Explorers

Highlights from Atkinson’s collection. Credit: English Heritage In the 1980s, a shell collection that included specimens from Captain Cook's final voyage was accidentally thrown into a skip and believed lost forever. But much to the joy of scientists, last week it was rediscovered safe and sound and donated to English Heritage. Her name might not…

Yes, we all need to attend to nature’s business. On a long car or bike trip, you need to think about where to do it and how to do it hygeinically and safely. This matters even more when you go long distances with family. Here we talk about how to do it right. Motorcyclists Over the last few years, the number of motorcycle enthusiasts in the country has gone up significantly. However, these light and fast travelers often find themselves in a bit of a problem when it comes to finding restrooms. Generally, public…

A deep sea exploration company has released a sonar image they say may be the remains of the plane of Amelia Earhart, the famed American aviatrix who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.Deep Sea Vision (DSV), a South Carolina-based firm, said the image was captured after an extensive search in an area of the Pacific to the west of Earhart's planned destination, remote Howland Island.Earhart went missing while on a pioneering round-the-world flight with navigator Fred Noonan.Her disappearance is one of the most…

As we await the final investigation results from the loss of the Titan submersible, which killed five people last summer at a depth of over 12,000 feet in the Atlantic, the tragedy has drawn questions far above the ocean depths, asking whether similar hazards face the burgeoning private exploration of space.To be more realistic, these questions lead to an uncomfortable truth about what eventually will happen in space. No matter how safe a system or stringent regulations, someday, somehow, something will go wrong in…

Quirks and Quarks18:53Unearthing a small-brained hominid species that challenges human exceptionalismIn 2013 renowned paleoanthropologist Lee Berger sent a couple of cave explorers into a cave system in South Africa to see what they could find. Little did he know they’d return with photos of fossilised hominid remains that would upend everything we thought we knew about what makes us special. He and his colleagues discovered an entirely new species of ancient human relatives, called Homo naledi, that lived a few hundred…

Riders looking for a road bike that's as much at home in the city as it is on dirt tracks and mountain trails will likely find what they need in the shape of a gravel bike. Italy's Basso Bikes has now launched a lightweight pedal-assist model with a 220-km battery.The Volta was originally launched in 2020 as a pedal-assist version of its versatile city/gravel/road Palta model. Now the latest flavor is based on last year's Palta II release, with Basso saying that "the most sophisticated gravel platform we have ever created…

Nonfiction Exploring, and Exploiting, the Ocean’s Depths A new history of the deep sea—and the forces that threaten it The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey Doubleday, 2023 ($32) The first bathysphere made its initial descent off an island in Bermuda on June 6, 1930, lowered into the Atlantic Ocean by a shipboard winch. The vessel was a crude metal sphere pocked with tiny quartz windows, akin to finger holes in a bowling ball. The plunge was terrifying: leaks could spring, air…

Garmin has just announced a pair of new smartwatches intended for explorers and extreme fitness enthusiasts. However, these are high-end gadgets with high-end specs and, accordingly, high-end price tags. First up, the Epix Pro series. The main draw of these watches is that they ship with a bright and crisp AMOLED display, a design choice providing a vivid picture without drawing too much battery life. There’s also a built-in flashlight with multiple intensities and a strobe mode, a red-only visual display option for…

Unveiling cryptocurrency transparency and harnessing the power of Etherscan and blockchain explorers Cryptocurrency offers a level of anonymity, but many people mistakenly believe that transactions are entirely private. In reality, most blockchains rely on public ledgers, revealing transaction details and associated data to those who know how to access them. Blockchain explorers are valuable tools that sift through this raw data, transforming it into a comprehensible and navigable map of the cryptocurrency market. Among…

This photo provided by the Australian War Memorial shows the Montevideo Maru. A team of explorers announced it found the sunken Japanese ship that was transporting Allied prisoners of war when it was torpedoed off the coast of the Philippines in 1942, resulting in Australia's largest maritime wartime loss with a total of 1,080 lives. Credit: Australian War Memorial via AP A team of explorers announced it found a sunken…