Great Reads: Discovering Nazi science in anatomy books; trapped baby orca brings B.C. together; Israel and Iran’s shadow war

Good morning, and welcome to the weekend.

Grab your cup of coffee or tea, and sit down with a selection of this week’s great reads from The Globe.

In this issue, Marsha Lederman follows a University of British Columbia professor’s investigation into anatomy books with ties to Nazi science.

One of them, known as the Pernkopf atlas, was pushed out of print in the 1990s after researchers confirmed the bodies depicted in the illustrations were victims of the Nazi regime.

But as Dr. Claudia Krebs looked at other atlases for her UBC ethics course, she not only found reproductions of Pernkopf images present in other sources that are still used – but another problematic atlas altogether, one that included biographical details of the victims.

“The big surprise, and this was the discovery made at UBC, was that the use of Nazi victims’ bodies for medical purposes was more widespread than previously known,” says Lederman.

Publicly presented last month for the first time, Dr. Krebs’ research has forced the medical community to confront ethical questions about anatomical drawings all over again.

And, says Lederman, there’s more to the story that didn’t make it into her article: the fact that at least one of the artists who worked on the second atlas was a British prisoner-of-war forced into contributing. “It would be amazing to track any of those people down and see if their descendants have any information,” says Lederman. “Maybe that will happen now. If it does, I’d love to write about it.”

Justine Hunter writes about the efforts by researchers and residents in British Columbia to rescue a killer whale calf trapped in a lagoon where its mother was beached at low tide and died.

Senior international correspondent Mark MacKinnon looks back at the history of the relations between Israel and Iran, and how the two countries turned from allies to foes.

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The stain of Nazi science pushed one anatomy book off the shelves. A UBC professor has now found another

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The Pernkopf atlas was once a celebrated classic, published in many languages and found in medical school libraries around the world. Using a method that displayed an area of the body in layered dissection steps, the quality of its paintings was without equal, and proved essential for everyone from medical students learning their way around the human body to veteran surgeons. In the 1990s, researchers exposed that the bodies drawn in the book were victims of the Nazis, and it was pushed out of print. But as ethical questions still remain about its use, UBC’s Dr. Claudia Krebs has found another problematic atlas – one that set her on a mission to find out the names of the victims.

Baby orca, trapped where its ‘Big Mama’ died, brings together B.C. researchers and locals in efforts to reunite it with family

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The orphan orca calf in B.C. that’s making headlines for evading weeks-long rescue efforts comes from an unusually successful, growing population of killer whales. Her lineage dates back to a whale known as Big Mama, and a family more formally known to researchers as the T109s, which are lauded by those at the Whale Centre in Tofino for their formidable hunting skills. Family, among Bigg’s killer whales, is organized around mothers. And Big Mama has helped rebuild a threatened population. Justine Hunter reports on the T109A clan that has split off, known affectionately as The Runaways.

Israel and Iran’s shadow war breaks out into the open

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Israel and Iran have been arch enemies since shortly after Iran’s 1979 revolution. But there was a time when they were allies against their Arab neighbours. For decades before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Israel and Iran cultivated each other as allies. Iran was the second Muslim country, after Turkey, to recognize the Jewish state after its 1948 Declaration of Independence. Mark Mackinnon writes about the transition from ally to opponent, with a shadow war now on the verge of exploding into direct conflict.

‘I want to be like bitcoin jesus’: Court documents reveal how the Quadriga crypto scandal unfolded

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Joe Castaldo, Alexandra Posadzki and Mike Hager walk us through the origins of a cryptocurrency exchange called QuadrigaCX, which would become – for a time – Canada’s largest virtual currency exchange, before it collapsed into bankruptcy when one of its co-founders died in 2018. When that happened, thousands of users were unable to access their funds. Previously unpublished chat excerpts reveal how QuadrigaCX’s two co-founders talked about stealing from the company, taking it public in a “pump-and-dump” scheme or using proceeds to “look at scam opportunities.”

Where do you plant a tree with a 1,000-year lifespan?

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It’s a dangerous time to be a tree, as forests cope with the effects of climate change, wildfires and tree-eating insects. Under those conditions, Arno Kopecky grapples with where to plant a Douglas Fir tree that has outgrown its pot. We can’t change the past, but the future remains unwritten, and Kopecky believes nothing evokes that potential like a baby tree that has centuries ahead of it.

With a giant sculpture made of single-use plastic, artist Benjamin Von Wong wants to send a hopeful message

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Single-Use Reflections, Canadian artist Ben Von Wong‘s outdoor installation, was displayed on Manhattan’s High Line trail for Earth Month from April 5 to 17 – twelve days that are just a blip in the lifespan of plastic bottles, which can take up to 450 years to decompose. Wong’s eye-catching, serpent-like installation aims to make people stop, maybe scratch their heads, snap a photo and then, ideally, post it on Instagram or TikTok – turning social media into a megaphone for his message: We must reduce our reliance on single-use plastics.

Stone lifting: The quest to bring back an ancient test of strength

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Hugging rocks might seem like an odd way to get in shape, but when most of the fitness industry is focused on shortcuts, stone lifting presents an opportunity to challenge your limits in a refreshingly elemental way. For Edmonton-based brothers Dale and Dave Nisbet, and a growing community of stone lifters, it’s also a way to connect with their ancestors by participating in their cultural traditions. Together, the Nisbet brothers are reigniting the ancient practice. Alyssa Ages reports on a culmination of a year’s work: The Gathering, an event for which stone-lifting enthusiasts come together from across the country to strength train in nature’s gym.

Take our arts and culture quiz.

Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, released at midnight today. How many studio albums has she released in total?

a. 14

b. 8

c. 11

d. 12