MIT team finds that the ratio of component atoms is vital to
performance. Emeritus Professor Brian Fagan of the University of
California at Santa Barbara emphasized the complex interplay of
climatic conditions and social and cultural development in his
presentation, "In Cod We Trust: Fishing, Subsistence Agriculture
and Climate Change, c. A.D. 900 to 1400," presented to an
overflow crowd in E51-095 on Friday, Feb. 23. Fagan noted that
even for a period offering scanty evidence to scholars, it is
clear that climate change was a major driver of social,
political and economic change. The meeting was part of the MIT
Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural , sponsored by the
history faculty and the Program in Science, Technology and
Society. European food supplies were greater and more reliable
during the so-called "medieval warm period" of approximately 800
to 1300 A.D. Wine grapes were grown as far north as England, and
cereal crops in Norway. Impacts of favorable weather included
population growth and drastic