At Home: Ancient Art

Much ancient artwork has faded over time, but new technology is bringing new ways to preserve and restore valuable works?without desecrating or altering the original.

As the CBC reports, ?Aboriginal elders and Parks Canada archaeologists have just completed a two-year project to photograph and interpret several ancient pictograph sites along the foothills and mountains in Alberta and B.C.? The sites are considered sacred and have not been altered by physical restoration attempts.

This means that until now, the ochre-painted drawings have been difficult to interpret with the naked eye. Now the photography project has allowed the ?story [to] . . . re-emerge,? transforming ?orange smudges? to ?drawings of circles, arrows and people.?

Parks Canada archaeologist Brad Himour told reporters that they were ?looking for a non-intrusive way to be able to record them for posterity.? The historical treasures ?create . . . a record of the past? and allow Canadians, particularly Aboriginal youth, an even better understanding of their legacy.

Around the World: The Nap Diet

Trying to drop a few pounds? Then hit the ?snooze? button on your alarm clock and get a bit more rest. There’s a new study linking more sleep and lower BMIs?and It’s got nothing to do with mistaking exhaustion for hunger.

As The Globe and Mail reports, sleep deprivation ?may . . . put your ?fat genes? into high gear.? This means that even if your diet and exercise habits are good, you’ll have to fight genetics a bit harder than you would if you weren’t short on sleep.

The study, which compared the sleep habits and BMIs of identical and fraternal twins, discovered that the amount of sleep we get directly influences the way our genes affect our weight. In fact, for individuals who slept fewer than seven hours a night, ?70 per cent of weight variations were due to genetic factors,? compared with just 32 per cent for those who got more than nine hours of sleep nightly.

?The more sleep you get, the less your genes determine how much you weigh,? neurologist Nathaniel Watson told reporters. This means, he added, that ?you can sleep yourself to a point where environmental factors, like diet and activity, are more important in determining your body weight than genetics.?