Mongol prince studying the Quran, miniature from a fourteenth-century edition of Rashid al-Din’s Compendium of Chronicles.

Mongol prince studying the Quran, miniature from a fourteenth-century edition of Rashid al-Din’s Compendium of Chronicles. Universal History Archive / UIG / Bridgeman Images.

Education

Volume XIV, Number 4 | fall 2022

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Miscellany

Fairy wren nestlings learn “passwords,” or unique single notes, from their mothers while still in their eggs; after birth they must use the passwords when calling for food, or the mothers will abandon the nest. In a 2012 study, scientists in Australia experimented with switching eggs and mothers, and found that passwords were not genetically inherited; the chicks assumed the passwords of their adopted mothers.

It’s the educated barbarian who is the worst: he knows what to destroy.

—Helen MacInnes, 1963
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The Colosseum, attributed to Robert Eaton, c. 1855.
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Monumental Mistakes

2023:

Fitness instructor carves his girlfriend’s name into the Colosseum.

c. 1850:

Thompson of Sunderland makes his mark on Pompey’s pillar.

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