AThe standard infantry weapon of
all themajor combatants at the
start of the Second World War was the
bolt-action rifle. This was designed to
be fired fromthe right shoulder of the
user, whowould then use his right hand
to pull back the bolt to eject the spent
cartridge and push it forward again to
chamber a new one ready for firing.
It is not impossible to do this with
left hand and left shoulder, but it is
awkward. Furthermore, the spent
cartridge case is usually ejected to the
right and you don’t want a piece of
scalding-hot brass flying into your eye.
The Americans entered the war with
theM1 Garand, the world’s firstmassproduced
semi-automatic rifle, using
the exhaust gases of each round in an
eight-bullet clip to cock the gun and
chamber the next round. There was no
bolt towork, but it was nonetheless also
designed for right-handed shooting.
While there had been periodic talk
of making left-handed rifles – for
example, when the ShortMagazine
Lee-Enfield, used by British and empire
andCommonwealth forces in both
world wars, was first trialled – there
was never any great need in practice.
Working a rifle bolt is a
comparatively simple set of actions
which soldiers were trained to carry
out without thinking. It was not like
drawing or handwriting; and, of course,
many naturally left-handed soldiers had
gone to schools where left-handedness
was severely discouraged. Formost
southpaws who had never used a rifle
before, learning to shoot right-handed
may well have been easy enough.
Bear inmind also that the number
of actual riflemen in the Second World
War was small relative to the specialists
in other weapons, not tomention
cooks, clerks,medics, signallers and all
the rest. There were plenty of skilled
left-handedmarksmen, and in the
urgency of war, there were plenty of
other jobs for the less competent ones.
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Friday, March 4, 2016
A prehistoric love story
Neanderthals and humans mated far earlier than
was previously thought, a study has shown.
Researchers in Germany discovered that the
50,000-year-old remains of a Neanderthal woman,
recovered from southern Siberia, carried traces of
homo sapiens DNA, indicating that one or more
of her ancestors bred with a human 100,000 years
ago. Previously, it was thought such couplings only
followed the “great migration” out of Africa 60,000
years ago, which ultimately led to the Neanderthals
becoming extinct. “An early modern human
population must have left Africa much earlier than
had been shown before and met with Neanderthals,
possibly those moving from Europe towards the
East,” Sergi Castellano, who led the study, said. This
is the first time human DNA has been discovered in
a Neanderthal, although it was already known that
Neanderthal genes found their way into humans,
as some people alive today carry 4% Neanderthal
DNA. The most likely scenario in this case, according to scientists, is that a human
man mated with a Neanderthal woman, who raised the child in her own community.
was previously thought, a study has shown.
Researchers in Germany discovered that the
50,000-year-old remains of a Neanderthal woman,
recovered from southern Siberia, carried traces of
homo sapiens DNA, indicating that one or more
of her ancestors bred with a human 100,000 years
ago. Previously, it was thought such couplings only
followed the “great migration” out of Africa 60,000
years ago, which ultimately led to the Neanderthals
becoming extinct. “An early modern human
population must have left Africa much earlier than
had been shown before and met with Neanderthals,
possibly those moving from Europe towards the
East,” Sergi Castellano, who led the study, said. This
is the first time human DNA has been discovered in
a Neanderthal, although it was already known that
Neanderthal genes found their way into humans,
as some people alive today carry 4% Neanderthal
DNA. The most likely scenario in this case, according to scientists, is that a human
man mated with a Neanderthal woman, who raised the child in her own community.
Concussions raise suicide risk
A new study has found that even one
concussion triples a person’s risk of
committing suicide sometime in life.
Canadian researchers came to this
alarming conclusion after analysing the
medical records of more than 235,000
adults who had suffered a concussion,
Scientific American reports. The suicides in
the study group occurred an average of six
years after the injury; the risk of suicide
was higher still for those who had suffered
more than one concussion. The researchers
said, however, that it is unclear whether
concussions alone create the suicide risk
or other factors also play a role.
concussion triples a person’s risk of
committing suicide sometime in life.
Canadian researchers came to this
alarming conclusion after analysing the
medical records of more than 235,000
adults who had suffered a concussion,
Scientific American reports. The suicides in
the study group occurred an average of six
years after the injury; the risk of suicide
was higher still for those who had suffered
more than one concussion. The researchers
said, however, that it is unclear whether
concussions alone create the suicide risk
or other factors also play a role.
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