-opened in January 2010.

With the expansion of the Schengen Agreement and the abolition of systematic border controls between Estonia and Latvia, it was announced that common public bus transport would be launched between Valga and Valka.

During the Cold War, Valga was home to Valga air base.

Districts of Valga
There are six districts of Valga:
 * Kesklinn
 * Laatsi
 * Pilpaküla
 * Puraküla
 * Kapsamõisa (Raudteetaguse)
 * Tambre.

Activity
Since 1944, a local newspaper, Valgamaalane, has been published (3 times a week). Since 2003, there has also been a local newspaper "Walk" (in the Russian language). There also is a local correspondence office of Estonian Television (Eesti Televisioon) and a local radio – "Raadio Ruut".

The former urban municipality of Valga has established partnerships with many towns, mostly in foreign countries, which are listed in a special subsection below.

Valga is developing quickly. Since 1996, the populace's quality of life has improved due to the renovation of several buildings, including the Central Library, Valga Stadium, the Museum, Valga Hospital, and the Culture and Hobby Centre. Step by step, the schools and kindergartens are also being modernized. Since 2003, a new water treatment plant has improved the quality of water in the town.

In the private sector, there have been extensive investments in trade, light industry, and forestry.

Sports
Valga is home to several notable Estonian sports teams.

Warrior Valga is a football club that currently plays in the III liiga. Warrior Valga played in the Meistriliiga from 2003 to 2006.

Valga is a basketball club that currently plays in the Estonian top-tier Korvpalli Meistriliiga and the Baltic Basketball League.

Climate
Valga lies within the temperate humid continental climate zone.

History

 * 1286: Valga (under German name Walk) appears for the first time in the credit register of the city of Riga.
 * 1298, 1329, 1345: Walk suffers from looting raids made by Lithuanians who are led by Grand Duke Gediminas and Algirdas on the second and third occasions.
 * 1419: Walk becomes the seat of the Landtag of the Livonian Confederation.
 * 1481: A raid by Russians; the settlement burns down for the fourth time.
 * 1500: Walk, a settlement in the heart of Old Livonia that is not fortified, is chosen as the location for town assembly days 36 times up to 1500.
 * 1501: During another raid by Russians the settlement gets burnt down for the fifth time.
 * 1558: During the Livonian War the medieval settlement of Walk is completely destroyed.
 * 1584 11 June: Valga is granted the same charter and byelaws as Riga by Stefan Batory, the King of Poland.
 * 1590 17 April: The King of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa, ratifies the charter for the second time. Valga is granted its city arms.
 * 1600: The first town map, showing 42 house properties. The town is 7 km long and between 0.25 to 0.5 km wide.
 * 1626: After the Polish-Swedish War Valga becomes the subject of Sweden. On 6 March, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden confirms the existing privileges.
 * 1657: On 9 July, a Swedish army under Friedrich von Löwen defeats a Russian army under Scheremetchev in the Battle of Walk.
 * 1721: As the result of the Great Northern War, Valga is subjected to Russian rule together with the rest of Estonia.
 * 1764 5 October: Empress Catherine II confirms the town's privileges.
 * 1783: During the Regency of Catherine II the Valga County (Kreis Walk) is formed.
 * 1780: The first stone buildings are erected: a church, a school and county offices.
 * 1789: Land surveyor O.S. Engell drafts the map of Valga showing 76 plots with houses.
 * 1816: The building of St. John's Church is finished.
 * 1819: 451 inhabitants lived in the town (79.6% of them Germans, 10.0% Latvians, 7.5% Russians and 2.9% Estonians)
 * 1876: Walkscher Anzeiger, the first newspaper in Valga, in German, is issued.
 * 1889: Valga Railway Station is opened. On 22 July the Tartu-Valga railway line is officially opened.
 * 1890 16 December: The Valga Temperance Society is founded.
 * 1896: The Pärnu-Valga narrow-gauge railway is opened.
 * 1901 7 December: Together with Latvians, Estonians succeed in winning the elections over Baltic Germans in Valga – the first occasion on Estonian territory. The chemist Johannes Märtson is elected mayor.
 * 1902: In the building of the Temperance Society the social society Säde is founded; Andres Alver, the county medical officer, is elected chairman. The Valga-Marienburg narrow-gauge railway is opened.
 * 1908 24 June: Estonian military commander Alfons Rebane is born in Valga.
 * 1908: The Girls' Progymnasium is changed into the Gymnasium with Marta Pärna as principal.
 * 1909: The construction of the Säde building is begun (architect Georg Hellat).
 * 1913: 16194 inhabitants lived in the town (51% of them Estonians, 25.1% Latvians, 15.5% Russians, 4.0% Germans, 2.1% Jewish).
 * 1917: A German zeppelin flies over the town and drops forty high-explosive bombs without hitting the main target, the railway station.
 * 1918 11 January: The Council of Delegates of Valga County Workers, Soldiers and Landless Men gains power in the town. On 12 February the German Army occupies Valga.
 * 1919 11 January: The Valga Estonian Gymnasium is opened at 22 Kesk Street. For the first time in the history of secondary education in Valga the teaching language is Estonian instead of German. At the end of January, 107 victims of Bolshevik acts of terror are found in five mass graves around Valga; 67 people are taken away as hostages. On 31 January the Battle of Paju takes place and consequently Valga is freed from the Bolsheviks.
 * 1920 1 July: The British envoy Colonel S. G. Tallents conclusively establishes the border between Estonia and Latvia, putting an end to their disputes and the city of Valga is divided into Estonian and Latvian areas based on ethnicity. Valga proper, as far as Konnaoja and Luke graveyard, remains intact under Estonian rule.
 * 1921 11 February: The decree of the Estonian government establishes the territory of Valga county. Valga becomes a county centre.
 * 1940 17 June: The Soviet occupation begins and with it the political repressions against Estonians and Latvians in Valga/Valka, including the mass deportations in June 1941.
 * 1941 9 July: Valga is occupied by German troops.
 * 1944 19 September: In the course of heavy fighting Valga is liberated from the German occupation of Estonia. It is immediately replaced by the Soviet occupation of Estonia.
 * 1988. The Valga Society for the Protection of Antiquities is founded. On 27 November, on the initiative of the Society, the beginning of the War of Liberation is commemorated at the memorial for those killed in the war.
 * 1989 24 February: The first Estonian flag of the re-established independence period is hoisted on the flagpole of 12 Aia Street.
 * 1992 24 May: The Russian army base in Valga is taken over, and later on becomes the border guard's post.
 * 1993 17 October: The first free elections of the municipal council after the restoration of independence take place.
 * 1994 31 January: On the 75th anniversary of the battle of Paju a memorial to it is opened. On 21–25 June, worldwide days of Valga county people take place.

Twin towns – Sister cities
The former municipality of Valga, Estonia was twinned with:

City Twins Association
The former municipality of Valga was a founding member of City Twins Association that was founded in Imatra, Finland on 13 December 2006. In addition to sister towns, Valga had a cooperation through the association with following cities:

 * 🇫🇮 Imatra, Finland
 * 🇷🇺 Svetogorsk, Russia
 * 🇪🇪 Narva, Estonia
 * 🇷🇺 Ivangorod, Russia
 * 🇩🇪 Görlitz, Germany
 * 🇩🇪 Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
 * 🇵🇱 Słubice, Poland
 * 🇵🇱 Cieszyn, Poland

Cooperation without any formal agreement

 * Vejle, Denmark
 * 🇭🇺 Sátoraljaújhely, Hungary

Notable residents

 * Aleksander Jaakson (1892–1942), military man and politician
 * Alfred Neuland (1895–1966), weightlifter and the first Olympic gold medalist from Estonia
 * Alfons Rebane (1908–1976), military commander
 * Kazimierz Świątek (Belarusian: Казімір Свёнтак, 1914–2011), first cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in independent Belarus
 * Paul Viiding (1904–1962), poet

title: Valga, Estonia


text:
Abaris the Hyperborean

In Greek mythology, Abaris the Hyperborean (Ἄβαρις Ὑπερβόρειος, Ábaris Hyperbóreios), son of Seuthes (Σεύθης), was a legendary sage, healer, and priest of Apollo known to the Ancient Greeks. He was supposed to have learned his skills in his homeland of Hyperborea, which he fled during a plague. He was said to be endowed with the gift of prophecy, and along with his Scythian dress, simplicity, and honesty, he created great sensation in Greece, and was held in high esteem.

Legend
According to Herodotus, he was said to have traveled around the world with an arrow symbolizing Apollo, eating no food. Heraclides Ponticus (c. 390 BC–c. 310 BC) wrote that Abaris flew on it. Plato (Charmides 158C) classes him amongst the "Thracian physicians" who practice medicine upon the soul as well as the body by means of "incantations" (ἐπωδαί, epodaí ). A temple to Persephone at Sparta was attributed to Abaris by Pausanias (9.10). Alan H. Griffiths compares Abaris to Aristeas in terms of being a "shamanistic missionary and savior-figure" and notes Pindar places Abaris during the time of Croesus.

Phalaris
A particularly rich trove of anecdotes is found in Iamblichus's Vita Pythagorica. Here, Abaris is said to have purified Sparta and Knossos, among other cities, from plagues (VP 92–93). Abaris also appears in a climactic scene alongside Pythagoras at the court of the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris. The two sages discuss divine matters, and urge the obstinate tyrant towards virtue (ibid. 215–221). Iamblichus also attributes a special expertise at extispicy to Abaris, the art of divination through the examination of anomalies in the entrails of animals. The Suda attributes a number of books to Abaris, including a volume of Scythian Oracles in dactylic hexameter, a prose theogony, a poem on the marriage of the river Hebrus, a work on purifications, and an account of Apollo's visit to the Hyperboreans. Such works, however, if they were really current in ancient times, were no more genuine than his reputed correspondence with Phalaris the tyrant. He is among the authors (= FGrHist 34) whose fragments were collected in Felix Jacoby's Fragmente der griechischen Historiker.

A more securely historical Greco-Scythian philosopher, who travelled among the Hellenes in the early sixth century, was Anacharsis.

Eighteenth century Bath architect John Wood, the Elder wrote about Abaris, and put forth the fanciful suggestion that he should be identified with King Bladud.

Modern impact

 * A Senior Society at Dartmouth College is named Abaris after this figure; it is one of eight Senior Societies among Dartmouth College student groups.
 * Abaris is featured in songs by the band Therion; "An Arrow From The Sun" (Lemuria), "The Wand of Abaris" and "The Falling Stone" (both from Gothic Kabbalah).
 * Peter Kingsley makes Abaris a key figure in his 2010 book A Story Waiting to Pierce You: Mongolia, Tibet and the Destiny of the Western World.

title: Abaris the Hyperborean