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DID ONE OF THESE INVENTIONS SAVE YOUR LIFE?

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

In today’s newsletter, we meet the little-known inventors behind life-saving creations, see how nature sunk wickedness, scooter along with these Indonesian riders ... and listen to experts assert this is the best diet of all. Plus, can scientists create hurricane-resistant homes?

Jane Jacobs

PHOTOGRAPH BY MAGGIE STEBER, VII/REDUX

A fire breaks out. You're on an upper floor of a building. A metal fire escape rolls out from the exterior. You rush down the steps to safety.

But who thought up that life-saving invention? Or created the hypodermic syringe, or kept you from food poisoning? And how did they do that?

That’s a topic of a new Nat Geo book, and we have the answers right here. (Pictured above, another avatar—the pioneering urban activist and planner Jane Jacobs.)

THANK THESE PEOPLE

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STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

two iron beads

DELAWARE ART MUSEUM/HOWARD PYLE COLLECTION/BRIDGEMAN

How the 'wickedest city on Earth' was sunk by an earthquake (Above, a band of pirates divides up their loot)

What gives the Mediterranean diet such life-extending power?

This bird survived Maui’s fires—but it could soon vanish

Cougars are ambushing and killing wolves—and no one knows why

How Mary became the most powerful woman in the world

How does a dog or cat learn to read human emotion?

Is yodeling really so hard to love, or is it just misunderstood?

These pirates left the Caribbean behind—and stole the biggest booty ever

The sordid history of the Pledge of Allegiance

This 9,000-year-old necklace is remarkable. Who wore it is even more surprising.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Winds blowing at 140 mph tear the walls and roof of a model home from its makeshift foundation, flinging debris into a field. In their "hurricane lab", Florida International University used 12 enormous fans to recreate the strength of a major hurricane and learn how to create homes that can withstand them.

NSF-NHERI WALL OF WIND, FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY, MIAMI, FLORIDA

Incoming Idalia: Florida is preparing for its first hurricane of the season, which will make landfall during a supermoon, causing higher tides than normal. Across the state, scientists are thinking through ways on how to minimize storms’ impact—especially as climate change threatens to make them worse. (Above, a shed blasts apart in a Florida university’s wind tunnel in a quest to make storm-resistant homes.)

Related: Supermoon tide leaves octopus stranded in parking garage
What are hurricanes, how do they form, and why can they can be so deadly?

STORM SIMULATION

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Neo is a scooterist from Balaraja, a small town in Banten Province, Java. He is known for his custom-made tree Vespa and commands a large following on Instagram. In 2016, he traveled for more than 3,000 miles in this Vespa.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MUHAMMAD FADLI

Beep beep: Neo, a scooterist from a small town in Indonesia, traveled over 3,000 miles on his handcrafted Vespa (above). In this country, scooters aren’t just a mode of transportation, they’re a form of self expression. See more of these rebel riders.

ONE GREAT STORY

Sleek greyhounds thunder around the sandy oval at Derby Lane in St. Petersburg, Florida, in August 2020.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIKA LARSEN

Long were the days: Derby Lane in St. Petersburg, Florida, was America’s oldest operating greyhound racetrack—but in December 2020, it closed for good. Voters in the state effectively ended the sport when they opted to ban betting on dog races because of concerns about mistreatment of the animals. What became of the dogs? (Above, greyhounds thunder around the sandy oval at the racetrack.)

Today’s soundtrack: Carmen, Olivia Dean

Thanks for reading our newsletter! It was edited and curated by Jen Tse, Hannah Farrow, Nancy San Martín, and David Beard. We'd love to hear from you: [email protected]. Keep shining!

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