Ursula Cowgill facts for kids

Ursula Moser Cowgill (born November 9, 1927 – died November 27, 2015) was a smart scientist who studied both biology and human cultures. She worked at places like Yale University, Dow Chemical Company, and the University of Colorado. During her career, she looked into many interesting topics. For example, she studied how ancient people farmed in Mesoamerica (a region in the Americas), when babies are born during the year, how differences in care for boys and girls affected their health, and if a mineral called selenium could help people with AIDS. She also took care of four small, furry animals called pottos for many years and wrote about what she learned from them.

Ursula Cowgill earned her advanced degree, a PhD, in 1956 from Iowa State University. Later, she worked with a scientist named G. Evelyn Hutchinson who studied lakes and rivers. Her first science articles, some written with Hutchinson, came out in the early 1960s.

In 2003, Cowgill was living in Colorado. Besides her science work, she was also an activist with the American Civil Liberties Union, which works to protect people's rights.

Amazing Discoveries and Studies

Studying Pottos

In 1959, three pairs of pottos, which are small, night-active animals from West Africa, arrived at Yale University. At first, they lived in the lab with other similar animals that Cowgill and Hutchinson were studying. In 1964, Ursula Cowgill took two of the potto pairs home with her. She cared for them until 1981.

While the pottos lived with her, Cowgill wrote many articles about them. She studied their bodies, what they ate, how they had babies, how they got sick and recovered, and how they acted with each other. Her writings are important because they are one of the few long-term studies of pottos living with humans.

Ancient Maya Farming

Between 1961 and 1963, Cowgill and Hutchinson studied the soil in the Petén Basin in Guatemala. They wanted to learn how the farming methods of the ancient Maya people affected the land. They found that the Maya's farming ways slowly took away important nutrients from the soil. This meant the land eventually couldn't grow enough crops. Some experts believe that this problem with the soil might have contributed to why the big Maya cities in the Petén region declined around the 10th century.

Child Health and Care

Ursula Cowgill also researched how boys and girls were cared for and how this affected their health. She looked at old records from York, England, between 1538 and 1812. She found that throughout history in that city, girls often faced more health challenges than boys of the same age. She thought this might be because sons often received better food and care than daughters.

In Guatemala, Cowgill studied a village where there were many more men than women. She noticed that mothers in this village often breastfed their sons for much longer than their daughters. They also tended to treat their sons with more favor, even after they stopped breastfeeding.

Seasons of Birth and Reproduction

Cowgill was one of the first scientists to study if human births happen more often during certain seasons. She looked at information from old records and from different groups of people around the world. She discovered that human births, like those of many animals, did follow seasonal patterns to some extent. Because the pattern was different in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, Cowgill thought that weather might be the main reason. However, she also found that in city and industrial areas, this natural pattern had changed. Her article on this topic, published in 1966, has been used by many other scientists for their own research.

Selenium and Health

In 1997, Cowgill measured how much selenium was in the soil in different parts of the United States. She did this by checking how much of the mineral was absorbed by a plant called alfalfa. Then, she compared this information with the number of deaths from AIDS in those areas. She found that places with more selenium in the soil had fewer deaths from AIDS. This connection was especially strong among African-Americans.