Table of contents for Fall 2024 in The Explorers Journal

Ask any explorer what led them down their path of adventure and discovery and you will likely find that there was a singular moment in their childhood when a spark was lit. Perhaps they bore witness to an extraordinary human achievement, such as the first lunar landing, which inspired so many of us to go into engineering, astronomy, and space exploration; or they delighted being in the great outdoors—collecting insects in the woods or shells along the seashore—which led them to pursue a career in conservation or the environmental sciences. At our core, we believe supporting the next generation of explorers is integral to our mission, which is why, in the spring of 2016, we launched our Explorers Cubs program aimed at children between the ages of five and 10.…

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE UNIVERSE BY NATHALIE A. CABROL 320 PP • NEW YORK: SCRIBNER, 2024 • ISBN-10: 1668046687 • ISBN-13: 978-1668046685 • $30 The Secret Life of the Universe, penned by French-American explorer, astrobiologist, and director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, Nathalie Cabrol, is both an immediate and accessible treatise on what is known of our universe and a philosophical assessment of that knowledge. The challenge to looking for life in the universe, she says, isthat“wearelifeitself trying to understand itself and its origin.” She says we are now on “the most remarkable journey humanity ever undertook, searching for our origins and a cosmic echo that will finally tell us one day that we are not alone.” Cabrol begins her narrative with a quest to understand…

It is hard to believe that it has been a half century since Donald C. Johanson, then a freshly minted paleontologist, unearthed the fossilized remains of a 3.2-million-year-old hominin of the species Australopithecus afarensis at a locality known as Hadar in Ethiopia’s Afar region. Designated AL 288-1 by Johanson and his team, the world would come to know this ancient female human ancestor as “Lucy.” That discovery would revolutionize the field of paleoanthropology and radically alter our notions of human evolution, as Lucy and her kind had clearly adopted bipedal locomotion before more advanced brain development, which had previously been presumed to have been a prerequisite. This edition, Johanson’s longtime supporter and biographer, Carol Saucier, caught up with the man to talk fossils, the human career, the increasing role of…

I will never forget that cold February night more than two decades ago when I first heard Wade Davis speak at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC, where I had been working as a cartographer. His voice resonated through the room as he weaved together narratives of distant cultures and their deep connections to the natural world. The stories he shared that evening touched on themes that would come to define my own work—how culture and environment are not merely linked but intricately intertwined, each shaping and reshaping the other in subtle yet profound ways. I recently caught up with Davis, a fellow of The Explorers Club since 1987 and the recipient of its highest honor, The Explorers Club Medal in 2011, for a spirited discussion about the importance…

THE EXPLORERS CLUB 46 EAST 70TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10021 WWW.EXPLORERS.ORG | 212-628-8383 AFRICA Francois Malherbe africa@explorers.org ALASKA Mead Treadwell alaska@explorers.org ATLANTA Mark Hay atlanta@explorers.org AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND Todd Tai anzec@explorers.org BHUTAN Matthew DeSantis bhutan@explorers.org CANADA Jett Britnell canada@explorers.org CHICAGO/GREAT LAKES Deana Weibel, PhD chicago@explorers.org CONTINENTAL EUROPE Ief Winckelmans continentaleurope@explorers.org EAST & SOUTH ASIA Steven R. Schwankert eastandsouthasia@explorers.org FLORIDA Joseph Dituri, PhD florida@explorers.org GEORGE ROGERS CLARK Cindy Pennington georgerogersclark@explorers.org GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND Mark Wood greatbritainireland@explorers.org Rory Golden, Vice Chair greatbritainireland@explorers.org GREATER PIEDMONT James Borton greaterpiedmont@explorers.org HAWAII Mark Blackburn hawaii@explorers.org HONG KONG Angélica Anglés hongkong@explorers.org LATIN AMERICA Cristián Pérez-Navarro latam@explorers.org MIDDLE EAST Aron Arngrîmsson middleeast@explorers.org NEW ENGLAND Gregory Deyermenjian newengland@explorers.org NORTH PACIFIC ALASKA Joshua C. Lewis & Victoria M. Becwar-Lewis northpacificalaska@explorers.org NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Jimmy Friedman northerncalifornia@explorers.org NORWAY Synnøve…

JC: Did you reach your research objectives? JI: We achieved them all: high apogee, EVA, Starlink communication, and about 40 science and research experiments where we at least gathered a single data point. We were also testing early versions of a new-generation EVA suit designed for affordability and scalable production. If SpaceX reaches Mars, there will be a need for thousands of EVA suits. I’m confident that the ones we have developed and tested will be used on the Red Planet. JC: When you were exposed to the vacuum of space 740 kilometers up in the new suit, were you at all apprehensive? JI: We took our EVA suits into a historic NASA vacuum chamber as part of the acceptance test procedure. This was a crucial test for the suit…

EXPLORERS CLUB FLAG Nº64 SINCE EXPLORERS CLUB FLAG Nº 64 WAS FIRST CARRIED INTO THE FIELD BY CLYDE FISHER ON THE 1935 HARVARD-MIT SIBERIAN ECLIPSE EXPEDITION, THIS ESTIMABLE BANNER HAS BEEN CARRIED ON NEARLY A DOZEN EXPEDITIONS, INCLUDING A QUARTET OF AR-CHAEOLOGICAL SITES—IN MEXICO, AUSTRALIA, AND IRIAN JAYA. In the steep hills and sun-soaked landscapes of Portugal’s Algarve region, a team of scientists embarked on a quest to uncover secrets buried for over 200 million years. I led that expedition, which is shedding light on a pivotal era in Earth’s history—the Late Triassic period, when the ancestors of mammals and dinosaurs began to emerge some 237 to 201 million years ago. A crucible of evolutionary innovation, it set the stage for the rise of dinosaurs and mammals, shaping the terrestrial…

chicken of the woods and dumplings SERVES 4-6 FOR FORAGERS, FALL BRINGS AN ABUNDANCE OF ARBOREAL DELIGHTS IF YOU KNOW JUST WHERE TO LOOK—IN THIS CASE, THE TRUNKS OF MATURE OR FALLEN HARDWOOD TREES SUCH AS OAKS, POPLARS, AND FIRS GROWING IN OUR TEMPERATE FORESTS. THESE HOST THE WONDERFUL EDIBLE FUNGUS LAETIPORUS SULPHUREUS, BETTER KNOWN AS CHICKEN OF THE WOODS, A MYCOLOGICAL GEM THAT HAS NO POISONOUS LOOKALIKES. HERE IS OUR PLAY ON A SOUTHERN CLASSIC, CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS. AND, AS YOU MIGHT HAVE GUESSED, WE HAVE REPLACED CHICKEN WITH CHICKEN OF THE WOODS TO MAKE AN AMAZING STEW. INGREDIENTS: For the mushroom stew: 2 tbsp olive oil2 tbsp all-purpose flour6 cups vegetable stock1 lb chicken of the woods mushrooms, cleaned and cut into bite-sized pieces2 tbsp of olive oil…

Mark R. Allio • John G. Alexander • Alan B. Albright • Robert J. Atwater • Capt. Norman L. Baker* • Barbara Ballard • Robert D. Ballard, PhD • Samuel B. Ballen* • Mark Gregory Bayuk • Daniel A. Bennett • Josh Bernstein • Bruce Blanchard • John R. Bockstoce, DPhil • Jack Aaron Boggs* • Bjorn G. Bolstad* • Capt. Bruce M. Bongar, PhD • Brian M. Boom, PhD • Jill Botway • Garrett R. Bowden • Capt. Lawson W. Brigham, PhD, USCG (ret.) • Harry Davis Brooks • Lt. Col. Jewell Richard Browder* • August “Augie” Brown* • John C.D. Bruno • Marc Bryan-Brown • Lee R. Bynum* • Virginia Castagnola-Hunter • Julianne M. Chase, PhD • James M. Chester* • James Thomas Chirurg • Maj. Gen. Arthur…