7일 서울 용산구 국립중앙박물관에서 열린 ‘보존과학 우리문화재를 지키다’ 특별전에서 기자들이 복원된 유물을 살펴보고 있다. 박지환기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

역대 가장 오래된 신경계(Nervous System)를 고스란히 간직한 화석이 발견됐다.최근 영국 케임브리지 대학 등 국제 공동연구팀은 중국 쿤밍 지역에서 약 5억 1500만 년 전으로 추정되는 절지동물의 화석을 발견했다고 발표했다. 동물의 진화 연구에 큰 도움이 될 이 화석은 새우 모양으로 길이는 약 15cm, 다리는 최소 80쌍 이상으로 추정된다. 학명은 'C. 쿤밍엔시스'(Chenjiangocaris kunmingensis)로 현재의 거미나 게같은 절지동물의 '조상뻘'이라는 것이 연구팀의 설명. 이번 발견이 의미있는 것은 신경계의 흔적이 그대로 남아있는 상태로 발견됐기 때문이다. 일반적으로 이빨과 뼈같은 단단한 부위는 화석화되기 쉽지만 신경계같은 부드러운 부분은 세월을 견디지 못하고 부서져 사라진다. 공동연구자인 하비에르 오르테가-에르난데스 박사는 "신경계를 간직한 화석은 거의 찾을 수가 없었다"면서 "이들 동물들의 초기 진화 역사를 연구하는데 있어 매우 중요한 정보가 될 것"이라고 설명했다. 특히 C. 쿤밍엔시스가 살았던 이 시기는 캄브리아기 대폭발 초기로 연구 가치가 더욱 높다. 약 5억 4000만년 전인 캄브리아기에 갑자기 동물의 문(門)이 폭발적으로 등장하면서 다양하고 복잡한 형태의 동물이 지구상에 등장했다. 　 당시 C. 쿤밍엔시스는 바다에 살면서 발달된 관절과 발로 바닥을 기어다닌 것으로 보이며 신경계의 주요소인 신경색(nerve cord)이 몸 전체에 퍼져있음이 확인됐다. 신경색은 척추동물의 척수와 유사한 기능을 하는 것으로 현대의 우단벌레(velvet worm)에서도 발견된다. 　 오르테가-에르난데스 박사는 "캠브리아기 화석 중 중추신경계를 간직한 가장 복잡한 샘플로 현미경을 통해 분석했다"면서 "80쌍의 발로 바닥을 종종걸음으로 다니면서 침전물을 먹고 살았을 것"이라고 밝혔다. 이번 연구결과는 미국국립과학원회보(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) 최신호에 게재됐다. 박종익 기자 pji@seoul.co.kr

서울시선거관리위원회 직원들이 4일 제20대 국회의원 선거 D-40일을 맞아 종로구 마로니에 공원에서 투표 참여를 독려하는 캠페인을 펼치고 있다. 지역구 의원 253명, 비례대표 47명을 선출하는 이번 총선은 다음달 13일 치러진다. 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

4일 서울 종로구 마로니에 공원에서 서울서 선거관리위원회 소속 직원들이 40일을 앞둔 총선 투표독려를 위한 캠페인을 펼치고 있다. 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

4일 서울 종로구 마로니에 공원에서 서울서 선거관리위원회 소속 직원들이 40일을 앞둔 총선 투표독려를 위한 캠페인을 펼치고 있다. 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

?It is common for the authors to include epilogues, however, yours was especially sincere and full of countless thank you-s. Humans are quite similar in genetic aspects(you even mentioned that the reason Kenya became a powerful nation in track-and-field is because it did not lose the talented ones to other sports). Sport is a way of exploring the inner-conscience, so enjoy. Such conclusion seemed a little bit cliche-tic in the first place, pardon me, but as I thought about it more and more, it seems to be a really valuable conclusion. It has been already two years since you wrote the book. If you have the chance to write the epilogue once again, what are the changes that you would want to make? -Haha…well, I think maybe I would try to make that sentence a little less cliche! And I always appreciate feedback, so there is no need for pardon whatsoever. For me, sport is the ultimate lens through which to examine human biological diversity. You can watch the opening ceremony in Rio this summer, and there will be Michael Phelps next to a 1500-meter runner as they walk in, and Phelps will be 18cm taller, but both men will be wearing the same length pants, because of the bodytypes that are advantaged in their respective sports. I find that beautiful and remarkable, if a bit cliche. I really didn’t think so many people would be interested in the book, so I didn’t have an audience in mind so much when I wrote the epilogue, it was more sort of wrapping things up in my own mind. So that’s why I mentioned a wide range of characters from NBA players to Steve Jobs, and discussed the idea of genetic engineering for a perfect athlete. It was just addressing many different things I had been thinking about, almost like I was talking to myself. I think if I could do it again, I would have made a more explicit section of the epilogue where I said: “Here, in short, are aspects of this research that have most influenced how I work outside of sports,” and suggest how they might apply to other people. For example, when I’m trying to learn something new now, I sample a range of techniques first, and pay attention to my learning rate, or “trainability” as I call it in the book. It pays off to spend some time up front finding the method in which you are most trainable. You may be behind at first, but it’s the best way to go. And using some of the information about how athletes “chunk” information to make quick decisions, I’ve applied some of that to learning information quickly, and I can now memorize full hour-long lectures even though I don’t think I have a special memory. So I think I would have taken some time to give a bit more of the practical, utilitarian background. I would still like to do that! ?You worked as a researcher in Alaska near the North Pole, wrote articles while traveling on a yacht... you have been consistently involved in environment and sports-science. You are now working as a journalist for Propublica. Your TED lecture ‘Are Athletes Really Getting Faster, Better, Stronger?’ from 2014 was watched by a quite large number of people in Korea as well. You seem like a person who is consistently interested in new things and inflamed by new topics. Do you have a personal life moto? Is there a specific field that you are especially interested in and working on in these days? -When I lived on the boat, a large research vessel, I was actually doing science, not writing articles yet. I wasn’t a journalist yet, and still thought I would be a scientist. But the more science I did, the more I asked myself: “Am I the type of person who wants to spend my whole life learning or two things new to the world? Or am I the type who wants to learn things new to me more often?” I decided I was the latter, and later realized you really can connect dots that even the scientists haven’t, because they have to focus very narrowly. I jumped from being a scientist to a journalist, and then from all sorts of different jobs. I left a fulltime job in Washington D.C., to take a temporary six-month job as a fact-checker at Sports Illustrated. I don’t know that I have a motto, but just as the development of the best athletes involves diversification prior to specialization, I want my experience to be very wide early in my career. When my learning curve begins to flatten, I want to be somewhere else. That’s difficult, because the pressure is to create a brand and stick to the same thing. But I just can’t. I think we too often progress in life by continually moving more and more toward what we are comfortable with. I want to spend my entire life forcing myself to try things and engage with ideas that I don’t find entirely comfortable. It’s the same with physical training. If you lift the same weight the same number of times every day, you will maintain your muscle, but you won’t force it to change for the better. Right now, I just finished a long story about drug cartels in Mexico, which was a new field for me, and fascinating to understand how those organizations get very good at doing very bad things. It definitely made me wonder about how leadership is structured in organizations, so I’ve been reading some of the psychology about that. And I’m also taking a fiction writing class, because, again, I want to get out of my comfort-zone, and force myself to try a kind of writing that I’m not comfortable with. It’s working! ?Your book was selected as a New York Times bestseller. Moreover, the photo of your book with President Obama was a hot issue as well. I wonder, had the President ever mentioned about the book himself or wrote you an email or mentioned in his SNS about the book. -The President never wrote to me, as I think he probably has a pretty busy schedule! Interestingly, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mentioned in an interview that she was reading The Sports Gene as well. I enjoyed that, because she and President Obama are from different political parties obviously, and I was glad to think that perhaps people with very different viewpoints might be interested in it. I did see one interview online where President Obama was speaking with a runner who visited the White House, and told her some things about talent, and it made me think he had definitely paid attention to what he read in my book, as it sounded like it was straight from the pages. ?There was this video of you having a heated conversation in MIT with Malcom Gladwell, the founder of 1 million-hours-law. Are you still in an argument with him? -He and I still do discuss it, because we run together. But we have become very friendly. That doesn’t mean we agree, but my feeling is that he has gravitated somehwat more toward the evidence I’ve presented. I give him a huge amount of credit for being willing to change his mind when presented with evidence. He contends that the point of the law or “rule,” as he phrased it, was to show the importance of hard and sustained work. But that was never in question among scientists in the area, and I think the way that it has been applied is often a mistake. As I noted in my book, the scientist who did the actual work that led to the law has been pretty upset at what the public thinks it is. So I hope I helped correct that for people who are interested, although I certainly can’t reach as many people as Gladwell. ?You answered that ‘Phelps will be 18cm taller(than EL GUERROUJ), but both men will be wearing the same length pants, because of the body types that are advantaged in their respective sports. I find that beautiful and remarkable, if a bit cliche’. Could you explain further about why is that ’beautiful and remarkable‘? -In the early part of the 20th Century, there was an idea that there was an ideal way for all humans to be, and that anything different from that was bad. It deviated by fault or error. Instead, now that we better understand biological variation, it’s clear that tremendous variation is an essential part of evolution. There is no “perfect form,” only those that fit more readily into one environment or task than another. As such, I see sports as a celebration of humanity‘s physiological diversity. Some people have asked me if all these specialized body types take away some of the magic of sports for me. On the contrary, I think sports is a grand stage for appreciating biological diversity. Sports are simply contrived environments that we’ve created to test our psychology and biology. To me, the wider the range, the more interesting, and the more power sport has to appeal to everyone. I feel the same way about culture. I love the Olympics because it mixes cultures on a scale I don‘t think is really replicated just about anywhere else, and I like to see how that manifests. In short: at times human diversity is divisive, but in sport, it’s part of the celebration of achievement. Who is Epstein? He was born in Chicago, Illinois on the 31st of January, 1980. He majored in Environmental science and astronomy in Columbia University. He worked as an environmental research worker in the Artic Circle near Alaska. He also worked at the a seismological laboratory and charted the submarine topography of the Mediterranean ocean. As a sport-illustrate senior contributor, he is a celebrated journalists who writes sports-science and Olympics stories through careful research and checking, such as breaking the story that the Yankees‘ Alex Rodriguez, the tycoon of baseball was tested positive for steroids. He included his experience of being a varsity track-and-fields runner with teammates who came from Jamaica and Kenya and of working in the sports scenes in his book ‘The Sports Gene’, 2013. President Obama’s picture of buying the book at the bookstore was sensational. Also, Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state also recommended her acquaintances to read the book. Now he is working at the public benefit media ‘Propublica’ as a journalist and recently covered the story of the Mexican drug cartel’s local relief activity. Senior reporter Byong Sun Nim bsnim@seoul.co.kr

경찰청 사이버수사대원들이 3일 서울 서대문구 경찰청에서 열린 사이버테러 모의훈련에서 인천공항 등 15개 공항 서버에 대한 테러 상황을 가정해 피해 서버의 남은 자료를 경찰장비로 옮기고 있다. 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

4일 서울 용산구 국방부에서 열린 사드 배치 관련 한-미 실무회담에서 공동실무단의 한국측 대표는 장경수 국방부 정책기획관과 미국측 대표 로버트 헤드룬드 한미연합사령부 기획참모부장(해병 소장)이 악수를 나누고 있다. 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

4일 오후 서울 용산구 국방부에서 열린 주한미군의 사드 배치문제를 협의하기 위한 한·미 공동실무단 첫 회의에서 한국측 대표인 장경수(오른쪽) 국방부 정책기획관과 미국측 대표인 로버트 헤드룬드 한미연합사령부 기획참모부장이 악수를 하고 있다. 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

4일 오후 서울 용산구 국방부에서 열린 주한미군의 사드 배치문제를 협의하기 위한 한·미 공동실무단 첫 회의가 열리고 있다. 이날 회의에는 한국측 대표인 장경수 국방부 정책기획관과 미국측 대표인 헤드룬드 주한미군사령부 기획참모부장이 참석했다. 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

4일 서울 용산구 국방부에서 열린 사드 배치 관련 한-미 실무회담에서 공동실무단의 한국측 대표는 장경수 국방부 정책기획관과 미국측 대표 로버트 헤드룬드 한미연합사령부 기획참모부장(해병 소장)이 악수를 나누고 있다.박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

서울의 낮기온이 8도까지 오르며 봄이 머지않았음을 알린 2일 광화문광장 앞 교보생명빌딩에 걸린 광화문 글판을 배경으로 시민들이 웃으며 걸어가고 있다. 이 글귀는 고 최하림 시인의 작품 ‘봄’의 일부다. 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

3일 서울 서대문구 미근동 경찰청에서 열린 사이버테러 모의훈련에서 경찰청 사이버수사대원들이 서버에서 남은 자료를 경찰장비로 옮기는 작업을 하고 있다. 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

3일 서울 서대문구 미근동 경찰청에서 열린 사이버테러 모의훈련에서 경찰청 사이버수사대원들이 서버에서 남은 자료를 경찰장비로 옮기는 작업을 하고 있다. 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

3일 서울 서대문구 미근동 경찰청에서 열린 사이버테러 모의훈련에서 경찰청 사이버수사대원들이 서버에서 남은 자료를 경찰장비로 옮기는 작업을 하고 있다. 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

2일 서울 광화문 교보생명빌딩 광화문글판에 최하림 시인의 ’봄’의 한 문안이 걸려있다. 최하림 시인의 봄은 모든 것이 귀하고 소중하므로 늘 겸손한 마음으로 서로를 헤아리고 배려하며 살아가자는 메시지를 담고 있다. 2016.3.2 박지환기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

2일 서울 광화문 교보생명빌딩 광화문글판에 최하림 시인의 ’봄’의 한 문안이 걸려있다. 최하림 시인의 봄은 모든 것이 귀하고 소중하므로 늘 겸손한 마음으로 서로를 헤아리고 배려하며 살아가자는 메시지를 담고 있다. 2016.3.2 박지환기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

안철수 국민의당 상임공동대표가 2일 오후 서울 여의도의 한 음식점에서 직장인들과 대화의 시간을 갖고 있다. 2016. 03. 02 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

안철수 국민의당 상임공동대표가 2일 오후 서울 여의도의 한 음식점에서 직장인들과 대화의 시간을 갖고 있다. 2016. 03. 02 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr

안철수 국민의당 상임공동대표가 2일 오후 서울 여의도의 한 음식점에서 직장인들과 대화의 시간을 갖고 있다. 2016. 03. 02 박지환 기자 popocar@seoul.co.kr