The Sami Speedster On 27 July 2023, Kristin Harila and Tenjin Sherpa stood atop K2, the world’s second-highest peak. By itself, this summit represents a world-class achievement; significantly fewer than 1,000 people have ever occupied this location. For Harila and Tenjin, however, success on the Savage Mountain represented something even more stunning. In 2019, Nirmal Purja …
500 Days in Timecave “I said: ‘Already? Surely not.’ I hadn’t finished my book.” –Beatriz Flamini On 21 November 2021, mountaineer and endurance athlete Beatriz Flamini descended into a Spanish cave. Russia had not invaded Ukraine. Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t dead. The James Webb Space Telescope had not yet probed the cosmos. When Flamini emerged from the cave …
Apgar When a baby joins our planet today, doctors or nurses evaluate them at one minute old and again at five minutes old, using a system called the Apgar Score. Five attributes each receive a score of 0-2, making the overall score a range between 0 and 10. If you have a child in modern times, …
Wanda Risen “I don’t seek death, but I don’t mind if it happens in the mountains. It would be an easy death for me. Many of my friends are waiting for me in the mountains.” –Wanda Rutkiewicz Many alpine historians consider a slight Polish climber to be the greatest woman mountaineer ever born. Standing just 5 feet, …
The Sun Queen It is the things supposed to be impossible that interest me. I like to do things they say cannot be done. — Mária Telkes Aladar Telkes and Maria Laban de Telkes welcomed a daughter to the world on 12 December 1900 in Budapest, at the time part of Austria-Hungary. The Telkes did …
Code Girls written by Alan R. In the years leading up to and during World War II, increasing usage of radio and telegraphic transmissions to send secret communications necessitated the need for ciphers to disseminate sensitive information, such as military planning and operations. As the ability of one force to crack the enemy’s codes …
The Countess of Lovelace The Hallowed Halls of Woman Crush Wednesday today garner a new occupant, in the form of one of history’s intriguing confluences of art and science. Few genealogies intersect in a more intriguing way than that of Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician revered by computer programmers. Born on 10 December 1815 in …
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 …
Mustang Sally On 26 May 1951, in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles, a political science professor and a counselor welcomed a daughter to their family. Dale and Carol likely had high hopes for their child, but they probably had no idea they had just birthed the most fittingly-named astronautic superstar in history: Sally Ride. Despite …
The Relativity Engine “Oh, no! I was wondering who the third one might be!” –Arthur Eddington Amalie Noether, born 23 March 1882 in Erlangen, Germany, was named for her mother and grandmother, but soon insisted on adopting her middle name for everyday usage. Max Noether, Emmy’s father, was an esteemed mathematician, sometimes credited as one …