The New Yorker-Science & Technology

"A forensic crisis in Mexico, a cursed ship and its treasure, a Himalayan mystery."

Views expressed in this science and technology update are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 27 July 2024, 1313 UTC.

Content and Source:  https://www.newyorker.com/tag/science-and-tech.

Please check link or scroll down to read your selections.  Thanks for joining us today.

Russ Roberts (https://hawaiisciencejournal.blogspot.com).

 

View in browser | Update your preferences

In today’s newsletter, analyzing the bones, and then: • A cursed ship and its treasure • Memes for the “Oat Milk Élite” • A Himalayan mystery The Struggle to Identify All the Dead Bodies in Mexico By some estimates, it could take forensic scientists a hundred and twenty years to identify remains of the disappeared. By Amy Reed-Sandoval Photograph by Dario Lopez-Mills / AP In 2008, Roxana Enríquez Farias, a twenty-seven-year-old archeologist and graduate student in human geography, stood silently before a clandestine mass grave in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The grave had been discovered not long before and, from a distance, it looked no different from any of the innocuous plots of land where she had dug as an archeologist. But Enríquez knew this one was different. She eyed the excavation site warily, willing herself to approach. Keep reading Editor’s Picks  Our Far-Flung Correspondents A Cursed Ship and the Fate of Its Sunken Gold In 1746, a vessel called the Prince de Conty foundered off the coast of France. How did its most valuable cargo end up in the hands of a semi-retired Florida couple? By Lauren Collins  Infinite Scroll Making Memes for the Global “Oat Milk Élite” A loose federation of hyperlocal Instagram accounts are both satirizing and codifying the habits of a homogenous consumer class. By Kyle Chayka Podcast Dept. Examining a Crime That Went Unpunished Illustration by Emiliano Ponzi In the Dark, a New Yorker investigative podcast, asks why one of the most high-profile war-crimes prosecutions in U.S. history failed to deliver justice. Listen now » From the Archive  Annals of Science The Skeletons at the Lake Genetic analysis of human remains found in the Himalayas has raised baffling questions about who these people were and why they were there. By Douglas Preston Cartoon by Matthew Reuter More from The New Yorker The Sporting Scene The Unexpectedly Hopeful Paris Olympics The Games have never lived up to all their ideals—some of which were dubious to begin with. And yet this year’s iteration, for all its flaws, has already inspired some positive change. By Louisa Thomas P.S. About a decade ago, Patricia Marx decided to take a cruise on a cargo ship. “Please try to imagine the privations I will brave for three weeks on this six-hundred-and-thirty-two-foot-long, thirty-thousand-ton hunk of steel as it galumphs across the sea from Philadelphia to Hamburg, with brief stops in Norfolk (Virginia) and Antwerp,” she wrote. “There will be no Internet, no e-mail, no telephones, no organized entertainments, no Stewart or Colbert, no doctor, no anyone-I-know, and no Diet Coke.” Although she finds the seven seas “as interesting to look at as an unplugged lava lamp,” Marx eats, dances, and electrocutes her way across the ocean. 🚢

Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the Science & Technology newsletter from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2024. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.