Artykuły w czasopismach na temat „Photographie du nu”

Ce texte examine les effets sociaux des usages congolais de la photographie comme medium de production et de circulation de l’identité et du corps modernes. Au cours du XXe siècle, la représentation photographique témoigne de la nouvelle identité mise en circulation dans l’univers moderne. L’image « mécaniquement reproduite » constitue un artefact tenant lieu et place d’une personne moderne. Pour ce numéro spécial, l’intérêt du texte proposé ici est surtout comparatif. L’analyse d’un processus de représentation de soi par la photographie éclaire ce que fait à la représentation de soi la circulation sur Internet des images autoproduites. Certes, les deux situations sont opposées : dans le cas congolais l’image fixe est bidimensionnelle, sa production par un tiers et sa circulation sont commodifiées ; sur Internet l’image animée est autoproduite pour la circulation dans l’espace non commodifié. Néanmoins, dans un cas comme dans l’autre, il y a coïncidence entre le changement de médium et la volonté du sujet de mettre en circulation une autre représentation de soi, de contrôler l’image de son corps. Au Congo, l’identité moderne est en construction permanente, elle semble graviter autour de la personne plutôt que faire partie du corps. Socialement acceptée, la représentation du corps noir féminin « moderne » s’inscrit dans la mémoire culturelle de la domination, y compris au plan de l’érotisme. Par contre, lorsque des femmes s’emparent de l’image de leur corps pour défier le système social, le corps nu est représenté en tant que bien commodifié. Il est alors inscrit dans un mode de jouissance « moderne » et dans l’offre de satisfaction du désir masculin individuel contre l’accès aux réseaux de pouvoir. Faut-il y voir un désir de pouvoir ou une tentative de libération de la domination masculine ? La distinction est difficile à opérer. En effet, sur le sexe féminin exposé plane la mémoire d’une autre conception selon laquelle ce sexe est autant le lieu d’où vient la vie que le siège d’une puissance sorcière. Exposer/regarder le sexe féminin est ainsi un acte de pouvoir.

Cet article interroge le concept de paysage et en quoi ce concept questionne les éléments de notre représentation. Il montre comment le paysage renvoie d’abord à la reconnaissance d’une forme par un sujet, mais aussi au-delà, et de façon plus complexe, à la dimension du réel et à celle de l’objet telles que la psychanalyse les articule. Le refoulement de ce réel est ce qui produit dans le paysage des éléments non reconnaissables mais plutôt déchiffrables, comme des lettres qui appellent une lecture. En d’autres termes les éléments du paysage et sa structure ne concernent pas seulement l’imaginaire, mais sont aussi de l’ordre du réel et du symbolique. Pour montrer cela, l’article s’appuie sur la théorie et la pratique de l’expérience psychanalytique, et sur ce qu’elle nous permet d’établir. Il évoque aussi quelques exemples en peinture et en photographie pouvant illustrer les points ici discutés. Enfin il aborde, en relation avec le paysage, les notions respectivement du nu et du visage.

Introduction. Shortly after the discovery of X-rays, their practical application in the clinical practice became the object of interest of many non-medical individuals. One of them was the famous Serbian writer, Branislav Nusic. This paper presents the life and work of Branislav Nusic, as well as his article: ?Roentgen?s Photography? which was published in the journal ?Politics? (July 8, 1906; N? 892, p. 3), under the alias Ben Akiba, in the Cyrillic script. The life and work of Branislav Nusic. Alchiviadi Nu?a, later Branislav Nusic (1864 - 1938) was a great Serbian literate, playwright, journalist, photographer, politician, diplomat, member of the Serbian Royal Academy, President of the Association of Yugoslav Playwrights, manager of the theaters in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Skopje and Sarajevo, and a military volunteer in the Serbian - Bulgarian war (1885). ?Roentgen?s Photography?. The author wrote this text in his own way, the only way he could and knew, vividly and wittily. He knew about the great power and strength of X-ray radiation, and he wrote of his knowledge in this short story. Without Branislav Nusic, the history of Serbian radiology would be poorer for not seeing the X-rays by the eyes of an educated, intelligent and, above all, humorous writer. Conclusion. Branislav Nusic, alongside Nikola Tesla, Mihajlo Pupin Idvorski, Dr. Abraham Vinaver, and all past and present Serbian radiologists, has become an essential and memorable link in the chain of the history of the Serbian radiology.

<p style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 18pt" class="MsoNormal">BOOK REVIEW OF: Ἀ. Ἀ&nu;&alpha;&gamma;&nu;ώ&sigma;&tau;&omicron;&upsilon;, <em>&Tau;ὰ &delta;&eta;&mu;ό&sigma;&iota;&alpha; ἀ&rho;&chi;&epsilon;ῖ&alpha; &sigma;&tau;ὴ&nu; &rho;&omega;&mu;&alpha;ϊ&kappa;ὴ &Alpha;ἴ&gamma;&upsilon;&pi;&tau;&omicron;</em>, &delta;&iota;&delta;&alpha;&kappa;&tau;&omicron;&rho;&iota;&kappa;ή &delta;&iota;&alpha;&tau;&rho;&iota;&beta;ή, &Sigma;ύ&lambda;&lambda;&omicron;&gamma;&omicron;&sigmaf; &pi;&rho;&omicron;&sigmaf; &delta;&iota;ά&delta;&omicron;&sigma;&iota;&nu; ὠ&phi;&epsilon;&lambda;ί&mu;&omega;&nu; &beta;&iota;&beta;&lambda;ί&omega;&nu;, Ἀ&theta;ῆ&nu;&alpha;&iota; 2012, <span>pp</span>. <span>472 (3 maps and 4 photographs of papyri included)</span> &Iota;<span>SBN 978-960-8351-61-5</span></p>

Twelve new species of the jumping spider genus Euochin Prószyński, 2018 from southern China are described: Euochin bethunei sp. nov. (♂ ♀), E. buziji sp. nov. (♂ ♀), E. dongpo sp. nov. (♂ ♀), E. extraculum sp. nov. (♂ ♀), E. lingyi sp. nov. (♂ ♀), E. nanjiabawa sp. nov. (♂ ♀), E. nu sp. nov. (♂ ♀), E. shenjun sp. nov. (♂ ♀), E. tianhe sp. nov. (♂ ♀), E. wanlessi sp. nov. (♂ ♀), E. yangmei sp. nov. (♂ ♀), E. zegangi sp. nov. (♂ ♀). Two new combinations are proposed: Euochin bamianshanensis (Liu, Wang & Peng, 2020) comb. nov. and Euochin longyangensis (Lei & Peng, 2012) comb. nov. (both transferred from Euophrys C. L. Koch, 1834, with redescription and revision of male and female pairing provided for the latter). Diagnostic illustrations and photographs are provided.

BackgroundPro-inflammatory cytokines have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and renal carcinoma.1 2 However, effective cytokine therapy is limited by its short half-life in circulation and the severe adverse effects associated with high systemic exposure. 3 To overcome these limitations, we developed a clinically translatable localized cytokine delivery platform composed of polymer encapsulated epithelial cells that produce localized natural cytokines (IL2, IL7, IL10, or IL12) with temporal regulation.MethodsCytokine PK StudiesSupernatant from individual capsules were assayed at 1-, 2-, 4-, or 24-hours using ELISA (n=6). Mouse Studies: For IP tumor models of ID8-Fluc; 10x106 cells suspended in HBSS were injected in the IP space of female albino C57BL/6 or NU/NU Nude mice (n=4–6). Cytokine factories were implanted 7 days post tumor injection. Primate Studies: Increasing doses of cytokine factories were administered to cynomolgus macaques (n=3). Complete blood count and blood chemistry analysis were performed 28 days after administration. IVIS Imaging: Mice were injected in the IP space with D-luciferin (300 µg/mL, PerkinElmer). Photographs and luminescent images were acquired 10 minutes after injection. Flow Cytometry: All antibodies were commercially obtained and prepared the day of staining. Intracellular staining was performed using the FOXp3/Transcription Factor Staining Buffer Set (Cat. 00-5523-00, eBioscience) and the BD Cytofix/cytoperm fixation/permeabilization solution kit (Cat. 554714, BD Bioscience).ResultsTumor-adjacent local administration of these cytokine factories demonstrated predictable dose modulation with spatial and temporal control and provided ovarian cancer immunotherapy without systemic toxicities. Interestingly, the murine IL2 local concentration (IP space) was greater than 100x higher than the systemic concentration (blood) demonstrating the ability of the platform to deliver native cytokines in vivo and create a high local concentration of cytokines with limited peripheral exposure. A similar concentration differential was seen with IL7, IL10 and IL12. Treatment of peritoneal tumors using IL2 producing cytokine factories provided sustained eradication of peritoneal tumors in an ovarian cancer mouse model. Our data confirmed local increases in the activation (CD25+CD8+) and proliferation (Ki67+CD8+) of cytotoxic T cells within the IP space of cytokine factory treated mice. Significantly, this platform produced local and systemic T cell biomarker profiles that predict efficacy without toxicity in non-human primates.ConclusionsOur findings demonstrate the safety and efficacy of IL2 cytokine factories in preclinical animal models and provide rationale for future clinical testing for the treatment of metastatic peritoneal cancers in humans.ReferencesChoudhry H, Helmi N, Abdulaal WH, Zeyadi M, Zamzami MA, Wu W, Mahmoud MM, Warsi MK, Rasool M, Jamal MS. Prospects of IL-2 in cancer immunotherapy. Biomed Res Int 2018;(2018): 9056173.McDermott DF, Atkins MB. Interleukin-2 therapy of metastatic renal cell carcinoma--predictors of response. Semin Oncol 33(2006):583–587.Muhlradt PF, Opitz HG. Clearance of interleukin 2 from the blood of normal and T cell-depleted mice. Eur J Immunol 12(1982):983–985.Ethics ApprovalAll mouse experiments were approved by Rice University’s Institution Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). All cynomolgus macaque procedures and post-operative care were performed in accordance with the Guidelines for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) and approved by the Institutional Use and Animal Care Committee (IACUC) of UIC.

Punjab, one of the diverse states of India, is known for its composite culture, impeccable hospitality, delish food and incredible history; having been the site of great partition, it is also replete with the stories of loss, suffering and resilience. While Punjab can be seen and comprehended through various vantage points, the current paper proposes and focuses on the proposition that ‘Punjabiyat’- the essence and way of being a Punjabi, is reflected specifically through its attire-folk embroidery (Fulkaari and Baag), Folk-Dance and Music Art forms (Sammi and Jaago) and the focal point of hospitality (Saada Pind). Phulkari, literally translated as flower shape, is a folk-art embroidery that originated in 15th c by rural women in Punjab, and is popularly arranged on Dupattas135. “Many Punjabi women used phulkari (literally, “flower-work”) embroidery to decorate their daily garments and handmade gifts in the nineteenth century. Illustrations only partially convey the vibrant visual impact of phulkaris, and even color photographs fail to capture fully the sheen of the silk thread. The embroidery ranges from striking geometric medallions in reds, shocking pinks, and maroons, through almost monochromatic golden tapestry-like, fabriccovering designs, to narrative embroideries depicting people and objects of rural Punjab”.136 Initially intended to be given away to daughters in marriage and holding a strong emotional value, the use of Fulkaari has widened and transitioned in the recent past. This study asserts that it can now also be seen as a cultural symbol and an artefact, to convey the bright and cheerful attitude of Punjabis and their general happy disposition towards lifeCarpe Diem. Similarly, the folk-dance art form of Sammi- a dance performed originally by tribal women of Punjab, represents the true culture and spirit of Punjabiyat- the friendship, longing, celebration of love and a sense of optimism for life. While Bhangra and Giddha folk dance art forms have gained wide popularity; folk dance art forms like Sammi and Jaago too need representation and space in academic and historical discourse. This paper also intends to trace these two relatively lost dance art forms as signifying essentiality of ‘Punjabiyat’. Further ‘Saada Pind’- roughly translated as ‘my village’; conveys a sense of oneness, camaraderie, raw emotion and a place in time-space continuum where each stranger is welcomed with ‘Ji Aaayan Nu’137. This study would establish how ‘Punjabiyat’; and consequentially ‘Indian’ cultural art forms can be a possibility of re-looking at the lost values of friendship, camaraderie, connection with the outside real world rather than a disparate and robotic connect with the monotonous clicks on our smart devices.

Post-calving surveys to estimate herd size of barren-ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus, R. t. granti, and R. t. caribou) have been used for caribou herds in Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Québec/Labrador. The main field procedure uses relocation of collared caribou to locate aggregated groups of hundreds or thousands of caribou during times of high insect harassment that usually occur in July. These groups are then pho­tographed to obtain a count of the caribou in the aggregated groups. Often some caribou are missed, and the count of caribou may be a negatively biased estimate of total herd size, unless a high proportion of the herd is found and photographed. To address this, some previous studies have used the Lincoln-Petersen estimator, which estimates the proportion of the herd counted based on the percentage of available collared caribou found during the survey. However, this estimator assumes equal probabilities of all groups of caribou being found, regardless of group size and the numbers of collared caribou in the group. These assumptions may not be valid, as larger groups are more likely to be found than smaller groups, particularly if there are several collared caribou present. This may lead to estimates that are biased low, along with an estimate of variance that may also be biased low. A two phase estimator developed by Rivest et al., in 1998 became available in R statistical software in 2012. We analyzed 20 data sets from post-calving surveys in the NWT and NU carried out between 2000 and 2015 using the Rivest estimator to explore working characteristics of this estimator. We compared the Rivest estimates with Lincoln-Petersen estimates and total counts on each survey. We considered factors that influence precision of the Rivest estimator with a focus on sampling factors such as the proportion of collars found, the number of collars available, and natural factors such as the degree of aggregation of caribou in each survey (as indexed by the negative binomial dispersion parameter). In general, the Rivest estimator displayed acceptable preci­sion when high proportions of caribou groups with collars were detected and counted, collar numbers were sufficient, and aggregation was adequate. Notable exceptions occurred in years of lower aggregation which resulted in many small groups with 0 or few collared caribou, and in these cases herd estimates had large variances and low precision. Estimates from the Rivest estimator, Lincoln-Petersen estimator, and total counts converged when sampling effort was high, collar numbers relative to herd size were high, and caribou were well aggregated in a limited number of groups. In other cases, estimates of the Rivest estimator were generally higher than Lincoln-Petersen estimates, presumably due to negative bias with the Lincoln-Petersen estimator. We provide a set of working recommendations to optimize field sampling to ensure reliable estimates of herd size using post-calving methods.

Cet article porte sur une portion méconnue de l’oeuvre de Conrad Poirier (1912-1968), un photojournaliste montréalais ayant oeuvré entre 1930 et 1960. Le fonds P48 de Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, où sont conservés les négatifs de Poirier, est principalement constitué de photographies de presse, mais renferme aussi une production personnelle qui emprunte à l’esthétique de la pin-up. Cette dernière est une image issue de la culture populaire mettant en scène une femme sensuelle dont le corps nu ou semi-dénudé est présenté dans des poses coquines empreintes de volupté. Cet article propose de réfléchir à la fois sur la présence de ces images dans les années 1940 et 1950 au Québec, malgré la censure qui était exercée à Montréal, et sur la production de Poirier à la même période. Afin de jeter un regard sur des images caractéristiques de la pin-up, les oeuvres du photographe ont été divisées en quatre catégories : tout d’abord, les pin-up collectionnées par Poirier, puis les photographies qu’il a lui-même réalisées, soit des représentations de nus, de femmes en maillot de bain et même de culturistes.

Abstract This study reassesses an inscribed victory catalogue from Sinope (IK Sinope 105) that is often discussed in scholarship concerning agonistic culture in the Roman world. One particularly curious element of this inscription is the empty nature of the penultimate line, which bears only the numerals rho-nu. In the existing scholarship, this is usually interpreted as the sum of all the athlete’s victories. This paper challenges the orthodox interpretation, using a combination of David French’s squeezes housed at the British Institute at Ankara, supported by autopsy and recent photographs of the stone itself. It goes on to reconsider the practice of summing athletic victories in honorific inscriptions more generally, examining a specially compiled dossier of 207 inscriptions of comparable date to IK Sinope 105, and concluding that the practice was relatively rare. Finally, this paper considers other possible interpretations of the rho-nu in IK Sinope 105, among which is the suggestion that rho-nu could be a chronographic feature. While the interpretation of the rho-nu in IK Sinope 105 remains open, the combination of a close analysis of the stone with a wider contextual consideration of the genre demonstrates how much more remains to be said about even a well-known and often cited inscription.

Professional health hazards are an important topic for healthcare providers, even in this period when the emphasis is put on fighting pollution and mental diseases. In this context, a category of visual artists presents also their professional medical conditions. Although not severe in most cases, clinical conditions of visual artists are quite common, but scarcely reported. These pathological conditions may be considered rare diseases, given their low prevalence in the general population, but are none less important. This paper reviews updated knowledge on health hazards affecting art photographers. Art photography is in continuous development and people at risk become more numerous. Diseases linked to the professional activity of photographers involve several diseases: skin diseases caused by chemical or allergic interaction, visual disorders, and psychological disorders. Preventive measures are suggested: photographers should avoid prolonged contact with offensive agents and if necessary use protection equipment; if necessary, they should follow recommendations to prevent health hazards of artistic photography; when needed, relaxation techniques should be learned and practiced. This is to our knowledge one of the very few reviews of this topic. Rezumat Pericolele profesionale pentru sănătate sunt un subiect important pentru furnizorii de servicii medicale, chiar și în această perioadă în care se pune accent pe combaterea poluării și a bolilor mentale. Deși nu sunt severe în majoritatea cazurilor, manifestările clinice ale artiștilor vizuali sunt destul de frecvente, dar abia raportate. Aceste manifestări patologice pot fi considerate boli rare, având în vedere prevalența lor scăzută în populația generală, dar nu sunt cu atât mai puțin importante. Această lucrare trece în revistă cunoștințele actualizate privind pericolele pentru sănătate care afectează fotografii de artă. Fotografia de artă este în continuă dezvoltare, iar persoanele cu risc devin mai numeroase. Bolile legate de activitatea profesională a fotografilor implică mai multe afecțiuni: boli ale pielii cauzate de interacțiuni chimice sau alergice, tulburări vizuale și tulburări psihologice. Se sugerează măsuri preventive: fotografii ar trebui să evite contactul prelungit cu agenți ofensatori și, dacă este necesar, să utilizeze echipamente de protecție; dacă este necesar, aceștia ar trebui să respecte recomandările pentru a preveni pericolele pentru sănătate ale fotografiilor artistice; atunci când este necesar, tehnicile de relaxare trebuie învățate și practicate. Din cunoștințele noastre, aceasta este una dintre puținele recenzii la acest subiect.

This study aims to analyze the process of: 1) Formation of discipline character applied by the school in scout extracurricular activities. 2) Factors forming discipline and responsibility in scout extracurricular activities. This study used descriptive qualitative method. Data collection techniques used in this study are observation, in-depth interviews, photography and recording. Subjects studied were elementary school students of Muslimulan NU Kudus V grade in 2019/2020 school year who participated in scout extracurricular activities. The type of research used is descriptive qualitative. Data analysis techniques using data reduction, data presentation and drawing conclusions. The results of the study note that the process of forming the character of the discipline and responsibilities of students in scouting activities is by the existence of various forms of activities that are interesting, challenging and fun. Like games, rigging, semaphores, morse, outbound, etc. Factors that shape the character of discipline and responsibility are divided into two factors. The first is internal factors; from oneself, the second external factor; from the school, family and community environment. Discipline and responsibility are two things that are mutually sustainable, so discipline can shape responsibilities and responsibilities can foster discipline.

Introduction- Alignment and leveling has been dene as “The tooth movement needed to achieve passive engagement of a plain arch wire of 0.019x0.025 dimension having standard arch form in to a correctly placed 0.022˝ bracket system.''Anchorage is an important consideration in the alignment and leveling stage of orthodontic treatment. Loss of anchorage during this stage is to be considered in the three planes of space. Aims and objectives - Three dimensional assessment of the position of skeletally anchored rst molar teeth and three dimensional assessment of the position of rst molar teeth anchored with conventional trans palatal arch using lateral cephalogram and study models, at the end of leveling and alignment stage of xed orthodontic mechanotherapy and its comparison with pretreatment position.Utimately to nd out by comparing the above measurements whether skeletally anchored molars offer more anchorage than molars anchored with conventional transpalatal arches. Materials and methods- These 30 patients were asked to participate in this study out of which 20 consented. All pre-treatment(T ) patient records were made: o study models, standard lateral cephalograms (Satlec – Pano D), extra oral and intra oral photograph. Miniscrew anchored transpalatalarch (MATPA) was placed in 12 patients(group I) and conventional transpalatal arch in 8 patients (group II). 0.022” stainless steel M.B.T. prescription brackets and tubes ( Nu- Edge, TP Orthodontics) were used and treatment mechanics described by Mc. Laughin, Bennet and Trevisi were followed in all patients. Result - This study attempted a 3-dimensional assessment of molar movement during alignment and leveling stage. The mini screw anchored trans palatal arch (MATPA) was found to offered better anchorage than the conventional trans palatal arch (TPA) .In the sagittal plane angular and linear measurements were found to have signicantly changed after leveling and alignment for conventional TPA group whereas no signicant difference were found in MATPA group. In the vertical plane, the perpendicular distance of the mesiobuccal cusp tip to the platal plane was found to be signicantly changed in conventional TPA group whereas no signicant change was measured in MATPA group. ConclusionMiniscrew anchored trans palatal arch offered better anchorage control of maxillary rst molar teeth in sagittal, vertical and transverse plane, during the leveling & alignment stage of xed orthodontic mechanotherapy, when compared with conventional trans palatal arch.

In 1999, the TV movie Shark Attack depicted an attack by mutant great white sharks on the population of Cape Town. By the time the third entry in the series, Shark Attack 3, aired in 2002, mutant great whites had lost their lustre and were replaced as antagonists with the megalodon: a giant shark originating not in any laboratory, but history, having lived from approximately 23 to 3.6 million years ago. The megalodon was resurrected again in May 2021 through a trifecta of events. A video of a basking shark encounter in the Atlantic went viral on the social media platform TikTok, due to users misidentifying it as a megalodon caught on tape. At the same time a boy received publicity for finding a megalodon tooth on a beach in South Carolina on his fifth birthday (Scott). And finally, the video game Stranded Deep, in which a megalodon is featured as a major enemy, was released as one of the monthly free games on the PlayStation Plus gaming service. These examples form part of a larger trend of alleged megalodon sightings in recent years, emerging as a component of the modern resurgence of cryptozoology. In the words of Bernard Heuvelmans, the Belgian zoologist who both popularised the term and was a leading figure of the field, cryptozoology is the “science of hidden animals”, which he further explained were more generally referred to as ‘unknowns’, even though they are typically known to local populations—at least sufficiently so that we often indirectly know of their existence, and certain aspects of their appearance and behaviour. It would be better to call them animals ‘undescribed by science,’ at least according to prescribed zoological rules. (1-2) In other words, a large aspect of cryptozoology as a field is taking the legendary creatures of non-Western mythology and finding materialist explanations for them compatible with Western biology. In many ways, this is a relic of the era of European imperialism, when many creatures of Africa and the Americas were “hidden animals” to European eyes (Dendle 200-01; Flores 557; Guimont). A major example of this is Bigfoot beliefs, a large subset of which took Native American legends about hairy wild men and attempted to prove that they were actually sightings of relict Gigantopithecus. These “hidden animals”—Bigfoot, Nessie, the chupacabra, the glawackus—are referred to as ‘cryptids’ by cryptozoologists (Regal 22, 81-104). Almost unique in cryptozoology, the megalodon is a cryptid based entirely on Western scientific development, and even the notion that it survives comes from standard scientific analysis (albeit analysis which was later superseded). Much like living mammoths and Bigfoot, what might be called the ‘megalodon as cryptid hypothesis’ serves to reinforce a fairy tale of its own. It reflects the desire to believe that there are still areas of the Earth untouched enough by human destruction to sustain massive animal life (Dendle 199-200). Indeed, megalodon’s continued existence would help absolve humanity for the oceanic aspect of the Sixth Extinction, by its role as an alternative apex predator; cryptozoologist Michael Goss even proposed that whales and giant squids are rare not from human causes, but precisely because megalodons are feeding on them (40). Horror scholar Michael Fuchs has pointed out that shark media, particularly the 1975 film Jaws and its 2006 video game adaptation Jaws Unleashed, are imbued with eco-politics (Fuchs 172-83). These connections, as well as the modern megalodon’s surge in popularity, make it notable that none of Syfy’s climate change-focused Sharknado films featured a megalodon. Despite the lack of a Megalodonado, the popular appeal of the megalodon serves as an important case study. Given its scientific origin and dynamic relationship with popular culture, I argue that the ‘megalodon as cryptid hypothesis’ illustrates how the boundaries between ‘hard’ science and mythology, fiction and reality, as well as ‘monster’ and ‘animal’, are not as firm as advocates of the Western science tradition might believe. As this essay highlights, science can be a mythology of its own, and monsters can serve as its gods of the gaps—or, in the case of megalodon, the god of the depths. Megalodon Fossils: A Short History Ancient peoples of various cultures likely viewed fossilised teeth of megalodons in the area of modern-day Syria (Mayor, First Fossil Hunters 257). Over the past 2500 years, Native American cultures in North America used megalodon teeth both as curios and cutting tools, due to their large size and serrated edges. A substantial trade in megalodon teeth fossils existed between the cultures inhabiting the areas of the Chesapeake Bay and Ohio River Valley (Lowery et al. 93-108). A 1961 study found megalodon teeth present as offerings in pre-Columbian temples across Central America, including in the Mayan city of Palenque in Mexico and Sitio Conte in Panama (de Borhegyi 273-96). But these cases led to no mythologies incorporating megalodons, in contrast to examples such as the Unktehi, a Sioux water monster of myth likely inspired by a combination of mammoth and mosasaur fossils (Mayor, First Americans 221-38). In early modern Europe, megalodon teeth were initially referred to as ‘tongue stones’, due to their similarity in size and shape to human tongues—just one of many ways modern cryptozoology comes from European religious and mystical thought (Dendle 190-216). In 1605, English scholar Richard Verstegan published his book A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities, which included an engraving of a tongue stone, making megalodon teeth potentially the subject of the first known illustration of any fossil (Davidson 333). In Malta, from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, megalodon teeth, known as ‘St. Paul’s tongue’, were used as charms to ward off the evil eye, dipped into drinks suspected of being poisoned, and even ground into powder and consumed as medicine (Zammit-Maempel, “Evil Eye” plate III; Zammit-Maempel, “Handbills” 220; Freller 31-32). While megalodon teeth were valued in and of themselves, they were not incorporated into myths, or led to a belief in megalodons still being extant. Indeed, save for their size, megalodon teeth were hard to distinguish from those of living sharks, like great whites. Instead, both the identification of megalodons as a species, and the idea that they might still be alive, were notions which originated from extrapolations of the results of nineteenth and twentieth century European scientific studies. In particular, the major culprit was the famous British 1872-76 HMS Challenger expedition, which led to the establishment of oceanography as a branch of science. In 1873, Challenger recovered fossilised megalodon teeth from the South Pacific, the first recovered in the open ocean (Shuker 48; Goss 35; Roesch). In 1959, the zoologist Wladimir Tschernezky of Queen Mary College analysed the teeth recovered by the Challenger and argued (erroneously, as later seen) that the accumulation of manganese dioxide on its surface indicated that one had to have been deposited within the last 11,000 years, while another was given an age of 24,000 years (1331-32). However, these views have more recently been debunked, with megalodon extinction occurring over two million years ago at the absolute latest (Pimiento and Clements 1-5; Coleman and Huyghe 138; Roesch). Tschernezky’s 1959 claim that megalodons still existed as of 9000 BCE was followed by the 1963 book Sharks and Rays of Australian Seas, a posthumous publication by ichthyologist David George Stead. Stead recounted a story told to him in 1918 by fishermen in Port Stephens, New South Wales, of an encounter with a fully white shark in the 115-300 foot range, which Stead argued was a living megalodon. That this account came from Stead was notable as he held a PhD in biology, had founded the Wildlife Preservation Society of Australia, and had debunked an earlier supposed sea monster sighting in Sydney Harbor in 1907 (45-46). The Stead account formed the backbone of cryptozoological claims for the continued existence of the megalodon, and after the book’s publication, multiple reports of giant shark sightings in the Pacific from the 1920s and 1930s were retroactively associated with relict megalodons (Shuker 43, 49; Coleman and Huyghe 139-40; Goss 40-41; Roesch). A Monster of Science and Culture As I have outlined above, the ‘megalodon as cryptid hypothesis’ had as its origin story not in Native American or African myth, but Western science: the Challenger Expedition, a London zoologist, and an Australian ichthyologist. Nor was the idea of a living megalodon necessarily outlandish; in the decades after the Challenger Expedition, a number of supposedly extinct fish species had been discovered to be anything but. In the late 1800s, the goblin shark and frilled shark, both considered ‘living fossils’, had been found in the Pacific (Goss 34-35). In 1938, the coelacanth, also believed by Western naturalists to have been extinct for millions of years, was rediscovered (at least by Europeans) in South Africa, samples having occasionally been caught by local fishermen for centuries. The coelacanth in particular helped give scientific legitimacy to the idea, prevalent for decades by that point, that living dinosaurs—associated with a legendary creature called the mokele-mbembe—might still exist in the heart of Central Africa (Guimont). In 1976, a US Navy ship off Hawaii recovered a megamouth shark, a deep-water species completely unknown prior. All of these oceanic discoveries gave credence to the idea that the megalodon might also still survive (Coleman and Clark 66-68, 156-57; Shuker 41; Goss 35; Roesch). Indeed, Goss has noted that prior to 1938, respectable ichthyologists were more likely to believe in the continued existence of the megalodon than the coelacanth (39-40). Of course, the major reason why speculation over megalodon survival had such public resonance was completely unscientific: the already-entrenched fascination with the fact that it had been a locomotive-sized killer. This had most clearly been driven home by a 1909 display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. There, Bashford Dean, an ichthyologist at the museum, reconstructed an immense megalodon jaw, complete with actual fossil teeth. However, due to the fact that Dean assumed that all megalodon teeth were approximately the same size as the largest examples medially in the jaws, Dean’s jaw was at least one third larger than the likely upper limit of megalodon size. Nevertheless, the public perception of the megalodon remained at the 80-foot length that Dean extrapolated, rather than the more realistic 55-foot length that was the likely approximate upper size (Randall 170; Shuker 47; Goss 36-39). In particular, this inaccurate size estimate became entrenched in public thought due to a famous photograph of Dean and other museum officials posing inside his reconstructed jaw—a photograph which appeared in perhaps the most famous piece of shark fiction of all time, Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws. As it would turn out, the megalodon connection was itself a relic from the movie’s evolutionary ancestor, Peter Benchley’s novel, Jaws, from the year before. In the novel, the Woods Hole ichthyologist Matt Hooper (played by Richard Dreyfuss in the film) proposes that megalodons not only still exist, but they are the same species as great white sharks, with the smaller size of traditional great whites being due to the fact that they are simply on the small end of the megalodon size range (257-59). Benchley was reflecting on what was then the contemporary idea that megalodons likely resembled scaled-up great white sharks; something which is no longer as accepted. This was particularly notable as a number of claimed sightings stated that the alleged megalodons were larger great whites (Shuker 48-49), perhaps circuitously due to the Jaws influence. However, Goss was apparently unaware of Benchley’s linkage when he noted in 1987 (incidentally the year of the fourth and final Jaws movie) that to a megalodon, “the great white shark of Jaws would have been a stripling and perhaps a between-meals snack” (36). The publication of the Jaws novel led to an increased interest in the megalodon amongst cryptozoologists (Coleman and Clark 154; Mullis, “Cryptofiction” 246). But even so, it attracted rather less attention than other cryptids. From 1982-98, Heuvelmans served as president of the International Society of Cryptozoology, whose official journal was simply titled Cryptozoology. The notion of megalodon survival was addressed only once in its pages, and that as a brief mention in a letter to the editor (Raynal 112). This was in stark contrast to the oft-discussed potential for dinosaurs, mammoths, and Neanderthals to remain alive in the present day. In 1991, prominent British cryptozoologist Karl Shuker published an article endorsing the idea of extant megalodons (46-49). But this was followed by a 1998 article by Ben S. Roesch in The Cryptozoology Review severely criticising the methodology of Shuker and others who believed in the megalodon’s existence (Roesch). Writing in 1999, Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark, arguably the most prominent post-Heuvelmans cryptozoologists, were agnostic on the megalodon’s survival (155). The British palaeozoologist Darren Naish, a critic of cryptozoology, has pointed out that even if Shuker and others are correct and the megalodon continues to live in deep sea crevasses, it would be distinct enough from the historical surface-dwelling megalodon to be a separate species, to which he gave the hypothetical classification Carcharocles modernicus (Naish). And even the public fascination with the megalodon has its limits: at a 24 June 2004 auction in New York City, a set of megalodon jaws went on sale for $400,000, but were left unpurchased (Couzin 174). New Mythologies The ‘megalodon as cryptid hypothesis’ is effectively a fairy tale born of the blending of science, mythology, and most importantly, fiction. Beyond Jaws or Shark Attack 3—and potentially having inspired the latter (Weinberg)—perhaps the key patient zero of megalodon fiction is Steve Alten’s 1997 novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, which went through a tortuous development adaptation process to become the 2018 film The Meg (Mullis, “Journey” 291-95). In the novel, the USS Nautilus, the US Navy’s first nuclear submarine and now a museum ship in Connecticut, is relaunched in order to hunt down the megalodon, only to be chomped in half by the shark. This is a clear allusion to Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (1870), where his Nautilus (namesake of the real submarine) is less successfully attacked by a giant cuttlefish (Alten, Meg 198; Verne 309-17). Meanwhile, in Alten’s 1999 sequel The Trench, an industrialist’s attempts to study the megalodon are revealed as an excuse to mine helium-3 from the seafloor to build fusion reactors, a plot financed by none other than a pre-9/11 Osama bin Laden in order to allow the Saudis to take over the global economy, in the process linking the megalodon with a monster of an entirely different type (Alten, Trench 261-62). In most adaptations of Verne’s novel, the cuttlefish that attacks the Nautilus is replaced by a giant squid, traditionally seen as the basis for the kraken of Norse myth (Thone 191). The kraken/giant squid dichotomy is present in the video game Stranded Deep. In it, the player’s unnamed avatar is a businessman whose plane crashes into a tropical sea, and must survive by scavenging resources, crafting shelters, and fighting predators across various islands. Which sea in particular does the player crash into? It is hard to say, as the only indication of specific location comes from the three ‘boss’ creatures the player must fight. One of them is Abaia, a creature from Melanesian mythology; another is Lusca, a creature from Caribbean mythology; the third is a megalodon. Lusca and Abaia, despite being creatures of mythology, are depicted as a giant squid and a giant moray eel, respectively. But the megalodon is portrayed as itself. Stranded Deep serves as a perfect distillation of the megalodon mythos: the shark is its own mythological basis, and its own cryptid equivalent. References Alten, Steven. Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror. New York: Doubleday, 1997. Alten, Steven. The Trench. New York: Pinnacle Books, 1999. Atherton, Darren. 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