From Easter Island to coated coronary stents: a remarkable saga

Easter Island, even though it's in the middle of nowhere, is indeed a piece of the continent, as John Donne alluded to. In addition to contributing rapamycin to the medical field, the island is an example to the whole world of the consequences of affluent lifestyles, tribal wars, and ignorance of ecology. Jared Diamond expressed these thoughts best in his book, "Collapse:" The parallels between Easter Island and the whole modern world are chillingly obvious... All countries on earth today share resources and affect each other just as did Easter's dozen clans. Polynesian Easter Island was as isolated in the Pacific Ocean as the Earth is today in space. People see the collapse of Easter Island 's society as a metaphor; a worst-case scenario, for what may lie ahead for us in our own future. Some veteran Easter Island archaeologists like Claudio Cristina feel that Diamond's views are overly simplistic, commenting that he only spent a week on the island (versus 30 years for Cristina). Predatory Polynesian rats, earthquakes, tsunamis, variations in rainfall, diseases introduced by European sailing ships, could all have contributed to the near-demise of Easter Island. Tribal wars certainly didn't help, nor did slave-raiding parties from Peru. Only the eyes of the moai (Fig. 5) have seen it all, but the statues remain silent, as they have for over 1,000 years.