Tooth of the beauty myth
Is it true that crooked teeth are considered desirable in Japan? How else do perceptions of beauty differ around the world?
While the Western ideal of dental beauty is perfectly straight pearly whites, young women in Japan engage in an unusual practice known as yaeba (double tooth), where an additional tooth is inserted above the upper canines. it costs around £220 for a removable yaeba.
The trend has been linked to pop star and actress Tomomi itano, who had a number one hit in 2011 with Fui Ni (Unexpectedly). She had a naturally occurring double tooth. ironically, she has since had it removed.
Some commentators have looked for a philosophical meaning to the craze, arguing it originated from the traditional Japanese aesthetic sense of wabi-sabi — finding beauty in imperfect shapes.
There are many examples of unusual types of beauty around the world. One of the most distinctive is the decorative lip plates inserted into the lower lip of women of the Mursi tribe in ethiopia — the larger the plate, the more desirable.
The process begins when a girl reaches puberty, when plates of increasing size are inserted, gradually stretching the lower lip until a full-size one can be worn.
The women of the Mantawaian tribe in Sumatra undergo teeth chiselling. This painful procedure leaves them with smaller, pointed teeth — a sign of beauty and social status.
in Mauritania a curvaceous body is a sign of beauty, fecundity and wealth. There are ‘fat camps’ where young women are fed a diet of up to 16,000 calories a day — more than four times the amount consumed by a male bodybuilder — to prepare them for marriage.
in many cultures, tattoos have cultural significance. The Maori in New Zealand have decorated their skin with ‘ta moko’ black and blue patterns for centuries. Women tattoo their lips blue and have traditional designs on their chin.
Tattoos, of varying quality, have become ubiquitous in the West. A 2015 survey revealed more than 30 per cent of 25 to 39-year-olds are inked.
Skin whitening is an unfortunate trend in parts of Asia, Africa and South America, and women from Myanmar have brass coils twisted about their necks to make them look longer.
Body scarification occurs in ethiopia, Sudan and Papua New Guinea, where Sepik men favour a crocodile pattern.
An unusual trend in iran is for men and women to wear bandages on their nose to indicate they have had plastic surgery — a symbol of wealth and status.
Jessica Walters, London SE12.
Are the Giza pyramids aligned with the stars?
The sides of the three pyramids at Giza are aligned almost perfectly with the four compass points. The accuracy is within 1/15th of one degree — a tiny margin of error considering the methods of survey available some 4,500 years ago when the Great Pyramid was built.
The two stars in the Big Dipper asterism in the Ursa Major constellation that point the way to the pole star would seem to be the most likely alignment for the northsouth axis. The pole star is very low on the horizon when viewed from egypt.
Ancient egyptians believed heaven was in an area around the pole star marked by two stars they called The indestructibles. These were Beta Ursae Minoris in the constellation of Ursa Minor and Mizar in Ursa Major.
For this reason, there is a vent pointing up from the burial chamber to the surface to allow the Pharaoh to ascend to heaven. The angle of the shaft means The indestructibles were always visible from inside the pyramid. By calculating the positions of The indestructibles, it is possible to date the building of Giza’s oldest and largest pyramid, Khufu, to 2,480 BC, plus or minus five years.
This is more accurate than using egyptian chronology based on its written history, which has an accuracy of only plus or minus 100 years.
in addition to being aligned north to south, the south-west corners of the three pyramids are in a perfectly straight line. The north-east corner of the smallest pyramid, Menkaure, aligns perfectly with the centre points of Khufu and Khafre. There are three much smaller pyramids in the shadow of Khufu known as the Queen’s pyramids.
There are more than 80 known pyramids in egypt, and others may be hidden under the desert sands.
Bob Cubitt, Northampton.
Theoretically, how far can the Periodic Table extend beyond the 118 known elements?
The Periodic Table is limited by relativity and by the fact that positively charged protons repel each other. The more you pack into a nucleus, the less stable it will be. Uranium, with an atomic number of 92, is the last element stable enough to occur naturally on earth.
The U.S. physicist Richard Feynman calculated that an atom with more than 137 protons would violate special relativity. his research showed that electrons in these elements would have to move faster than the speed of light, and thus violate the rules of relativity, to avoid crashing into the nucleus.
it has emerged that Feynman’s calculation was probably incorrect because he treated the nucleus as a single point. if it was considered to be a ball of particles, the number of elements could theoretically reach a limit of 173.
Some physicists suggest we are reaching a point in the Periodic Table, around 122 to 126, where super heavy elements have the potential to have longer half-lives (that is, slower rates of decay) because the number of protons and neutrons are balanced. This opens up fascinating new possibilities in science.
Mike Burroughs, Halifax, W. Yorks.
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