Giant Heads Research Articles

Face of Britain

ABSTRACT Despite the various restrictions brought about by the Covid pandemic, Southampton City Art Gallery staged a year-long exhibition, ‘Face of Britain’ (September 2020–September 2021), curated by the artist Nahem Shoa. The exhibition brought together a number of outstanding portraits held by (or on loan to) the Gallery, of artists who painted British individuals from the seventeenth century to the present day. Importantly, however, these ‘canonical’ works from established collections were shown in confluence with a selection of Shoa’s own striking oil paintings of black sitters. In asking ‘head-to-head’ how diverse we are, it was a timely show, not least given the context of heightened debates of decolonisation, a growing acknowledgement of social inequities (further exposed by the Covid pandemic) and the newly emerging reality of a post-Brexit Britain. In this essay, Shoa offers a contextual account of the exhibition. It draws back to his development as an artist of mixed race in the early 1990s, and offers commentary on his major undertaking ‘Giant Heads’, as a means to establish just what it has meant to end up being the curator of a show entitled ‘Face of Britain’. Nahem Shoa, Daniel Sulleiman (2008) oil on canvas, 60.8 × 50.7 cm.

HLA study in Bolivian Quechua Amerindians from Titikaka Lake Area

Quechua Amerindians established Inca Empire and chose Cuzco as their capital. Their language is closely related to that of Aymara ethnic group and both of them were originated from Titikaka Lake Altiplano area. In the present study we have analyzed Bolivian Quechua HLA profile and found that it has common characters with other Andean and Pacific Amerindians (Uros, Aymaras, Lamas, Mapuches, Athabascan), and Pacific Islanders, including Easter Islanders: relatively high frequency of HLA-A*24 (:02), class II haplotypes DRB1*08:02-DQB1*04:02, and DRB1*04:03-DQB1* 03:02. Titikaka Lake area prehistoric populations: Quechua, Aymaras and Uros are closely related according to HLA Nei DA genetic distances and other HLA traits: they built up Tiwanaku culture, which resembles that of Easter Island (i.e.: similar giant heads); later, Quechuas also moved to Cuzco. This genetic reletedness together with Easter Island and Titikaka Lake Tiwanaku (Bolivia, Peru) cultural common similarities support a prehistoric Pacific people/Amerindians gene flow.

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations after 240 Years: It Is still the Work of an Intellectual Giant Towering Heads and Shoulders Above the Benthamite Utilitarian Economists of the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries

Adam Smith’s major intellectual breakthroughs in decision making under uncertainty, interval valued probability, imprecise probability, money, banking and credit, and economic growth are still not understood, much less appreciated or recognized, some 240 years after the publication of the first edition of The Wealth of Nations by economists in general. The reasons for this are not hard to discern. First, Adam Smith totally and completely rejected any kind of microeconomic theory based on utility maximization. Smith, like Aristotle before him and Keynes after him, rejected the claim that rationality is consistent with and illustrated by Max U thinking. Thus, economists who criticize Smith’s theory of value, such as George Stigler, a well known Benthamite Utilitarian economist, because it does not conform or reflect their own extremely narrow focus of the role of the calculus of probabilities in economic decision making, can be safely ignored. Stigler attempted, like so many economists have done, to reinterpret Smith, as he did with F. Knight, through the lens of Subjective Expected Utility (SEU) theory, which is the modern version of Benthamite Utilitarianism. This leads to our second point. Smith was the first to recognize the impact and pervasive role that uncertainty played in decision making, life, taxation, government policy concerns, economic growth, as well as in issues involving banking, money and credit and the problems of deflation and inflation. This put Smith on a collision course with Jeremy Bentham and the economics profession, where uncertainty not only played no role at all, but could never play any role at all. In fact, uncertainty can’t even be admitted to exist by any utilitarian, because then it becomes impossible for any decision maker to calculate the odds that a particular action will lead to certain consequences that are very likely to be beneficial to the decision maker. Given that only consequences matter for utilitarians, and nothing else, for a utilitarian, then the fact that such consequences, and their probabilities, can’t be calculated using the mathematical laws of the probability calculus means that their ethical system has collapsed. Third, Smith recognized, like Aristotle and Plato did before him and Keynes after him, the extreme importance of controlling the banking system in order to prevent some upper income class individuals, who Smith labelled as “projectors, imprudent risk takers and prodigals (Keynes’s rentiers and stock, real estate and money market speculators)” from leveraging their debt positions through the use of bank loans so as to try to earn a return without the production of any actual or physical consumption or investment good. The end result would be a series of financial panics and bubbles that would lead to deflation and inflation. Smith’s ultimate goal in the Wealth of Nations was to create a virtuous middle class citizenry, what Smith called the “sober” people, that would use savings to promote investment in producer (capital) goods that would allow their businesses grow, thereby leading to and promoting economic growth for the benefit of all instead of the manipulation of financial capital for the speculative purposes of the few.

Exaggerated trait growth in insects.

Animal structures occasionally attain extreme proportions, eclipsing in size the surrounding body parts. We review insect examples of exaggerated traits, such as the mandibles of stag beetles (Lucanidae), the claspers of praying mantids (Mantidae), the elongated hindlimbs of grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Caelifera), and the giant heads of soldier ants (Formicidae) and termites (Isoptera). Developmentally, disproportionate growth can arise through trait-specific modifications to the activity of at least four pathways: the sex determination pathway, the appendage patterning pathway, the insulin/IGF signaling pathway, and the juvenile hormone/ecdysteroid pathway. Although most exaggerated traits have not been studied mechanistically, it is already apparent that distinct developmental mechanisms underlie the evolution of the different types of exaggerated traits. We suggest this reflects the nature of selection in each instance, revealing an exciting link between mechanism, form, and function. We use this information to make explicit predictions for the types of regulatory pathways likely to underlie each type of exaggerated trait.

One Summer: America, 1927 BillBryson. New York: Doubleday, 2013.

One Summer: America, 1927 Bill Bryson. New York: Doubleday, 2013.One Summer chronicles in meticulous detail the events of summer 1927 in the United States. These were momentous times: the stock market was booming (two years before the Wall Street Crash), single-minded sculptor was about to carve four giant heads on Mount Rushmore; A1 Capone reigned supreme in Chicago; television was about to hit the market; and precocious aviator became the first man to cross the Atlantic in 33 hours, 30 minutes, 29.8 seconds.The aviator's name was Charles Lindbergh, and his exploits constitute the framework of this highly entertaining volume. The sheer magnitude of the achievement deserves consideration. Lindbergh had very few instruments to find his way, save for compass bearings and mathematical calculations designed to work out how far The Spirit of St. Louis (Lindbergh's plane) had deviated from its prescribed course. Although other pilots tried the hazardous route in 1927, Lindbergh was the only one to plot his course successfully. He returned to the United States to hero's welcome-an estimated 300,000 people waited for him in New York harbor, while millions more lined the streets to City Hall where Lindbergh gave speech. Such was the interest in everything to do with the aviator that when his mother went to Pennsylvania Station to catch train back to the Midwest, five hundred police officers lined the streets to hold back the crowds (176).Lindbergh's response to this adulation was unexpected; he remained sullen, seldom acknowledging the crowd's enthusiasm. Sometimes he had to be literally dragged out to face the public, as on occasion in Dayton, Ohio, when the townspeople threatened to destroy the house of the aviation pioneer Orville Wright, if Lindbergh did not appear. Nonetheless the media continued to represent Lindbergh as warmhearted hero of the American people. Even in time of prosperity, the country need to sustain the exceptionalist myth.Bill Bryson does not shy away from exposing the grimy realities behind these myths. Lindbergh might have been wonderful aviator, but he was pro-Nazi. In 1941 he delivered radio speech explaining why he thought war with Germany was wrong. He became member of America First, an organization opposed to involvement in World War Two. From then on his reputation nose-dived; Franklin Delano Roosevelt was convinced he was Nazi (479). Henry Ford, the inventor of the iconic Model T, was anti-Semitic, the only American favorably mentioned in Hitler's Mein Kampf (1927). In 1927 Ford became involved in lengthy libel suit as his newspaper The Dearborn Independent claimed that Los Angeles lawyer named Aaron Sapiro was member of a band of Jew bankers, lawyers, advertising agencies and produce buyers who had cheated American farmers (265). The suit cost Ford over nine million dollars and damaged his public persona in the process.Yet people at that time-especially in the media- did not really acknowledge such unpalatable truths. They were more preoccupied with maintaining myths or prosperity as way of convincing themselves that the United States had at last become global superpower. Forty-two percent of all that was provided in the world came from America. The country held onehalf of the world's gold resources and appeared to grow wealthier every year. …

Incidence, structure and morphological classification of abnormal sperm in the emu ( Dromaius novaehollandiae)

Little detailed information is currently available on the incidence and morphological characteristics of abnormal sperm in the emu ( Dromaius novaehollandiae) and of ratites in general. This situation is further compounded by the lack of a uniform system for the morphological classification of avian sperm defects. Considering the important role that sperm morphology plays in the assessment of semen quality, a detailed description of avian sperm defects is of paramount importance. Based on morphological data provided by light and electron microscopy, a mean of 17.3% abnormal sperm was recorded in semen samples collected from the distal deferent duct of four adult emus during the middle of the breeding season. Four categories of defects were identified. Head defects (57.2% of total defects) consisted of bent heads, macrocephalic heads, round heads and acephalic sperm. Zones of incomplete chromatin condensation and retained cytoplasmic droplets appeared to be implicated in head bending, while giant heads were often associated with multiple tails. Acephalic sperm revealed a complete tail devoid of a head which was replaced by a small spherical structure. Tail defects (22.6% of total defects) were subdivided into neck/midpiece defects and principal piece defects. In the neck/midpiece region disjointed sperm were the exclusive defect noted and were characterized by the complete separation of the head and midpiece in the neck region but within the confines of the plasmalemma. Defects observed in the principal piece were subdivided into short tails, coiled tails and multiple tails. No conclusive evidence was obtained that tail coiling represented the ‘Dag’ defect. Biflagellate sperm were the most common form of multiple tails, demonstrating two complete tails with all the normal structural elements. Cytoplasmic droplets (13.9% of total defects) were classified as a separate defect. The location and eccentric positioning of retained cytoplasmic droplets was similar to that described in ostrich sperm although the composition of the droplets differed markedly between the two species. A small percentage of sperm (6.3% of total sperm defects) displayed multiple abnormalities. Based on these findings we propose a morphological classification for abnormal ratite sperm identifying head and tail defects, with additional categories for cytoplasmic droplets and multiple defects. Each category is further subdivided to reflect a range of specific defects within the category. It is envisaged that additional defects will be added to each category or that new categories may be added as future studies on the detailed morphology of avian sperm defects are completed.

The fate of subducted oceanic crust: a mineral segregation model

Plate subduction and mantle plumes are two of the most important material transport processes of the silicate Earth. Currently, a debate exists over whether the subducted oceanic crust is recycled back to the Earth's surface through mantle plumes, and can explain their derivation and major characteristics. It is also puzzling as to why plume heads have huge melting capacities and differ dramatically from plume tails both in size and chemical composition. We present data showing that both ocean island basalt and mid-ocean ridge basalt have identical supra-primitive mantle mean Nb/U values of ∼46.7, significantly larger than that of the primitive mantle value. From a mass balance calculation based on Nb/U we have determined that nearly the whole mantle has evolved by plate subduction-induced crustal recycling during formation of the continental crust. This mixing back of subducted oceanic crust, however, is not straightforward, because it generally would be denser than the surrounding mantle, both in solid and liquid states. A mineral segregation model is proposed here to reconcile different lines of observation. First of all, subducted oceanic crustal sections are denser than the surrounding mantle, such that they can stay in the lower mantle, for billions of years as implied by isotopic data. Parts of subducted oceanic crust may eventually lose a large proportion of their heavy minerals, magnesian-silicate-perovskite and calcium-silicate-perovskite, through density segregation in ultra-low-velocity zones as well as in very-low-velocity provinces at the core-mantle boundary due to low viscosity. The remaining minerals would thus become lighter than the surrounding mantle, and could rise, trapping mantle materials, and forming mantle plumes. Mineral segregation progressively increases the SiO2 content of the ascending oceanic crust, which enhances flux melting, and results in giant Si-enriched plume heads followed by dramatically abridged plume tails. Therefore, ancient mineral-segregated subducted oceanic crust is likely to be a major trigger and driving force for the formation of mantle plumes.

Probable spermatozoal diploidy in the semen of a golden retriever.

The semen of a 3-year-old golden retriever was examined for breeding purposes. When the morphology of the spermatozoa was analysed for the first time, 37% were observed to have giant heads. In most of the giant heads, a diadem defect was also found. The dog was successfully used for breeding. On re-examination, the percentage of giant heads was found to be greater than before. The right testicle exhibited tissue softening. To determine the reason for the defect, an aspiration needle biopsy was performed and ultrasound examination undertaken. In the biopsy smears, both normal spermatozoa and spermatozoa with giant heads were found. On ultrasonography, the echogenicities of both testicles were the same, and normal. DNA flow cytometry was performed to determine the DNA content of the spermatozoa. Two populations of sperm cells were detected, one having a median fluorescent intensity twice as high as that of normal spermatozoa, suggesting a diploid DNA content. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was performed to find out whether the altered intensity correlated with the ultrastructure of the spermatozoa. The nuclei of the sperm heads showed a normal chromatin condensation. Semen quality became worse over a period of 2 years, with 60% giant heads in the last sample. The process was considered to be progressive spermatogenic degeneration with diploidy. Relatives examined did not suggest any hereditary predisposition to the problem. The male was still fertile at the time of the last sample collected and sired a litter of 10 healthy puppies.

Giant Scope Heads Europe's Wish List

ASTRONOMYEuropean astronomers have asked policymakers to green-light a 42-meter-wide giant telescope that they promise will keep them at the forefront of world astronomy.

Subsidence and growth of Pacific Cretaceous plateaus

The Ontong Java, Manihiki, and Shatsky oceanic plateaus are among the Earth's largest igneous provinces and are commonly believed to have erupted rapidly during the surfacing of giant heads of initiating mantle plumes. We investigate this hypothesis by using sediment descriptions of Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) drill cores to constrain plateau subsidence histories which reflect mantle thermal and crustal accretionary processes. We find that total plateau subsidence is comparable to that expected of normal seafloor but less than predictions of thermal models of hotspot-affected lithosphere. If crustal emplacement was rapid, then uncertainties in paleo-water depths allow for the anomalous subsidence predicted for plumes with only moderate temperature anomalies and volumes, comparable to the sources of modern-day hotspots such as Hawaii and Iceland. Rapid emplacement over a plume head of high temperature and volume, however, is difficult to reconcile with the subsidence reconstructions. An alternative possibility that reconciles low subsidence over a high-temperature, high-volume plume source is a scenario in which plateau subsidence is the superposition of (1) subsidence due to the cooling of the plume source, and (2) uplift due to prolonged crustal growth in the form of magmatic underplating. This prolonged crustal growth and uplift scenario may explain the low and thus submarine relief during plume initiation, the late stage eruptions found on Ontong Java (90 Ma) and Manihiki (∼70 Ma), a large portion of the high-seismic-velocity lower crust, and the widespread normal faults observed throughout and along the margins of the three plateaus. Such late stage underplating may have occurred continuously or in discrete stages over ∼30 m.y. and implies lower magmatic fluxes than previously estimated.

The Scandinavian American Family Album.

One of the first Europeans to discover North America, Leif Eriksson landed on its shores around the year 1000. His expedition was part of a great era of exploration and migration for the Nordic people and the beginning of a long history of Scandinavian involvement in the New World. By the middle of the nineteenth century, huge waves of America fever had spread through the Scandinavian countries and by 1907 an official of the Swedish government reported that it was difficult to find a farm where none of the immediate family was in America. Today, approximately 11.5 million Americans describe themselves as being of Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, Finnish, or Danish descent, a number that equals half the population of the five countries from which they and their ancestors came. The Scandinavian American Family Album tells the history of this tremendous wave of immigration and of the contribution of Scandinavian people to the growth and development of the United States. Through their own diaries, letters, and through interviews, rare photographs, and songs, we are treated to a firsthand account of the hardships, challenges, and triumphs that awaited the generations of Scandinavian immigrants who made their way across the ocean to start new lives in America. We learn about their day-to-day life before emigration, the factors--such as social inequality, financial hardship, and overpopulation--that contributed to their decisions to leave, of their experience upon landing at Ellis Island, and the various occupations that they settled into as they began to establish homes and communities. We discover that the Danes were the first European settlers in the Bronx and Harlem in New York City and that Swedes and Finns built the first log cabins. Personal accounts describe homesteads and early colonies set up all over the country, from Maine to Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, and as far west as Utah and Nebraska. These early immigrants and their descendants tell us about pioneering farming ventures, the dangers and hardships of logging and mining, the thrill of the gold rush, and the struggle of early labor movements. All across the country, Scandinavian Americans played a key role in building the institutions and communities that still exist today. Among those who made distinguished contributions to American life and culture are Jacob Riis, the founder of modern photojournalism; Thorstein Veblen, renowned economist; sports legends Knute Rockne and Babe Didrikson Zaharias; aviator Charles Lindbergh; and Knute Nelson, the first Scandinavian American governor of Minnesota. Others profiled include actress Candice Bergen, dancer Peter Martins, Norman Borlaug, the first agricultural scientist to win the Nobel Peace Prize, novelist Ole Rolvaag and Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor who created the giant heads of four presidents on Mt. Rushmore. The stories and memories contained in this album, illustrated with vivid photographs drawn from a vast array of archives, make this volume a valuable window into the past of Scandinavian Americans and the country they now call home. The titles in the American Family Albums series tell the multicolored and often heroic stories of American immigrant groups, largely through their own words and pictures. Like any family album or scrapbook, the pages contain many period photographs and other memorabilia. These join with original documents--including selections from diaries, letters, memoirs, and newspapers--to bring the immigrant experience vividly to life.

Morphometry of normal and teratozoospermic canine sperm heads using an image analyzer: work in progress

Combining the traditional morphologic evaluation of spermatozoa with computer assisted image analysis adds randomness, objectivity, repeatability and accuracy to morphometric measurements. We collected semen from 10 fertile, normospermic dogs aged 1 to 7 yr and from 3 teratozoospermic breed-matched dogs. Sperm head morphology was examined in Giemsa-stained smears by light microscopy, using a computer-assisted image analyzer and by transmission electron microscopy. We found significant variation in sperm head area, length, width and degree of roundness among normospermic individual dogs, indicating that it would be necessary to examine many more dogs before the size and shape of normal dog spermatozoa could be determined. The normospermic dogs were used as controls for the teratozoospermic cases. Case 1: A 2-yr-old subfertile Cavalier King Charles Spaniel had semen with small and narrow-based sperm heads and a proximal cytoplasmic droplet in most of the spermatozoa. With the image analysis system, sperm heads were shown to be smaller and more oval than in normospermic dogs. The variatons in size and shape were similar in magnitude to those of control dogs. An examined infertile half-brother had similar semen quality. Case 2: A 3-yr-old Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen with 2 unsuccesfull matings exhibited spermatozoa with severe abnormalities. Measured by image analyzer, sperm heads were irregular in shape and very small in area. One of the two littermates examined had semen of the same quality as the case dog. Case 3: A 3-yr-old fertile Golden Retriever had semen with giant sperm heads in about 50% of spermatozoa. Image analyzing results revealed 2 populations of different sized sperm heads. Giant heads consisted of 52.2% of all spermatozoa. The results of the study reported here suggest that the image analysis technique may be useful in evaluating structural changes in sperm morphology, supplementing visual assessment that is used in conventional methods.

Experimental research and finite-element simulation of plates hydrobulging in pairs

In this paper, the new hydrobulging technology is described for manufacturing giant ellipsoidal tank heads which could only be made through press and welding before. First, the head is divided into skirt and center parts; the skirt part is formed through traditional technology, while the center part is formed through hydrobulging. Then these two parts are welded together and if the shape and dimensions of the center part after hydrobulging are those of the required ellipsoidal head, then a whole ellipsoidal head is produced. The experiment was performed by hydrobulging plates in pairs under different boundary conditions to form the centre part of an ellipsoidal head. The deformations of the experimental work were measured and calculated and were compared with those of a standard ellipsoidal curvature which were nearest to the experimental curvatures. Finally numerical simulation of the hydrobulging plates in pairs under stiff boundary conditions was done using FEM.

Aeromonas bacteriophages:Reexamination and classification

Summary Thirty-four Aeromonas phages were surveyed and 19 of them were reexamined by electron microscopy. Thirty-three phages had contractile tails and belonged to the Myoviridae family. Only one phage had a short tail and belonged to the Podoviridae . Twenty-two phages were classified into nine species. Most phages resembled well-known enterobacterial viruses such as T2, P1, P2 and T7, indicating possible phylogenetic relationships between phages of enterobacteria and Aeromonas . The morphology of several phages, notably of T-even-type phages with very long heads, suggests that these viruses were derived from common ancestors by elongation or shortening of the head or the tail. One T-even-type phage produced numerous aberrant particles with giant heads or multiple tails.

Structural aberrations in T-even bacteriophage. IX. Effect of mixed infection on the production of giant bacteriophage.

To date, the production of T-even bacteriophage with giant heads has been achieved in two ways: (i) by use of canavanine-arginine treatment of Escherichia coli B cultures infected by wild-type bacteriophage (Cummings and Bolin, Bacteriol. Rev. 40:314-359, 1976; Cummings et al., Virology 54:245-261, 1973), which give a size distribution of giants that is phage specific (Cummings et al., Virology 54:245-261, 1973); and (ii) by infection with certain missense mutants of T4D gene 23 (Doermann et al., J. Virol. 12:374-385, 1973; ICN-UCLA Symposium on Molecular Biology, p. 243-285, 1973) or temperature-sensitive mutants of gene 24 (Aebi et al., J. Supramol. Struct. 2:253-275, 1974; Biljenga et al., J. Mol. Biol. 103:469-498, 1976). We now report the effect of mixed infection with several mutants of T4D on both the production and the size of giant bacteriophage. We found that gene 24 mutant is a critical partner for the production of giants. Infection using T4.24 mutants together with either T4.23 mutants, T4B+ or T6+ led to the formation of giants with heads 10- to 14-fold longer than normal-length heads. Infection with amber 24-bypass 24 double mutants of T4D led to the production of giants when gene 23 mutant was used to co-infect. Addition of canavanine to the co-infected cultures could alter the size distribution of giants, depending on which phage were used to coinfect. Gene 22 mutants had a modifying effect on these results. In the absence of canavanine co-infection with gene 22 mutants prevented the production of giants, and in the presence of canavanine giants of 1.5 to 5 head lengths were found. We have interpreted these results to mean that critical concentrations of gene products 22, 23, and 24 interact to control head length in T-even bacteriophage.

Molecular organization of the shell of T-even bacteriophage head: II. Arrangement of subunits in the head shells of giant phages

Optically filtered images of the giant heads of T-even phage revealed the surface lattice at the level of subunit arrangements. Phage strains studied were wild type T4D, T2H and T2L, and three defective T4D mutants, namely T4soc, T4hoc and T4soc hoc ( Ishii and Yanagida, 1975 , Ishii and Yanagida, 1977 ). All these have a head lattice of near-hexagonal symmetry when flattened, and the same unit cell length (12·5 nm) and pitch angle (about −14°). Their protein distributions are strikingly different, however, and four different types of protein arrangement are found. The head shell of wild type T4D consists of repeating units of “hexamer+a centre unit+six bridges” as illustrated in Figure 13. The hexamer and centre unit are located at the 6-fold position, while the bridges are at the 3-fold or 2-fold positions in the unit cell. The filtered image of the T4hoc giant head showed a much weaker centre unit, otherwise indistinguishable from that of the wild type. T4soc lacks the bridging units and is composed of repeating units of “hexamer+a centre unit”. T4soc hoc is built simply of hexamers. T2L is identical to T4soc hoc, while T2H is similar to T4hoc. Comparison and interpretation of the filtered images using biochemical and genetical evidence lead to the conclusion that the hexamer, six bridges and a central unit correspond to six P23* molecules, six soc polypeptides and one hoc polypeptide, respectively.

A large new Streptococcus bacteriophage.

Phage VD13 possesses a large, elongated head and a long, non-contractile tail. It is active on group D streptococci and contains double-stranded DNA. The phage produces several rare kinds of head malformations, notably polymorphic mottled structures and giant heads which probably contain DNA.

Structural aberrations in T-even bacteriophage: VI. Molecular weight of DNA from giant heads

Cummings et al. (1973) reported that whenl-canavanine was chased from a T-even. bacteriophage-infected culture with its analog,l-arginine, a new type of aberrant particle was formed. These particles, which were termed “lollipops”, had giant heads as long as 44 normal head lengths, and were filled with DNA. We have now separated these particles into different size classes ranging from about three to 13 normal head lengths and measured the molecular weight of their DNA. The DNA released from intact phage particles by neutral or alkaline detergent lysis was characterized using a recently described biophysical technique which determines DNA molecular weight from solution viscoelasticity. The maximum DNA size correlated roughly with phage head length, indicating that these giant heads were often filled with single, long DNA molecules rather than with several normal-sized molecules. Many of the heads, however, must have contained several molecules, since a large amount of DNA of less than maximum size was present. In alkali the native molecules separated into single strands of approximately the same length as that of the native molecules.