Worst Wednesdays: Floating with Killers

The first journey the men embarked on was called the Depot Journey, begun in summer 1910-1911 as soon as the Terra Nova had been unloaded and the hut built. Here they found out what they were up against.
They sledged with dogs and ponies 150 miles along the Ross Ice Shelf to set up a [...]

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Worst Wednesdays: Adelies

The birder in me wriggles with envy at the thought of Cherry and the rest of the Terra Nova crew surrounded by teeming hordes of Adelie penguins. They rule Antarctica at least in terms of numbers: sheer, mind-boggling hundreds of thousands. I’m sure once the physics is worked out, we’ll find that this fantastic [...]

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A Few Last Clicks Before the Cicadas Cut Off Your Access

A few things I’ve been mulling over in between deciding I don’t have enough time to post:
First up is attack of the cicadas. Those are the cool spaceship-looking bugs that reach dizzying numbers every so many years and then make a deafening racket. This season is supposed to be a big one in Japan [...]

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Worst Wednesdays: Science a Century Ago

One of the hardest parts for me to grasp in this whole story is the status quo. This was an expedition without plastic of any kind. Without fleece, without Gore-Tex, without Velcro, without lexan, kevlar, mylar, or spectra. Without zippers, even. There was no gasoline. Cherry relished the chance to cook with clean-burning kerosene – [...]

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