#01 KALAHARI AND THE !KUNG

+ "Twice as big as California and, in places, three times as dry, the Kalahari is a red, scorched scar that yawns across Botswana and Namibia. It’s a brutal place. For nine months a year, the sun tortures the earth. There are no clouds and, with the exception of great scraggly baobabs, no tall trees that provide shade." Despite the inhospitable conditions, a hunter-gatherer tribe called the !Kung (the ! indicates a tongue-click) inhabits the region. Intensive field study of the group over decades has led to the popular view that humanity progressed from egalitarian hunter-gatherer bands wired for small groups and sharing, to societies with inequality, class, war, and property after the birth of agriculture. As it turns out, the truth is much more complicated.   

#02 ANOTHER MAN'S TREASURE

+ "Fewer places are less welcoming than a garbage dump on a frigid night. But that’s where paleontologist Josep Robles found himself in December 2019, on the hunt for clues to human evolutionary history." Digs in the Abocador de Can Mata landfill are monitored by fossil-spotting paleontologists to ensure the crews aren't crunching through valuable fossils or other remnants. Often the monitoring doesn't lead to much, but this time it would be different. "'The three of us, very nervous—we were barely speaking—turned it up,' he says. 'And there was the face of Pierolapithecus [a precursor to the ape] looking up at us. It was one of the biggest moments in my life.'" As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure!

#03 DEEP SEA

+ It blows my mind that just 30 miles off the coast of Point Sur in central California, there is a lush underwater oasis the size of Manhattan that wasn't discovered until intense mapping efforts in 2013. More recently, scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Research Institute have performed increasingly sensitive surveys of the area, culminating with autonomous mapping missions capable of centimeter-scale resolution. "These maps are critical for helping scientists better understand geologic processes... and to monitor ocean health", and they also look cool! The institute has partnered with a Hollywood animation studio to bring the study to life for a broader audience. "Our goal was to distill these two decades of work into a two-minute animation that captures the majesty of this underwater world that so few people get to see.” 

+ And while we're on the sea, how about an ocean of books?

#04 TO THE MOON

+ Have you ever wanted to go to the moon? Well, now you can! That is if you can convince Japanese entrepreneur Yusaka Maeszawa to take you with him. Maezawa purchased all the seats on the still-in-development SpaceX Starship mega-rocket for a flight around the moon as soon as 2023 (spoiler alert: if history serves as a guide it won't be nearly that soon). Anyway, it's time to break out that old watercolor set, Maezawa intends to offer the seats to artists and storytellers who can bring the experience of space to those of us stuck on Earth.

+ And that still-in-development rocket? SpaceX did another prototype test last week which successfully launched, reached an altitude of 6.3 miles, landed, and then exploded in a massive conflagration about 8 minutes later. So close...

#05 AND MARS

+ NASA's Perseverance rover is officially roving. The vehicle has successfully transitioned to a surface software version, used its robot arm, and made a short drive all in the last week or so. You can follow along with the rover's location in near real-time using this handy mapping tool. And if you haven't watched the video from Perseverance's harrowing descent through the Martian atmosphere, definitely do that!

+ Curiosity is still hard at work too over in ale Crater! We just parked the rover next to a 20-foot tall cliff that the scientists are very excited about due to all the geologic history accessible in the rock face. Stratigraphy is the word of the day! Here's a T-Rex for scale. 

#06 ANIMAL FARM

+ A protected marine zone in Italy has been so successful in restoring habitat that fishermen are now asking the government to increase its size due to the significant increase in size and abundance of fish available for harvest, proving that wildlife protection and industrial output are not mutually exclusive.

+ Europe's largest land mammal is no longer considered vulnerable thanks to long-term conservation efforts.

+ Research suggests that a cuttlefish may be able to exercise delayed gratification after it passed a variation of the infamous marshmallow test, once again showing that animal intelligence is not just reserved for primates.

+ The oldest known wild bird, a 70-year-old albatross delightfully named Wisdom, hatched yet another chick during her distinguished and long-lived career.

#07 A GOOD BOOK

This week's book recommendation once again comes from my wonderful fiance Kirsten H., a librarian passionate about children's and young adult literature. 

+ In a world full of anthropomorphized animals in children’s media, Honeybee stands out for its dedication to scientific accuracy. Candace Fleming is well-known for her nonfiction literature for children and here she explores the lifecycle of a single honeybee named Apis. Illustrated by Eric Rohmann, you may not have known that you needed to see a highly realistic illustration of a honeybee the size of a small cat, but you very much do. In lesser hands, the absolute refusal to make bees cute, either in text or illustration, would render this book cold and yet Apis is an incredibly sympathetic protagonist. Readers follow Apis from her emergence from “the wax cap of her solitary cell” through her many different jobs in the hive, to her death at thirty-five days old. By following a single bee Fleming illustrates the workings of a hive while building a beautiful, even poetic, narrative for readers to follow. Suitable for readers of all ages, give this book to budding naturalists, insect enthusiasts, or even those who are nervous around bees. But be warned: young readers may become interested in beekeeping. 

That's all for this week! You can respond to this email to tell me about anything you liked or didn't like, tell me about a project you're working on, or suggest a story. You might also forward this email to a friend so they can subscribe too!

- Evan Hilgemann

This newsletter was produced as a private venture and not in the author's capacity as an employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology or of Griffith Observatory. Any views and opinions expressed herein or on exploreandobserve.com are his own and not those of his employers.

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