Sunlight and Vitamins

July 11, 2010 By arne hendriks 1

Dr. Julian O’Dea proposes an interesting theory as to why ethnic groups living in the rainforest are often very small. Adult Pygmy males, for example, are less then 150cm on average. According to Dr. O’Dea this could be because of the near absense of ultraviolet light in…

Growth Hormone

July 6, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Tuning down the amount of growth hormone secreted by the pituitary gland in order to decrease human size is easier said then done. Growth hormones are responsible for a number of important processes in the body including the increase of calcium retention and the strengthening…

Dwarf Worship

June 27, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

At the end of the 19th century R.G. Haliburton ‘hunted’ for a secret dwarf tribe he believed to live somewhere in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. It aroused quite some interest as this article in The New York Times dated 27 september 1891 shows. The…

Big Small Possible

June 25, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Two short films created for Raum für Projektion from Berlin give a rare insight into a possible future when there may be extreme size differences between generations.  There is something natural in the way people of different sizes feature in these films. They seem to…

20% = 73%

June 23, 2010 By arne hendriks 8

The Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes found that when a body increases in dimensions and retains its geometric similarity, its volume and weight increase much faster. This means that an increase in human heigth of 20% equals an average increase in body mass of 73%…

Lotus Feet & the Ilizarov Procedure

June 11, 2010 By arne hendriks 1

The dramatic swing in the size-ideals in China is represented in the contrast between the widespread popularity of tiny Lotus Feet, as a result of foot binding, and the contemporary practise of leg prolongment using the equally painful method developed by the Russian physician Gavril…

Shrink Mankind, Stop Working.

June 2, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

According to this article in TIME Magazine children with unemployed fathers are shorter. This is probably the result of what auxologists call environmental insults like an unhealthy living situation and low quality food. The article also states that taller people are healthier people. Or to…

Outsourcing Brain Capacity

May 22, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

“But what do we do with the brain?”, was the first question a neighbor asked when he heard of the ambitions of The Incredible Shrinking Man to shrink the human species to 50 centimeters. It’s a good question.  Although not proven beyond a doubt, there…

Ron Mueck

May 18, 2010 By arne hendriks 2

Shrinking the human species will be a complicated matter. Presumably not all people would shrink at the same speed, and older generations would be larger than younger ones. The sculptures of  Australian artist Ron Mueck shed an interesting light on things to come. He creates hyperrealistic puppets…

22 billion reasons to keep growing

May 17, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

In 2003, the US Federal Drug Administration approved the use of human growth hormone for healthy short children in an attempt to make them taller. There is nothing medically wrong with these children; they produce normal levels of growth hormone on their own. They are…

Insular Gigantism & Dwarfism

May 16, 2010 By arne hendriks 1

On islands, it occurs relatively frequently that large species of animals tend to get smaller and small species tend to get larger. The greater interspecies competition or pressure of carnivores on the continent may actually force them beyond the limits of their optimum size. They…

Shrink Utility Vehicle (SUV)

May 14, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

It is not easy to convince ourselves that we need to shrink. On the contrary, many people seem obsessed with growing taller. Yet, signs of a deeply rooted desire to shrink may already manifest itself in small signs in everyday life. People drive oversized cars,…

History of Height

May 11, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Anthropometric history explains trends, cycles, and patterns caused by changes in the social, economic and epidemiological environment. In times of hardship people tend to grow smaller. But the reason for this is maybe not as straight forward as it may seem. A smaller person is more…

310 for every Cm

May 10, 2010 By arne hendriks 1

A 2003 University of Florida and University of North Carolina study found that short people are paid less than their taller peers: Each centimetre in height amounted to about $310 more a year in pay. In a similar study conducted in Australia in 2009 by professor…

Prisoners of Size?

May 8, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

In the short article Size and Shape the late paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould remembers how he once overheard a children’s conversation in a New York playground:  “Two young girls were discussing the size of dogs. One asked: “Can a dog be as large…

Shrink Film Archive

May 6, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

From the surreal explorations of Pedro Almodóvar in Hable con Elle to the blockbuster entertainment of films like Honey I shrunk the kids, shrinking is and always has been a popular topic for filmmakers. Here’s a list of shrink films. Click the title for previews…

Plant-stress and Size

May 4, 2010 By arne hendriks 1

As with animals, Plants can be dwarfed through genetic engineering and selective breeding, but environmental stresses  such as soil quality, light, drought, flood, cold, infection, and herbivory, can also lead to a dwarfed stature . However the majority of dwarfing in plants does not directly occur…

The Truth About Your Height

May 1, 2010 By arne hendriks 1

Thomas T. Samaras could be considered the godfather of shrink-thinking. The Incredible Shrinking Man just aquired his 1994 book, The Truth About Your Height. Exploring the Myths and Realities of Human Size and Its Effects on Performance, health, Pollution, and Survival. It states:  “Short people…

From Macro to Micro

April 28, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

As people start shrinking, Earth and everything on it will proportionally, grow in size. This growth of space and resources is actually one of the main reasons to consider shrinking as a sustainable way of inhabiting the earth. At the same time it holds the…

Napoleon Complex Myth

April 27, 2010 By arne hendriks 1

Napoleon complex (also, Napoleon syndrome or Small Man syndrome) is a colloquial pejorative term used to describe a type of inferiority complex which is said to affect people who are short. The term is also used more generally to describe people who are driven by…