Underground Sound We have a tendency to focus on the visual appeals of the natural universe, as they translate well to the publishing medium. However, those who venture into the wild portions of our planet realize we savor the universe with all our able senses. Often, sound, smell, feel, and, especially, taste, are relegated to second-class […]
Elle Capitan I have been all over the world and have had the fortune of doing things with many special people, some famous, some anonymous. But the biggest little hero I’ve ever known is Lynn Hill. The rest of us are just holding her rope. — John Long As the endeavors of sport climbing and big
Tennessee Warblers The ranges of certain migratory birds are impressively wondrous. Some passerines – the perching birds – are tiny dynamos. The Tennessee warbler, for example, weighs an average of 10 grams (0.35 ounces). While this diminutive stature might make flight easy, the metabolic rates of birds are astronomically high. Somehow, a creature that weighs a
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Shinrin-yoku The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. — John Muir Many of us inherently sense the benefits of the woods. A few of our patron thinkers – Thoreau and Muir, amongst others – tied their lives to the notion that humans should not be separated from the wilderness. For
Man of the Hole South America’s Amazon Rainforest is, in many ways, the heart of our planet. The eponymous river drains more water than the next seven-largest waterways, approximately 20% of Earth’s total. The rainforest is the largest and most diverse in the world. Of all the plant and animal species extant, one in 10 lives
Via Ferrata It’s no great secret around these parts that we are immense orophiles. Many ways exist to love mountains. We can revel in the glory of their jags and fractals or eye-inhale distant snowy caps. We can travel to their bases to crane our necks at their rises or gaze at the trees and
Eros Millions of asteroids orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter, a band known as the asteroid belt. Most of these bodies circle our star peacefully, chugging around the solar system year after year, without incident. Not all asteroids reside in the belt, however. Some of these rocks hurtle around the sun in orbits that
Ceres [Editor’s Note: This article is the second in a series exploring real locations featured in a novel and television series, called The Expanse. In this sci-fi epic set in the 2300s, Earth and Mars have become independent “nations,” while millions of humans inhabit the asteroid belt, where they mine lucrative resources for the Inner
The Belt [Editor’s Note: This article is the first in a series exploring real locations featured in a novel and television series, called The Expanse. In this sci-fi epic set in the 2300s, Earth and Mars have become independent “nations,” while millions of humans inhabit the asteroid belt, where they mine lucrative resources for
Animal Foley Many of our favorite movies are filled with highly unrealistic aspects. For example, nearly every explosion or medical scene is exaggerated or flat-out impossible. Confoundingly, one aspect of filmmaking that is inherently artificial goes a long way toward the brain’s ability to suspend disbelief. One element has kept our eyes and ears in