tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/exploration-2661/articlesExploration – The Conversation2024-02-20T03:59:52Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2216062024-02-20T03:59:52Z2024-02-20T03:59:52ZThe art of ‘getting lost’: how re-discovering your city can be an antidote to capitalism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576389/original/file-20240219-18-goulp6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C23%2C3943%2C1947&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you remember what it was like to discover the magic of a city for the first time? Do you remember the noises, smells, flashing lights and pulsating crowds? Or do you mostly remember cities through the screen of your phone?</p>
<p>In 1967, French philosopher and filmmaker Guy Debord <a href="https://files.libcom.org/files/The%20Society%20of%20the%20Spectacle%20Annotated%20Edition.pdf">publicised the need</a> to move away from living our lives as bystanders continually tempted by the power of images. Today, we might see this in a young person flicking from one TikTok to the next – echoing the hold images have on us. But adults aren’t adverse to this window-shopping experience, either.</p>
<p>Debord notes we have a tendency to observe rather than engage. And this is to our detriment. Continually topping-up our image consumption leaves no space for the unplanned – the reveries to break the pattern of an ordered life. </p>
<p>Debord was a member of a group called the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Situationist-International">Situationist International</a>, dedicated to new ways we could reflect upon and experience our cities. Active for about 15 years, they believed we should experience our cities as an act of resistance, in direct opposition to the (profit-motivated) capitalistic structures that demand our attention and productivity every waking hour.</p>
<p>More than 50 years since the group dissolved, the Situationists’ philosophy points us to a continued need to attune ourselves – through our thoughts and senses – to the world we live in. We might consider them as early eco-warriors. And through better understanding their philosophy, we can develop a new relationship with our cities today. </p>
<h2>Understanding the ‘situation’</h2>
<p>The Situationist International movement was <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183p61x">formed</a> in 1957 in Cosio di Arroscia, Italy, and became active in several European countries. It brought together radical artists inspired by spontaneity, experimentalism, intellectualism, protest and hedonism. Central figures included Danish artist <a href="https://museumjorn.dk/en/">Asger Jorn</a>, French novelist <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/author/michele-bernstein-10219/">Michèle Bernstein</a> and Italian musician and composer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Olmo">Walter Olmo</a>. </p>
<p>The Situationists were driven by a <a href="https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/34141">libertarian form of Marxism</a> that resisted mass consumerism. One of the group’s early terms was “unitary urbanism”, which sought to join avant-garde art with the critique of mass production and technology. They rejected “urbanism’s” conventional emphasis on function, and instead thought about art and the environment as inexorably interrelated.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576377/original/file-20240219-20-4pucih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576377/original/file-20240219-20-4pucih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576377/original/file-20240219-20-4pucih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576377/original/file-20240219-20-4pucih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576377/original/file-20240219-20-4pucih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576377/original/file-20240219-20-4pucih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576377/original/file-20240219-20-4pucih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576377/original/file-20240219-20-4pucih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Times Square in the modern day. The Situationists viewed consumerism as oppressive forces that should be rebelled against.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>By rebelling against the invasiveness of consumption, the Situationists proposed a turn towards artistically-inspired individuality and creativity.</p>
<h2>Think on your own two feet</h2>
<p>According to the 1960 <a href="https://hts3.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/situationist-international-manifesto.pdf">Situationist Manifesto</a> we are all to be artists of our own “situations”, crafting independent identities as we stand on our own two feet. They believed this could be achieved, in part, through “<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/psychogeography#:%7E:text=Psychogeography%20describes%20the%20effect%20of,emotions%20and%20behaviour%20of%20individuals">psychogeography</a>”: the idea that geographical locations exert a unique psychological effect on us.</p>
<p>For instance, when you walk down a street, the architecture around you may be deliberately designed to encourage a certain kind of experience. Crossing a vibrant city square on a sunny morning evokes joy and a feeling of connection with others. There’s also usually a public event taking place. </p>
<p>The Situationists valued drift, or <em>dérive</em> in French. This alludes to unplanned movement through a landscape during journeys on foot. By drifting aimlessly, we unintentionally redefine the traditional rules imposed by private or public land owners and property developers. We make ourselves open to the new unexpected and, in doing so, are liberated from the shackles of everyday routine.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-10-8100-2">our research</a>, my colleagues and I consider cities as places in which “getting lost” means exposing yourself to discovering the new and taken-for-granted. </p>
<h2>Forge your own path</h2>
<p>By understanding the Situationists – by looking away from our phones and allowing ourselves to get lost – we can rediscover our cities. We can see them for what they are beneath the blankets of posters, billboards and advertisements. How might we take back the image and make it work for us?</p>
<p>The practise of geo-tagging images on social media, and sharing our location with others, could be considered close to the spirit of the Situationists. Although it’s often met with claims of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/when-why-not-to-use-geotagging-overtourism-security">over-fuelling tourism</a> (especially regarding idyllic or otherwise protected sites), geo-tagging could <a href="https://www.melaninbasecamp.com/trip-reports/2019/5/1/five-reasons-why-you-should-keep-geotagging">inspire us</a> to actively seek out new places through visiting the source of an image. </p>
<p>This could lead to culturally respectful engagement, and new-found respect for the rights of traditional custodians as we experience their lands in real life, rather than just through images on our phones.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576619/original/file-20240219-28-6bptso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576619/original/file-20240219-28-6bptso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576619/original/file-20240219-28-6bptso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576619/original/file-20240219-28-6bptso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576619/original/file-20240219-28-6bptso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576619/original/file-20240219-28-6bptso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576619/original/file-20240219-28-6bptso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576619/original/file-20240219-28-6bptso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Online, there’s a strong temptation to fall into the spectator role by merely consuming other people’s content. Geo-tagging offers a way to share experiences.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then there are uniquely personal and anarchistic forms of resistance, wherein we can learn about the world around us by interweaving ourselves with our histories. In doing so we offer a new meaning to a historical message, and a new purpose. The Situationists called this process <em><a href="https://www.theartstory.org/movement/situationist-international/">détournement</a></em>, or hijacking. </p>
<p>For instance, from my grandfather I inherited a biscuit tin of black and white photographs I believe were taken in the 1960s. They showed images of parks and wildlife, perhaps even of the same park, and cityscapes of London with people, streets and buildings. </p>
<p>I have spent many hours wandering the London streets tracking down the exact places these images were snapped. I was juxtaposing past with present, and experiencing both continuity and change in the dialogues I had with my grandfather. In this way, I used images to augment (rather than replace) my lived experience of the material world. </p>
<p>Urban art installations can also be examples of detournment as they make us re-think everyday conceptions. <a href="https://www.cityartsydney.com.au/artwork/forgotten-songs/">Forgotten Songs</a> by Michael Hill is one such example. A canopy of empty birdcages commemorates the songs of 50 different birds once heard in central Sydney, but which are now lost due to habitat removal as a result of urban development. </p>
<p>There are also a number of groups, often with a strong environmental or civic rights focus, that partake in detournment. <a href="https://popularresistance.org/dancing-revolution-how-90s-protests-used-rave-culture-to-reclaim-the-streets/">Reclaim the Streets</a> is a movement with a long history in Australia. The group advocates for communities having ownership of and agency within public spaces. They may, for instance, “invade” a highway to throw a “<a href="https://pasttenseblog.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/road-rave.pdf">road rave</a>” as an act of reclamation. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bUL0C_T-Sqk?wmode=transparent&start=999" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>As French avant-garde philosopher <a href="https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/07/24/the-poetics-of-reverie-gaston-bachelard/">Gaston Bachelard</a> might have put it, when we’re bombarded by images there is no space left to daydream. We lose the opportunity to explore and question the world capitalism serves us through images. </p>
<p>Perhaps now is a good time to set down the phone and follow in the Situationists’ footsteps. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-you-want-size-with-that-the-mcmansion-malaise-1563">Do you want size with that? The McMansion malaise</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221606/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Dobson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>‘Situationists’ believe the physical spaces around us, and how we interact with them, has a significant impact on how we feel.Stephen Dobson, Professor and Dean of Education and the Arts, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2049042023-07-04T01:43:05Z2023-07-04T01:43:05ZThe earth might hold huge stores of natural hydrogen – and prospectors are already scouring South Australia for it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532832/original/file-20230620-51773-4a5amn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=632%2C33%2C3590%2C2309&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hydrogen comes in an <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/03/making-sense-of-the-hydrogen-rainbow">ever-increasing</a> range of colours. Green hydrogen, made by cracking water into oxygen and hydrogen. Blue hydrogen, made from natural gas with the carbon emissions captured and stored. Grey hydrogen, using natural gas with carbon dioxide emissions released to the atmosphere. </p>
<p>But there’s one type few people have heard of – white or gold hydrogen, produced by natural processes that occur deep underground. </p>
<p>The main methods of producing hydrogen uses an energy source to convert methane, coal or water to hydrogen, with byproducts such as oxygen or carbon dioxide. </p>
<p>But this natural hydrogen could mean an easier route. Viacheslav Zgonnik, a researcher and head of a natural hydrogen company, has <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/hidden-hydrogen-earth-may-hold-vast-stores-renewable-carbon-free-fuel">told Science</a> he believes “it has the potential to replace all fossil fuels”.</p>
<p>Is that really possible? And why are we only just finding out about it? Here’s what we know. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-hydrogen-and-can-it-really-become-a-climate-change-solution-204513">What is hydrogen, and can it really become a climate change solution?</a>
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<h2>The race for lots of hydrogen</h2>
<p>Hydrogen has long been touted as a way to help us get to net zero. It’s energy-dense and able to be used in vehicles, for electricity generation and industrial processes. </p>
<p>But some experts are sceptical, given the current costs to produce it and challenges for adoption, to say nothing of the emissions created with the most common production method – blue hydrogen from natural gas. </p>
<p>That’s why natural hydrogen is getting so much attention, given it would have very low emissions. </p>
<p>So where’s it found? Often, underground alongside other gases such as methane and helium. It’s a lot like oil and natural gas, in that sense. </p>
<p>But unlike oil and gas, we haven’t had anywhere near the same experience in exploring for hydrogen. </p>
<p>What we know so far is that natural hydrogen can be produced in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012825219304787">many different ways</a> as different rocks and minerals interact underground. </p>
<p>Ancient, iron-rich rocks can <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020ESRv..20303140Z/abstract">produce hydrogen</a>. So can rocks such as serpentinite, and basalt produced from magma emerging in the deep ocean, or from organic-rich rocks such as coals or shales. And life, too, can be involved. Deep in the earth live microbes which can eat – or produce – hydrogen. </p>
<p>Our research <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/aj/AJ21130">has suggested</a> finding sources of hydrogen isn’t likely to be the main issue for extraction. Over the last decade, natural hydrogen experts have exponentially increased their estimates of how much of this useful gas there is out there. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532837/original/file-20230620-56698-xp3jyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Serpentinite" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532837/original/file-20230620-56698-xp3jyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532837/original/file-20230620-56698-xp3jyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532837/original/file-20230620-56698-xp3jyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532837/original/file-20230620-56698-xp3jyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532837/original/file-20230620-56698-xp3jyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532837/original/file-20230620-56698-xp3jyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532837/original/file-20230620-56698-xp3jyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The natural process of creating serpentinite can give off hydrogen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/9393583691">James St John/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>So where could we extract it?</h2>
<p>Hydrocarbons such as oil tend to float up from the deeper rocks where they are produced until trapped in porous rocks called reservoirs. </p>
<p>But what about much lighter hydrogen? It moves upwards wherever possible - but it’s so mobile, it can easily slip through many rocks and escape to the atmosphere. It may only be worth recovering if there are big enough reservoirs where it has accumulated under, say, an impermeable rock layer like shale or salt. Salt caverns are <a href="https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/king/media-releases/salt-caverns-and-minerals-across-australia-unlock-our-nations-hydrogen-industry">already being explored</a> as a way to store green hydrogen. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532825/original/file-20230620-27-lv8s3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="salt cavern hydrogen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532825/original/file-20230620-27-lv8s3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532825/original/file-20230620-27-lv8s3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532825/original/file-20230620-27-lv8s3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532825/original/file-20230620-27-lv8s3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532825/original/file-20230620-27-lv8s3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532825/original/file-20230620-27-lv8s3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532825/original/file-20230620-27-lv8s3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Salt layers prevent hydrogen from escaping, which is why salt caverns (pictured) are being explored as a way to store the light gas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/energy/resources/hydrogen/australias-hydrogen-production-potential">Geoscience Australia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Researchers are working to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016236122024668#s0095">figure out</a> what actually acts as a barrier to hydrogen flowing underground.</p>
<p>At present, it’s early days. The industry has just one known example of hydrogen accumulating in commercial amounts. It was <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360319918327861">found by accident</a> in Mali, West Africa, in the 1980s, when drilling for water uncovered <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/hidden-hydrogen-earth-may-hold-vast-stores-renewable-carbon-free-fuel">shallow but significant</a> volumes of hydrogen.</p>
<p>Public production and pressure monitoring <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360319918327861">suggest</a> the Mali gas field has seen no depletion to date. By contrast, oil and gas reservoirs tend not to refill themselves on a timeframe that matters to us. </p>
<h2>Will prospecting for hydrogen be like the oil rush?</h2>
<p>When prospectors realised the importance of fossil fuels such as oil and gas, they turned first to surface seeps. Seeping oil and gas at the surface meant a source rock like shale was expelling hydrocarbons. </p>
<p>Backtracking from surface seeps is one way to look for naturally occurring hydrogen. Already, researchers have used high-resolution satellite imagery to look for enigmatic features often referred to as fairy circles. </p>
<p>For decades, researchers have debated what causes these circles. Termites? Rain? Plants? One answer might be – <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360319921026045">hydrogen seeps</a>. </p>
<p>Natural hydrogen exploration companies in South Australia are already using fairy circles to identify possible sites. Others are <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/hidden-hydrogen-earth-may-hold-vast-stores-renewable-carbon-free-fuel">turning to</a> the history books – one borehole on Kangaroo Island drilled in 1921 produced up to 80% hydrogen. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532836/original/file-20230620-21-i2jmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="fairy circles hydrogen seep" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532836/original/file-20230620-21-i2jmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532836/original/file-20230620-21-i2jmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532836/original/file-20230620-21-i2jmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532836/original/file-20230620-21-i2jmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532836/original/file-20230620-21-i2jmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532836/original/file-20230620-21-i2jmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532836/original/file-20230620-21-i2jmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Enigmatic fairy circles like these near Moora, Western Australia, have been linked to hydrogen seeping out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://earth.google.com/web/search/Moora+/@-30.58443804,115.98094246,205.58138579a,10893.1668673d,35y,0h,0t,0r/data=CigiJgokCafH_5bbECXAEUQcuE4gWjvAGYr65d-eG2JAITMpxSb8nl1A">Google Earth</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why are we only finding this now?</h2>
<p>We weren’t looking. Until recently, the world’s vast reserves of <a href="https://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/Petroleum/Natural-gas-from-shale-and-tight-1591.aspx">shale and tight gas</a> went unobserved for decades. But as technology progressed with new drilling, well logging and recovery methods such as fracking, extraction was possible. </p>
<p>From the 1960s onwards, geologists looking for hydrocarbons in sedimentary basins have used gas chromatography to figure out what was present in a gas mix. Previous methods could spot a broader range of gases, but the most common and simplified method left hydrogen and helium undetectable. So hydrogen may have been there the whole time. </p>
<p>When we drill looking for oil and gas, we drill deep to take samples – often 1,500 to 3,000 metres. But as the Mali find shows us, hydrogen can exist much shallower at under 500 metres and in different rock types. That means our current data sets are skewed. </p>
<h2>Are we going to see a hydrogen rush?</h2>
<p>It’s possible. A new generation of explorers are <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/02/02/natural-hydrogen-exploration-boom-snaps-up-one-third-of-south-australia/">already scouring</a> South Australia, looking for good prospects. That’s because the state is currently the only Australian jurisdiction with <a href="https://www.energymining.sa.gov.au/industry/energy-resources/geology-and-prospectivity/natural-hydrogen">laws in place</a> to enable hydrogen exploration.</p>
<p>That’s not to say natural hydrogen is a guaranteed winner. There’s much we don’t know, such as how common it is and how easy it is to extract. It’s also one of many potential pathways being explored to help us toward decarbonisation and net zero milestones.</p>
<p>What we do know is that to make this a reality will mean an open mind – and a willingness to try new approaches. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dont-rocks-burn-203392">Why don't rocks burn?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204904/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda Stalker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the late 1980s, well diggers in Mali struck a rich source of naturally-created hydrogen. Now prospectors are scouring South Australia, looking for natural hydrogen.Linda Stalker, Senior principal research scientist, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071452023-06-29T14:35:32Z2023-06-29T14:35:32ZDung beetles: expedition unearths new species on Mozambique’s Mount Mabu<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533691/original/file-20230623-22-6mwktq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A landscape view of Mabu Forest, Zambezia, Mozambique. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gimo Daniel/Author.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mount Mabu in north central Mozambique supports the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A1CD0A42708C5C2287FB8ABD808F36AC/S0030605313000720a.pdf/discovery_biodiversity_and_conservation_of_mabu_forestthe_largest_mediumaltitude_rainforest_in_southern_africa.pdf;">largest continuous block of rainforest</a> in southern Africa.</p>
<p>The Mabu Forest was originally inhabited by hunters of the Manhawa ethnic group. Its name refers to “beekeeping” in the eManhawa language. </p>
<p>The area contains exceptional levels of biodiversity. But its extremely diverse wildlife was unknown to scientists until 2005. Since then biodiversity surveys have <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A1CD0A42708C5C2287FB8ABD808F36AC/S0030605313000720a.pdf/discovery_biodiversity_and_conservation_of_mabu_forestthe_largest_mediumaltitude_rainforest_in_southern_africa.pdf;">recorded</a> more than 20 species new to science. These include several species of plants, a new species of bat, a new species of forest viper and two species of chameleons, as well as several new species of butterflies. </p>
<p>In a recent <a href="http://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.5258.4.4">paper</a> we set out our findings from the first dung beetle survey on Mount Mabu. Within 15 days of exploration, we collected over 4,000 specimens of dung beetles, classified into 30 species. Of these species, half are new to science, and several are new country records.</p>
<iframe title="" aria-label="Locator maps" id="datawrapper-chart-oLFky" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/oLFky/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="580" data-external="1" width="100%"></iframe>
<p>Our findings are exciting because we live in a world where the danger of losing species is more imminent than the chances of describing them. New discoveries provide vital ammunition in the battle against biodiversity loss.</p>
<p>The discovery of new dung beetle species should be seen as a call to national and international authorities to protect Mount Mabu and its rare and distinctive biodiversity, as it remains unprotected by law.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533697/original/file-20230623-19-7cjr30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533697/original/file-20230623-19-7cjr30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533697/original/file-20230623-19-7cjr30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533697/original/file-20230623-19-7cjr30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533697/original/file-20230623-19-7cjr30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533697/original/file-20230623-19-7cjr30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533697/original/file-20230623-19-7cjr30.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Onthophagus mabuensis, a new dung beetle species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Werner Strumpher.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why dung beetles matter</h2>
<p>There are over <a href="https://www.catalogueoflife.org/data/dataset/1027">7,000 dung beetle species worldwide</a>. They are among the most dominant invertebrates in tropical forests and are essential to a well-functioning ecosystem.</p>
<p>Dung beetles feed mainly on the faeces of mammals. During the feeding process, they <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320708001420">perform</a> a series of ecological processes and environmental services. These include: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>dung removal and nutrient recycling in ecosystems, which increases soil fertility </p></li>
<li><p>secondary seed dispersal </p></li>
<li><p>reduction of survival rates of nematodes and flies. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>For example, manure is the breeding ground and incubator for horn flies and face flies, two economically important pests of cattle.</p>
<p>We surveyed dung beetles using pitfall traps. These consisted of a two-litre plastic bucket baited with mammal faeces. The traps were left in the field for 48 hours, and then the catch of each individual trap was labelled and stored separately in alcohol. The collected specimens were processed and identified in the laboratory at the National Museum in Bloemfontein, South Africa.</p>
<h2>Dung beetles must be protected from extinction</h2>
<p>Our research results increase the number of currently valid dung beetle species recorded from Mozambique to 326. We believe this is still way below the country’s actual diversity. </p>
<p>The research uncovered an unknown community of dung beetles; previous dung beetle surveys in the country were centred in southern Mozambique (especially its coastal areas) and Gorongosa National Park. In contrast, other areas of the country are poorly studied.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534305/original/file-20230627-15-qqkpi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man stands in front of a log of wood in a forest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534305/original/file-20230627-15-qqkpi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534305/original/file-20230627-15-qqkpi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534305/original/file-20230627-15-qqkpi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534305/original/file-20230627-15-qqkpi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534305/original/file-20230627-15-qqkpi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534305/original/file-20230627-15-qqkpi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534305/original/file-20230627-15-qqkpi7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author, standing by a sweep net during the expedition. Isildo Nganhane.:</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interestingly, the species composition of dung beetles from Mabu Forest suggests ancient linkages and evidence of a significant influence of dung beetle fauna from mountains to the north (Tanzania) and to the west (Malawi), the Eastern Arc Mountains, and Moreau’s Tanganyika–Nyasa Montane Chain, respectively. </p>
<p>Several dung beetle species collected in our expedition seem to be endemic (restricted to a certain location) to the region of Mabu. Endemic dung beetle species are key to their ecosystems and become a thermometer when it comes to measuring the state of a territory’s health. For that reason, their protection from extinction threats is critical.</p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>We are living in an era where land use, habitat fragmentation, global climate change, direct over-exploitation and co-extinction of species dependent on other species are all threats to biodiversity. Insects – including dung beetles – are declining globally. Thus, it is critical that biodiversity surveys are expanded to remote and unsampled areas, especially unprotected “sky-island forests”, such as Mount Mabu and others in northern Mozambique. </p>
<p>Our findings and others from previous surveys should be translated into biodiversity conservation policies to change people’s uncaring attitude to biodiversity loss and to avert a sixth mass extinction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207145/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gimo Mazembe Daniel receives funding from the National Geographic Society through a research grant (EC-83071R-21).</span></em></p>The forests around Mount Mabu in Mozambique are rich in biodiversity, including some newly discovered species.Gimo Mazembe Daniel, Principal Museum Scientist, National Museum, BloemfonteinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1899462022-09-08T12:31:46Z2022-09-08T12:31:46ZGhost islands of the Arctic: The world’s ‘northern-most island’ isn’t the first to be erased from the map<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482580/original/file-20220902-20-ywtp99.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C2015%2C1270&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">These 'islands' are on the move.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martin Nissen</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2021, an expedition off the icy northern Greenland coast spotted what appeared to be a previously uncharted island. It was small and gravelly, and it was declared a contender for the title of the most northerly known land mass in the world. The discoverers named it <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-set-foot-worlds-northernmost-island-180978566/">Qeqertaq Avannarleq</a> – Greenlandic for “the northern most island.”</p>
<p>But there was a mystery afoot in the region. Just north of Cape Morris Jesup, several other small islands had been discovered over the decades, and then disappeared.</p>
<p>Some scientists theorized that these were rocky banks that had been pushed up by sea ice. </p>
<p>But when a team of Swiss and Danish surveyors traveled north to <a href="https://www.arctictoday.com/several-islands-recorded-as-the-northernmost-on-earth-are-most-likely-icebergs-and-will-disappear-again/">investigate this “ghost islands”</a> phenomenon, they discovered something else entirely. They <a href="https://www.space.dtu.dk/nyheder/nyhed?id=3767be72-335e-4f02-a277-87a39aaf5ffe">announced their findings</a> in September 2022: These elusive islands are actually large icebergs grounded at the sea bottom. They likely came from a nearby glacier, where other newly calved icebergs, covered with gravel from landslides, were ready to float off. </p>
<p>This was not the first such disappearing act in the high Arctic, or the first need to erase land from the map. Nearly a century ago, an innovative airborne expedition redrew the maps of large swaths of the Barents Sea.</p>
<h2>The view from a zeppelin in 1931</h2>
<p>The 1931 expedition emerged from American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst’s plan for a spectacular publicity stunt. </p>
<p>Hearst proposed having <a href="https://www.airships.net/lz127-graf-zeppelin/">the Graf Zeppelin</a>, then the world’s largest airship, fly to the North Pole for a meeting with a submarine that would travel under the ice. This ran into practical difficulties and Hearst abandoned the plan, but the notion of using the Graf Zeppelin to conduct <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/209526">geographic and scientific investigations</a> of the high Arctic was taken up by an international polar science committee.</p>
<p>The airborne expedition they devised would employ pioneering technologies and make important geographical, meteorological and magnetic discoveries in the Arctic – including remapping much of the Barents Sea. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oVP2pZX2yGo?wmode=transparent&start=185" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The expedition was known as the Polarfahrt – “polar voyage” in German. Despite the international tensions at the time, the zeppelin carried a team of German, Soviet and U.S. scientists and explorers. </p>
<p>Among them were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Ellsworth">Lincoln Ellsworth</a>, a wealthy American and experienced Arctic explorer who would write the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/209526">first scholarly account</a> of the Polarfahrt and its geographical discoveries. Two important Soviet scientists also participated: the brilliant meteorologist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Molchanov">Pavel Molchanov</a> and the expedition’s chief scientist, Rudolf Samoylovich, who <a href="https://hgss.copernicus.org/articles/4/35/2013/">performed magnetic measurements</a>. In charge of the meteorological operations was Ludwig Weickmann, director of the Geophysical Institute of the University of Leipzig.</p>
<p>The expedition’s chronicler was Arthur Koestler, a young journalist who would later become famous for his anti-communist novel “Darkness at Noon,” depicting totalitarianism turning on its own party loyalists.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The giant airship in a hangar with people standing beside it looking very tiny" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482818/original/file-20220905-14-ohmst6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482818/original/file-20220905-14-ohmst6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482818/original/file-20220905-14-ohmst6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482818/original/file-20220905-14-ohmst6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482818/original/file-20220905-14-ohmst6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482818/original/file-20220905-14-ohmst6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482818/original/file-20220905-14-ohmst6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Built in 1928 and longer than two football fields, the Graf Zeppelin was normally used for ultra-luxurious commercial passenger transportation. Financing for the science mission came in part from the sale of postcards with stamps specially issued by the postal authorities of Germany and the Soviet Union.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zeppelin_Graf_Zeppelin.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The five-day trip took them north over the Barents Sea as far as 82 degrees north latitude, and then eastward for hundreds of miles before returning southwestward.</p>
<p>Koestler provided daily reports via shortwave radio that appeared in newspapers around the world.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The experience of this swift, silent and effortless rising, or rather falling upwards into the sky, is beautiful and intoxicating,” Koestler wrote in <a href="https://ebin.pub/arrow-in-the-blue-an-autobiography-1.html">his 1952 autobiography</a>. “… it gives one the complete illusion of having escaped the bondage of the earth’s gravity.</p>
<p>"We hovered in the Arctic air for several days, moving at a leisurely average of 60 miles per hour and often stopping in mid-air to complete a photographic survey or release small weather balloons. It all had a charm and a quiet excitement comparable to a journey on the last sailing ship in an era of speed boats.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>‘The disadvantage of not existing’</h2>
<p>The high latitude regions the Polarfahrt passed over were incredibly remote. In the late 19th century, Austrian explorer Julius von Payer reported the discovery of Franz Josef Land, an archipelago of nearly 200 islands in the Barents Sea, but initially there had been <a href="https://english.radio.cz/julius-von-payer-teplice-born-explorer-who-discovered-franz-josef-land-8113568">doubts about Franz Josef Land’s existence</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482577/original/file-20220902-25-23tpvq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map showing Franz Josef Land in relation to Greenland and Russia." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482577/original/file-20220902-25-23tpvq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482577/original/file-20220902-25-23tpvq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482577/original/file-20220902-25-23tpvq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482577/original/file-20220902-25-23tpvq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482577/original/file-20220902-25-23tpvq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482577/original/file-20220902-25-23tpvq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482577/original/file-20220902-25-23tpvq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Franz_Josef_Land_location-en.svg">Oona Räisänen via Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Polarfahrt confirmed the existence of Franz Josef Land, but it would reveal that the maps produced by the early explorers of the high Arctic had startling deficiencies.</p>
<p>For the expedition, the Graf Zeppelin had been outfitted with wide-angle cameras that allowed detailed photography of the surface below. The slowly moving Zeppelin was ideally suited for this purpose and could make leisurely surveys that were not possible from fixed-wing aircraft overflights.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We spent the remainder of [July 27] making a geographical survey of Franz Josef Land,” <a href="https://ebin.pub/arrow-in-the-blue-an-autobiography-1.html">Koestler wrote</a>. </p>
<p>“Our first objective was an island called Albert Edward Land. But that was easier said than done, for Albert Edward Land had the disadvantage of not existing. It could be found on every map of the Arctic, but not in the Arctic itself …</p>
<p>"Next objective: Harmsworth Land. Funny as it sounds Harmsworth Land didn’t exist either. Where it ought to have been, there was nothing but the black polar sea and the reflection of the white Zeppelin.</p>
<p>"Heaven knows whether the explorer who put these islands on the map (I believe it was Payer) had been a victim of a mirage, mistaking some icebergs for land … At any rate, as of July 27, 1931, they have been officially erased.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The expedition would also discover six islands and redraw the coastal outlines of many others. </p>
<h2>A revolutionary way to measure the atmosphere</h2>
<p>The expedition was also remarkable for the instruments Molchanov tested aboard the Graf Zeppelin – including his newly invented “radiosondes.” His technology would revolutionize meteorological observations and led to instruments that <a href="http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/people/hamilton.php">atmospheric scientists like me</a> rely on today.</p>
<p>Until 1930, measuring the temperature high in the atmosphere was extremely challenging for meteorologists.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482816/original/file-20220905-21-2jk3mi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482816/original/file-20220905-21-2jk3mi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482816/original/file-20220905-21-2jk3mi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482816/original/file-20220905-21-2jk3mi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482816/original/file-20220905-21-2jk3mi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482816/original/file-20220905-21-2jk3mi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482816/original/file-20220905-21-2jk3mi.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pavel Molchanov and Ludwig Weickmann prepare to launch a weather balloon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://radiosondemuseum.org">Radiosonde Museum of North America</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They used so-called <a href="https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/2453/SSHT-0053_Lo_res.pdf?sequence=2">registering sondes</a> that recorded the temperature and pressure by weather balloon. A stylus would make a continuous trace on paper or some other medium, but to read it, scientists would have to find the sonde package after it dropped, and it typically drifted many miles from the launch point. This was particularly impractical in remote areas such as the Arctic.</p>
<p>Molchanov’s device could radio back the temperature and pressure at frequent intervals during the balloon flight. Today, balloon-borne radiosondes are launched <a href="https://courses.imperativemoocs.com/monitoring-the-oceans-from-space-01/week-1-oceans-and-climate/topic-1c-climate-change/global-radiosonde-network">daily at several hundred stations worldwide</a>. </p>
<p>The Polarfahrt was Molchanov’s chance for a spectacular demonstration. The Graf Zeppelin generally flew in the lowest few thousand feet of the atmosphere, but could serve as a platform to release weather balloons that could ascend much higher, acting as remotely reporting “robots” in the upper atmosphere. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A balloon is launched from below the airship" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482817/original/file-20220905-14-nvf176.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482817/original/file-20220905-14-nvf176.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482817/original/file-20220905-14-nvf176.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482817/original/file-20220905-14-nvf176.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482817/original/file-20220905-14-nvf176.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482817/original/file-20220905-14-nvf176.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482817/original/file-20220905-14-nvf176.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To launch radiosondes from the zeppelin, weather balloons were weighted to sink at first. The weight was designed to drop off, allowing the balloon to later rise through the atmosphere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://radiosondemuseum.org">Radiosonde Museum of North America.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Molchanov’s hydrogen-filled weather balloons provided the first observations of the stratospheric temperatures near the pole. Remarkably, he found that at heights of 10 miles the air at the pole was actually <a href="https://bulletin.cmos.ca/early-exploration-of-the-high-latitude-stratosphere-part-i-pre-world-war-ii-era/">much warmer than at the equator</a>.</p>
<h2>Fate of the protagonists</h2>
<p>The Polarfahrt was a final flourish of international scientific cooperation at the beginning of the 1930s, a period that saw a catastrophic rise of authoritarian politics and international conflict. By 1941, the U.S., Soviet Union and Germany would all be at war.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.edubilla.com/inventor/pavel-molchanov/">Molchanov</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Samoylovich">Samoylovich</a> became victims of Stalin’s secret police. As a Hungarian Jew, <a href="https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/arthur-koestler/">Koestler</a> would have his life and career shadowed by the politics of the age. He eventually found refuge in England, where he built a career as a novelist, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yogi_and_the_Commissar">essayist</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleepwalkers_(Koestler_book)">historian of science</a>.</p>
<p>The Graf Zeppelin continued in commercial passenger service principally on trans-Atlantic flights. But <a href="https://archive.org/details/hindenburg00moon">one of history’s most iconic tragedies</a> soon ended the era of zeppelin travel. In May 1937, the Graf Zeppelin’s younger sister airship, the Hindenburg, caught fire while trying to land in New Jersey. The Graf Zeppelin was dismantled in 1940 to provide scrap metal for the German war effort.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189946/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Hamilton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The new discovery echoes a mission in 1931, when a five-day zeppelin flight sent robots to the stratosphere and redrew the maps of the high Arctic.Kevin Hamilton, Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of HawaiiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1880642022-08-02T06:37:12Z2022-08-02T06:37:12ZExplorers just uncovered Australia’s deepest cave. A hydrogeologist explains how they form<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477097/original/file-20220802-14-qfczza.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=67%2C97%2C4925%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cave explorers have traversed what’s now the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-01/explorers-uncover-australia-s-deepest-cave-in-southern-tasmania/101286000">deepest known cave</a> in Australia. On Saturday a group of explorers discovered a 401-metre-deep cave, which they named Delta Variant, in Tasmania’s Niggly-Growling Swallet cave system within the Junee–Florentine karst area. Its depth just beat out its predecessor, the Niggly Cave, by about four metres.</p>
<p>With a descent that lasted 14 hours and took many months to prepare for, Delta Variant is causing a stir among explorer communities. </p>
<p>But it holds a different kind of fascination for researchers such as myself, who study the interaction between groundwater and rocks (including in the context of caves). This helps us learn about natural processes and how Earth’s climate has changed over millions of years.</p>
<p>Exciting as Delta Variant is in an Australian context, it is arguably just an appetiser in the wider world of caves; the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deepest_caves">deepest known cave</a>, located in Georgia, goes more than 2.2 kilometres into the earth. </p>
<p>So how exactly do these massive geologic structures form, right under our feet?</p>
<h2>How do caves form?</h2>
<p>Put simply, caves form when flowing water slowly dissolves rock over a long time. Specifically, they form within certain geological formations called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/karst-geology">“karst”</a> – which includes structures made of limestone, marble and dolomite. </p>
<p>Karst is made of tiny fossilised microorganisms, shell fragments and other debris that accumulated over millions of years. Long after they perish, small marine creatures leave behind their “calcareous” shells made of calcium carbonate. Corals are also made of this material, as are other types of fauna with skeletons. </p>
<p>This calcareous sediment builds up into <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/calcareous-rock">geological structures</a> that are relatively soft. As water trickles down through crevices in the rock, it continuously dissolves the rock to slowly form a cave system. </p>
<p>Unlike much harder igneous rocks (such as granite), calcareous rocks dissolve on contact with water that is naturally acidic. When rain falls from the sky, it picks up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and soils along the way, making it acidic. The more acidic the water is, the faster it will erode karst material.</p>
<p>So, as you can imagine, cave formation can become quite complex: the specific composition of the karst, the acidity of the water, the level of drainage and the overall geological setting are all factors that determine what kind of cave will form.</p>
<p>In geology there’s a lot of spatial guesswork. So being able to see how deep a cave formation goes is a bit like getting into the deepest layers of a cake, where you may not find the same thing in all directions.</p>
<h2>Stalagmites and stalactites</h2>
<p>From a research perspective, caves are incredibly valuable because they contain cave deposits (or “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speleothem">speleothems</a>”) such as stalagmites and stalactites. These are sometimes spiky things that point up from cave floors, droop from the ceilings, or form beautiful <a href="https://worldofcaves.com/all-about-flowstone-and-how-flowstone-is-formed/">flowstones</a>.</p>
<p>Cave deposits form as a result of water passing through. Like trees, they contain growth rings (or layers) that can be analysed. They can also include other chemical signatures the water contained, and reveal processes that occurred at the <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020RG000722">time of formation</a>.</p>
<p>While they may not seem like much, we can use these deposits to unravel past secrets about <a href="https://theconversation.com/stalagmites-preserve-3-000-years-of-northern-hemisphere-climate-43254">Earth’s climate</a>. And since they’re a feature of the interaction between rock and water during cave formation, we basically expect to find them in most caves.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477100/original/file-20220802-26-q9c9pb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Stalactites droop from the partially lit ceiling of a cave." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477100/original/file-20220802-26-q9c9pb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477100/original/file-20220802-26-q9c9pb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477100/original/file-20220802-26-q9c9pb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477100/original/file-20220802-26-q9c9pb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477100/original/file-20220802-26-q9c9pb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477100/original/file-20220802-26-q9c9pb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477100/original/file-20220802-26-q9c9pb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stalagmites and stalactites can be very ancient. They contain growth layers that enclose secrets of the past.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How deep can we go?</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/delving-deep-into-caves-can-teach-us-about-climate-past-and-present-50122">Descending deep into a cave system</a> is no small feat. You can’t use your mobile (since there’s no reception), it’s incredibly dark and you’re usually relying on a guide line to find your way back out. There could be many dead ends for explorers, so effectively mapping the space requires time and great spatial exploration skills.</p>
<p>While cave systems are usually stable (shallow caves can, in theory, collapse and form <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-sinkhole">sinkholes</a>, but this is very rare) – there’s always risk. The unexpected geometry of caves means you could find yourself making tricky manoeuvres, twisting and swaying in all kinds of uncomfortable manner as you abseil into darkness.</p>
<p>Although the air pressure doesn’t change to a dangerous extent as you descend, other gases such as methane, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide can sometimes pool and lead to suffocation risk.</p>
<p>Despite all of the above, cave exploration is something people continue to do, and it brings great benefit for researchers in various sub-fields of geology.</p>
<p>And though we’ve come a long way, there are always nooks and crannies we can’t get inside – after all, humans aren’t tiny. I’m sure there are small spaces, too snug for us to explore, that open into much longer or bigger systems than we’ve ever discovered.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thailand-cave-rescue-the-lessons-that-must-be-learned-99698">Thailand cave rescue: the lessons that must be learned</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188064/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel C Rau has received funding from the NSW Government (Australia), the European Commission, the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German federal government.</span></em></p>Caves form over millions of years, as a result of flowing water slowly working away at ‘soft’ calcareous rock.Gabriel C Rau, Lecturer in Hydrogeology, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1797252022-03-31T17:52:49Z2022-03-31T17:52:49ZMapping out meteorites in Antarctica: scientists’ bid to uncover our solar system’s deep past<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453916/original/file-20220323-13-48cypm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5152%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scientists hunt for meteorites on the Nansen blue ice area in East Antartica, close to the Belgian Antarctic research station Princess Elisabeth. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BELARE 2019-2020 meteorite recovery expedition on the Nansen Ice Field</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Belgian-Dutch team of scientists has created the first-ever “treasure map” that shows where in Antarctica meteorites are likely to be found. Meteorites are chunks of stone-like material that can be found on the surface of the Earth after falling from space.</p>
<p>Unlike the earth’s rocks, meteorites have been spared from our planet’s weathering and volcanism and are therefore regarded as <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-of-natural-history/2021/01/12/what-antarctic-meteorites-tell-us-about-earths-origins/">invaluable archives</a> of the earliest stages of our solar system. Whereas rocks fail to tell us anything about the first half-a-billion years of our planet’s <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-science-figured-out-the-age-of-the-earth/">4.55-billion-years existence</a>, most meteorites from the asteroid belt allow us to stretch back to 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of recorded meteorites in Antarctica come from the asteroid belt, with about 1% hailing from the Moon and Mars.</p>
<h2>Meteorites in Antartica</h2>
<p>Meteorites fall regularly on the surface of the Earth: in France <a href="https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2020/12/aa38649-20/aa38649-20.html">around 50 meteorites weighing more than 10g rain down every year</a>. However, pinning them down is like searching a needle in a haystack, and scientists from <a href="https://www.vigie-ciel.org/qui-sommes-nous/">meteorite-recovery campaigns</a> often return empty-handed.</p>
<p>In contrast, it is surprisingly easy to track down meteorites in the remote South Pole. This is because of a principle known as the <em>concentrating mechanism</em>, whereby specific ice-flow and meteorological patterns lead meteorites to pool in rather small areas known as <em>meteorite stranding zones</em>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455240/original/file-20220330-5413-xh22bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455240/original/file-20220330-5413-xh22bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455240/original/file-20220330-5413-xh22bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455240/original/file-20220330-5413-xh22bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455240/original/file-20220330-5413-xh22bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455240/original/file-20220330-5413-xh22bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455240/original/file-20220330-5413-xh22bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Satellite observations on factors such as ice flow velocity or surface temperature help scientists predict which blue-ice areas contain meteorites.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Veronica Tollenaar</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When meteorites fall on the Antarctic, they typically lodge themselves within the ice sheet and drift toward the oceans. This has led some to describe ice as a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-of-natural-history/2021/01/12/what-antarctic-meteorites-tell-us-about-earths-origins/">“natural conveyor belt”</a> for meteorites. At times, mountains – occasionally hidden under the ice sheet – may come in their way and redirect them toward the surface of the ice sheet. </p>
<p>Meteorites are always found on the surface of areas where the wind has dusted off the snow, leaving a blue-tinted ice exposed. Such zones are known as <em>blue-ice areas</em>. Although meteorites are always recorded in such areas, not all contain them.</p>
<p>Once a meteorite-rich, blue-ice area has been identified, it is relatively simple to spot the darkly coloured stones against the ice’s light hues. The success of meteorite searches in Antarctica is unparalleled: <a href="https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php">over 60% of the Earth’s recovered meteorites</a> are located in the Antarctic ice sheet. And the potential remains largely untapped: to date, only a part of all Antarctic blue-ice areas has been checked for meteorites, with varying degrees of success.</p>
<h2>Determining where to search</h2>
<p>To establish where to search meteorites, we firstly need to understand what differentiates a meteorite-rich blue-ice area from one without meteorites. To this end, there is a lot of data available: the location and year of discovery of meteorites are stored in a special <a href="https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php">meteoritical bulletin database</a>. Scientists can also access field reports detailing some of the successful and unsuccessful meteorite missions that have been conducted since the discovery of the concentrating mechanism in 1969.</p>
<p>Until now, deciding where to search was a task conducted by a small number of experts. This means there is a huge human factor involved in meteorite recovery missions – and it is not possible to evaluate the potential of every single area in a continent that is about 25 times the size of France. To help plan what are often expensive and logistically complicated missions, our team developed a map that shows potential meteorite stranding zones.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455214/original/file-20220330-23-1phatwr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455214/original/file-20220330-23-1phatwr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455214/original/file-20220330-23-1phatwr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455214/original/file-20220330-23-1phatwr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455214/original/file-20220330-23-1phatwr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455214/original/file-20220330-23-1phatwr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455214/original/file-20220330-23-1phatwr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A scientist collects a meteorite in a blue-ice area. JARE-54/BELARE 2012–2013 expedition to the Nansen blue-ice field.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From the real world to the observed world</h2>
<p>To make a meteorite <a href="https://wheretocatchafallingstar.science/">“treasure map”</a>, we had to translate the real world into observable numbers. To this end, we applied a grid of cells measuring 450 by 450 metres over blue-ice areas and their close surroundings.</p>
<p>In cases where meteorites have been found within a grid cell, the grid cell is labelled as “positive”. The remaining grid cells are left unlabelled. Every cell contains information drawn from satellite and radar observations, including surface temperature, ice-flow velocity, surface-cover types or slope. Such data enables us to predict where we may find meteorites. </p>
<h2>Machine learning for continent-wide predictions</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455241/original/file-20220330-5684-ioicwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455241/original/file-20220330-5684-ioicwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455241/original/file-20220330-5684-ioicwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455241/original/file-20220330-5684-ioicwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455241/original/file-20220330-5684-ioicwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455241/original/file-20220330-5684-ioicwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455241/original/file-20220330-5684-ioicwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455241/original/file-20220330-5684-ioicwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A host of data is fed into the meteorite predicting algorithm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Veronica Tollenaar/ULB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Machine learning and statistical models allow us to combine these various observations and account for eventual uncertainties related to the data. The performance of the predicting algorithm is optimised through several iterations. Each time the predictions of the algorithm are checked against several areas that are known to bear meteorites or not.</p>
<p>The algorithm’s work can be divided into several stages. Firstly, the algorithm learns what constitutes a typical positive or unlabelled grid cell. Having learned the data related to different grid cells, the algorithm can calculate the probability that an unlabelled grid cell contains meteorites or not.</p>
<p>Grid cells that potentially contain meteorites are then clustered into meteorite stranding zones, with areas ranging from a few to hundreds of square kilometres. Our research shows the accuracy of these predicted meteorite stranding zones is estimated to be <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj8138">over 80%</a>.</p>
<p>Analysis of predicted areas confirms that the machine learning algorithm succeeds in capturing the interplay between different phenomena. While opportunities to find meteorites abound throughout the continent, some areas close to existing research stations remain unexplored, making a reconnaissance visit very attractive.</p>
<p>The “treasure map” heralds a new era for meteorite searches in Antarctica. By sharing our research with colleagues across the globe, we are approaching the collection of meteorites as a collaborative community-wide effort. In response, scientists from countries as varied as Korea, India, Chile or the United States have shown interest in exploring indicated areas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veronica Tollenaar a reçu des financements de Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS). </span></em></p>Scientists have crafted the world’s first “treasure map” to reveal Antarctica’s meteorites. These chunks of stone-like material could throw light on the mysteries of our early solar system.Veronica Tollenaar, PhD fellow, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1695952022-01-17T15:20:47Z2022-01-17T15:20:47ZWhy is alcohol thought to be relaxing? Victorian and Edwardian explorers might hold the clue<p>After a long, stressful day, I often find myself sitting down with a bottle of beer or a glass of wine. Such rituals are a sign that the working day is over and that the time for fun and relaxation is here. The problem is that drinking in this way doesn’t work over time. Regular (and excessive) drinking is associated with <a href="https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/problems-disorders/alcohol-and-depression">depression</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2775419/">poor sleep</a> and research shows it may also increase <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.10.034">anxiety levels in the long term</a>.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the idea that alcohol is relaxing remains a powerful myth. With evidence suggesting that many people started to drink more during the <a href="https://theconversation.com/alcohol-deaths-up-almost-19-during-the-pandemic-the-greatest-increase-since-2001-170972">COVID-19 pandemic</a> as a way of trying to relax. Delving into the history of alcohol can offer some insights as to why this myth has prevailed. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Alcohol/B_g5BAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">Throughout history</a>, alcohol has <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/bk-2019-1314.ch008">often been used medicinally</a> – and is considered to have many helpful properties, including as an <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/bk-2019-1314.ch008">antiseptic and an anaesthetic</a>. I’ve studied how explorers in the 19th and early 20th centuries used drink. Studying travellers can shed light on the scientific and medical understanding of alcohol because, in an era before clinical trials, medical writers drew on the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/676569">narratives of explorers</a> as evidence about the health effects of different foods and drinks. So their writings can help us learn about past approaches to alcohol and health.</p>
<p>Indeed, many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/705337">Victorian Arctic explorers drank</a> a “warming” glass of rum at the end of a long days’ sledging. They reported that it helped them to sleep and relax and relieve the tension. Similarly, British travellers in east Africa often drank small quantities of alcohol at the end of a day’s travel, viewing it as a useful “medicine” that helped them to deal with both the effects of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087421000649">fever and the emotional strains of travel</a>. In <a href="https://archive.org/details/hintstotravelle00socigoog/page/n281/mode/2up?q=alcohol">one travel advice guide</a> published in 1883, George Dobson, a British Army surgeon major, advised that in warm climates “continued labour, such as that of the sportsman and traveller, cannot be maintained for any length of time unassisted by the occasional and judicious use of alcohol”.</p>
<h2>Health and balance</h2>
<p>Initially and in small doses, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117141/">alcohol seems to act as a stimulant</a>, which makes your heart beat faster and gives you more energy. Soon, though, it acts as a depressant, inhibiting the action of the central nervous system, which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0376-8716(98)00186-0">slows your thinking and reaction times</a>. These health effects were particularly important in early 19th-century medicine, as some medical theorists saw the body as a system that had to be kept in balance. And stimulants or depressants were seen as an important way of restoring balance if someone was unwell. </p>
<p>In time, these views became increasingly unpopular among scientists and medics and were replaced by theories of disease that sought to chart more specific causes of infection. For instance, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4027971">“germ theory”</a>, which was first proposed in 1861, showed that many illnesses were caused by microbes rather than climate. Similarly, British medics were becoming increasingly interested in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4027971">the role of mosquitoes in spreading malaria</a>. Such developments led to new medical approaches which sought to prevent and treat diseases common <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0376-8716(98)00186-0">in warm regions</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438966/original/file-20211223-50268-htaqtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438966/original/file-20211223-50268-htaqtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438966/original/file-20211223-50268-htaqtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438966/original/file-20211223-50268-htaqtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438966/original/file-20211223-50268-htaqtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438966/original/file-20211223-50268-htaqtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438966/original/file-20211223-50268-htaqtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alcohol could also be used as a mixer for other drugs as this advert for ‘Orange Quinine Wine’ shows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Welcome Collection</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Criticism of drink</h2>
<p>But changing medical attitudes towards diseases were not the only factor in the decline of medicinal drinking on expeditions. The growing criticism of expeditionary drinking was also the result of changing social and medicinal attitudes towards alcohol. This was largely because of <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/alcoholic-beverage-industry/temperance-prohibition">the temperance movement</a>, a campaign rooted in evangelical Christianity that sought to discourage (and sometimes outright ban) the sale of alcohol. </p>
<p>Even those who viewed moderate drinking as acceptable began to worry that it might actually be more dangerous in climatic extremes. For instance, the National Arctic Expedition (1875-1876) was criticised for issuing a rum ration, with suggestions it had <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/705337">contributed to an outbreak of scurvy</a>, which allegedly manifested itself first among the expedition’s heavy drinkers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438964/original/file-20211223-48933-1aks637.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438964/original/file-20211223-48933-1aks637.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438964/original/file-20211223-48933-1aks637.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438964/original/file-20211223-48933-1aks637.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438964/original/file-20211223-48933-1aks637.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438964/original/file-20211223-48933-1aks637.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438964/original/file-20211223-48933-1aks637.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drinking Brandy in Antarctica: An Image from the British National Antarctic Relief Expedition, 1903.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Polar Research Institute: ref P2007/24/6</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such criticisms meant that explorers went to growing efforts to emphasise that their drinking was moderate and “medicinal”. They often did so by only drinking certain kinds of alcoholic beverages that, they argued, had greater medicinal qualities. This <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117141/">normally meant brandy</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17371543">champagne</a>, or certain kinds of wine. But there were fierce disagreements between medics about which drinks were most healthy. </p>
<p>Indeed, many of these drinks were viewed as medicinal for no reason other than the fact that they were expensive. Today, such drinks are seldom viewed as medicinal – but medical concerns with the effects of different alcoholic drinks, have not gone away. And, much like their Victorian counterparts, many contemporary medics have suggested that certain kinds of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-glass-of-red-wine-is-good-for-your-gut-122072">drinks are healthier than others</a>.</p>
<h2>Stimulants: alcohol or caffeine</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087421000649">recent research</a> by my colleague Kim Walker and I shows, stimulants (including alcohol) remained a popular medicine for European travellers in Africa into the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In part this was because they were relatively cheap, easy to administer, and produced discernible effects on the mind and body of the drinker. They were also believed to remedy the enduring belief that warm climates were <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30030123">physically damaging and psychologically depressing</a>. </p>
<p>In the same 1883 travel guide, Dobson complained of “the depressing effects of the climate” to support his alcohol prescription. Consequently, some travellers saw alcoholic drinks as useful stimulants to help combat these effects. Even those who opposed expeditionary drinking still saw <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087421000649">stimulating drinks</a> as important, but prescribed <a href="https://archive.org/details/rivercongofromi00johngoog/page/n26/mode/2up">“a cup of fragrant coffee”</a> instead.</p>
<p>Medical understandings of drinking have changed considerably over the last 150 years. But studying how Victorian and Edwardian explorers approached alcohol also shows important continuities. Then, as now, drinking practices are shaped not just by medical knowledge but also by cultural attitudes towards different drinks and the environments we consume them in.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169595/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edward Armston-Sheret received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council via the techne DTP, the Royal Historical Society, and the Historical Geography Research Group of the RGS-IBG. </span></em></p>In an era before clinical trials, medical writers drew on the stories of explorers as evidence about the health effects of different foods and drinks.Edward Armston-Sheret, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Advanced Study, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1610422021-06-22T12:15:39Z2021-06-22T12:15:39ZExplorer Robert Ballard’s memoir finds shipwrecks and strange life forms in the ocean’s darkest reaches<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406217/original/file-20210614-72954-1ed6eir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1920%2C1072&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tube worms, anemones and mussels clustered near a hydrothermal vent on the Galapagos Rift.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/fHGagx">NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Galapagos Rift Expedition 2011/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Who doesn’t love a good story, especially one about amazing discoveries in Earth’s farthest reaches? Oceanographer, Navy veteran and explorer Robert D. Ballard has written a memoir, “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Into-the-Deep/Robert-D-Ballard/9781426220999">Into the Deep</a>,” that recounts many of his dramatic discoveries, including locating the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/titanic-nuclear-submarine-scorpion-thresher-ballard">wreck of the luxury ocean liner Titanic</a> in 1985. </p>
<p>Ballard, now 79, is known for designing and using many types of vehicles for underwater exploration. His most important scientific contributions include <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.190.4210.103">mapping regions of the mid-Atlantic Ridge</a>, an underwater mountain chain that runs north-south through the Atlantic ocean, and locating <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/vents.html">hydrothermal vents</a> in the eastern Pacific. These underwater hot springs form at cracks in the ocean’s crust, where superheated water jets upward from Earth’s interior. Finding them changed scientists’ thinking about the <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/feature/history-hydrothermal-vents/impacts/index.html">evolution of life on Earth</a> and the chemistry of the ocean. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7wGVijst8to?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Robert Ballard explains the importance of exploring the world’s oceans.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ruUF3z4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">geoscientist who studies Earth’s oceans and climate</a> and first met Ballard when I worked at the <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution</a> in 1978. I’m keenly aware of his contributions to ocean science, as well as his work to <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_ballard_the_astonishing_hidden_world_of_the_deep_ocean?language=en">popularize ocean exploration and inspire people to become scientists</a>. “Into the Deep” captures much of what it’s like to do this work, including less glamorous aspects like raising money, building research teams and standing watch on deck for hours. Science, especially marine research, is not a solo effort – and the discovery of hydrothermal vents is a prime example. </p>
<h2>Mapping the seafloor</h2>
<p>In the early 1970s, when Ballard was doing his graduate work in marine geology and geophysics, scientists were still refining the basics of <a href="https://theconversation.com/plate-tectonics-new-findings-fill-out-the-50-year-old-theory-that-explains-earths-landmasses-55424">plate tectonics theory</a>. One key idea was that new ocean crust was created at spreading centers in the seafloor, where oceanic plates moved away from each other and magma from Earth’s interior welled up between them. </p>
<p>A 1972 study of a spreading center in the eastern Pacific, near the Galapagos Islands, observed that the water temperature was slightly warmer near parts of the spreading center – a surprising find at depths of 8,000 to 9,000 feet (2,440 to 2,750 meters) – but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1974.tb05433.x">cooled rapidly as it flowed away from the site</a>. This suggested that hydrothermal vents might be present. </p>
<p>In 1974 Ballard took part in Project FAMOUS, which used <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/feature/history-hydrothermal-vents/discovery/1974.html">the U.S. manned submersible Alvin</a> and a French submersible to explore the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Mid-Atlantic-Ridge">Mid-Atlantic Ridge</a>. Researchers descended 8,000 feet into deep rift valleys on the ocean floor, and ascended to the adjacent rift mountains at depths of about 3,300 feet (1,000 meters). Fresh basalt suggested recent volcanic activity and the creation of new ocean crust, but their survey did not locate hydrothermal vents.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406218/original/file-20210614-130619-1oz0x58.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Submersible manned vessel underwater" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406218/original/file-20210614-130619-1oz0x58.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406218/original/file-20210614-130619-1oz0x58.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406218/original/file-20210614-130619-1oz0x58.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406218/original/file-20210614-130619-1oz0x58.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406218/original/file-20210614-130619-1oz0x58.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406218/original/file-20210614-130619-1oz0x58.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406218/original/file-20210614-130619-1oz0x58.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The submersible Alvin exploring hydrothermal vents in 1978.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/photography/underwater-search-and-recovery-equipment/alvin-dsv-2/nur-07549.html">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, other researchers were exploring the Galapagos spreading center. In 1976 Kathleen Crane, a graduate student at the <a href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu">Scripps Institution of Oceanography</a>, investigated marine heat flow in that area for her doctoral research. To do this she navigated an elaborate deep-ocean exploration machine, <a href="https://divediscover.whoi.edu/archives/ventcd/vent_discovery/thediscovery/multimedia_stills_s3.html">Deep Tow</a>, which was pulled behind a research vessel near the ocean floor and transmitted data back to the ship. </p>
<p>Crane’s measurements identified hot springs. Photographs showed clam shells nearby. She dropped acoustic transponders <a href="https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02galapagos/background/history/history.html">marking the site that she called “Clambake</a>” for future research. </p>
<p>A year later, scientists returned to the area with Alvin and a different deep-towed vehicle, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustically_Navigated_Geological_Underwater_Survey">ANGUS</a>, that could travel closer to the ocean floor, providing better photographs and thermal measurements. Ballard and Crane both were on this expedition, along with other researchers from Oregon State University, MIT, Stanford, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Scripps.</p>
<p>The new photographs allowed the scientists to pinpoint the most important dive sites. They made <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.203.4385.1073">24 dives in Alvin</a>. At the hot spots, they were stunned to find dense clusters of shellfish, anemones, crabs, tube worms and other organisms around vents in the ocean floor where hot water rose up from below. Analysis showed that these organisms were performing <a href="https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/eoi/nemo/explorer/concepts/chemosynthesis.html">chemosynthesis</a> – creating energy from chemicals in the seawater, in complete darkness.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xFAu8CqCtR8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Hydrothermal vents are located in cold, dark waters but they support rich and diverse ecosystems that live off chemicals flowing from the seafloor.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Disappointingly, all that Ballard says in “Into the Deep” about Crane’s role in this discovery is that researchers from Scripps had scanned the area in 1976 using Deep Tow and “detected a few subtle temperature anomalies.” In the scramble for credit in important scientific discoveries it can be difficult, if not impossible, to clearly identify who made the discovery. In a collective effort, who should be recognized? </p>
<p>Crane, whom I have known since 1978, was listed as a co-author on the 1979 paper in the journal Science that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.203.4385.1073">described the hydrothermal vents</a>, and went on to a distinguished career <a href="https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/u58/Crane%20bio%202019.pdf">studying oceans and the Arctic</a>. But her role in this discovery has received relatively little credit in popular accounts. As I see it, Ballard’s memoir would have been a perfect opportunity to acknowledge her contribution to one of the most important ocean science discoveries of the 20th century.</p>
<h2>Finding lost ships</h2>
<p>Ballard received much wider acclaim when he led the expedition that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/03/21/robert-ballard-beyond-the-titanic/7cbdc244-f951-4c1c-969a-a0a66cec2353/">found the RMS Titanic</a> in 1985. This trip was financed by the U.S. Navy – not out of interest in the Titanic, but as an <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/titanic-nuclear-submarine-scorpion-thresher-ballard">add-on to secret studies</a> of the wreckage of two nuclear-powered attack submarines, the USS Scorpion and the USS Thresher, which sank in the 1960s. </p>
<p>On Sept. 1, 1985, Ballard and his team captured the first photos of Titanic’s remains, 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometers) below the Atlantic Ocean’s surface and almost 400 miles (600 kilometers) south-southeast of Newfoundland. They found the wreck using <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/underwater-archaeology/rms-titanic/ships-technology-used-during-the-titanic-expeditions/">Argo, a new deep-towed sonar and video camera system</a>, to search back and forth over a 100-square-mile area of the seafloor. Ocean scientists call this process “mowing the lawn,” hoping and praying that something new will be revealed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406215/original/file-20210614-102344-fqw7pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sunken front half of Titanic" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406215/original/file-20210614-102344-fqw7pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406215/original/file-20210614-102344-fqw7pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406215/original/file-20210614-102344-fqw7pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406215/original/file-20210614-102344-fqw7pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406215/original/file-20210614-102344-fqw7pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406215/original/file-20210614-102344-fqw7pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406215/original/file-20210614-102344-fqw7pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The bow of the Titanic, photographed on a return voyage in 2004.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wreck_of_the_Titanic#/media/File:Titanic_wreck_bow.jpg">NOAA/Institute for Exploration/University of Rhode Island via Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After Titanic, Ballard tracked down other well-known lost ships. In 1989 he and his crew <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/14/world/nazi-ship-bismarck-is-found-in-good-shape.html">located the Bismarck</a>, a German World War II battleship sunk by Allied forces in the North Atlantic in 1941. And in 2002 they <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-jfk-pt-109-wreck-robert-ballard-archaeology">found PT-109</a>, the patrol boat skippered by 26-year-old John F. Kennedy, which sank in the South Pacific in 1943 when it was rammed by a Japanese destroyer. </p>
<p>By 2008 Ballard had led five expeditions to the Black Sea, where oxygen-depleted deep water preserved ancient vessels and their cargo. Scientists are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/12/science/shipwrecks-black-sea-archaeology.html">still probing and analyzing</a> these archaeological time capsules.</p>
<h2>All hands on deck</h2>
<p>In recent decades, Ballard has put much effort into increasing diversity in oceanographic exploration and research, especially gender diversity. The <a href="https://jason.org/">Jason Learning project</a>, which Ballard founded in 1989 to spark K-12 students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and math through the excitement of ocean research, features many women. His Ocean Exploration Trust research vessel, the <a href="https://nautiluslive.org/">E.V. Nautilus</a> – named after Captain Nemo’s submarine in Jules Verne’s classic “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Seas">Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea</a>” – has many women as permanent crew members, something that would have been unheard of 50 years ago.</p>
<p>For me, working with a skilled crew of scientists and technicians aboard ship is one of the most exciting aspects of marine research. No one can be an expert on all of the components of our planet’s amazing ocean system, from tiny plankton floating in surface currents to tectonic plates spreading and colliding underwater. <a href="https://theconversation.com/60-days-in-iceberg-alley-drilling-for-marine-sediment-to-decipher-earths-climate-3-million-years-ago-114553">Being at sea with other marine scientists</a> has provided tremendous joy in my career.</p>
<p>There is a lot to discover about the ocean, and we need all kinds of talent to do it. Ballard’s talent lies in his construction and use of remotely operated vehicles to explore the seafloor, and his storytelling and fundraising capabilities, which provide inspiration for future generations of ocean explorers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161042/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suzanne OConnell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Oceanographer Robert D. Ballard, who is best known for finding the wreck of Titanic, has written a memoir recounting his biggest discoveries and calling for more ocean exploration.Suzanne OConnell, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Wesleyan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1621402021-06-14T12:24:18Z2021-06-14T12:24:18ZNASA is returning to Venus to learn how it became a hot poisonous wasteland – and whether the planet was ever habitable in the past<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405981/original/file-20210611-4750-1cpfjcv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C1862%2C1080&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Two new NASA missions hope to answer important questions about Venus' past.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/486/hemispheric-view-of-venus/">NASA/JPL/USGS</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>NASA is finally headed back to Venus. On June 2, 2021, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced that the agency had selected two winners of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-four-possible-missions-to-study-the-secrets-of-the-solar-system">its latest Discovery class spacecraft mission competition</a>, and both are headed to the second planet from the Sun. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Lb6BrKEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I’m a planetary scientist</a> and a <a href="https://meas.sciences.ncsu.edu/people/pkbyrne/">self-confessed Venus evangelist</a>, and here’s why I’m so excited that humanity is going back to Venus.</p>
<p>This is the first time since the <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/magellan/in-depth/">Magellan mission</a> in 1989 that NASA has committed to sending spacecraft to study the shrouded planet just next door. With the data these two Venus missions – called VERITAS and DAVINCI+ – will collect, planetary scientists can start tackling one of the biggest mysteries in the solar system: Why is Venus, a planet almost the same size, density and age of Earth, so very different from the world humanity calls home?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404967/original/file-20210608-25-4hdwvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Venus divided in half with green–yellow clouds on the left and an artists impression of what it might have looked like with oceans, clouds and life on the right." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404967/original/file-20210608-25-4hdwvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404967/original/file-20210608-25-4hdwvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404967/original/file-20210608-25-4hdwvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404967/original/file-20210608-25-4hdwvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404967/original/file-20210608-25-4hdwvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404967/original/file-20210608-25-4hdwvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404967/original/file-20210608-25-4hdwvd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Venus might once have been covered in oceans and clouds and could have supported life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/spanning-disciplines-in-the-search-for-life-beyond-earth">NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ames</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An Earth gone wrong?</h2>
<p><a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus/overview/">Venus</a> is a rocky planet about the same size as Earth, but despite these similarities, it is a brutal place. Although only a little closer to the Sun than Earth, a <a href="http://www.pas.rochester.edu/%7Eblackman/ast104/vgreenhouse.html">runaway greenhouse effect</a> means that it’s extremely hot at the surface – about 870 F (465 C), roughly the temperature of a self-cleaning oven. The pressure at the surface is a crushing 90 times the pressure at sea level on Earth. And to top it off, there are sulfuric acid clouds covering the entire planet that corrode anything passing through them. </p>
<p>But perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Venus is that <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-climate-modeling-suggests-venus-may-have-been-habitable">it may have once looked a lot like Earth</a>. Recent climate models suggest that in the past the planet could have had liquid water oceans and a mild climate. It may have been habitable for as long as 3 billion years before succumbing to some sort of climate catastrophe that triggered the runaway greenhouse. The goal of these two new missions to Venus is to try to determine if Venus really was Earth’s twin, why it changed and whether, in general, large rocky planets become habitable oases like Earth… or scorched wastelands like Venus.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404968/original/file-20210608-121132-xqszsb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A square satellite with two long solar panels above a tan–colored Venus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404968/original/file-20210608-121132-xqszsb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404968/original/file-20210608-121132-xqszsb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404968/original/file-20210608-121132-xqszsb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404968/original/file-20210608-121132-xqszsb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404968/original/file-20210608-121132-xqszsb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404968/original/file-20210608-121132-xqszsb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404968/original/file-20210608-121132-xqszsb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The VERITAS mission will send a craft carrying a powerful radar system into orbit above Venus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-selects-investigations-for-future-key-planetary-mission">NASA/JPL–Caltech</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fresh eyes on Venus</h2>
<p>What might come as a surprise is that in the 1960s and 1970s <a href="https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/chronology_venus.html">Venus was the central focus of space exploration</a> like <a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-mars-rocks-back-to-earth-on-feb-18-perseverance-rover-landed-safely-on-mars-a-lead-scientist-explains-the-tech-and-goals-153851">Mars is today</a>. The U.S. and Soviet Union sent more than 30 spacecraft in total to the second planet from the Sun. But since 1989, only two missions have gone to Venus, and both were focused on studying the atmosphere – the European Space Agency’s <a href="http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Venus_Express">Venus Express</a> and Japan’s <a href="https://akatsuki.isas.jaxa.jp/en/">Akatsuki</a>. </p>
<p>In contrast, the VERITAS and DAVINCI+ missions will take a holistic view by exploring the geological and climatological history of Venus as a whole, in two very different but complementary ways.</p>
<p>The thick, global layer of sulfuric acid clouds covering Venus make it almost impossible to see the surface with normal cameras. That’s why the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/veritas-exploring-the-deep-truths-of-venus">VERITAS orbiter</a> – short for “Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy” – will carry a powerful radar system. This radar can peer through the clouds and gather images and topographic data up to 10 times higher-resolution than any previous mission to Venus. This will allow scientists to look for clues about Venus’ earlier climate that may be preserved in rock formations on the surface and might also answer whether the planet is geologically active today. And, finally, this exciting mission will use a special, infrared camera to peer through the atmosphere at very specific wavelengths to take the <a href="https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/11502/1150208/The-Venus-Emissivity-Mapper-VEM--advanced-development-status-and/10.1117/12.2567634.short?SSO=1">first global measurements of what Venus’ rocks are made of</a> – something scientists know very little about.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404969/original/file-20210608-28218-1wf5tz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A circular probe with sampling equipment on it falling towards Venus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404969/original/file-20210608-28218-1wf5tz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404969/original/file-20210608-28218-1wf5tz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404969/original/file-20210608-28218-1wf5tz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404969/original/file-20210608-28218-1wf5tz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404969/original/file-20210608-28218-1wf5tz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404969/original/file-20210608-28218-1wf5tz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404969/original/file-20210608-28218-1wf5tz8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The DAVINCI+ probe will fall through the Venus atmosphere collecting samples and snapping photos before it ultimately collides with the Alpha Regio region.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/nasa-to-explore-divergent-fate-of-earth-s-mysterious-twin-with-goddard-s-davinci">NASA GSFC visualization by CI Labs Michael Lentz and others</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>VERITAS’ stablemate is <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/nasa-to-explore-divergent-fate-of-earth-s-mysterious-twin-with-goddard-s-davinci">DAVINCI+</a>, or “Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry and Imaging.” The DAVINCI+ mission also involves an orbiter, but the real star of the show will be the meter-wide atmospheric probe. The probe will drop into Venus’ atmosphere and free-fall through the thick clouds for about an hour before reaching the surface. </p>
<p>On the way down, it will take samples of the atmosphere, specifically measuring a variety of gases including argon, krypton and xenon. Different climate histories for Venus would lead to different ratios of these noble gases in the atmosphere – and so by analyzing these ratios, scientists will be able to work out how much water the planet formed with, and even how much water it has lost over the past 4.5 billion years. </p>
<p>But that’s not all the probe will do. Just before impacting crash landing into an area called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0019103515001438">Alpha Regio</a> that has some of the oldest rocks on the planet, the probe will take infrared images of the surface as it comes into view through the gloom of the lower atmosphere. Those images will be the first ever taken from above the surface but below the cloud deck, showing planetary scientists Venus as never before.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404970/original/file-20210608-144041-1xqktto.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An artists impression of an exoplanet around a different star." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404970/original/file-20210608-144041-1xqktto.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404970/original/file-20210608-144041-1xqktto.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404970/original/file-20210608-144041-1xqktto.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404970/original/file-20210608-144041-1xqktto.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404970/original/file-20210608-144041-1xqktto.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404970/original/file-20210608-144041-1xqktto.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404970/original/file-20210608-144041-1xqktto.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Studying Venus can offer valuable insight into how other rocky, potentially habitable planets in the galaxy – like Kepler-186f, seen here in an artist’s rendition – might evolve.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/nasas-kepler-discovers-first-earth-size-planet-in-the-habitable-zone-of-another-star">NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Now is the time to go back to Venus</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-need-to-get-back-to-venus-115355">I have argued before for returning to Venus</a>, so to say I’m enthusiastic about these missions is an understatement. Venus may hold the key to understanding the past – and possibly the future – of Earth. As astronomers discover <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-planet-hunter-finds-its-1st-earth-size-habitable-zone-world">more and more Earth-size worlds around other stars</a>, they need to understand whether the outcome we see on Earth – blue skies, water oceans and even a thriving biosphere – is the norm, or if the hellish, barren wastelands of Venus are the rule.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Several decades of <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars-exploration/missions/historical-log/">sustained Mars exploration</a> have shown that each mission answers earlier questions and also raises new ones. I don’t know what surprises VERITAS and DAVINCI+, scheduled to launch in the late 2020s, will uncover at Venus, but I do know they’ll discover aspects of the planet that no one had ever imagined. Scientists and mission teams across the world have worked hard to realize a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01730-5">Decade of Venus</a>,” and it’s starting to pay off. In fact, only a week after NASA’s announcement, the European Space Agency <a href="http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/ESA_selects_revolutionary_Venus_mission_EnVision">declared its plans for a Venus mission, too</a>. With these new missions, it’s my guess – my hope – that we’re at the start of a new, golden age of Venus exploration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162140/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul K. Byrne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two new NASA missions – VERITAS and DAVINCI+ – are headed to Venus. The missions will use radar and a probe to learn about Earth’s hard-to-study and potentially prophetic neighbor.Paul K. Byrne, Associate Professor of Planetary Science, North Carolina State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1582262021-04-26T02:38:02Z2021-04-26T02:38:02ZFerdinand Magellan’s death 500 years ago is being remembered as an act of Indigenous resistance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396975/original/file-20210426-13-10row4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C95%2C6821%2C5202&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>This week, the Philippines is marking a significant event in the history of European colonialism in the Asia-Pacific region — the 500th anniversary of the death of Portuguese explorer Fernão de Magalhães (more commonly known as Ferdinand Magellan).</p>
<p>The Philippines government is hosting a series of events to mark the role that Indigenous people played in Magellan’s contested <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/magellan-first-sail-around-world-think-again">first circumnavigation of the earth</a> in the 16th century. </p>
<p>European history books celebrate the expedition as a three-year Spanish-led voyage, carrying 270 men on five ships. But Filipino commemorations remind audiences that Magellan died halfway through the expedition in the Philippines and that only one ship with just 18 survivors limped home to Seville. </p>
<p>In particular, Filipinos remember how Lapu Lapu, the <em>datu</em> (leader) of the island of Mactan, inspired a force of Indigenous warriors to defeat Magellan’s crew — and the Spanish threat to their sovereignty — on April 27, 1521. </p>
<p>The Filipino commemorations show what an Indigenous-centred government approach to imperial history in the Pacific can look like. They also sit in stark contrast to the exhibitions, reenactments and publications that marked the 250th anniversary of James Cook’s arrival in Australia and New Zealand in recent years. </p>
<p>These commemorations mostly upheld the unique bravery of the British navigator, sidelining potentially deeper discussions of the violence to Indigenous people he and his crew also brought. </p>
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<h2>What happened to Magellan in 1521</h2>
<p>Magellan reached what are now the Philippines in March 1521 after an arduous 100-day Pacific crossing. He set about using a combination of diplomacy and force to get local leaders and their followers to convert to Catholicism and submit to the authority of the far-away Spanish king. </p>
<p>Rajah Humabon of Cebu and other local rulers embraced an alliance with the Spanish, hoping to gain an advantage against their rivals. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/500-years-after-ferdinand-magellan-landed-in-patagonia-theres-nothing-to-celebrate-for-its-indigenous-peoples-132939">500 years after Ferdinand Magellan landed in Patagonia, there's nothing to celebrate for its indigenous peoples</a>
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<p>Magellan decided to attack Mactan, however, when Lapu Lapu refused to negotiate. About 60 European sailors and soldiers joined forces with Humabon and attacked Mactan at dawn, but they were met on the beach by Lapu Lapu and his armed warriors. </p>
<p>Weighed down by their armour, the Europeans stumbled in the shallows under arrow fire. Filipino folk histories say that an army of sea animals were also part of the resistance. Octopus wound their tentacles around the legs of the invaders, dragging them to their deaths. The battle was over within an hour. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396976/original/file-20210426-23-4b8eic.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396976/original/file-20210426-23-4b8eic.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396976/original/file-20210426-23-4b8eic.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396976/original/file-20210426-23-4b8eic.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396976/original/file-20210426-23-4b8eic.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396976/original/file-20210426-23-4b8eic.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396976/original/file-20210426-23-4b8eic.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A mural painting of the Mactan battle at the Mactan shrine in Cebu, Philippines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Celebrating the victory at Mactan</h2>
<p>The events organised by the Filipino government’s National Quincentennial Committee to mark Magellan’s death include a drone show, military parade and the televised unveiling of a new shrine to Lapu Lapu. All of these commemorations are <a href="https://nqc.gov.ph/en/event/ground-breaking-of-the-lapulapu-memorial-shrine-and-museum/">designed</a> to pay “tribute and recognition to Lapu Lapu and the Mactan heroes”.</p>
<p>The NQC also sponsored a national art competition centred on four themes connected to the Mactan victory — <a href="https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1123274">sovereignty, magnanimity, unity and legacy</a>. </p>
<p>Matthius B. Garcia’s painting, Hindi Pasisiil (Never to be Conquered), recently took the grand prize in the “sovereignty” category. </p>
<p>In his work, the viewer’s eyes are drawn to the strong figure of Lapu Lapu. He is covered in Visayan tattoos and wears the bright red bandana and thick gold chains of a warrior and ruler. He leaps into the centre of the canvas, <em>kampilan</em> (sword) raised above his head, leading the charge of men rushing at the European invaders. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1367655691154907136"}"></div></p>
<p>Magellan and his men, decked out in armour over puffy sleeves and stockings, fall over each other and into the sea to their deaths. </p>
<p>The artwork is Indigenous-centred because it was crafted by a Filipino artist for a Filipino audience. It is telling the story of what happened at Mactan from the point of view of the locals rather than the strangers. </p>
<p>Ordinary Filipinos have also been sharing their own artistic representations of the battle of Mactan on the NQC’s Facebook page, such as 5-year-old Miguel Alfonso Manzano Noriel’s painting, entitled The Battle of Mactan, below. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The Battle of Mactan by Miguel Alfonso Manzano Noriel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396954/original/file-20210426-13-1tizd6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396954/original/file-20210426-13-1tizd6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396954/original/file-20210426-13-1tizd6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396954/original/file-20210426-13-1tizd6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396954/original/file-20210426-13-1tizd6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396954/original/file-20210426-13-1tizd6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396954/original/file-20210426-13-1tizd6p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Battle of Mactan by Miguel Alfonso Manzano Noriel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The NCQ has also <a href="https://www.goodnewspilipinas.com/lapulapu-meets-catriona-in-paper-dolls-crafted-for-philippines-quincentennial-celebrations/">encouraged children</a> to print paper doll figures of Lapu Lapu and Magellan so they can re-enact the battle of Mactan at home.</p>
<p>In contrast to Garcia and Noriel’s fiery scenes of mayhem, the winning entries in the art competition’s “magnanimity” section remember the compassion that Filipinos showed to the explorers. </p>
<p>In Romane Elmira D. Contawi’s prize-winning painting, a local man holds out fruit to a bedraggled, hollow-eyed white man. The work illustrates the key role locals played in the expedition, giving provisions to Magellan’s fleet and sharing their expert knowledge on surviving the dangerous seas. </p>
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<h2>Remembering Cook in Australia and NZ</h2>
<p>From 2018–20, the Australian and New Zealand governments also <a href="https://www.endeavour250.gov.au/about-anniversary">sponsored</a> events related to a significant anniversary of European incursion into their lands — the arrival of Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, in 1769–70.</p>
<p>Some did aspire to take an Indigenous-centred viewpoint. But the majority ended up pushing, at best, a “shared histories” approach. They encouraged audiences to consider “both sides” of the beach when the Endeavour docked on Indigenous shores. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explorer-navigator-coloniser-revisit-captain-cooks-legacy-with-the-click-of-a-mouse-137390">Explorer, navigator, coloniser: revisit Captain Cook’s legacy with the click of a mouse</a>
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<p>National institutions in Australia held exhibitions entitled “<a href="https://www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/cook-and-the-pacific">Cook and the Pacific</a>” or “<a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/endeavour-voyage">Cook and the First Australians</a>”. The New Zealand centrepiece event was a six-vessel flotilla — three European, three Pasifika — that stopped off at 14 communities to instigate “<a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/116927527/tuia-250-historical-fleet-moors-in-auckland-harbour">a balanced telling of a shared Māori and Pākehā history</a>.” </p>
<p>In these performances, Cook was made to forego some of the limelight, but never to step off his pedestal entirely. </p>
<p>Other memorials did not achieve even this fuzzy sense of mutuality. Pre-existing statues of Cook, for instance, not only remained standing through the anniversary years, they were often protected from being defaced. In the case of the Cook statue in Sydney’s Hyde Park, this came in the form of dozens of police officers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Police encircling the Cook statue in Sydney last year." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396469/original/file-20210422-23-1wevvly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396469/original/file-20210422-23-1wevvly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396469/original/file-20210422-23-1wevvly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396469/original/file-20210422-23-1wevvly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396469/original/file-20210422-23-1wevvly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396469/original/file-20210422-23-1wevvly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396469/original/file-20210422-23-1wevvly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police encircling the Cook statue in Sydney last year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rick Rycroft/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Decolonised public histories</h2>
<p>The Philippines’ approach to a more Indigenous-focused and critical form of public history is imperfect. The government has come under attack for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/world/asia/carlos-celdran-dead.html">silencing “unpatriotic” criticism"</a> of national leaders today — and in the past. </p>
<p>And the government was criticised for its handling of the death of another Ferdinand – the Philippines’ former president Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled the country through martial law for nearly a decade. He was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38022704">given a hero’s burial</a> to the outrage of many.</p>
<p>Similarly, public histories that happily remember 16th-century rebellions against Spanish conquistadors so as to “<a href="https://nqc.gov.ph/en/event/quincentennial-tv-special/">uplift the cultural confidence of the Filipino people</a>” can render invisible some modern Indigenous struggles for autonomy, particularly in the Philippines’ Islamic south. There is only room for patriotic versions of the country’s history that emphasise unity. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cooking-the-books-how-re-enactments-of-the-endeavours-voyage-perpetuate-myths-of-australias-discovery-126751">Cooking the books: how re-enactments of the Endeavour's voyage perpetuate myths of Australia's 'discovery'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Despite these serious concerns, the Filipino approach to the era of European expansion offers a refreshing contrast to the dominant stories about Cook in Australia and New Zealand. It is not simply adding in Indigenous voices or awarding Indigenous people co-star status on commemorative occasions. </p>
<p>Rather, the Filipino attitude to Magellan flips colonial history on its head by focusing on Indigenous resistance. </p>
<p>The promise of decolonised public histories in the Pacific is not to punish, shame or settle scores. It is instead intended to help forge as-yet undreamed futures for the region that place original sovereigns at their heart.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158226/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Fullagar has received funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristie Patricia Flannery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Philippines is taking an Indigenous-led approach to remembering European colonialism in the Pacific — a refreshing contrast to the dominant stories about James Cook in Australia and New Zealand.Kate Fullagar, Professor of History, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic UniversityKristie Patricia Flannery, Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1563582021-03-16T17:15:38Z2021-03-16T17:15:38ZRare metals play a strategic and essential role in health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390473/original/file-20210318-13-1qdpsbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C43%2C2591%2C1653&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">While people may be familiar with precious metals, which are often at the heart of conflicts, there are also metals that are essential to good health. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fact that most countries do not have sufficient health sovereignty to face such a crisis. Shortages of masks, respirators, medicines and now vaccines were felt in many countries, even the most advanced. These problems show that our societies are dependent on certain countries for essential products.</p>
<p>But what about metals?</p>
<p>Our <a href="http://www.industrie-minerale-territoires.fr/index.en.htm">research team</a> has been working for a few years on the interactions between earth sciences and social sciences, especially around the concept of social geology and the dynamics of resource-rich territories.</p>
<h2>Strategic metals</h2>
<p>The notion of critical and strategic minerals goes back to the wars of the 19th century. At the end of the Second World War, the United States built up stocks of metals. However, the overabundance of metals at the end of the 20th century and globalization led western states to abandon their proactive policy in this field. Awareness of dependence on imported mineral resources did not return until the late 1990s, with the emergence of Asian economies and new monopolies.</p>
<p>The list of critical and strategic metals varies from country to country, ranging from a dozen for the French National Defence to the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/news/interior-releases-2018-s-final-list-35-minerals-deemed-critical-us-national-security-and">35 metals</a> listed in the decree of President Donald Trump in 2018.</p>
<p>Why do we have these lists of metals? They reflect the major issues of the past, those of the wars of the 20th century and the conflicts feared for the future. More generally, they mark the technological and social crises that have hit our societies during the past 50 years and which have led to what the German sociologist <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/risk-society">Ulrich Beck has called the risk society</a>.</p>
<p>Each crisis has left in its wake new technological solutions, secure supply chains and an increased awareness of the dependence on various metals. Here are a few examples.</p>
<h2>From oil to gold</h2>
<p>In 1973, the oil crisis highlighted the energy fragility of most developed countries. Some countries turned to nuclear power, others to hydroelectricity. Uranium mines were put into production everywhere, from Saskatchewan to Niger. The price of ore soared in 1978 and production peaked in 1980.</p>
<p>The terrorist crisis of 2001 in turn accelerated the development of information technology in the defence industries and the consumption of high-tech metals increased accordingly. The price of tantalum reached its highest point in 2000 and world production peaked in 2004. This demand encouraged artisanal production in eastern Congo, which has been a centre of conflict for 20 years.</p>
<p>The nuclear crises following the 1986 Chernobyl and 2011 Fukushima accidents encouraged a shift to metal-intensive renewable energies, particularly wind power. The price of rare-earth elements exploded to a peak in 2010 and production doubled in the following decade.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389581/original/file-20210315-17-1y54naj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black and white photograph of ore" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389581/original/file-20210315-17-1y54naj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389581/original/file-20210315-17-1y54naj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389581/original/file-20210315-17-1y54naj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389581/original/file-20210315-17-1y54naj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389581/original/file-20210315-17-1y54naj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389581/original/file-20210315-17-1y54naj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389581/original/file-20210315-17-1y54naj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An image of the rare ore and radite at the Kwyjibo Project in North Shore, Qué.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Authors)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, in 2008, the financial crisis weakened global markets and led to a resumption of gold purchases, particularly by the Russian and Chinese central banks, which helped support the price of the precious metal.</p>
<p>It is therefore understandable that each crisis is accompanied by new needs in minerals and the need to secure these new metal sectors.</p>
<h2>Metals and health issues</h2>
<p>Metals have been used for human health for thousands of years. <a href="https://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/ayurvedic-treatments">Ayurveda</a>, a traditional medicine that has been practised for 3,000 years in India, employs lead, mercury and arsenic to treat various ailments. Toxic in excessive quantities, these metals can, however, become indispensable in certain medicines and medical and orthopedic equipment.</p>
<p>Today, pharmacology uses more than a dozen metals or metalloids for various conditions: iron for anemia, bismuth, cobalt and nickel for gastric problems, lithium for depression, antimony for leishmaniasis, platinum or radioactive metals for cancer, arsenic for psoriasis. Gold can even help with the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.</p>
<p>Metals are also widely used in prostheses: a mouth treated by a dental technician could contain up to 32 different metals! Medical imaging also uses many metals, from X-rays to nuclear medicine. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is based on rare-earth magnets, while 20 per cent of the world’s gadolinium is used for solutions that increase the contrast of NMR images.</p>
<h2>Metals and the COVID-19 crisis</h2>
<p>And COVID-19? Metals are found in both the prevention and treatment of this new disease.</p>
<p>Copper has been a favourite <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/copper-virus-kill-180974655/">for creating anti-microbial surfaces</a>, which can reduce hospital outbreaks and kill viruses and bacteria in less than two hours. Zinc can boost the immune system and has already been used against viruses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389921/original/file-20210316-19-1f95ygm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two men leaving a helicopter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389921/original/file-20210316-19-1f95ygm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389921/original/file-20210316-19-1f95ygm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389921/original/file-20210316-19-1f95ygm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389921/original/file-20210316-19-1f95ygm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389921/original/file-20210316-19-1f95ygm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389921/original/file-20210316-19-1f95ygm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389921/original/file-20210316-19-1f95ygm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rare metals exploration, North Rae Project in Ungava, Qué.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Authors)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thus, in addition to strategic metals at the heart of conflicts, there are metals that are essential to health. The COVID-19 pandemic caused shortages of hygiene and pharmaceutical products. Advanced medical equipment, full of electronic components and therefore high-value metals, was sometimes lacking.</p>
<p>Most western countries depend on imported metals. It is therefore time to seriously discern what is really indispensable, what essential metals are in the health sector and how to guarantee their supply for use in the next health crises.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156358/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michel Jébrak receives research funding from public (the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies, also known as FRQNT) and private (mining companies) organizations. He is a member of the Ordre des Géologues du Québec. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yann Gunzburger receives funding from public organizations and, in the form of sponsorships, from private companies, particularly in the context of a research and training chair on the relationship between mining projects and territories. He is a member of the Société de l'Industrie Minérale.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack-Pierre Piguet ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Iron fights anemia. Bismuth relieves gastric problems. Lithium acts against depression and gold can treat rheumatoid arthritis. Metals are precious tools for good health.Michel Jébrak, professeur émérite en ressources minérales, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Jack-Pierre Piguet, Professeur, Laboratoire GeoRessources, Université de LorraineYann Gunzburger, Professeur des universités, laboratoire GeoRessources, Université de LorraineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1506422020-11-26T19:01:22Z2020-11-26T19:01:22ZFriday essay: 5 museum objects that tell a story of colonialism and its legacy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371228/original/file-20201125-20-n7w9r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C505%2C5987%2C2615&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This wooden dish from Broome, pre-1892, was made by Yawuru people, collected by police and later presented by the Commissioner of Police, Colonel Phillips, to the WA Museum.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the WA museum</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two new Australian museums are emerging from old ones as the year draws to a close. </p>
<p>The new <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/museum/">Chau Chak Wing Museum</a> at the University of Sydney assembles rich collections from across the campus, and the <a href="https://visit.museum.wa.gov.au/boolabardip/">WA Museum Boola Bardip</a> (Noongar for “Many Stories”) has opened in Perth. Museums remain relevant in a globalised world where stories of objects and collecting connect people, institutions, places and ideas.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.collectingthewest.org">Collecting the West Project</a>, in collaboration with the Western Australian Museum, the State Library of WA, the Art Gallery of WA and the British Museum, explores the history of collecting in WA since the late 1600s. </p>
<p>We are tracing the role of collecting in histories of empire, exploration and colonisation; the relations between natural history and ethnographic collecting; the role of state instrumentalities and private individuals; and the networks between them.</p>
<p>Here, we highlight five objects, some displayed in Boola Bardip’s Treasures Gallery, to reveal how they can provide us with insights into history, values, emotions and power.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371229/original/file-20201125-23-1uxhaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371229/original/file-20201125-23-1uxhaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371229/original/file-20201125-23-1uxhaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371229/original/file-20201125-23-1uxhaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371229/original/file-20201125-23-1uxhaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371229/original/file-20201125-23-1uxhaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371229/original/file-20201125-23-1uxhaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371229/original/file-20201125-23-1uxhaqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the new exhibition spaces, the Ngalang Koort Boodja Wirn gallery at Boola Bardip.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">c Michael Haluwana Aeroture</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. Everything was contemporary once — Corona Smoking Bucket, 2020</h2>
<p>On March 26 2020, the WA government suspended tourist operations on Rottnest Island (Wadjemup) to support the government response to the pandemic. Australian citizens aboard the Vasco de Gama cruise ship were directed to be quarantined on the island from Monday March 30. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.noongarculture.org.au/whadjuk/">Whadjuk</a> monitors Ben Ugle and Brendan Moore were on the island to support conservation works at the heritage site — a prison that once held Aboriginal people from all over WA, where many died. </p>
<p>The two Whadjuk men chose to perform a smoking ceremony for the island’s transition to pandemic quarantine facility. Smoking ceremonies are often conducted to cleanse a place spiritually, such as after a death, to welcome people, and as a sign of respect to people including past elders.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370718/original/file-20201123-15-12g1nrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370718/original/file-20201123-15-12g1nrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370718/original/file-20201123-15-12g1nrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370718/original/file-20201123-15-12g1nrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370718/original/file-20201123-15-12g1nrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370718/original/file-20201123-15-12g1nrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370718/original/file-20201123-15-12g1nrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370718/original/file-20201123-15-12g1nrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Corona Smoking Bucket: a metal beer bucket used for a smoking ceremony.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Wadjemup Museum Collection.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A metal tin was found for the smoking ceremony — given the unplanned nature of the event, the only suitable vessel they could find was a Corona beer bucket. Seeing the irony in the serendipitous use of this object, the “Corona Smoking Bucket” was collected for <a href="https://www.rottnestisland.com">The Wadjemup Museum</a> on Rottnest Island in March 2020.</p>
<p>Like many objects, this bucket symbolises several histories: the fact of its collection, the impact of a global pandemic at a local level, growing recognition of Indigenous cultural practices and the connection between an Indigenous smoking ceremony and the island’s dark history of Aboriginal incarceration (circa 1838-1931). </p>
<p>These histories compete also with the island’s later use — as the site of decades of annual school leavers’ celebrations, reflected in the presence of the Corona bucket. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-medicine-a-fusion-of-ritual-and-remedy-33142">Indigenous medicine – a fusion of ritual and remedy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Collections carry emotions — Shell, Shark Bay, 1820</h2>
<p>This watercolour and ink drawing of a beautiful shell — the <em>Volute ethiopienne</em> — was drawn from a specimen brought back from <a href="https://www.sharkbay.org/">Shark Bay </a> in 1820 as part of the French <a href="http://museum.wa.gov.au/exhibitions/journeys/The_Explorers/de_Freycinet.html">Freycinet expedition</a>. It can now be found in the State Library of Western Australia.</p>
<p>Shells from WA were prized for their beauty, part of the Enlightenment’s love affair with discovering the diversity of the natural world.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370725/original/file-20201123-21-im44d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370725/original/file-20201123-21-im44d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370725/original/file-20201123-21-im44d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370725/original/file-20201123-21-im44d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370725/original/file-20201123-21-im44d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370725/original/file-20201123-21-im44d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370725/original/file-20201123-21-im44d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370725/original/file-20201123-21-im44d8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drawing of Volute ethioienne specimen, Shark Bay, 1820. A. Provist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Freycinet collections, State Library of Western Australia, ACC 5907A/12.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aboriginal people have long valued shells for ornamentation and exchange. Shells were also attractive items for some of the earliest European explorers of the WA coast.</p>
<p>In 1697, for instance, <a href="https://www.sharkbay.org/culture-history/maritime-history/1697-willem-de-vlamingh/">Willem de Vlamingh</a>, a Dutch sea captain working for the Dutch East India Company, collected a number of shells from Shark Bay, including a nautilus and a conch. He failed to find the shipwreck he was searching for, but helped to chart the coast. The English explorer William Dampier arrived in 1699 and some of the shells he collected in Shark Bay ended up in Oxford’s <a href="https://www.ashmolean.org/">Ashmolean Museum</a>. </p>
<p>French explorers followed. Nicolas Baudin’s expedition took a considerable number of shells back to Paris, where they can now be seen at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle.</p>
<p>In his journal of the Baudin expedition, the naturalist <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/peron-francois-2545">François Peron</a> described a mussel he found on the shore:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Of all the species of mussels known so far, the one that I discovered [in Shark Bay] is incontestably the most beautiful. Stripped of its marine coating, it shines with the most vivid colours of the prism and precious stones; it is dazzling, if I may say so. </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-voyage-of-nicolas-baudin-and-art-in-the-service-of-science-62038">Friday essay: the voyage of Nicolas Baudin and 'art in the service of science'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. Mokare’s place — Spear-thrower, King George Sound, (Albany), c.1831</h2>
<p>This spear-thrower was collected by <a href="https://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/alexander-collie-colonial-surgeon-naturalist-explorer">Alexander Collie</a>, the government resident at King George Sound between 1831-33, who formed a close friendship with Menang Noongar man <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mokare-13106">Mokare</a>. </p>
<p>Such historic objects remind us that many collections of plants and objects were formed with the expert assistance of Aboriginal people who knew the land intimately.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370719/original/file-20201123-13-1lvahbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370719/original/file-20201123-13-1lvahbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370719/original/file-20201123-13-1lvahbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=143&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370719/original/file-20201123-13-1lvahbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=143&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370719/original/file-20201123-13-1lvahbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=143&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370719/original/file-20201123-13-1lvahbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=180&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370719/original/file-20201123-13-1lvahbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=180&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370719/original/file-20201123-13-1lvahbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=180&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spear-thrower, Albany.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">British Museum, 1613225872</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The spear-thrower also highlights how objects can embody moments of unexpected friendships, such as the close relationship that developed between Collie and Mokare. Mokare lived with Collie in his hut in the settlement of Albany in 1831, and when near death, Collie asked to be buried beside his friend.</p>
<p>Collie had worked as a naval surgeon and sent objects he collected back to the Royal Navy’s Haslar Hospital Naval Museum at Portsmouth, to assist in naval education. In 1855 the admiralty disbanded the museum, depositing the spear-thrower and other objects in the British Museum.</p>
<p>In 2016-2017, the spear-thrower, along with other objects collected by Collie, returned to Albany to be displayed in the <a href="http://museum.wa.gov.au/museums/albany/yurlmun-mokare-mia-boodja">Yurlmun exhibition</a>, which focused on the meaning of these collections to Menang Noongar people today. Despite these objects being only a temporary loan from the British Museum (where they are now in storage), the Menang people viewed their arrival as a “return home to country”. </p>
<p>The objects collected by Collie point to the role of the Royal Navy as a key network of colonisation; the agency of individual Aboriginal people in processes of colonial collection and the potential of these collections to highlight not only the role played by Indigenous people such as Mokare but also the cultural knowledge contained in the objects themselves.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370977/original/file-20201124-15-247c5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370977/original/file-20201124-15-247c5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370977/original/file-20201124-15-247c5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370977/original/file-20201124-15-247c5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370977/original/file-20201124-15-247c5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370977/original/file-20201124-15-247c5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370977/original/file-20201124-15-247c5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370977/original/file-20201124-15-247c5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A portrait of Mokare by Louis de Sainson (1833).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A much earlier collection of weapons, also from Albany, hints at the complexity of collecting practices undertaken within colonial contexts. A Royal Navy surveying expedition, captained by Phillip Parker King, visited King George Sound in December 1821. The crew were engaged with the Menang people in a prolonged and intimate trading exchange for two weeks. In exchange for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardtack">ships’ biscuit</a>, the crew collected:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>one hundred spears, thirty throwing sticks, forty hammers, one hundred and fifty knives and a few hand-clubs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By contrast, at Hanover Bay on today’s Kimberley coast, a few months earlier, a cache of Worrorra weapons and artefacts were taken as a retaliatory theft for the spearing of the crew’s surgeon.</p>
<p>The crew members related this theft in their journals with the language of revenge: “taking possession of”, “riches”, “spoil”, “prize” and “treasure”, where they took pleasure in “capturing” an Aboriginal “depot”.</p>
<p>These collecting moments reveal different kinds of intimacies — of friendships and violence, trade and exchange — that occurred during early coastal encounters. They also explain why there is no early material from WA in Western Australian collections — most went to Britain as a result of these imperial networks.</p>
<h2>4. Colonialism never dies — Wooden dish, Broome, pre 1892</h2>
<p>This small wooden bowl carries a history that hints at the role of colonial state instrumentalities in collecting. It is part of a large collection at the WA Museum known as the Phillips Collection.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371228/original/file-20201125-20-n7w9r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C505%2C5987%2C2615&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371228/original/file-20201125-20-n7w9r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C505%2C5987%2C2615&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371228/original/file-20201125-20-n7w9r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371228/original/file-20201125-20-n7w9r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371228/original/file-20201125-20-n7w9r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371228/original/file-20201125-20-n7w9r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371228/original/file-20201125-20-n7w9r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371228/original/file-20201125-20-n7w9r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wooden dish from Broome, pre-1892, made by Yawuru people, presented by the Commissioner of Police to the WA Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the WA museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>George Braithwaite Phillips was the commissioner of police between 1887-1890. His family was amongst the first colonists to emigrate to the Swan River Colony (now Perth), coming from Barbados, where they owned sugar plantations. </p>
<p>Phillips had been a high profile civil servant and the commandant of the Western Australian Military Forces. From those positions he was able to commandeer a large network of policemen throughout the colony to collect both Aboriginal material culture and human remains.</p>
<p>Many of the Aboriginal objects collected by police, though not the ancestral human remains, were displayed at International Exhibitions in Paris, Glasgow and Melbourne.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-violent-collectors-who-gathered-indigenous-artefacts-for-the-queensland-museum-96119">The violent collectors who gathered Indigenous artefacts for the Queensland Museum</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The collection, which included this bowl from Broome, made by Yawuru people, helped form the new Western Australian Museum and Art Gallery in 1894. (The bowl can now be seen at WA Museum Boola Bardip.)</p>
<p>Bernard Woodward, the museum’s first director, continued to ask Phillips for help in sourcing both ethnographic objects and human remains, many of them destined to be exchanged for natural history specimens and ethnographic material from other parts of the world.</p>
<p>So, this bowl is a powerful object. It speaks to Aboriginal cultural practices, the police as active agents of colonisation, and the complex terrain of colonial encounters and their aftermath that form part of the museum’s own inheritance — now slowly being addressed in consultation with relevant communities.</p>
<h2>5. Collections are commodities — Red figure hydria, 350-320BC</h2>
<p>This red figure vase (circa 350-320BC), probably from Bari
— then a Greek colony — was, according to the museum’s first art and craft register, given by Professor E H Giglioli in 1902. Giglioli (1845-1909) was the Director of the Museo Zoologico in Florence — a zoologist and anthropologist remembered as the father of Italian science.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370743/original/file-20201123-19-evzw4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370743/original/file-20201123-19-evzw4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370743/original/file-20201123-19-evzw4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370743/original/file-20201123-19-evzw4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370743/original/file-20201123-19-evzw4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370743/original/file-20201123-19-evzw4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370743/original/file-20201123-19-evzw4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370743/original/file-20201123-19-evzw4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Red figure hydria (water jar), Bari, Apulia, southern Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the WA Museum.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He visited Australia in 1867, <a href="https://www.sba.unifi.it/upload/scienze/imgdarwin09/Giglioli_1876/Giglioli_Viaggiointornoalglobo_1876.pdf">writing a book on Australian Aboriginal people</a>. Giglioli understood the uniqueness of WA’s flora and fauna, seeking valuable specimens with which to build his own collection and to trade for other specimens from elsewhere in the world.</p>
<p>Giglioli sent Roman and Etruscan antiquities he acquired in Italy to Perth in exchange for natural history specimens, human remains and ethnographic material.</p>
<p>Collections circulated through collecting institutions, often exchanged or bartered. Giglioli exchanged the WA material with the Smithsonian Museum.</p>
<p>In Australia, antiquities from Europe had their own rarity value. Widely understood as the foundation of Western culture and aesthetics, antiquities were hard to come by in colonial society. </p>
<p>In 1904, Woodward wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>it is of paramount importance that the local craftsmen should have good examples to study, in order that they may successfully compete with their fellows in the older centres of civilisation. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The notion of civilisation was especially important in a young nation. Colonial societies, wanting to demonstrate their rightful place amongst civilised societies, often purchased copies of originals. </p>
<p>So it is not surprising Woodward wanted to exchange Western Australian natural history and ethnographic specimens for objects representing the high end of European artistic production or material representing the birth of European civilisation.</p>
<p>This was part of his effort to educate Western Australians into what they thought was the best that Western civilisation offered.</p>
<p>While this was a way for museums around the world to build their collections, it also involved practices that are totally discredited today and which many find deeply distressing. It is important to know about this history and address its legacies. </p>
<p>The collections made by early explorers and settlers, sometimes in collaboration with Indigenous peoples, are important for their role in the development of knowledge about WA, opening up areas of scientific discovery and knowledge about First Peoples, the richness of the state’s flora and fauna and our shared historical experiences.</p>
<p>They are also tangible symbols of colonialism and its legacy today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150642/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alistair Paterson receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Federal Government, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Witcomb receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gaye Sculthorpe receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shino Konishi receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tiffany Shellam receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>A spear-thrower, a shell, a bowl, a vase, a bucket. Five very different items tell us much about the history of collecting, the role of Indigenous experts and the shadow of colonial violence.Alistair Paterson, ARC Future Fellow, The University of Western AustraliaAndrea Witcomb, Professor, Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Deakin UniversityGaye Sculthorpe, Curator & Section Head, Oceania, The British MuseumShino Konishi, ARC Research Fellow, The University of Western AustraliaTiffany Shellam, Senior Lecturer in History, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1469012020-09-30T18:53:12Z2020-09-30T18:53:12ZThe world’s southernmost tree hangs on in one of the windiest places on Earth – but climate change is shifting those winds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360639/original/file-20200929-20-1q01p3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=507%2C0%2C3518%2C2854&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On Isla Hornos, Magellan's beech trees grow in wind-protected nooks and crannies. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andres Holz</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>In 2019, my research team and I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05075">found the world’s southernmost tree</a> on an island at the edge of South America. The diminutive tree is 42 years old, stretches several meters along the ground but is only half a meter, or about a foot and a half, tall. In some other place, this tree would grow tall and upright, but here, incredible winds warp and constrain the tree both in height and in where it grows. And due to climate change, those winds are changing.</p>
<p><iframe id="VoM7R" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/VoM7R/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Standing on the southern side of that wind-battered tree means all trees in the world are to your north, with nothing behind you but some grasses, ocean and Antarctica. Isla Hornos, also known as Cape Horn, supports a small population of <em>Nothofagus betuloides</em> – the Magellan’s beech or coigüe. Wind is omnipresent. Cape Horn is one of the windiest places on the planet, and during the expedition, our team faced hurricane-force winds of 75 mph for days at a time.</p>
<p>This wind appears to be the main constraint for arboreal life on the island – trees are found only in sheltered locations behind cliffs and hills. While the area hasn’t <a href="https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/maps/index_v4.html">warmed dramatically</a>, climate change is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1197219">intensifying the westerly winds</a> that rake the region. Evidence from the nearby Falkland Islands also indicates that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4434">wind direction is shifting too</a>. Because of this, forests on Cape Horn that were previously growing in sheltered areas are now exposed to wind. We found long stretches of dead trees along the edges of the small forests, suggesting that shifting winds caused by climate change may be killing off trees even as new sheltered areas emerge.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360641/original/file-20200929-20-mvyzb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two researchers stand behind a short, horizontally growing tree among grasses and backed by a large bay." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360641/original/file-20200929-20-mvyzb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360641/original/file-20200929-20-mvyzb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360641/original/file-20200929-20-mvyzb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360641/original/file-20200929-20-mvyzb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360641/original/file-20200929-20-mvyzb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360641/original/file-20200929-20-mvyzb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360641/original/file-20200929-20-mvyzb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The researchers stand tall over the shrunken tree in the foreground during a rare break from the relentless, often hurricane-force winds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andres Holz</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Species must either migrate, adapt or die <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2013.04.003">in response to climate change</a>. By monitoring the geographic edges of where a species lives – like the southernmost tree our team found – scientists can get a handle on the migration ability of various species. This is important for prioritizing conservation plans or when considering more extreme measures, like assisted migration, to help species keep pace with climate change. </p>
<p>Wind has received relatively little attention in regards to setting the limits of species, but it is quite important on <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1Dx-2ht4t0kC&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=korner+treeline&ots=DAc3mTNNSl&sig=zRyGGyOLIaUKyzXQhhrbgtuZhuo">mountains</a>, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecog.01266">oceanic islands</a> and, as we now know, the overall global extent of trees. Changes in temperature and precipitation are often discussed as worries on a changing planet, but in places like Isla Hornos, climate change’s effect on wind matters just as much.</p>
<p>Additionally, this area is relatively pristine – we didn’t find a single invasive species, and there has been little human presence in the island, ever. As the climate changes, documenting this location so that scientists can know what is there and how it is changing is critical for future conservation.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Researchers still know relatively little about the southernmost forests of the world. While there is evidence that the winds have changed, the specific cause of death for forests can be determined only with long-term research. </p>
<p>Further, there are only short climatic records from the island. Even basic information – like the length of the growing season – is still unknown. Repeat studies will need to be done if scientists really want to learn how life is changing in this remote but globally significant locale.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360640/original/file-20200929-24-1fvkdga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A view from a boat of Isla Hornos, a small mountainous island covered in greens and browns." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360640/original/file-20200929-24-1fvkdga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360640/original/file-20200929-24-1fvkdga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360640/original/file-20200929-24-1fvkdga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360640/original/file-20200929-24-1fvkdga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360640/original/file-20200929-24-1fvkdga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360640/original/file-20200929-24-1fvkdga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360640/original/file-20200929-24-1fvkdga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Isla Hornos is remote, inhospitable and nearly untouched by humanity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brian Buma</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Revisiting this landscape to set up long-term research is important given the unique nature of this global signpost – the world’s southernmost tree. More than that, however, I hope this expedition can rally people to study range edges around their own homes. </p>
<p>Together with <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/07/journey-to-the-worlds-southernmost-tree/">National Geographic</a>, <a href="https://www.esri.com/en-us/home">ESRI</a> and <a href="https://www.inaturalist.org/">iNaturalist</a>, on Sept. 26, I launched an interactive exploration challenge called <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/29c6ac1c2f4e4f93beabba73a42ac7b1">The Edges of (All) Life exploration project</a>. Anybody can <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/29c6ac1c2f4e4f93beabba73a42ac7b1">look up the edges of species ranges in their own neighborhood</a> and go searching for an individual that will push those boundaries out farther. I may have found the world’s southernmost tree, but you could find the northernmost dogwood, the northernmost Douglas fir or the southernmost maidenhair fern. No matter where you live, there is likely a unique edge nearby, and finding these ranges is critically important for the conservation of that particular species.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146901/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Buma receives funding from National Geographic.</span></em></p>A team of researchers found the southernmost tree and forest on Earth at the extreme tip of South America. Wind limits where trees grow on Isla Hornos and those wind patterns are shifting.Brian Buma, Assistant Professor of Integrative Biology, University of Colorado DenverLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1462962020-09-24T20:00:12Z2020-09-24T20:00:12ZFriday essay: who was Jeanne Barret, the first woman to circumnavigate the globe?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359503/original/file-20200923-16-19li03m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C373%2C3419%2C5360&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A modern portrait of Jeanne Barret disguised as a man, based on the author's interpretation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Timothy Ide</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1765, a young, peasant woman left a remote corner of rural France where her impoverished family had scraped a living for generations. She set out on a journey that would take her around the world from the South American jungles and Magellan Strait to the tropical islands of the Indo-Pacific. </p>
<p>Jeanne Barret (also Baret or Baré) was the first woman known to have circumnavigated the world. Abandoning her bonnet and apron for men’s trousers and coats, she disguised herself as a man and signed on as assistant to the naturalist, <a href="https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000001607">Philibert Commerson</a> on one of the ships of <a href="http://museum.wa.gov.au/exhibitions/journeys/The_Explorers/de_Bougainville.html">Louis-Antoine de Bougainville’s expedition</a> around the world. </p>
<p>During that voyage, Jeanne helped Commerson amass the largest individual natural history collection known at the time. Thousands of the plant specimens can still be found in the <a href="https://science.mnhn.fr/institution/mnhn/collection/p/item/list?full_text=commerson">herbarium</a> of the Paris natural history museum, although few bear Jeanne’s name.</p>
<p>Despite Jeanne’s singular achievement, she left no account of her journey or her life. She might have been entirely forgotten were it not for a dramatic revelation on a Tahitian beach in 1768. </p>
<p>Bougainville’s voyage famously promoted Tahiti as a utopian paradise of beautiful women and sexual freedom. But the Tahitian men were equally keen to meet European women and, despite her disguise, they swiftly identified Jeanne as one. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359512/original/file-20200923-22-h0mxe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359512/original/file-20200923-22-h0mxe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359512/original/file-20200923-22-h0mxe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359512/original/file-20200923-22-h0mxe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359512/original/file-20200923-22-h0mxe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359512/original/file-20200923-22-h0mxe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359512/original/file-20200923-22-h0mxe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359512/original/file-20200923-22-h0mxe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joseph Ducreux’s 1790 portrait of Louis Antoine de Bougainville.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This revelation caused consternation on board and Bougainville was forced to intervene. He described Jeanne’s confession briefly in <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/A_Voyage_round_the_World_Translated_by_J/HbVgAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=inauthor%3A%22Louis%20Antoine%20de%20BOUGAINVILLE%20(Count.)%22&pg=PR3&printsec=frontcover">his best-selling narrative of the voyage</a>. Having nothing but praise for her work, Bougainville ordered she be left alone to continue her work as a man. </p>
<p>Jeanne had done nothing wrong. French naval regulations did not forbid women from embarking, but there were penalties for men who brought a woman on board. Both Jeanne and Commerson insisted he was unaware of Jeanne’s ruse and that they did not know each other prior to the journey. As soon as the voyage reached French territory, the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, Jeanne and Commerson disembarked. </p>
<p>Jeanne’s adventure was soon retold in a book on <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=WPFaAAAAQAAJ&vq=bare&pg=PA752#v=onepage&q=bard&f=false">celebrated women</a> and in the philosopher Denis <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/%C5%92uvres_de_Denis_Diderot_Philosophie/96IGAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=diderot+supplement+bougainville&pg=PA353&printsec=frontcover">Diderot’s</a> famous Supplement to the Bougainville voyage. She was ultimately awarded a French naval pension for her services. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359504/original/file-20200923-14-ig2c2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359504/original/file-20200923-14-ig2c2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359504/original/file-20200923-14-ig2c2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359504/original/file-20200923-14-ig2c2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359504/original/file-20200923-14-ig2c2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359504/original/file-20200923-14-ig2c2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1281&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359504/original/file-20200923-14-ig2c2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1281&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359504/original/file-20200923-14-ig2c2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1281&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An allegorical image of Jeanne by Giuseppe dall’Acqua in 1816.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The only known image of Jeanne appeared in a book of famous voyages, drawn long after her death. The image is probably allegorical. Loose sailor’s clothes represent her voyage, a bunch of flowers represents botany and the red cap presents her as Marianne, an iconic revolutionary <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2738492">symbol of liberty</a> and the new French republic. </p>
<p>In reality, a servant and botanist like Jeanne would have worn gentleman’s clothes, carrying an assortment of pins, knives, bags, weapons and papers for collecting. Plants were pressed in the field in a portable plant press.</p>
<p>Despite such early renown, details of Jeanne’s life beyond her famous voyage were scarce. For many years, little was known about her past, what happened when she left the expedition in Mauritius in 1768, how she returned to France or what she did with the rest of her life. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-have-been-written-out-of-science-history-time-to-put-them-back-107752">Women have been written out of science history – time to put them back</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Simplistic stereotypes</h2>
<p>Writing the biography of a woman about whom we knew so little was always going to be challenging. I found myself searching for a pre-existing model to base Jeanne on — in fiction or in history. But in literature, as in reality, women, the poor, the illiterate, the nonconformists and those from other cultures and languages are poorly represented.</p>
<p>When they appear, they are simplistic stereotypes — supporting characters for a lead role reserved for a wealthy, white man. A woman like Jeanne could be a peasant or a servant, a wife or a fallen woman — there was no conventionally acceptable opportunity for her to be an adventurer or an independent woman of her own means. She had to create that opportunity for herself.</p>
<p>Initial accounts of Jeanne focused on her work, appearance and sexual conduct. She was described as being indefatigable, an expert botanist and a beast of burden who carried heavy provisions while plant collecting. Men noted she was neither attractive nor ugly, but she behaved with “scrupulous modesty”.</p>
<p>Commerson suffered from an incapacitating leg injury during his journey, which limited his mobility. Jeanne was probably responsible for collecting most of the South American plants, of which <a href="https://plants.jstor.org/search?efq=AWh0b3BpYzooImdlb2dyYXBoeS1wbGFudHMx76O4Me-juEFtZXJpY2Fz76O4U291dGggQW1lcmljYe-juCIp&ff=ps_type__ps_repository_name_str__ps_collection_name_str&filter=people&so=ps_group_by_genus_species+asc&Query=commerson">over a thousand are still found in herbariums today</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-forgotten-german-botanist-who-took-200-000-australian-plants-to-europe-143099">Friday essay: the forgotten German botanist who took 200,000 Australian plants to Europe</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When museum scientists began posthumously publishing some of Commerson’s species descriptions, pioneering evolutionary biologist <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33495331#page/54/mode/1up">Jean Baptiste Lamarck</a> was the only one who mentioned Jeanne’s contribution and courage. She was a servant, after all, so hardly warranted acknowledgement.</p>
<p>Commerson himself rarely mentioned Jeanne. It was not until after they left the voyage that he named a plant after her: <em><a href="http://coldb.mnhn.fr/catalognumber/mnhn/p/p00391569">Baretia bonafidia</a></em> (now known as <em>Turraea rutilans</em>). </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359505/original/file-20200923-16-5iqd2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359505/original/file-20200923-16-5iqd2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359505/original/file-20200923-16-5iqd2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359505/original/file-20200923-16-5iqd2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359505/original/file-20200923-16-5iqd2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359505/original/file-20200923-16-5iqd2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359505/original/file-20200923-16-5iqd2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359505/original/file-20200923-16-5iqd2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The isotype, or defining specimen of <em>Turraea rutilans</em>, originally named <em>Baretia bonafidia</em> by Commerson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris (France) Collection: Vascular plants (P) Specimen P00391569.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his <a href="https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=AhhcAAAAcAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA160">description of this plant</a>, Commerson recognised her “thirst for knowledge” and that he was indebted to “her heroism, for so many plants never before harvested, all the industrious drying, so many collections of insects and shells”. </p>
<p>Nineteenth century accounts of Jeanne appeared as footnotes in the biographies of great men. Avoiding all impropriety, she was presented as Commerson’s “faithful servant”, like Crusoe’s Man Friday, or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Phileas-Fogg">Phileas Fogg’s</a> Jean Passepartout. An early biographer, <a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9403403.texteImage">Paul-Antoine Cap</a> recounted a family story in which Jeanne loyally cared for Commerson on his deathbed in Mauritius and that she returned to live in his hometown in France.</p>
<p>“By way of remembrance and veneration for her former master, she left all she possessed to the natural heirs of the famous botanist,” he wrote. It was a story of boundless devotion much repeated in subsequent accounts. </p>
<h2>Partial details</h2>
<p>It has been left to female researchers to uncover the details of Jeanne’s life. Attention has shifted to Jeanne as an individual, rather than an addendum to Commerson’s or Bougainville’s story.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, a local historian from Burgundy, <a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3395224f">Henriette Dussourd</a>, uncovered the parish record of Jeanne’s birth in 1740 to a poor peasant family in the town of La Comelle. She also found a declaration of pregnancy (obligatory under French law) signed by Jeanne when she was 24-years-old. When she was five months pregnant, Jeanne had fled to Paris with Commerson, travelling under a new surname, as his housekeeper.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359506/original/file-20200923-22-1vr1bjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359506/original/file-20200923-22-1vr1bjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359506/original/file-20200923-22-1vr1bjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359506/original/file-20200923-22-1vr1bjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359506/original/file-20200923-22-1vr1bjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359506/original/file-20200923-22-1vr1bjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359506/original/file-20200923-22-1vr1bjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359506/original/file-20200923-22-1vr1bjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jeanne’s birthplace La Comelle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The circumstances are suspicious. Jeanne had presumably been working as a servant for the recently widowed Commerson and they moved to Paris to escape a local scandal. Early Parisian parish records were destroyed in the Commune fires of 1871, but Dussourd suggests a son was born, left in the Foundling Home and died young.</p>
<p>Since then, I have found that Jeanne had a second son while in Paris, who appears to have died while she was away on her voyage. </p>
<p>More recently, a biography in English has attempted to fill in the gaps left in the archival record. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/200271/the-discovery-of-jeanne-baret-by-glynis-ridley/">Glynis Ridley’s popular biography</a> has been criticised for <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2F470036a.pdf%3Forigin%3Dppub">scientific errors and speculation</a>, but her version of Jeanne’s story has propagated widely across the internet. </p>
<p>Unlike the loyal servant trope of the 19th century, Ridley utilises a modern cautionary tale to fill out Jeanne’s story – the well-rehearsed narrative that <a href="http://theamericanreader.com/green-screen-the-lack-of-female-road-narratives-and-why-it-matters/#_ftn1">adventurous women inevitably come to a sticky end</a>.</p>
<p>Ridley’s biography seeks to give Jeanne an agency that she lacked in 18th and 19th century accounts. She argues Commerson sought Jeanne’s advice as an expert herbswoman. Was an unsigned list of medicinal plants among Commerson’s archives, she asks, actually Jeanne’s work? </p>
<p>Appealing though this idea is, Commerson was, however, renowned for his medicinal teas, and herbal remedies were a staple of medical treatment at the time.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359511/original/file-20200923-20-19rkm6v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359511/original/file-20200923-20-19rkm6v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359511/original/file-20200923-20-19rkm6v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359511/original/file-20200923-20-19rkm6v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359511/original/file-20200923-20-19rkm6v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359511/original/file-20200923-20-19rkm6v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359511/original/file-20200923-20-19rkm6v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359511/original/file-20200923-20-19rkm6v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Philibert Commerson (1727-1773).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nor is there any evidence Jeanne was taught to read and write by her mother, as Ridley suggests. My archival research found her mother died when Jeanne was 15- months-old. It seems more likely Commerson taught her to write and trained her in botany.</p>
<p>More controversially, Ridley contends that the story of Jeanne’s revelation as a woman in Tahiti was a cover for a gang rape on New Ireland, off Papua New Guinea. And that Jeanne fell pregnant and gave birth to a son in Mauritius. </p>
<p>This story originates from a description by the doctor on board Jeanne’s ship, Francois Vivez. Vivez disliked Commerson and intended to publish a salacious account of his servant when he returned to France.</p>
<p>In his manuscripts, Vivez describes Jeanne being attacked by her crew mates and her gender exposed after her identification by the Tahitians. While Vivez greatly embroiders his accounts, there is enough confirmation from other journals to suggest they are based on facts. On balance, it seems likely that Jeanne was identified as a women in Tahiti and some of the crew decided to confirm this for themselves when they were next ashore.</p>
<p>But was there a rape? It is difficult to interpret these 18th century accounts, written in either French or Latin and laden with historical contexts and classical metaphors that have long since lost their associations for modern readers. </p>
<p>Bougainville had ordered that Jeanne was not to be harassed. Rape was punishable by death in the French navy. Could a naval commander tolerate such a serious crime and insubordination to go unrecorded and unpunished? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359507/original/file-20200923-24-11ogg89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359507/original/file-20200923-24-11ogg89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359507/original/file-20200923-24-11ogg89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359507/original/file-20200923-24-11ogg89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359507/original/file-20200923-24-11ogg89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359507/original/file-20200923-24-11ogg89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359507/original/file-20200923-24-11ogg89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bougainvillea, a flower named after the French explorer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It seems unlikely. In his only comment on the subject, Commerson noted Jeanne “evaded ambush by wild animals and humans, not without risk to her life and virtue, unharmed and sound”. </p>
<p>In any case, there is no evidence that Jeanne, suffering from scurvy and malnutrition, conceived a child on the voyage, nor of the obligatory declaration of pregnancy, or a child born in Mauritius. </p>
<h2>A woman of means</h2>
<p>Jeanne’s life in Mauritius and her return to France were actually more interesting than dramatic denouements that fulfil conventional expectations. The adventurous woman did not come to a sticky end.</p>
<p>She was not the faithful servant, comforting Commerson on his death bed. She was not left “<a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/discovery-jeanne-baret-story-science-high-seas-and-first-woman-circumnavigate-globe">alone, homeless, penniless</a>” after his death, waiting for a man to rescue her. She did not return to Commerson’s hometown or remember him in death.</p>
<p>The archives tell a different story. I found Jeanne was granted property in her own right in Mauritius. When Commerson died, Jeanne was running her own profitable business. She bought a license to run a lucrative bar near the port. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359502/original/file-20200923-18-zp6oad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359502/original/file-20200923-18-zp6oad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359502/original/file-20200923-18-zp6oad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359502/original/file-20200923-18-zp6oad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359502/original/file-20200923-18-zp6oad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359502/original/file-20200923-18-zp6oad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359502/original/file-20200923-18-zp6oad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359502/original/file-20200923-18-zp6oad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the time she married Jean Dubernat, a soldier in a French colonial regiment, she was wealthy enough to require a pre-nuptial contract. Her husband brought 5000 livres to the marriage while Jeanne brought a house, slaves, furniture, clothes, jewellery and a small fortune of 19,500 livres – two thirds of which would remain in her control. She was a woman of means.</p>
<p>Further research by <a href="http://jeannebarret.free.fr/page1.htm">Sophie Miquel and Nicolle Maguet </a>in Dordogne, where Jeanne lived out her life after her return to France in 1775, has revealed more details. She purchased various properties including a farm, which is still recognisable today. </p>
<p>Her husband signed another legal document acknowledging these properties were shared equally with his wife. Jeanne gathered her family around her, including her orphaned niece and nephew, and ran a successful business as a landowner and trader – a far cry from her illiterate, impoverished childhood in Burgundy.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/adventurous-identities-intersex-soldiers-and-cross-dressing-women-at-war-115126">Adventurous identities: intersex soldiers and cross-dressing women at war</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If we need a conventional story arc for Jeanne’s life, it should be rags-to-riches, rather than the loyal servant or road-trip tragedy. But better, surely, to construct Jeanne’s story with an objective attention to the archival record.</p>
<p>Jeanne was full of contradictions. She was a devoted aunt, yet left her own children in Paris to an unknown fate. She struggled to escape the constraints of France’s rigid class system and patriarchy, but also owned slaves. Her life does not always fit a comfortable familiar narrative structure.</p>
<p>What we do know reveals Jeanne as a confident, capable, resilient woman — neither victim nor hero but a complex, inspiring and unconventional role model. </p>
<p><em>Danielle Clode’s new biography of Jeanne Barret, In Search of the Woman who Sailed the World, is published by Picador Australia.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146296/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danielle Clode received funding from Arts SA and the Department of Premier and Cabinet South Australia to research this book which was commissioned by Pan Macmillan under their Picador imprint. </span></em></p>Fresh research casts new light on a boldly unconventional woman who cross-dressed as a man to join a French naval sea voyage.Danielle Clode, Senior Research Fellow in Creative Writing, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1296072020-01-24T13:37:47Z2020-01-24T13:37:47Z200 years of exploring Antarctica – the world’s coldest, most forbidding and most peaceful continent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311478/original/file-20200122-32136-14li66.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5355%2C3186&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Aerial view of a glacier in the Antarctic peninsula region.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/glacier-flows-as-seen-from-nasas-operation-icebridge-news-photo/870893786?adppopup=true">Getty Images/Mario Tama</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Antarctica is the remotest part of the world, but it is a hub of scientific discovery, international diplomacy and environmental change. It was officially discovered 200 years ago, on Jan. 27, 1820, when members of a Russian expedition sighted land in what is now known as the Fimbul Ice Shelf on the continent’s east side. </p>
<p>Early explorers were drawn there by the mythology of <a href="https://lib-dbserver.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/pacific/pacific-ocean/terra-australis.html">Terra Australis</a>, a vast southern continent that scholars imagined for centuries as a counterweight to the Northern Hemisphere. Others sought economic bounty from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247416000644">hunting whales and seals</a>, or the glory of conquering the planet’s last wilderness. Still others wanted to <a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/highlights/2012/terraNova.html">understand Earth’s magnetic fields</a> in order to better navigate the seas. </p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2atjAwMAAAAJ&hl=en">geologist</a> who specializes in understanding the timing and extent of past ice ages. Much of my work focuses on the glacial history of Antarctica, and I’ve been privileged to conduct five field seasons of research there. </p>
<p>For the next two years I’ll be working with a field team made up entirely of undergraduate students from Vanderbilt University to determine whether the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet">East Antarctic Ice Sheet</a> changes flow patterns as it changes shape. All of the research these budding scientists conduct will be done under the auspices of the <a href="https://www.ats.aq/index_e.html">Antarctic Treaty</a>, a global agreement that promotes scientific cooperation and environmental protection.</p>
<h2>Frozen but abundant</h2>
<p>Antarctica separated from South America 35 million years ago, and its climate started to change. It began to grow <a href="https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/quickfacts/icesheets.html">ice sheets</a> – masses of glacial land ice covering thousands of square miles. As plate tectonics shifted other continents, Antarctica became colder and drier. For the past 14 million years, it has been the frigid continent that persists today. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311477/original/file-20200122-117962-1knrm08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311477/original/file-20200122-117962-1knrm08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311477/original/file-20200122-117962-1knrm08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311477/original/file-20200122-117962-1knrm08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311477/original/file-20200122-117962-1knrm08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311477/original/file-20200122-117962-1knrm08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311477/original/file-20200122-117962-1knrm08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311477/original/file-20200122-117962-1knrm08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Antarctica is mostly covered by ice sheets on land and fringed by floating ice shelves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/features/antarctica-colder-arctic-it%E2%80%99s-still-losing-ice">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Antarctica is the only continent that was literally discovered, because it has no native human population. British explorer Sir James Cook circumnavigated the continent in 1772-1775, but saw only some outlying islands. Cook <a href="https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-JOD-00020/1">concluded</a> that if there were any land, it would be “condemned to everlasting regidity by Nature, never to yield to the warmth of the sun.” </p>
<p>Cook also reported that Antarctic waters were rich with nutrients and wildlife. This drew sealers and whalers, mainly from England and the United States, who hunted the region’s fur seals and elephant seals to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247416000644">near-extinction</a> in the following decades. This hunting spree led to the discovery of the Antarctic mainland and its ice sheets, the largest in the world.</p>
<h2>Reading the ice</h2>
<p>Today the combined East and West Antarctic ice sheets hold 90% of the world’s ice, enough to raise global sea levels by <a href="https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/quickfacts/icesheets.html">roughly 200 feet (60 meters) if it all melted</a>. Antarctica is the coldest, highest, driest, windiest, brightest, and yes, iciest continent on Earth. And 200 years of research has shown that it is a key component of Earth’s climate system.</p>
<p>Despite the appearance that it is an unchanging, freeze-dried landscape, my research and work by many others has shown that the East Antarctica Ice Sheet does slowly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.2039">thin and thicken over millions of years</a>. Interestingly, my data also suggest that as the ice advances and retreats, it moves in <a href="https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2016AM/webprogram/Paper285013.html">the same patterns each time</a>. Put another way, the ice flows over the same land each time it advances.</p>
<p>While East Antarctica adds and loses ice slowly, it is so large that it is a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/116/4/1095">major contributor to sea level rise</a>. Understanding how the ice has changed in the past is key to predicting how much and how fast it will melt in the coming years. </p>
<p>These questions are especially important in West Antarctica, where the bottom of the ice sheet is below sea level, making it very susceptible to changes in sea level and ocean temperature. By itself, the West Antarctic ice sheet has the potential to raise sea level by <a href="https://www.the-cryosphere.net/7/375/2013/">16 feet (5 meters) if it collapses</a>.</p>
<p>As climate change raises global sea levels, parts of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet, such as the <a href="https://thwaitesglacier.org/">Thwaites</a> and <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/pine-island">Pine Island Glaciers</a>, are particularly vulnerable to collapse. At the end of the last ice age, parts of West Antarctica thinned by an average of <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/299/5603/99">1.5 to 3 feet (0.5 - 1 meters) per year</a>. Today with GPS, satellite and airborne measurements, scientists are seeing parts of West Antarctica thin by <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GL060111">3 to 20 feet (1 to 6 meters) per year</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YRe1ymYR45k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Antarctica is losing ice at an accelerating rate, partly due to climate change.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also know from the geological record that this ice sheet is capable of rapid collapses, and has sometimes thinned at rates in excess of <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/343/6174/999.abstract">30 feet (10 meters) per year</a>. Recent models show sea level could rise by <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature17145">1 meter by 2100 and 15 meters by 2500</a> if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at current rates and the ice sheet experiences a rapid collapse, as it has in the past. </p>
<h2>Finding inspiration in scientific diplomacy</h2>
<p>Despite the potential for environmental disaster in Antarctica, the continent also offers evidence that nations can collaborate to find solutions. The <a href="https://www.scar.org/policy/antarctic-treaty-system/">Antarctic Treaty System</a> is the world’s premier example of peaceful and scientific international cooperation. </p>
<p>This landmark accord, signed in 1961, sets aside Antarctica for peaceful and scientific purposes and recognizes no land claims on the continent. It also was the first non-nuclear accord ever signed, barring use of Antarctica for nuclear weapons testing or disposal of radioactive waste.</p>
<p>The great Antarctic explorer <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/shackleton_ernest.shtml">Sir Ernest Shackleton</a> said that “optimism is true moral courage,” and the authors of the Antarctic Treaty were certainly courageous optimists. They were encouraged by the success of the 1957-1958 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/International-Geophysical-Year">International Geophysical Year</a>, a worldwide program of scientific research during which 12 countries built over 50 bases in Antarctica, including <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/support/mcmurdo.jsp">McMurdo Station</a> and the <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/support/southp.jsp">Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311481/original/file-20200122-32188-wqqhfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311481/original/file-20200122-32188-wqqhfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311481/original/file-20200122-32188-wqqhfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311481/original/file-20200122-32188-wqqhfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311481/original/file-20200122-32188-wqqhfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311481/original/file-20200122-32188-wqqhfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311481/original/file-20200122-32188-wqqhfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311481/original/file-20200122-32188-wqqhfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Flags of the 12 original Antarctic Treaty member countries at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/4410/">U.S. Antarctic Program/Rob Jones</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Under the treaty, scientists from North Korea, Russia and China can freely visit U.S. research stations in Antarctica. Researchers from India and Pakistan willingly share their data about Antarctic glaciers. </p>
<p>Thanks to the Antarctic Treaty, 10% of Earth’s land surface is protected as a wildlife and wilderness refuge. I have set foot in places in Antarctica where I know no one has ever been before, and the treaty sets areas aside that no one will ever visit. Antarctica’s landscapes are unlike anywhere else on Earth. The best comparison may be the Moon. </p>
<p>Yet in these stark environments, <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/about/antarctica/wildlife/">life finds a way to persist</a> – showing that there are solutions to even the most daunting challenges. If Antarctica has taught us anything in 200 years, it’s that we can cooperate and collaborate to overcome problems. As <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/WTfFSJCJ5jkqnGPm4fqHyy/ernest-shackleton">Ernest Shackleton once said</a>, “Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all.” </p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=thanksforreading">Thanks for reading! We can send you The Conversation’s stories every day in an informative email. Sign up today.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129607/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dan Morgan receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>Two centuries after it was first sighted by Russian explorers, Antarctica is a key site for studying the future of Earth’s climate – and for global scientific cooperation.Dan Morgan, Associate Dean and Principal Senior Lecturer in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1211682019-10-07T12:39:56Z2019-10-07T12:39:56ZHow deep is the ocean?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295668/original/file-20191004-118252-14jpb8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer captures images of a newly discovered hydrothermal vent field in the western Pacific.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1605/logs/photolog/welcome.html#cbpi=/okeanos/explorations/ex1605/dailyupdates/media/june24.html">NOAA</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>How deep is the ocean?</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>Explorers started making navigation charts showing how wide the ocean was more than 500 years ago. But it’s much harder to calculate how deep it is. </p>
<p>If you wanted to measure the depth of a pool or lake, you could tie a weight to a string, lower it to the bottom, then pull it up and measure the wet part of the string. In the ocean you would need a rope thousands of feet long. </p>
<p>In 1872 the <a href="https://divediscover.whoi.edu/history-of-oceanography/the-challenger-expedition/">HMS Challenger</a>, a British Navy ship, set sail to learn about the ocean, including its depth. It carried 181 miles (291 kilometers) of rope.</p>
<p>During their four-year voyage, the Challenger crew collected samples of rocks, mud and animals from many different areas of the ocean. They also found one of the deepest zones, in the western Pacific, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/23387-mariana-trench.html">the Mariana Trench</a> which stretches for 1,580 miles (2,540 kilometers).</p>
<p>Today scientists know that on average the ocean is 2.3 miles (3.7 kilometers) deep, but many parts are much shallower or deeper. To measure depth they use sonar, which stands for Sound Navigation And Ranging. A ship sends out pulses of sound energy and measures depth based on how quickly the sound travels back. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8ijaPa-9MDs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Survey ships use multibeam sonar to measure the depth of the sea floor.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The deepest parts of the ocean are trenches – long, narrow depressions, like a trench in the ground, but much bigger. The HMS Challenger sampled one of these zones at the southern end of the Mariana Trench, which might be the deepest point in the ocean. Known as the Challenger Deep, it is 35,768 to 36,037 feet deep – almost 7 miles (11 kilometers).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UwVNkfCov1k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In the ocean’s deepest zones, many life forms have adapted to live in the dark under crushing water pressure.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ruUF3z4AAAAJ&hl=en">Ocean scientists like me</a> study the sea floor because it helps us understand how Earth functions. For example, our planet’s outer layer is made of tectonic plates – huge moving slabs of rock and sediment. The Hawaiian-Emperor Seamount chain, a line of peaks on the ocean floor, was created when a tectonic plate moved over a spot where hot rock welled up from deep inside the Earth.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295654/original/file-20191004-118228-gjgaf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295654/original/file-20191004-118228-gjgaf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295654/original/file-20191004-118228-gjgaf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295654/original/file-20191004-118228-gjgaf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295654/original/file-20191004-118228-gjgaf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295654/original/file-20191004-118228-gjgaf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295654/original/file-20191004-118228-gjgaf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295654/original/file-20191004-118228-gjgaf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Emperor Seamounts are a trail of underwater mountains in the Pacific, created when a tectonic plate moved across the Hawaii hotspot over millions of years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian%E2%80%93Emperor_seamount_chain#/media/File:Hawaii_hotspot.jpg">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When two tectonic plates move away from each other underwater, new material rises up into Earth’s crust. This process, which creates new ocean floor, is called <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/seafloor-spreading/">seafloor spreading</a>. Sometimes super-hot fluids from inside the Earth shoot up through cracks in the ocean floor called <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/feature/history-hydrothermal-vents/discovery/1979-2.html">hydrothermal vents</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295659/original/file-20191004-118239-eqehz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295659/original/file-20191004-118239-eqehz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295659/original/file-20191004-118239-eqehz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295659/original/file-20191004-118239-eqehz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295659/original/file-20191004-118239-eqehz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295659/original/file-20191004-118239-eqehz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295659/original/file-20191004-118239-eqehz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295659/original/file-20191004-118239-eqehz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spreading at a mid-ocean ridge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seafloor_spreading#/media/File:Ridge_render.jpg">NASA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Amazing fish, shellfish, tube worms and other life forms live in these zones. Between the creation and destruction of ocean plates, sediments collect on the sea floor and provide an <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-have-been-drilling-into-the-ocean-floor-for-50-years-heres-what-theyve-found-so-far-100309">archive of Earth’s history</a>, the evolution of climate and life that is available nowhere else.</p>
<hr>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suzanne OConnell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In some places, the ocean is almost 7 miles deep. Scientists exploring the ocean floor have found strange sea creatures, bizarre geologic formations and records of Earth’s history.Suzanne OConnell, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Wesleyan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1175352019-05-23T21:17:20Z2019-05-23T21:17:20ZExploration in Western Canada could hold the answer to the global helium shortage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275930/original/file-20190522-187189-kifef4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=125%2C71%2C3868%2C2592&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Helium is a vital element in several industries, and a global shortage could have devastating effects.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/future-helium-air-180972220/">The world is currently experiencing its third major helium shortage in the past 14 years</a>, putting science and industry at risk. Helium is a key gas used in industries like space exploration, health care and technology. While everyone is familiar with helium’s use in party balloons, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/not-just-party-city-why-helium-shortages-worry-scientists-researchers-n1007151">the lighter-than-air element has many more important uses</a> in semiconductor manufacturing, medical imaging and other technological applications. </p>
<p>Helium is generated deep underground by the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium over geological timescales. It gets trapped in non-porous rock formations. The only way to find helium is to drill exploration wells deep into the subsurface.</p>
<p>Scientists are facing a number of new challenges to get a reliable supply of helium for their research programs. The shortage has consistently raised helium prices; research applications like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/ac020210p">gas chromatography</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1098-2787(1997)16:5%3C227::AID-MAS1%3E3.0.CO;2-J">mass spectrometry</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/ac012435q">nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy</a> take a backseat to helium needs in health care.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275929/original/file-20190522-187185-1r5db95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275929/original/file-20190522-187185-1r5db95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275929/original/file-20190522-187185-1r5db95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275929/original/file-20190522-187185-1r5db95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275929/original/file-20190522-187185-1r5db95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275929/original/file-20190522-187185-1r5db95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275929/original/file-20190522-187185-1r5db95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275929/original/file-20190522-187185-1r5db95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A global helium shortage has affected several industries, including entertainment, health care, technology, education and research.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I am <a href="https://www.mundlelab.com/">the principal investigator for a research group</a> that has been involved with sampling and analysis of some of the recently drilled helium wells in Saskatchewan. </p>
<h2>New helium sources</h2>
<p>With no guarantee of a steady supply, the cost of helium used for research has increased over 15 per cent over the past four years when buying individual tanks of gas. At these prices, universities have been forced to ration due to a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/helium-shortages-windsor-1.5106537">lack of supply</a>, while <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/commodities/mining/who-knew-theres-a-global-helium-shortage-and-its-going-to-disrupt-more-than-balloons/wcm/f9253f98-3c72-4f26-aabf-ada07c059652">wholesale prices have risen</a> to $500 or more for bulk supply.</p>
<p>Over the past few years, a number of start-up companies have been successful in new exploration and production efforts in Western Canada. An American company opened the <a href="https://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/manufacturing/weil-group-officially-opens-12m-saskatchewan-helium-plant-173277/">first new helium production facility in Canada in 2016</a> since Canadian Helium stopped production from their plant near Swift Current, Sask., in the early 1970s.</p>
<p>Calgary-based North American Helium has also been active on the exploration front, with <a href="https://www.pipelinenews.ca/news/local-news/helium-drilling-supported-by-sask-geological-survey-1.23400758">six successful wells</a> completed as of last summer. That company has over one million acres of helium permits and leases and is preparing for the construction of its <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/north-american-helium-appoints-experienced-oil-amp-gas-industry-executive-as-new-president-amp-chief-operating-officer-879772612.html">first production plant</a>.</p>
<p>A number of companies have been bringing smaller-scale production online in the United States for the last few decades, but even with an existing discovery, <a href="https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/i30/helium-way.html">it takes years to develop a well from concept to plant</a>. With production and sales from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management helium reserve <a href="http://www.heliumscarcity.com/?p=3702">coming to an end</a>, there is a need for new North American helium production. </p>
<p>The industry has relied on discoveries made by companies exploring for oil in the 1960s, including three fields in Saskatchewan. Only recently have companies started drilling exploration wells <a href="https://medicinehatnews.com/news/local-news/2018/09/08/city-continues-exploration-of-helium/">targeting helium</a>.</p>
<h2>The Saskatchewan advantage</h2>
<p>What makes the helium resource in Western Canada so attractive is the gas composition itself, which differs from other helium resources in other parts of the world. These have high levels of carbon dioxide or methane, but the helium wells in Western Canada are associated with underground reservoirs of nitrogen gas. Because nitrogen is benign and already makes up 78 per cent of Earth’s atmosphere, these projects don’t require large pipelines for methane recovery or carbon dioxide disposal. Extracting this resource will have a much smaller environmental footprint in Canada.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275933/original/file-20190522-187143-gfxxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275933/original/file-20190522-187143-gfxxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275933/original/file-20190522-187143-gfxxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275933/original/file-20190522-187143-gfxxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275933/original/file-20190522-187143-gfxxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275933/original/file-20190522-187143-gfxxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275933/original/file-20190522-187143-gfxxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275933/original/file-20190522-187143-gfxxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Graduate student Karly Dominato on a helium drilling project in Saskatchewan in the fall of 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Mundle</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Western Canada has another huge advantage over other areas with potential for helium exploration, like central Australia or Siberia. All of the major recent historical helium discoveries in Canada, are in areas that have already seen significant oil and gas development. This means that the growing helium exploration industry can piggyback on decades of investment by oil and gas companies, such as existing seismic data and well control.</p>
<p>What is also likely contributing to higher levels of investment and activity is the proven nature of the opportunity for helium extraction and the maturity of the exploration industry. Western Canada also hosts a huge and capable oil-service sector, providing the skills, expertise and tools to get wells drilled and brought online in a timely fashion. </p>
<p>In other jurisdictions seeing interest for helium exploration, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4965540/Helium-reserve-Tanzania-TWICE-big-thought.html">such as Tanzania in East Africa</a>, whether due to financial constraints or the lack of an oil service sector, none of the companies targeting helium in East Africa have yet to successfully drill a helium production well.</p>
<p>With a nascent helium exploration and production industry reaching maturity, multiple companies active in the area, a small environmental footprint and attractive economics, Western Canada is now poised to become a leader in the future production of helium. These new explorers are well positioned to fill the supply gap.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117535/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Mundle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Renewed helium exploration in Western Canada may provide new sources to address the global shortage.Scott Mundle, Assistant Professor, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/949322018-04-13T15:11:30Z2018-04-13T15:11:30ZNASA launches satellite ‘TESS’ in hunt for exoplanets<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214766/original/file-20180413-540-1fjpthp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">TESS will soon be our eye in the sky.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Tess_6.jpg">NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Previous generations have looked up at the stars in the night sky and wondered whether they are also orbited by planets. Our generation is the first to find out the answer. We now know that nearly all stars have planets around them, and as our technology improves we keep finding more. NASA’s newest satellite, TESS <a href="https://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/">(the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)</a>, scheduled for launch on April 16, 2018, will extend the hunt for small, rocky planets around nearby, bright stars. </p>
<p>We want to know how big such planets are, what kind of orbits they have and how they formed and evolved. Do they have atmospheres, are they clear or cloudy, and what are they made of? Over the coming decades, we will find Earth-like planets at the right distance from their star for water to be liquid. It’s conceivable that one will have <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4643826/">an atmosphere containing molecules such as free oxygen</a> that indicate biological activity. TESS is a major step towards this long-term goal. </p>
<p>Planets are so faint and tiny compared to their host stars that it is remarkable we can detect them at all, let alone study their atmospheres. Yet planets can, from our viewpoint, appear to travel or “transit” across the face of their star as they orbit, blocking a small fraction of the star’s light. TESS will monitor 200,000 bright stars in the solar neighbourhood, looking for tiny dips in their brightness that reveal a transiting planet.</p>
<p>To understand the atmospheres of exoplanets, we have to examine how they interact with starlight. As a planet transits across a star, the thin smear of its atmosphere is backlit by starlight. Some wavelengths of the starlight will be absorbed by molecules in the atmosphere while other wavelengths will shine straight through. So looking at which wavelengths reach us and which don’t <a href="https://jwst.nasa.gov/origins.html">can reveal what the atmosphere is made of</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214758/original/file-20180413-540-1p5lxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214758/original/file-20180413-540-1p5lxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214758/original/file-20180413-540-1p5lxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214758/original/file-20180413-540-1p5lxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214758/original/file-20180413-540-1p5lxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214758/original/file-20180413-540-1p5lxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214758/original/file-20180413-540-1p5lxgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The spectrum of starlight passing through a planet’s atmosphere can tell us what the atmosphere is made of.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/resources/297/a-planets-transmission-spectrum/">Christine Daniloff/MIT, Julien de Wit</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such observations are right at the limit of current capabilities, requiring <a href="https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/">the James Webb Space Telescope</a> (JWST), the $8 billion successor to Hubble scheduled for launch in 2020. With a 6.5-metre-wide mirror, collecting much more light than Hubble ever could, and with specially designed instruments, JWST has been built to study exoplanet atmospheres. </p>
<p>In order to use JWST most effectively, we first need to know which stars host the best transiting exoplanets to study, and that’s why we need TESS. Its predecessor spacecraft, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html">Kepler</a>, surveyed 150,000 stars in a patch of sky near the constellation Cygnus, and found over a thousand planets ranging from gaseous giants like Jupiter to rocky planets as small as Mercury. But Kepler covered only a small patch of sky containing few stars bright enough for us to study their planets. </p>
<h2>A million stars a night</h2>
<p>In contrast, ground-based telescopes have searched wider swathes of the sky looking at many more brighter stars for transiting exoplanets. The most successful has been the UK-led <a href="https://wasp-planets.net/">Wide Angle Search for Planets</a> (WASP) project, of which I am a member. Using an array of camera lenses, WASP has spent the last decade monitoring a million stars every clear night looking for transit dips, and has found nearly 200 exoplanets, some of which have <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018arXiv180304985B">now been chosen as targets for JWST</a>.</p>
<p>But ground-based transit surveys have one big limitation: they look through Earth’s atmosphere and that severely limits the data quality. They can detect brightness dips as small as 1%, which is sufficient to find giant gaseous planets that are like our own Jupiter and Saturn. But smaller, rocky planets block out far less light. Our Earth would produce a dip of only 0.01% if seen projected against our sun. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214748/original/file-20180413-47416-10bjpbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214748/original/file-20180413-47416-10bjpbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214748/original/file-20180413-47416-10bjpbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214748/original/file-20180413-47416-10bjpbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214748/original/file-20180413-47416-10bjpbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214748/original/file-20180413-47416-10bjpbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/214748/original/file-20180413-47416-10bjpbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The JWST is currently being readied for launch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Webb_Space_Telescope.jpg">NASA/Chris Gunn</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>TESS will combine the best of both these approaches, observing bright stars over the whole sky with the advantage of doing so from space. It should find the small, rocky planets that Kepler proved are abundant but find them orbiting stars that are bright enough for us to study their atmospheres with JWST.</p>
<p>TESS will typically observe each region of sky for 30 days. This means that it will detect planets that don’t take long to orbit their stars and so will produce several transits while TESS is looking at them. Planets with short orbits are located close to their stars, meaning that most planets TESS finds will be too hot for liquid water. But planets orbiting dimmer, cooler red dwarf stars might be at the right temperature for life even if they are so close. The dwarf star <a href="http://www.trappist.one/">TRAPPIST-1</a> is 1,000 times dimmer than our sun, and is known to host seven closely orbiting planets. </p>
<p>While TESS looks for planets orbiting dwarf stars from space, the <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/unitedkingdom/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/speculoos/">SPECULOOS</a> survey will be looking at even smaller and dimmer stars from the ground. Any planets it finds will be prime targets for JWST. </p>
<p>This exploration is a step towards finding rocky planets in the habitable zone of stars like our sun. In 2026, The European Space Agency is expected to launch <a href="http://sci.esa.int/plato/">PLATO</a>, a satellite with the potential to discover rocky planets in Earth-like orbits with periods of a year. The race will then begin to find biomarker molecules, such as free oxygen, in the atmosphere of an Earth-like exoplanet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Coel Hellier receives funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. </span></em></p>How long before we find a planet just like our own?Coel Hellier, Professor of Astrophysics, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/852882017-10-06T06:10:22Z2017-10-06T06:10:22ZRevenge served cold: was Scott of the Antarctic sabotaged by his angry deputy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189088/original/file-20171006-9788-1punkc2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C28%2C1820%2C1276&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scott and his team at the geographic South Pole, January 18, 1912.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-145025754/view">National Library of Australia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On February 11, 1913, the world woke to the headline “<a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/1912/">Death of Captain Scott. Lost with four comrades. The Pole reached. Disaster on the return</a>”. A keenly anticipated, privately funded scientific venture “off the map” had turned to tragedy. </p>
<p>Previous reports had described the polar party of the British Antarctic Expedition striking out confidently just 2.5º latitude from their objective: the geographic South Pole. The journals and letters recovered from the bodies, however, told a <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220469.Scott_s_Last_Expedition">tale of heartbreak and desperation</a>: the explorers were shattered to find themselves beaten to the pole by Norwegian rival Roald Amundsen, and weakened terribly during their journey back to base. </p>
<p>Of the five men in Captain Robert F. Scott’s party, Petty Officer Edgar Evans was the first to die, while descending from the high-altitude Antarctic Plateau. Then, while searching in vain on the vast Ross Ice Shelf for the dog sleds ordered to speed their return to base, Captain Lawrence “Titus” Oates realised that his ever-slowing pace was threatening the others, and famously walked out into a blizzard with the parting words: “I am just going outside and may be some time.” </p>
<p>Pushing on with limited supplies, the remaining men (Scott, Dr Edward Wilson and Henry “Birdie” Bowers) found themselves trapped by a nine-day blizzard. All three wrote messages to friends and loved ones while waiting, until eventually their food <a href="http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/scott.htm">ran out on about March 29, 1912</a>. </p>
<h2>Why did they really die?</h2>
<p>Their deaths were put down to the fickleness of Antarctic weather, bad luck or, most controversially, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/549488.The_Last_Place_on_Earth">poor leadership on the part of Scott</a>. </p>
<p>But my new research, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/polar-record/article/why-didnt-they-ask-evans/224A49CABBF71E72B99C8C9C3B7236A4">published in the journal Polar Record</a>, has uncovered new evidence about this ill-fated journey. I have identified major contradictions in the testimony of Scott’s second-in-command, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Evans,_1st_Baron_Mountevans">Lieutenant Edward “Teddy” Evans</a>, who survived the expedition after being rejected from Scott’s party.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q_nOzJHDdhc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Was Scott scuppered by Evans?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Evans’s actions raise the possibility that he played a role in the deaths of the five men. <a href="http://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110359048">Furious at not being included in the attempt on the pole</a>, Evans was returning to base when he collapsed with scurvy. Evans was the only expedition member to develop scurvy, most probably due to his refusal to eat fresh seal meat, a known preventive measure. </p>
<p>His companions Tom Crean and William Lashly heroically saved Evans’s life, a tale made famous in no small measure by expeditioner Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s classic book on the expedition, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worst_Journey_in_the_World">The Worst Journey in the World</a>.</p>
<h2>Foul play over food?</h2>
<p>Buried in the British Library, I found a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/polar-record/article/why-didnt-they-ask-evans/224A49CABBF71E72B99C8C9C3B7236A4">crucial piece of evidence</a> about Evans’s trip back to camp. Seven pages of notes detail meetings held in April 1913 between Lord Curzon, president of the Royal Geographical Society, and Scott’s and Wilson’s widows, both of whom had read their late husbands’ diaries and correspondence. </p>
<p>According to the notes, Kathleen Scott reported that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Scott’s words in his diary on exhaustion of food & fuel in depots on his return… It appears Lieut Evans – down with Scurvy – and the 2 men with him must on return journey have entered & consumed more than their share. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Several days later, also according to the meeting notes, Oriana Wilson described how: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>…there was a passage in her husband’s diary which spoke of the “inexplicable” shortage of fuel & pemmican [sledging ration] on the return journey… This passage however she proposes to show to no one and to keep secret. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Closer examination of diary entries suggest that the food in question went missing from a depot at the southern end of the Ross Ice Shelf. Letters from the time indicate that Curzon immediately shut down the inquiry he was planning to hold. It is not unreasonable to assume that Curzon’s interpretation of events was that Evans was dangerously ill and if he had not taken the food would have also died.</p>
<p>But the account of exactly <em>when</em> Evans fell down with scurvy changed over time. Returning to civilisation in 1912, Evans <a href="http://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110359048">described in a letter</a> how he was stricken when he was 300 miles from base, a distance confirmed by media interviews from the time. </p>
<p>But by the following year, this figure had changed to 500 miles, a distance also reported in the book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220469.Scott_s_Last_Expedition">Scott’s Last Expedition</a>. This would put the onset of his sickness at the southern end of the Ross Ice Shelf, precisely where the food appears to have gone missing. </p>
<p>Unwittingly, Cherry-Garrard published a substantially embellished version of Lashly’s sledging diary in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worst_Journey_in_the_World">The Worst Journey in the World</a>, in which Evans’s sickness was shifted one week earlier to align with the public timeline. </p>
<p>Overall, the evidence strongly suggests that Evans took the cached food when he had not yet succumbed to scurvy, possibly because of his anger at having been sent back early and forced to drag his sledge with just two men. The timing of the various pieces evidence suggest that his story was later changed to fit with the idea that he took the food because he was ill.</p>
<p>Disturbingly, Scott’s order to Evans to send the dog sled teams to the southern end of the Ross Ice Shelf does not appear to have been communicated either, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/polar-record/article/why-didnt-they-ask-evans/224A49CABBF71E72B99C8C9C3B7236A4">fatally slowing the polar party’s return</a>.</p>
<p>Writing from his deathbed, Scott warned: “Teddy Evans is not to be trusted over much, though he means well.” </p>
<p>Given the evidence, this was arguably a generous statement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85288/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Turney receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is the author of 'Iced In: Ten Days Trapped on the Edge of Antarctica' (published by Citadel), 'Shackled' (Penguin Books Australia) and '1912: The Year The World Discovered Antarctica' (Text Publishing).</span></em></p>Notes unearthed from the British Library suggest that Captain Scott’s Antarctic expedition may have been fatally undermined by Lieutenant Teddy Evans, furious after being sent back to base.Christian Turney, Professor of Earth Sciences and Climate Change, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/817472017-08-13T21:11:42Z2017-08-13T21:11:42ZCows in Antarctica? How one expedition milked them for all their worth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180123/original/file-20170728-23788-waf3gx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Celebrity cows: Southern Girl and Iceberg enjoy a 'hay cocktail' at the Commodore Hotel in New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, contact for re-use</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Domestic animals are rarely associated with Antarctica. However, before non-native species (bar humans) <a href="http://www.ats.aq/e/ep_faflo.htm">were excluded</a> from the continent <a href="http://www.ats.aq/e/ep.htm">in the 1990s</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/polar-record/article/history-of-exotic-terrestrial-mammals-in-antarctic-regions/47695393F95FB8B0BB30475AD8F85054">many travelled to the far south</a>. These animals included not only the obvious sledge dogs, but also ponies, sheep, pigs, hamsters, hedgehogs and a goat. Perhaps the most curious case occurred in 1933, when US Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s second Antarctic expedition took with it three Guernsey cows. </p>
<p>The cows, named Klondike Gay Nira, Deerfoot Guernsey Maid and Foremost Southern Girl, plus a bull calf born en route, spent over a year in a working dairy on the Ross Ice Shelf. They returned home to the US in 1935 to considerable celebrity. </p>
<p>Keeping the animals healthy in Antarctica took a lot of doing – not least, hauling the materials for a barn, a huge amount of feed and a milking machine across the ocean and then the ice. What could have possessed Byrd to take cows to the icy south? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180126/original/file-20170728-23775-17kh10w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180126/original/file-20170728-23775-17kh10w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180126/original/file-20170728-23775-17kh10w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180126/original/file-20170728-23775-17kh10w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180126/original/file-20170728-23775-17kh10w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180126/original/file-20170728-23775-17kh10w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180126/original/file-20170728-23775-17kh10w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180126/original/file-20170728-23775-17kh10w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Klondike the Guernsey cow waits on the dock in Norfolk, Virginia, alongside the alfafa, beet pulp and dairy feed that would keep them alive in the far south.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">with permission of Wisconsin Historical Society, WHS-127998, contact for re-use</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The answer we suggest in our <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/665746">recently published paper</a> is multi-layered and ultimately points to Antarctica’s complex geopolitical history.</p>
<h2>Solving the “milk problem”</h2>
<p>The cows’ ostensible purpose was to solve the expedition’s so-called “milk problem”. By the 1930s, fresh milk had become such an icon of health and vigour that it was easy to claim it was needed for the expeditioners’ well-being. Just as important, however, were the symbolic associations of fresh milk with purity, wholesomeness and US national identity. </p>
<p>Powdered or malted milk could have achieved the same nutritional results. Previous expeditions, including those of Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen, had survived just fine with such products. What’s more, William Horlick of <a href="http://www.horlicks.co.uk/story.html">Horlick’s Malted Milk</a> sponsored Byrd’s second Antarctic expedition; the seaplane Byrd used was named for this benefactor. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180128/original/file-20170728-23754-14nr6cz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180128/original/file-20170728-23754-14nr6cz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180128/original/file-20170728-23754-14nr6cz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180128/original/file-20170728-23754-14nr6cz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180128/original/file-20170728-23754-14nr6cz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180128/original/file-20170728-23754-14nr6cz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180128/original/file-20170728-23754-14nr6cz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180128/original/file-20170728-23754-14nr6cz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crates of Horlick’s Malted Milk destined for Byrd’s second expedition. With its carefully placed sledge, husky and sign, the shot seems posed for publicity purposes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">with permission of Wisconsin Historical Society, WHS-23703, contact for re-use</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So if fresh milk was not actually a health requirement, and other forms were readily available, why go to the trouble of lugging three cows and their accoutrements across the ice?</p>
<h2>Maximising publicity</h2>
<p>The cows represented a first, and Byrd well knew that “firsts” in the polar regions translated into media coverage. The expedition was privately funded, and Byrd was adept at attracting media attention and hence sponsorship. His backers expected a return, whether in the form of photographs of their product on the ice or <a href="https://www.postconsumerbrands.com/brands/grape-nuts/our-story/">mentions in the regular radio updates</a> by the expedition. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180130/original/file-20170728-23792-kl3cg0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180130/original/file-20170728-23792-kl3cg0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180130/original/file-20170728-23792-kl3cg0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180130/original/file-20170728-23792-kl3cg0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180130/original/file-20170728-23792-kl3cg0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180130/original/file-20170728-23792-kl3cg0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180130/original/file-20170728-23792-kl3cg0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180130/original/file-20170728-23792-kl3cg0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1011&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Richard Byrd with Deerfoot in a publicity shot taken before departure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">with permission of Wisconsin Historical Society WHS-130655, contact for re-use</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The novelty value that the cows brought to the expedition was a valuable asset in its own right, but Byrd hedged his bets by including a pregnant cow – Klondike was due to give birth just as the expedition ship sailed across the Antarctic Circle. The calf, named “Iceberg”, was a media darling and became better known than the expeditioners themselves. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2154896X.2016.1253825">celebrity attached to the cows</a> helped the expedition remain in the headlines throughout its time in Antarctica, and they received an enthusiastic welcome upon its return. Although the unfortunate Klondike, suffering from frostbite, had to be put down mid-expedition, her companions made it home in good condition. They were feted on their return, meeting politicians in Washington, enjoying “hay cocktails” at fancy hotels, and making the front page of The New York Times.</p>
<p>It would be easy, then, to conclude that the real reason Byrd took cows south was for the publicity he knew they would generate, but his interest in the animals may also have had a more politically motivated layer.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Further reading: <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-winners-and-losers-of-antarcticas-great-thaw-80140">The winners and losers of Antarctica’s great thaw</a></em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Eyeing a territorial claim</h2>
<p>A third reason for taking cows to Antarctica relates to the geopolitics of the period and the resonances the cows had with colonial settlement. By the 1930s several nations had <a href="http://www.ats.aq/documents/publications/brochure_e.pdf">claimed sectors of Antarctica</a>. Byrd wanted the US to make its own claim, but this was not as straightforward as just planting a flag on the ice. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231971605_The_'open_door'_into_Antarctica_An_explanation_of_the_Hughes_doctrine">Hughes Doctrine</a>, a claim had to be based on settlement, not just discovery. But how do you show settlement of a continent covered in ice? In this context, symbolic gestures such as running a post office – or farming livestock – are useful. </p>
<p>Domestic animals have long been used as colonial agents, and cattle in particular were a key component of settler colonialism in frontier America. The image of the explorer-hero Byrd, descended from one of the First Families of Virginia, bringing cows to a new land and successfully farming them evoked this history. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180131/original/file-20170728-23754-6cklxk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180131/original/file-20170728-23754-6cklxk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180131/original/file-20170728-23754-6cklxk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180131/original/file-20170728-23754-6cklxk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180131/original/file-20170728-23754-6cklxk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180131/original/file-20170728-23754-6cklxk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180131/original/file-20170728-23754-6cklxk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180131/original/file-20170728-23754-6cklxk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Antarctic dairy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Guernsey Breeders Journal, November 1 1935</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The cows’ presence in Antarctica helped symbolically to turn the expedition base – not coincidentally named “Little America” – into a frontier town. While the US did not end up <a href="http://www.antarctica.gov.au/law-and-treaty/history/antarctic-territorial-claims">making a claim</a> to any sector of Antarctica, the polar dairy represented a novel way of demonstrating national interest in the frozen continent.</p>
<p>The Antarctic cows are not just a quirky story from the depths of history. As well as producing milk, they had promotional and geopolitical functions. On an ice continent, settlement is performed rather than enacted, and even Guernsey cows can be more than they first seem.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81747/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hanne Nielsen receives funding from the Australian Government Research Training Program, and undertook research for this article with assistance from a McColl Fellowship to visit the American Geographical Society Library. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Leane receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>What would possess an Antarctic expedition to take dairy cows to the icy continent? Back in 1933, Admiral Byrd did so for reasons of image-making, publicity and territorial ambition.Hanne E F Nielsen, PhD Candidate in Antarctic Representations, University of TasmaniaElizabeth Leane, Associate Professor of English and ARC Future Fellow, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/816332017-07-26T12:44:29Z2017-07-26T12:44:29ZAnthill 15: Unexplored places<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179801/original/file-20170726-30149-1q15p4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Into the unknown.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">pixabay.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In this episode of The Anthill podcast, we are off exploring. Our theme is unexplored places and we speak to academics who research remote corners of land, sea and space. </p>
<p>First, we go for a plunge into the ocean. The deep sea is often called the final frontier, a wild region we know less about than the surface of the moon. But is that really true? And what’s it actually like diving among the weird and wonderful creatures that exist thousands of metres below the waves? We speak to Jon Copley, a marine ecologist at the University of Southampton, who has <a href="https://theconversation.com/just-how-little-do-we-know-about-the-ocean-floor-32751">been to</a> some of the deepest trenches in oceans around the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Be careful what you run into in the deep ocean.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From alien-like creatures in the deep seas, we zoom to outer space and the search for life on planets far from our own. We speak to Katja Poppenhaeger, an astrophysicist at Queen’s University Belfast, on her work looking for habitable <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/exoplanets-100">exoplanets</a> in other solar systems. She explains what a planet needs in order to support life – and how scientists are looking for it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Kepler telescope shines a light into space in search of exoplanets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/208/exoplanets-2020-looking-back-to-the-future/">NASA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then we land back on Earth, but not in landscapes that most of us would be familiar with. Most of the surface of our landmass has been explored by humans, but Yani Najman, a geologist at Lancaster University, tells us what it’s like to look out over terrain that few others have seen. Her work reconstructing ancient environments by looking at modern rocks takes her to the far reaches of the Himalayas and Antarctica. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Click here to listen to <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/podcasts/the-anthill">more episodes of The Anthill</a>, on themes including <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-14-music-on-the-mind-79379">Music on the Mind</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-10-the-future-73404">The Future</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-9-when-scientists-experiment-on-themselves-71852">Self-experimentation</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The Anthill theme music is by <a href="https://www.melodyloops.com/search/How+to+Steal+a+Million+Dollars/">Alex Grey for Melody Loops</a>.
The music in the exoplanets segment is <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Parvus_Decree/Aeon_1_Aegra/01-Space_Travel">Space Travel</a> by Parvus Decree and the music in the land segment is <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Sergey_Cheremisinov/Sea__Night/Sergey_Cheremisinov_-_Sea__Night_-_05_Fragile_Ice">Fragile Ice</a> by Sergey Cheremisinov.</em></p>
<p><em>A big thanks to City University London’s Department of Journalism for letting us use their studios to record The Anthill.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81633/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In this episode of The Anthill podcast we are off exploring: land, sea and space.Will de Freitas, Environment + Energy Editor, UK editionAnnabel Bligh, Business & Economy Editor and Podcast Producer, The Conversation UKGemma Ware, Host, The Conversation Weekly PodcastPaul Keaveny, Investigations Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/674882016-11-18T03:34:53Z2016-11-18T03:34:53ZWhy there’s so much backlash to the theory that Greek art inspired China’s Terracotta Army<p>Archaeological discoveries in China rarely get noticed. Recently, though, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-37624943">mitochondrial DNA tests</a> conducted on human remains from Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province, got the attention of <a href="https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS716US716&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=terracotta+warriors+greek&tbm=nws">international media</a>. The results suggested the presence of “Westerners” in China as early as the third century B.C., during the lifetime of Qin Shui Hang (259-210 B.C.), the first emperor of China. </p>
<p>It happened just as new and startling claims were being made about Emperor Qin’s own tomb in Shaanxi Province – the tomb most famous for its buried ranks of some 8,000 life-size terracotta warrior sculptures. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-37624943">In a BBC article</a>, archaeologist <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/people/staff/honorary/li">Li Xiuzhen</a> said that the many sculptures found in and around the tomb – including the Terracotta Army, but also sculptures of musicians, dancers and acrobats – were “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/12/ancient-greeks-may-have-inspired-china-terracotta-army-sculptors-ancient-dna">inspired by ancient Greek</a> sculptures and art.” </p>
<p>The alleged “Greekness” of the Terracotta Army went viral, but archaeologists in China (and around the world) were skeptical and dismissive. Two weeks after the story broke, Zhang Weixing, head of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s Mausoleum Site Museum, <a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ikuepuwSqg8J:https://www.afp.com/en/news/717/feet-clay-foreign-forces-row-over-chinas-terracotta-warriors+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us">told the AFP</a> that there is “no substantial evidence at all” for contact between ancient Greeks and those responsible for the Qin tombs. </p>
<p>Li Xiuzhen even backtracked, protesting to <a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-10/18/c_135763397.htm">Xinhua News Agency</a>, China’s largest official state press agency, that her words had been taken out of context. “The terracotta warriors,” she clarified, “may be inspired by Western culture, but were uniquely made by the Chinese.” She also told Xinhua that her ideas had been misrepresented after being placed alongside those of art historian Luckas Nickel, who had speculated that “a Greek sculptor may have been at the site to train the locals.”</p>
<p>Why were Xiuzhen’s comments so controversial? </p>
<p>For centuries, archaeologists and art historians have been eager to see the imprint of the Greeks in works of art and architecture throughout the world. But this view rests on a Eurocentric logic which has long assumed other civilizations were fundamentally incapable of creating highly technical, impressive and aesthetically pleasing works of art. </p>
<h2>The best and only way?</h2>
<p>In the West, classical Greek art and architecture is often presented as a singular achievement. The Greeks are credited with the invention of forms and techniques that were leaps and bounds ahead of their contemporaries. One commonly cited example of the ancient Greek genius is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entasis">entasis</a> of the columns on Greek temples such as the Parthenon. Built with a slight concave curvature, they employ an architectural trick that creates an optical illusion of tall, straight columns. (Columns actually built without curvature will appear convex.)</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146449/original/image-20161117-18128-ptcnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146449/original/image-20161117-18128-ptcnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146449/original/image-20161117-18128-ptcnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146449/original/image-20161117-18128-ptcnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146449/original/image-20161117-18128-ptcnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146449/original/image-20161117-18128-ptcnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146449/original/image-20161117-18128-ptcnct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The columns of the Parthenon were built with entasis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2453/4011639737_d710ec089f_b.jpg">Konstantinos Dafalias/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Entasis actually appears in early architecture around the world. Even so, in the early 19th century, some Europeans took its presence in early Japanese temples <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=sOJX4j533JoC&pg=PA249&dq=japanese+temples+entasis+greeks&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjrz-P95PHPAhUHr1QKHebIArgQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22back%20to%20greece%22&f=false">as “proof” of the Greek influence</a> on Japanese architecture.</p>
<p>Other celebrated Asian artworks have also been attributed to the Greeks. The notion of “<a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gand/hd_gand.htm">Greco-Buddhist art</a>” was invented to explain the pleasing proportions and elegant poses <a href="https://chapmanlou.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/dsc_0771-e1362319811341.jpg">of sculptures from ancient Gandhara</a> (in modern-day Pakistan). The only way to explain their sophistication, Europeans believed, was the influence of Alexander the Great and his retinue of talented Greek artisans who had traveled to Gandhara in the latter part of the fourth century B.C. </p>
<p>Art historian Michael Falser has <a href="https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-3982468131/the-graeco-buddhist-style-of-gandhara-a-storia">recently shown</a> how the concept of Greco-Buddhist art, or Buddhist art with a Greek “essence,” is really a colonial notion that originated during British rule in India. In the West, examples of this art (represented largely by sculptures of Buddha), have since been largely interpreted as the result of Greek influence – and thus, implicitly, as an early example of successful European attempts to civilize the East.</p>
<h2>Not giving credit where credit’s due</h2>
<p>Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, explorers and anthropologists also explained exotic foreign customs through a lens of Greek traditions. They attributed an <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=orIBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA265&dq=%22ancient+Greeks,+when+they+consumed%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3spXxtq7QAhVC94MKHQ37A2oQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22ancient%20Greeks%2C%20when%20they%20consumed%22&f=false">old Chinese custom</a> of burning offerings from friends on the funeral pyre of the deceased to the Greeks. Meanwhile, they claimed <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=4vsLAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA224&dq=%22Circassians+and+those+of+the+ancient+Greeks%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2k6_zt67QAhUh4IMKHZamBJMQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22Circassians%20and%20those%20of%20the%20ancient%20Greeks%22&f=false">household organization among Circassians</a>, an ethnic group on the northeast coast of the Black Sea, was inspired by the Greeks.</p>
<p>Likewise, travelers and archaeologists often fell back on theories of direct outside influence. How else could they explain sophisticated artistic techniques and engineering genius among “primitive” societies?</p>
<p>In 1871 the German explorer Karl Mauch, on a quest to find the biblical region of Ophir, came across the ruins of the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which had flourished from roughly the 11th to 15th centuries. Certain that no African people could have ever constructed such marvelous structures, Mauch vigorously publicized Great Zimbabwe as a city built by the biblical Queen of Sheba. This, he pronounced, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/mysteries-of-great-zimbabwe.html">was her Ophir</a>, the source of the gold she sent to King Solomon (the Bible’s proverbial “gold of Ophir”) to use in the first Temple in Jerusalem.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146453/original/image-20161117-18108-6wfq9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146453/original/image-20161117-18108-6wfq9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146453/original/image-20161117-18108-6wfq9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146453/original/image-20161117-18108-6wfq9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146453/original/image-20161117-18108-6wfq9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146453/original/image-20161117-18108-6wfq9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146453/original/image-20161117-18108-6wfq9x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The ruins of Great Zimbabwe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrew_ashton/6186761723">Andrew Ashton/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>A century later, certain scholars <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/204626">came to doubt</a> that the Olmecs, whose civilization thrived in parts of Mexico and Central America 3,000 years ago, could have crafted monuments as spectacular as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec_colossal_heads">colossal stone heads of central Mexico</a>. In an ironic twist, those scholars sought to explain the sculptures by postulating pre-Columbian contact not with Greeks or biblical rulers but with Nubians and other African peoples. </p>
<h2>The costly mirage of Western influence</h2>
<p>Whenever we say the cultural achievements of other societies are due to geographically remote – but familiar – genius and inspiration, there’s a cost. </p>
<p>In the cases of the Terracotta Army and Great Zimbabwe, European scholars have struggled to understand non-European architectural and artistic achievements without resorting to the explanation of ancient Greek or biblical civilizations. That kind of thinking also projected modern European tastes onto Chinese and African antiquities. Greek statues, so coveted by museums and collectors today, must also have been what the first emperor of China wanted for his own tomb (or so the thinking goes).</p>
<p>This mirage of an ancient cultural global influence has an impact. It makes us forget the diversity of places that many look to for inspiration and validation. Erased are ideas of origins and narratives of belonging. Transcontinental traffic in the ancient world made it possible for Chinese silk to arrive in Roman Palmyra (in modern Syria). But would it make sense to explain this ancient capital as the product of ancient Chinese genius? </p>
<p>As a thought experiment, it’s worth considering one striking inversion of the familiar bias. In the summer of 1668, an Ottoman traveler from Istanbul named <a href="http://www.thebookoftravels.org/evliya-celebi">Evliya Çelebi</a> arrived in Athens. Like Mauch in Zimbabwe, Çelebi was none too impressed with the contemporary, indigenous inhabitants that he encountered, infidels with “300 houses of idol-worship.” </p>
<p>Surely Greeks could not have built such a marvelous city, Çelebi said. In his “<a href="https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=isbn:1906011443">Book of Travels</a>,” Çelebi followed the precedent set by “all the Christian and Coptic chroniclers”: he attributed the founding of Athens to the prophet Solomon and, like Mauch in Zimbabwe, to the Queen of Sheba.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For centuries, historians have assumed that ‘primitive societies’ couldn’t have possibly come up with advanced techniques on their own.Johanna Hanink, Associate Professor of Classics, Brown UniversityFelipe Rojas Silva, Assistant Professor of Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/645602016-09-01T20:12:31Z2016-09-01T20:12:31ZHuman trials on Earth are the key to how we will survive on Mars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136176/original/image-20160901-30790-1fj7gbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The HI-SEAS mission gives people a chance to practise on Earth what life would be like on Mars. A crew member here from the 2015 mission.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/uhawaii/18678776490/">Flickr/University of Hawaii/HI-SEAS</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Life on Earth has its challenges but what about life on Mars? Can humans ever survive on our neighbouring red planet, fourth from the sun?</p>
<p>To help answer that, an international crew of six people spent a year living inside a solar-powered dome on the slopes of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano. The place is starkly red-brown, dramatically rocky, barren of plant life – a lot like Mars.</p>
<p>It was the latest Earth-bound project from the HawaiI Space Exploration Analogue and Simulation (<a href="http://hi-seas.org/">HI-SEAS</a>), a NASA-funded trial of technologies, systems and people for its future Mars mission. </p>
<p>The crew – an astrobiologist, a doctor/journalist, a soil scientist, an engineer, a physicist and a habitat specialist – <a href="http://www.space.com/33881-one-year-mock-mars-mission-ends.html">emerged from the dome at the weekend</a>, pale but triumphant from their mission during which they played out an elaborate and realistic game of planetary exploration. </p>
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<h2>Life in the dome</h2>
<p>The crew spent most of their mission time working, playing and sleeping inside the 11-metre dome, all the while performing experiments, and having experiments performed on them. </p>
<p>They could leave the dome, but only in mock-up spacesuits, and never alone. They could communicate with the world by email and blogs, but the 20-minute delay imposed to represent the radio signal time delay across interplanetary distances made real-time conversation impossible. </p>
<p>They ate only canned or freeze-dried food, though they were able to supplement this with fermentation to make such delicacies as bread and cream cheese. They were allowed a total of eight minutes in the shower per week.</p>
<p>Immediately on their imaginary return to Earth, and before facing the press, the the first thing they wanted was to swim in the sea. (Hawaii is, luckily, well supplied with beaches.)</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136186/original/image-20160901-30762-19ja2a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136186/original/image-20160901-30762-19ja2a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136186/original/image-20160901-30762-19ja2a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136186/original/image-20160901-30762-19ja2a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136186/original/image-20160901-30762-19ja2a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136186/original/image-20160901-30762-19ja2a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136186/original/image-20160901-30762-19ja2a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136186/original/image-20160901-30762-19ja2a9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The dome is located in an isolated place that just looks like Mars.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/uhawaii/13313344785/in/album-72157642699539205/">Flickr/University of Hawaii/HI-SEAS</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Other missions</h2>
<p>This has not been the only, or even the longest, Mars mission simulation. HI-SEAS itself has conducted three shorter missions before. Meanwhile in 2010, an international crew in Moscow stayed <a href="http://www.imbp.ru/Mars500/Mars500-e.html">in the Mars 500 simulation</a> for 520 days.</p>
<p>Various chapters of the <a href="http://www.marssociety.org/">Mars Society</a> conduct such events every year now. </p>
<p>I did a short simulation at the <a href="http://mdrs.marssociety.org/">Mars Desert Research Station</a>, Utah, in 2003. It was a fantastic experience – a great bunch of people with a common purpose, working hard, playing hard and learning fast. At times, it was easily possible to believe you were really on Mars.</p>
<p>In September, Australians Jon Clarke and Annalea Beattie will <a href="http://www.marssociety.org.au/mars-160">join a 160-day simulation</a> at habitats in Utah and northern Canada.</p>
<p>The rationale is simple: to prepare for anything complicated, difficult or dangerous, you need to practise in conditions as close as possible to the real thing.</p>
<p>It’s why soldiers conduct war games, Olympic swimmers do endless laps in suitably sized pools and airline pilots spend hours rehearsing difficult landings in flight simulators.</p>
<p>We learn by doing, and when we cannot afford to get it wrong, we approximate in realistic pretences beforehand. In these mock events, we can try out new ideas, because failure is not so consequential.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136188/original/image-20160901-26161-jyodvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136188/original/image-20160901-26161-jyodvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136188/original/image-20160901-26161-jyodvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136188/original/image-20160901-26161-jyodvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136188/original/image-20160901-26161-jyodvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136188/original/image-20160901-26161-jyodvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136188/original/image-20160901-26161-jyodvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136188/original/image-20160901-26161-jyodvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The crew from Mission 3 after they emerged from the dome in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/uhawaii/18245844883/in/album-72157654232985399/">Flickr/University of Hawaii/HI-SEAS</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>In <a href="http://hi-seas.org/?cat=88">HI-SEAS mission 4</a>, the research was focused on human factors questions, in particular: how will a team of six people, more isolated than any in history, living in close proximity and carrying out difficult technical tasks, perform over time?</p>
<h2>Lessons learnt</h2>
<p>Some red flags had been noted in earlier missions. Russian crews on the MIR space station had sometimes become withdrawn and uncommunicative, even ceasing work altogether. Ground simulations had warned of the potential for serious cultural clashes among international crews, specifically around food and interpersonal etiquette.</p>
<p>For a space team, where the cooperation of every member is critical, such disharmony could be disastrous. Crews had also experienced a third-quarter effect, in which morale – and performance – dipped low at the 75% mark.</p>
<p>The mission 4 crew, forewarned about these problems, experimented with solutions. The full results are not written up yet, but much can be seen in the <a href="http://livefrommars.life/">crew blogs</a>.</p>
<p>To overcome depression and withdrawal, and cement crew solidarity, the <a href="http://livefrommars.life/2015/10/29/2-months-on-smars-the-best-and-the-worst-so-far/">crew danced together</a>, learnt new skills together (notably, <a href="http://livefrommars.life/2015/07/14/wanted-russian-pen-pals/">to speak Russian</a>) and took turns <a href="http://livefrommars.life/2016/02/28/halfway-home-6-months-into-simulated-mars/">creating semi-gourmet meals</a> out of the limited rations.</p>
<p>To prepare themselves for an unexpected crises, they practised getting by on <a href="http://livefrommars.life/2015/11/08/dreaming-of-blue-water-and-mars/">reduced water rations</a>. Later, when a <a href="http://livefrommars.life/2016/07/17/the-freedom-to-fail-space-simulations-and-the-future-of-our-species/">water delivery failed to arrive</a> on schedule, they were forced to draw on an old water tank that they feared had been contaminated. </p>
<p>They used their rationing experience to calculate their minimum requirements, which in turn let them improvise an evaporative purification system that supplied enough water for the six to survive until they could be resupplied.</p>
<p>Mark Watney, from the original <a href="http://www.andyweirauthor.com/books/the-martian-movie-tie-in-tr">novel</a> and following <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/">movie</a> The Martian, would have been proud.</p>
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<h2>Why Mars?</h2>
<p>Still, critics complain and ask, what’s the point of exploring Mars, anyway? We have pretty good pictures and science data already. Why spend huge amounts of money on such a venture?</p>
<p>Shouldn’t we wait until we’ve solved some of the really pressing problems that face us on Earth, the old argument goes, before sending astronauts galloping off to another planet?</p>
<p>Considering the endless capacity of humans to create problems for themselves, what this argument really amounts to is this: we should never go.</p>
<p>But there are very good reasons for learning how people can travel, live, work and play beyond the Earth. This is not a pipe dream, it’s a socioeconomic necessity. History shows the continuous and ongoing expansion of healthy human societies into new environments. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">NASA’s Curiosity is already exploring the Martian terrain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/imgs/2016/04/mars-terrain-naukluft-plateau-mount-sharp-PIA20332-full.jpg">NASA</a></span>
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<p>Staying put is not what humans tend to do, especially when resources and opportunities are limited. Increasingly, as the population (and our appetite for material things) grows, this puts us into conflict with others. </p>
<p>It’s already a limiting factor on much of what happens in human development, and is likely to be even more so in future. If we take a long view, the importance of being able to move out into the solar system in search of food, water, energy and mineral resources becomes clear.</p>
<p>To suppress an expansion away from our point of origin, or unduly delay it, is to put unbearable constraints on human life in the future, and increase the risk of ever escalating territorial disputes, closed boarders, hoarding and warfare.</p>
<h2>A history of discovery</h2>
<p>In Europe, 250 years ago, there was a red, dusty, alien environment out there on the frontier. Hostile, unknown, dangerous. Six months away on a ship, if you survived at all.</p>
<p>How could you live there? Why would you go at all? What would you do there?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136197/original/image-20160901-26179-1uuftqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136197/original/image-20160901-26179-1uuftqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136197/original/image-20160901-26179-1uuftqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136197/original/image-20160901-26179-1uuftqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136197/original/image-20160901-26179-1uuftqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136197/original/image-20160901-26179-1uuftqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136197/original/image-20160901-26179-1uuftqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136197/original/image-20160901-26179-1uuftqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Breakaways in South Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ccdoh1/228850807/">Flickr/ccdo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That was Australia. Now look at us. Can anything that those early explorers did compare in importance to us with the fact that they decided to go there and set up a colony?</p>
<p>A Mars colony would be a truly wonderful thing. A whole new branch of humanity, with its own customs, laws, science, business, music, art, dance and literature.</p>
<p>It would be an inspiration even to those who would never go. It would make some good headlines, for a change. It would be giving something positive to the future, instead of always robbing it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64560/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graham Mann receives funding from Murdoch University and the CSIRO. He is affiliated with the Mars Society Australia. </span></em></p>What’s the best way to find out how people will cope with the journey to Mars and life on another planet? Lock a test crew up for a year in a simulation right here on Earth.Graham Mann, Senior Lecturer, Murdoch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/602152016-06-01T15:00:39Z2016-06-01T15:00:39ZWhat dragonflies say about our ignorance of the natural world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124491/original/image-20160530-7700-w1bb54.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This massive dragonfly, the Swordbearer Emperor _Anax gladiator_, is named for the blade-like spike at its tail tip.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Copyright Jens Kipping</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of the 8.7 million species of animals, plants and fungi thought to live on Earth, we have only named <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21886479">1.2 million</a>: 86% of the natural world is uncharted. </p>
<p>For most people, both this incredible richness and our ignorance are hard to fathom. Imagine that each of the 6.5 million species thought to live on land – the rest is marine – had an equal share of it. Each species’ plot – also that of the human species – would cover an area only one-quarter the size of Manhattan. Expressed this way, we as humans have not just far overstepped our bounds, but mapped only the equivalent of Europe, India and China, which make up about 14% of global land surface. </p>
<p>What’s worse, the habits and status of only 80,000 species are known well enough to really assess our impact on them. Of those, <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/">29% risk extinction</a>. So, returning to the metaphor, the species that we’re actually familiar with equal only the combined area of Spain, France and Turkey. And if 29% of all species died out, that would equate to the entire New World voided of life. </p>
<p>In other words: while we’ve had an apocalyptic impact on the biosphere already, it has been charted as well today as the globe was in Columbus’s day. This matters because knowing other species can provide a moral counterweight to life’s runaway exploitation: intact biodiversity is the undeniable proof that humans can inhabit Earth without destroying it. </p>
<p>That’s why naming species is important. Names harness the power of recognition. They acknowledge the other exists. They introduce familiarity. As someone once exclaimed to me, “you don’t notice species until you know they can have a name!” </p>
<p>In an era of extinction, there are no greater priorities than to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arr2k7dwzSU">uncover our millions of cohabitants</a> and to <a href="http://jrsbiodiversity.org/grant/stellenbosch_dragonflies/">share our knowledge</a> of these species. This can be done through research, <a href="https://freshwaterblog.net/2015/06/01/discovering-the-dragonflies-and-damselflies-of-eastern-africa/">books</a>, websites, Red Lists of threatened species, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/africanfreshwater">field courses</a>, teaching materials and other media. But while every human relies on this knowledge, even if only by reaping the benefits of agriculture and medicine, few see its advance as their primary responsibility.</p>
<p>Few animals can raise that moral awareness of biodiversity better than dragonflies, literally rising from healthy freshwaters in colour and splendour.</p>
<h2>Breaking the anonymity trap</h2>
<p>Most of what is unknown is not just unseen, but not even being looked for.</p>
<p>There are 6,000 named dragonfly and damselfly species worldwide. These charismatic aquatic insects are regarded as well-known. But last December we published <a href="https://science.naturalis.nl/media/medialibrary/2015/12/60NewDragonflies_fullsize2.pdf">60 new species</a> in one article. This added one species to every 12 known ones in Africa. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124481/original/image-20160530-7722-39d5bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Known from only one site near Cape Town, the endangered damselfly <em>Spesbona angusta</em> needs all the ‘Good Hope’ (<em>Spes Bona</em> in Latin) it can get.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Copyright Jens Kipping</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course these species existed already, but were not noticed and documented before. Most unknown species may seem indistinct or concealed, requiring meticulous lab-work to uncover, but the 60 were found in accessible places all over Africa and are often recognisable even from a photo.</p>
<p>This May, English nature broadcaster Sir David Attenborough was given a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMDnPUXTcdc&feature=youtu.be">new dragonfly species</a> from Madagascar for his 90th birthday. In the <a href="http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.19870!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/533172a.pdf">scientific journal <em>Nature</em></a> I explain that both the dragonfly and Attenborough’s legacy stand for a selfless and unconditional love of nature.</p>
<p>I am often asked what the “use” of dragonflies is. They are not studied because they are not proxies of human psyche and society like ants and apes. They are not feared and persecuted like mosquitoes and snakes. They do not feed people like fish, nor pollinate crops like bees.</p>
<p>Rather, the beauty and sensitivity of these creatures – and so many others – stand for the state and needs of nature before our own. Like the instant sense of insignificance when counting stars, biodiversity stretches our perspective on life. Each species is a world parallel to our own, evoking a sense of being among equals.</p>
<h2>What’s in a name</h2>
<p>If species embody sustainability and names give them faces, those tags best be memorable. The sparklewing damselfly <em>Umma gumma</em>, named for the rock band Pink Floyd’s album “<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/ummagumma-mw0000191310">Ummagumma</a>” (slang for making love), is <a href="http://www.esf.edu/top10/">a special favourite.</a> The longleg dragonflies <em>Notogomphus kimpavita</em> and <em>N. gorilla</em> were named for the patron saint and conservation flagship of their Angolan and Ugandan regions respectively.</p>
<p>But who is out discovering species and introducing them to mankind? Nature is held hostage by humanity’s growing demands and so conservationists barely have time to find out who they really work for. Environmental consultancy is captive to the market. Many biologists have retreated into the lab. Without funds for discovery and disclosure, even natural history museums are giving up.</p>
<p>Only nine of our 60 new dragonflies were found while one of us worked for a university or museum. The other 33 were found while doing consultancy and 18 were found by a teacher. Much of the best biodiversity research and outreach now comes from devoted amateurs and academics working in their free time, showing how close biodiversity is to the human heart.</p>
<p>In a society governed by money, charity is what we do for others for free. But just as we cannot expect volunteers to protect the environment or eradicate poverty alone, we cannot continue life’s elementary and enlightening exploration without support. Nature needs more explorers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60215/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra receives funding from the JRS Biodiversity Foundation, USA.</span></em></p>There are 6,000 named dragonfly species worldwide but recently 60 new species were found showing how much more we can learn.Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra, Honorary research associate Naturalis Biodiversity Center and, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/480692015-10-27T10:09:45Z2015-10-27T10:09:45ZThe modern, molecular hunt for the world’s biodiversity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99386/original/image-20151022-8010-1quj9ei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New forms of life are discovered in high-tech ways that leave yesterday's natural history collections in the dust.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=114480370&src=id">Detective image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The news is full of announcements about newly discovered forms of life. This fall, we learned of a <a href="http://phys.org/news/2015-09-frankenvirus-emerges-siberia-frozen-wasteland.html">30,000-year-old giant virus</a> found in frozen Siberia. Until now, known viruses have contained so little genetic information that people have questioned whether they can even be thought of as living. But giant viruses like this one contain as much information as many bacteria, which are certainly alive, and are so big they can be seen with an ordinary microscope. </p>
<p>Earlier this year, we heard that deep in the ocean, by the boiling hot sulfurous vent called Loki’s Castle after the Norse god, a species called <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32610177">Lokiarchaeota</a> was discovered. It uniquely straddles the three <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/alllife/threedomains.html">domains of life</a>: Eukaryota, including animals and plants; Bacteria; and Archaea, a domain that includes species pumping out methane in your gut right now.</p>
<p>Not only are new life forms being discovered, but so are entirely new ways of living. In the last week we learned of rich communities of bacteria that <a href="http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/biologists_discover_bacteria_communicate_like_neurons_in_the_brain">communicate</a> with each other electrically, in the same ways as the neurons in our brain.</p>
<p>The way researchers made these three discoveries illustrates how much the modern study of biodiversity has changed in the last 200 years. Instead of visiting pleasantly warm places with binoculars and a butterfly net, we now look for life in places we never would have before, and we use the same molecular techniques that help catch criminals. </p>
<h2>To boldly go…</h2>
<p>Traditionally, the study of biodiversity was carried out by gentlemen such as <a href="http://www.aboutdarwin.com/timeline/time_04.html">Charles Darwin</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/banks_sir_joseph.shtml">Joseph Banks</a>, sailing the high seas of global empires and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-still-collect-butterflies-41485">sending back specimens</a> to be stored in drawers of museums of natural history.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99693/original/image-20151026-18443-198c5dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99693/original/image-20151026-18443-198c5dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99693/original/image-20151026-18443-198c5dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99693/original/image-20151026-18443-198c5dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99693/original/image-20151026-18443-198c5dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99693/original/image-20151026-18443-198c5dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99693/original/image-20151026-18443-198c5dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99693/original/image-20151026-18443-198c5dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alvin made discoveries of life at depths that had never been visited before.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/nur07508.htm">OAR/National Undersea Research Program (NURP); Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For this kind of exploration, out of sight was truly out of mind. Until 1977, we had no idea the ocean floor was home to life at all, never mind rich communities including Lokiarchaeota. They were first discovered by the submersible <a href="http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/subs/alvin/alvin.html">Alvin</a> – which wasn’t even looking for life. Its <a href="http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/ventcd/vent_discovery/">original mission</a> was to study the ocean floor looking for evidence of plate tectonics. As well as finding evidence that the sea floors are spreading, Alvin <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/life-in-the-abyss.html">sent back images</a> of a rich new ecosystem of completely <a href="http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-videos/hydrothermal-vent-creatures">unknown species</a> fueled entirely by chemical energy, instead of solar energy like all other ecosystems previously known.</p>
<p>A fact we now take for granted is that <a href="http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=462">wherever</a> we look for life, we find it, including concentrated acids, fluids as corrosive as floor stripper, in <a href="http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/living-large-in-microscopic-nooks">rock</a> and kilometers beneath the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-lies-beneath-evidence-of-life-under-the-antarctic-ice-18210">Antarctic ice sheet</a>. It can even <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/eu_tef/#.VgageflVikp">survive</a> in outer space (though of course we haven’t identified any non-Earth-originated life – yet).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99696/original/image-20151026-18458-14e4ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99696/original/image-20151026-18458-14e4ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99696/original/image-20151026-18458-14e4ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99696/original/image-20151026-18458-14e4ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99696/original/image-20151026-18458-14e4ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99696/original/image-20151026-18458-14e4ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99696/original/image-20151026-18458-14e4ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99696/original/image-20151026-18458-14e4ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Comparative DNA profiles of 14 people, obtained via PCR.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wellcomeimages/15531328629">Wellcome Images</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Genetic fingerprints</h2>
<p>But what’s amazing about the discovery of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/science/under-the-sea-a-missing-link-in-the-evolution-of-complex-cells.html?_r=0">Lokiarchaeota</a> is that no one has ever actually <em>seen</em> it. Everything we know about it is discovered by the new field of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3351745/">metagenomics</a>, which allows us to extract fragments of DNA from the environment, read the sequence information and study it with computational techniques.</p>
<p>The starting point for metagenomic research can be anything, including feces, in the case of the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/109/2/594.full">human microbiome</a>, or a sample of ocean sediment, in case of Lokiarcheota. Ultimately these genetic profiles are known to us only as an electronic string of 1’s and 0’s in computer memory and described to us by mathematical algorithms. </p>
<p>Such molecular and computer technologies are also how modern detectives “use DNA” to catch murderers. </p>
<p>First, we find some DNA in the environment that may be of interest to us, by fishing for it with molecular probes called <a href="http://www.nature.com/scitable/definition/primer-305">primers</a>. Then we can use the Polymerase Chain Reaction (<a href="https://youtu.be/2KoLnIwoZKU">PCR</a>) to make a huge number of copies of the DNA of interest. That allows machines to read the genetic information it contains directly into computer databases. </p>
<p>These digital databases are where biodiversity information is now stored. They’re replacing the dusty drawers of natural history museums, filled with corpses of specimens collected over the centuries.</p>
<h2>Is the concept of species itself endangered?</h2>
<p>Anyone who watches crime shows knows well the detective value of such databases in identifying criminals by allowing the comparison of enormous quantities of information.</p>
<p>It’s the same for biodiversity study. For example, a <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1000564">new species of elephant</a> was recently discovered using these techniques to analyze and compare the DNA of living elephants and even DNA extracted from museum specimens of the extinct mammoth. We now know that African elephants that live in the forests are as genetically different from those on the savanna as humans are from chimpanzees. </p>
<p><em>Eschericia coli</em> – perhaps the most famous microbial species of all – provides an example of how the idea of “species” itself is on its way to extinction. Look at one genome of <em>E coli</em> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2974192/">you will find</a> that more than half the genes may or may not be found in some other <em>E coli</em>. Looking at the sequences, many isolates of the food-poisoning bacteria <em>Shigella</em> look more like <em>E coli</em> and vice versa.</p>
<p>So these days questions of molecular diversity arise, not questions about species number. How and why does gene content change, not just in microbes like <em>E coli</em> but in us as well: we have about 20,000 genes and have recently discovered that at least 200 of them may be <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/human-genome-study-reveals-certain-genes-are-less-essential-than-previously-thought-a6674001.html">dispensable</a>, given that perfectly healthy people do not have them at all.</p>
<p>How promiscuous is life with its genetic information? We have seen <a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/23469/title/Virus-may-aid-photosynthesis/">viruses borrowing cassettes </a> of photosynthetic information from their hosts. How does our genetic diversity interact with that of the rich ecosystem living in our <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3667473/">gut</a> with its impacts on human health? One entire domain of life, the Archaea, has not a single example of a “species” causing disease in <em>anything</em> – <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/archaea-are-more-wonderful-than-you-know/">why</a>? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99695/original/image-20151026-18458-1t808dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99695/original/image-20151026-18458-1t808dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99695/original/image-20151026-18458-1t808dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99695/original/image-20151026-18458-1t808dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99695/original/image-20151026-18458-1t808dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99695/original/image-20151026-18458-1t808dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99695/original/image-20151026-18458-1t808dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/99695/original/image-20151026-18458-1t808dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Not a butterfly net in sight in the modern biodiversity lab.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/qiagen/7690578078">QIAGEN</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What do we gain by studying biodiversity?</h2>
<p>We study biodiversity for two reasons that go hand in hand. First, of course, we value scientific knowledge for its own sake. </p>
<p>Remarkable discoveries in pure knowledge abound. We now know that an organism discovered so recently that most people have still never heard of it, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/tiny-ocean-organism-brought-earth-life/">Prochlorococcus</a>, produces 20% of the world’s oxygen. That’s one in every five breaths you take! The research spotlight has recently focused on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/gut-bacteria">biodiversity of your gut</a>, an ecosystem at least as complex and interesting as the tropical forest.</p>
<p>Secondly, this knowledge lets us lay claim to the natural world and exploit our knowledge of it. The European study of biodiversity has long had <a href="http://www.britishempire.co.uk/science/agriculture/plantimperialism.htm">imperial</a> motivations. Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark expedition to further America’s Manifest Destiny but ensured it had a pure <a href="http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/lewisandclark/encounters.htm">biodiversity research</a> component as well: <a href="http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/HTML/articles/2006/lcbotany.htm">Jefferson’s interest</a> in botany and its applications was well-known. </p>
<p>People have a long history of exploiting the knowledge that comes from basic research. For instance, the molecular detective work that identified <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/health/07nobel.html?oref=slogin&_r=0">HIV as the cause of AIDS</a> has enabled us to turn a dreadful fatal disease into a chronic, manageable affliction. The commercial potential in Archaea is famous and almost unbelievable, as <a href="http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/microbe-matters/a_microbepowered_battery">batteries</a> or <a href="http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/84/20130197#sec-4">optical computer memory</a>, for example.</p>
<p>New forms of life continue to turn up. Most viruses, like HIV and influenza, have about 10 genes. Giant viruses, only discovered in the last decade, have over 1,000, the same order of magnitude as Prochlorococcus. The huge <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130718-viruses-pandoraviruses-science-biology-evolution/">Pandoravirus</a> is full of genes that are unlike anything known – hence the name – prompting the question whether they’re a fourth domain of life.</p>
<p>As the hunt for biodiversity gets ever more technical and specific, get ready for a continuing stream of radical new discoveries. As Hamlet said: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Nee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Forget the pith helmet and butterfly net. Discovering biodiversity now is much more about metagenomics and the 0’s and 1’s of digital databases.Sean Nee, Research Professor of Ecosystem Science and Management, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.