Oxygen isotope ratios

Lynne Bell from the School of Criminology in Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, and her colleagues analysed oxygen isotope ratios in the bones and tooth enamel in 18 of the sunken sailors of the Mary Rose, one of King Henry VIII's war ships. This analysis showed the men may have been from the Mediterranean area and probably didn't understand English, thus didn't get the command correctly during the battle with the French. This information on why children might need to understand standard English or you your stock broker in order to do well (not really, but one could make that argument) is found at the blog about Decoding the Heavens, by Jo Marchant, mentioned in the previous entry.