The AV Club – my favourite pop culture site on the whole wide Internet – has covered Wikipedia’s Werewolf page as part of its Wiki Wormhole series. (more…)
Tag: research
Fur, fangs, film & femininity: Priest’s “She-Wolf” explores the cultural history of the female werewolf
Kipling had it right, I think – the female of the species is more deadly than the male. Historically, she’s also maligned, revered, and misunderstood. A new book edited by Dr. Hannah Priest explores these cultural artifacts and more though the perspective of the female werewolf. (more…)
Chinese Scientists May Have Identified “Werewolf” / Hypertrichosis Gene
According to The Register, scientists at the Peking Union Medical College in Beijing may have discovered the gene responsible for hypertrichosis, or the “werewolf disorder”. Over the course of four years, geneticist Xue Zhang and his team scanned the DNA of over two dozen people who have congenital generalized hypertrichosis terminalis (CGHT). Zhang’s team discovered that each of the subjects share a mutation near the SOX9 gene, which controls hair growth. Further research is required to discover whether this is a coincidence or if there’s an actual connection, but it’s an interesting bit of news nevertheless.