Heads up on this mystery
QUESTION Why were the torsos of the Easter Island sculptures buried?
The easter Island heads are known as Moai by the Rapa Nui people, Polynesian travellers who carved the figures out of hardened volcanic ash between AD 1100 and 1500. In fact, most Moai have torsos, truncated at the waist and covered by sediment from mudslides.
The Moai have over-large heads, heavy brows and elongated noses with a distinctive fish hook shaped curl of the nostrils and thin, pouting lips.
The buried torsos, amounting to twothirds of the sculpture, are less defined. The arms are carved in bas relief and rest against the body, sometimes the collarbone, hands and navel are carved and often the torso is flat. each statue is 13 ft high and weighs 14 tons.
The irony is that the carving of these 887 monumental statues probably resulted in them being covered in sediment and caused the downfall of the people who made and worshipped them.
The islanders denuded Rapa Nui of trees to transport the statues around the island, but also to make canoes, fire, rope, housing and clothing. The absence of trees caused the mudslides that partly buried the statues.
Cathy Fitzgerald, Esher, Surrey.
QUESTION Does the human body emit light?
VIRTuAlly all living things emit a tiny amount of light. ultra-weak photon
emission is energy released as light through metabolism. Chemical reactions within the body produce heat and emit elementary particles of light.
Our biological glimmer is a thousand times less intense than the sensitivity of the human eye so can only be detected by the most sensitive apparatus.
Masaki Kobayashi, of the Tohoku Institute of Technology, has designed a cryogenic charge-coupled device camera that is so sensitive it can detect a single photon. The camera must be kept at minus 120 c and sealed in complete darkness. The person being filmed must be naked and perfectly clean.
Kobayashi has discovered the human body emits light rhythmically, with the glow strongest in the late afternoon and around the lower part of the face.
J. E. Smith, Banbury, Oxon.
QUESTION Has any actor been booted out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences?
FuRTheR to the account of Carmine Caridi being the first actor to be ejected from the Academy in 2004, due to his sharing of advance copies of films, he had been treated poorly by hollywood.
he was screen-tested by Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather and given the role of Sonny Corleone.
however, executive Robert evans ordered the part to be recast because Caridi was too tall to play opposite Al Pacino. James Caan won the role.
This led to Caridi falling off the rails and he was arrested after selling cocaine to an undercover agent, leading to a stint in jail. A repentant Francis Ford Coppola cast Caridi in Godfather II as the mobster Carmine Rosato.
Liz Worth, York.
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