Playback: Why War Zones Need Science Too

Overheard at National Geographic

National Geographic

Science, Society & Culture

4.5 • 10.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s a jewel of biodiversity, the so-called Galápagos of the Indian Ocean, and might also hold traces of the earliest humans to leave Africa. No wonder scientists want to explore Socotra. But it’s also part of Yemen, a country enduring a horrific civil war. Meet the Nat Geo explorer with a track record of navigating the world’s most hostile hot spots who’s determined to probe the island—and empower its local scientists before it’s too late. Want more? See Socotra’s wonders—including the dragon’s blood tree—through the eyes of National Geographic explorers. And check out human footprints preserved for more than 100,000 years, which could be the oldest signs of humans in Arabia. Ancient caravan kingdoms are threatened in Yemen’s civil war. Their storied legacy—including temples built by the queen of Sheba—is entwined with the fate of modern Yemenis. Read more here. Also explore: Learn more about Yemen’s civil war. One Yemeni photographer explains why she looks for points of light in the darkness. And for subscribers, go inside the country’s health crisis and the life of violence and disease the war has brought to many civilians. Also, learn more about Ella Al-Shamahi’s new book, The Handshake: A Gripping History, and visit Horn Heritage, Sada Mire’s website preserving heritage in Somalia, Somaliland, and the Horn of Africa. If you like what you hear and want to support more content like this, please consider a National Geographic subscription. Go to natgeo.com/exploremore to subscribe today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is brought to you in part by Geico, proud sponsor of National Geographic.
0:05.1	Geico, 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.
0:13.6	Hey, this is Jacob Pinner. I'm a senior producer on the National Geographic audio team,
0:18.4	and today we're going to revisit one of my favorite stories. It's about Yemen,
0:23.0	which has been suffering through a civil war for years, and a couple of scientists who are
0:27.6	determined to keep exploring a Yemeni island called Sokotra. They're looking for traces of
0:33.0	some of the earliest known humans to leave Africa. Now, after you listen, you can go even deeper
0:38.7	in the September issue of National Geographic. There's an article called Saving Yemen's History
0:43.9	written by Iona Craig. It's about historians and archaeologists fighting to preserve their
0:48.6	country's history, and there's some really beautiful photographs by Moises Saman. You can
0:54.0	read that story with a one-month free trial to NatGeo Digital at NatGeo.com slash Explore More.
1:00.7	There's full access to our online stories and there's new stories published every day,
1:05.6	plus our digital archives with every issue of National Geographic ever published.
1:10.7	Subscribe at NatGeo.com slash Explore More. Okay, here's our host Amy Briggs with the story.
1:17.0	So you can see a skull very clearly up there, and actually if you look closely, you can see
1:24.1	the number of other bones, long bones, bones of the foot. There's a whole pile of bones here.
1:31.8	This is Ella Al-Shamahi. She's standing on a rocky hillside next to a big cliff face.
1:37.0	An archaeologist named Ahmed is showing her this narrow opening in the cliff.
1:41.4	It's right at eye level, and it looks just big enough that someone could shimmy inside,
1:45.1	but Ella isn't going in. She's just peaking. Look at this.
1:51.2	Look at this. There is a bone here that's a human finger or foot's bone.
1:58.8	Ella is on an island called Sukotra, and the hole she's looking at, someone used it as a
	...

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