Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Mummies are Alive…Within the Pages of The Anatomical Record!


http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.23127/abstract


Editorial
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Mummies are Alive…Within the Pages of The Anatomical Record!

    Jeffrey T. Laitman Associate Editor, The Anatomical Record* and
    Kurt H. Albertine Editor-in-Chief, The Anatomical Record

Article first published online: 22 MAY 2015

DOI: 10.1002/ar.23127

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Issue
The Anatomical Record

Volume 298, Issue 6, pages 931–932, June 2015
Article has an altmetric score of 10


The Anatomical Record has proudly published special issues recently on many topics, ranging from: an exploration of Moby Dick's relatives (Laitman, 2007; Reidenberg, 2007); the inner workings of the sinuses (Laitman, 2008; Marquez, 2008); the hidden biology of dinosaurs (Dodson, 2009; Laitman, 2009); a microscope on how our closest relatives swing through the trees or munch on lunch (Laitman, 2010; Organ, et al., 2010); explorations on what's new in the biology of our South American monkey cousins (Laitman, 2011; Rosenberger, 2011); new findings in vestibular and hearing biology (a favorite for those of us becoming by necessity more interested in the latter; Laitman, 2012; Van De Water, 2012); to the wonderful world of noses, what they are, and how they came to be (Laitman, 2014; Van Valkenburgh et al., 2014)–to mention but a few. While covering an array of topics, they have all had one thing in common: our journal has a long and glorious history of publishing the best science in aspects of theses fields. Indeed, many of the greatest anatomists of the last 100 years presented their outstanding findings in The Anatomical Record, paving the way for our special issues.

This month's Special Issue, “The Anatomy of the Mummy,” Guest Edited by Janet Monge and Frank Rühli (Monge and Rühli, 2015; Laitman, 2015) is a departure for us because it takes The Anatomical Record into an interdisciplinary realm that we have not ventured into before: the world of human mummified remains. Indeed, besides a brief report from Ron Wade in the sister publication of ours, The New Anatomist, on “medical mummies” back in 1998 (Wade, 1998), or the brief discussion relating to mummified tissue in Blaney and Johnson's (1989) technique paper on reconstituting fixed cadaveric material, The Anatomical Record has not been home to studies that explore either human or animal mummies. Just was not “our thing” as kids would say today. Yet, while that may have been true in the past, our current Anatomical Record is a most different beast, hungry to explore new and interdisciplinary areas. Indeed, our journal has prided itself in recent years in being at the forefront of “Integrative Anatomy,” by which we mean going out of the classic silos and reflecting the reality of how our science is done today. Rarely, does one use a single approach or technique to test their hypotheses, and current “anatomists” are just as likely to use approaches and methodologies from physiology, molecular biology, or cell biology, as they are to employ classic dissection, histology, or histochemistry. Our journal seeks to reflect the robusticity of our science, and we have especially tried to do this in our Special Issues.

“The Anatomy of the Mummy” has afforded us the perfect opportunity to do the above. Led by anatomists Janet Monge and Frank Rühli, mummies reported on in our Special Issue have been viewed from both the inside and the outside. Their anatomy has been exquisitely detailed through cutting edge examination, imaging and histology, while they are put in historical, archeological and cultural context. Indeed, even the often-uncomfortable topic of ethical appropriateness of access and preservation are given a needed voice.

So, new and different as this issue may be to our pantheon of topics, The Anatomical Record enthusiastically welcomes the science of Mummies to our home.
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Figure 1. Nuts about mummies. Yes we AR! Dr. Laitman (left) and Dr. Albertine (right) are in the threshold of the Penn Museum (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology & Anthropology) in Philadelphia. The event is the 2011 Anatomy of the Mummy Symposium, co-sponsored by AR. The symposium, its organizer, Dr. Janet Monge (Curator), and its speakers led to this Special Issue: The Anatomy of the Mummy.

    Jeffrey T. Laitman*

    Associate Editor

    The Anatomical Record

    Kurt H. Albertine

    Editor-in-Chief

    The Anatomical Record

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