20211015_GYS2021-22_INSIDE_PAGES

66 GUIDE TO YELLOW SPR INGS | 2021– 2022 anthropologist and CEO of Anthrotech, a local consulting business on human body size, responded to the closure in an interview at the time. “The significance of the Fels study is phenomenal,” Bradtmiller said. “The data is unavailable anywhere else. It’s a shame to see it go. It’s a significant loss to the global scientific community.” In recent decades, the Fels data has been used to study the relationship between childhood body composition and adult disease, including how the distribution of human body fat is related to obesity and the risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, accord- ing to Wright State profes- sor emerita of anthropology Anna Bellisari. More recently, researchers used the data to study the aging process. According to the Wright State University medical school at the time, the uni- versity planned to preserve the Fels data. The Fels study was launched in 1929 by then- Antioch College President Arthur Morgan, according to a book by Roche, “Growth, Maturation and Body Compo- sition: The Fels Longitudinal Study.” “Arthur Morgan posed a question that sounds simple: ‘What makes people differ - ent?’” Roche wrote. “This is one of many questions that sound simple but are extremely difficult to answer. Mr. Morgan concluded that a longitudinal study from conception to adulthood was required.” Morgan then approached a variety of scientists to take on this question, but all turned him down, the book states. He then approached Samuel Fels, a Philadelphia philanthropist, who agreed to fund the project. The study began under the direction of Dr. Lester Sontag, who stayed on as director for almost 40 years. And while Unidentified medical professionals at the Fels Longitudinal Study are pictured examining a young partici - pant. The longest and largest longitudinal health study in the world, the Fels study, for many years based in Yellow Springs, still had more than 1,000 participants in the area as of 2018, when Wright State University closed down data collection. | PHOTO COURTESY OF ANT IOCHIANA, ANT IOCH COLLEGE A version of this story was originally published in the Yellow Springs News in October 2018. LONGEST-RUNNING HUMAN GROWTH STUDY ENDS By DIANE CHIDDI STER A fter nearly 90 years, the Fels Longitudinal Study, the world’s longest and largest longitudi- nal human growth study, came to an end. Started in Yellow Springs, the Fels study was one of a handful of scientific longitudi- nal studies launched nation- ally in the late 1920s and early 1930s in an effort to understand childhood devel- opment in the face of the Great Depression, according to Alex Roche, a former direc- tor of the study. In 2018, Wright State University, which for decades has housed the study, closed it down. Bruce Bradtmiller, THE FELS STUDY J e w e l r y Cloth ing art s and C r a f t s 220 Xenia avenue K i ngs yard 9 3 7 - 767- 1 918 www.tibet-bazaar.Com from t i b e t nepal and india • Over 250 selections of domestic, imported and micro brew beers • Expanded selection of wines including a wide variety of organics • Natural flavors of coffee & cappuccino • Sunday beer all day & wine sales after 11 a.m. • Lottery /ATM machine Locally & Family Owned Ben Van Ausdal, Manager 4 Xenia Ave. • 937-767-1349 Monday–Sunday 7 a.m.–10 p.m. Nipper ’ s Corner SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS WHO SUPPORT LOCAL JOUNRALISM Or become an advertiser yourself! Email advert@ysnews.com or call 937- 767- 7373. YELLOW SPRINGS NEWS ysnews.com