Molecular detective work has identified red blood cells and collagen from 76-million-year-old therapods, the group that includes the largest predators to have stalked the Earth. It has revealed tell-tale chemical signatures that indicate triceratops and stegosaurs were, unusually for dinosaurs, cold-blooded – and that one spiky, heavily armoured herbivore, nodosaur, was ginger. Scientists have discovered that Spinosaurus – famous for the large 'sail' on its back – probably used its six-inch (15 cm) teeth and crocodile jaws to hunt in deep water, as well as evidence that iguanodons might have been surprisingly intelligent, and that pterosaurs (not technically dinosaurs, of course – they're actually winged reptiles) often walked to find their prey.
But research into exactly how dinosaurs mated – or in fact, anything at all about how they hooked up – has drawn a total blank. To this day, scientists can't even accurately distinguish males from females, let alone tell you how they courted or what kind of genitals they had. Without this fundamental knowledge, much of their biology and behaviour remains a total mystery. Only one thing is certain: they would have been doing it.
Marcy Dermansky specializes in female characters behaving badly. Her second novel, about a feckless nanny, is titled “Bad Marie.” From the sisters who get tattoos in her debut, “Twins,” to the on-the-road protagonist of “The Red Car” and the mother-daughter rivals in 2019’s “Very Nice,” Dermansky allows women to choose their own paths, even when those paths lead to dark and difficult places.
While the meanings of Auden’s poems can sometimes be elusive, nearly all of them contain lines and passages that take your breath away.
John Mauceri, founding director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, is a composer, arranger, writer, and educator who has conducted the world’s major opera companies and symphony orchestras. For 18 years, Mauceri worked closely with Leonard Bernstein on many of Bernstein’s premieres. He has championed the work of composers banned by Hitler, in particular those who found refuge in Hollywood, and has written about and performed music from opera, musical theater, and music composed for film. His new book, The War on Music: Reclaiming the 20th Century, is a critical survey — and rethinking — of 20th-century classical music. It is also, in its own way, a manifesto and a cri de coeur that proposes to make contemporary classical music more popular and alive by reimagining its repertoire.