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of the Arctic Caves by Battatarji. An intrepid climate scientist ventures to unexplored caves in northern Greenland where surprising evidence of the past could provide new insights into our warming future. The helicopter landed on top of the cliff, its blades chopping the cold air. Stepping out, Gina Moseley breathed deeply and took in the commanding view of Greenland's barren landscape.

To the south, a frozen lake stretched out for miles, eventually giving way to brown and gray plateaus, interrupted by the white flash of glaciers in the distance. In the other direction, some five hundred sixty miles beyond the horizon, was the North Pole. The only other human presence was the helicopter pilot and the other passengers. Moseley's life partner and this story's photographer Robbie Shown and technical climbing specialist

Chris Blakely. The weather was mild, just above freezing perfect actually, but Moseley knew that storms could blow up at a moment's notice, bringing dangerous winds and dense fog. In such a case, they'd had to leave immediately or risk being stranded in one of the world's most remote and forbidding environments. They were poised on the edge separating potential disaster and

sublime discovery. For more than a decade, Moseley, a British paleoclimatologist and caver, had envisioned this moment, hoping to be part of the first team to set foot inside the wolf Land Cave w O w u L eight, one of the most isolated caves on Earth. She dreamed of collecting samples that would open a new window into Greenland's climate history. She'd first glimpsed a cave in a grainy Cold War era reconnaissance photo, its gaping entrance set high

in a sheer rock wall, resembling an ancient fortress. The picture had instantly captured her imagination, But what had planted the hook firmly in her imagination was the knowledge that no one had been able to set foot inside it. For fifteen years, she'd obsessed over the same questions, how big was it, how deep did it go? What scientific treasures did it hold. Moseley had a bold plan to explore the wolf Land Cave and others like it, and

bring back rock specimens from inside. These mineral deposits could reveal what Greenland's climate was like hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years ago. More than a window into the past, these samples might help scientists pred what future warming in the world might look like. She'd run various gauntlets to get here, logistical, financial, professional, emotional, But now all that remained was to repel toward the mouth and

see what no human had ever seen. After the helicopter flew off, a deep silence fell, and Blakely began rigging ropes as the others prepared their gear. Many years before she had ever heard of the Greenland Cave, Moseley had fallen in love with subterranean worlds. She was twelve on a family camping trip in Somerset, England, when her mother took her to explore her first cave. I absolutely loved it.

From the very first moment, she says, she remembers walking through a forest and just disappearing underground and away from the world above. As a teenager, she would save the money she earned from delivering newspapers after school so she could spend it on summer caving adventures. Every cave has its own personality, Moseley says. Every cave is different. Some are wet, some are dry, are deep, some are shallow, some vertical, some horizontal, and so every experience is different.

It's new every time. Eventually, her love of caves led her to a doctorate in paleoclimate science at the University of Bristol. During her undergraduate studies, she had discovered that, in addition to being fun to explore, caves are time capsules containing data about past climatic conditions in the form

of mineral deposits accumulated over thousands of years. These deposits are formed as water drips into the cave or flows through it, leaving behind tiny amounts of minerals that accrete over time to grow into sealactites, salagmites, and sheet like flowstones, collectively known as spiliothems. These structures provide an archival record of the region's past climate, each layer of deposited mineral having captured information about the temperature from the time of

its creation. When evening in two thousand and eight, at a gathering of the university's caving society at a local pub, Moseley ran into Charlie's Self, a lifelong caver and speleologist, Self told her about a sight in Greenland that he desperately wanted to visit, the Wolfland Cave. It was photographed in nineteen fifty eight by two American geologists flying a reconnaissance plane over northern Greenland in the jealous Great Grainy image. The entrance appeared to be quite large, and there was

no telling how deep it went. Moseley knew some mountain caves could contain miles of passageways, but given the Wolfland caves isolated cliff face location, no one had ever explored it. Moseley was hooked like a child to a fable. I just kind of lit up because I couldn't even imagine

that there were caves in Greenland, she says. A few days later, her self handed her a folder that contained the geologists reports maps, another information he'd collected over the years, as he tried to solve the logistic challenges of launching an expedition. The optimal time a trip could be attempted was during a brief summer window, but the closest landing strip was about thirty miles away, over treacherous mountain terrain, offering little shelter, and in the region named after the

nineteenth century Sweetest explorer thorieled Wolf. The weather was highly unpredictable, threatening to trap a team for potential weeks on end. Moseley made photocopies and stuck the papers in a drawer, but she couldn't put them out of her mind. I kept the whole thing very secret, Moseley says. I didn't go around telling people in my discipline. I thought if

I spoke too soon, I might lose it. Earlier that year, on a university caving trip to Crete, she found herself in a group led by Robbie Schoene, who was there with the Sheffield University Speleological Society. While the others struggled to find new caves shown in, Moseley's team had great success when shaft gave way to another cave after cave. In the evening, they'd return to base camp completely thrilled.

Most of the others were sunburned because they'd spent the whole day on the surface, Shown recalls, and we'd be telling them great tales of the big caves that we've found. Their shared love of caves proved to be the starting point for a romantic relationship a year later. It wasn't until several months after they became a couple that Moseley fondly pulled out her green Land folder and placed it on the table in front of Shown. He was intrigued.

By this time. He'd worked as an assistant to photographers on some ambitious caving adventures, including exploring large underground river systems in Papua New Guine and understood what it took to execute a high stakes expedition. But the wolf Land Cave was something else. I always thought that it's just crazy, it's just too big a project to pull off, he recalls. Scientists are eager to learn about climate history because it holds clues to the planet's future. Earth has experienced extreme

changes in climate throughout its existence. See sawing between two fundamentally different states, one hot and one cold, referred to as greenhouse and ice house. Earth, respectively. Scientists agree that there were probably four major ice house periods time in Earth's history with permanent, large scale ice cover before the one that began about two point six million years ago

and continues to day. Within any ice house period, there are relatively colder and warmer times when glacier's advance or retreat, known as glacial and interglacial periods. Before the last glacial period ended about eleven thousand, five hundred years ago, much of North America in continental Europe was covered in ice. We want to understand that these past climates better, says

Christo Buidzart, a climatologist at Oregon State University. How does the ocean interact with the atmosphere on these long time scales? How sensitive are the ice sheets to temperature change? If we add an x amount of carbon dioxide, how much warming would we see? Globally? Greenland and Antarctica hold special places in the hearts of paleoclimatologists. That's because both locations have ice that hasn't melted for hundreds of thousands of years,

providing an uninterrupted climate record. Ice cores drilled from ice sheets in Greenland have helped researchers reconstruct the history of its climate dating back about one hundred thirty thousand years, but the ice record there doesn't go any further. When Moseley heard about the cave in Greenland, she knew that one way to push beyond the one hundred thirty thousand year old record was to look for spiliothems, which can

stretch back several hundred thousand years. But it wasn't until five years later, after she'd begun a research position at Innsbruck University, that she began seriously thinking about making the trip. The wolf Land Cave still seemed out of reach, but among the papers that self had given Moseley was a nineteen sixty article authored by William Davies and Daniel Crinsley, the same geologists who had photographed northern Greenland from the air. The men had been able to explore other caves on

the more accessible northeastern side of Greenland. What most excited Moseley was the authors mentioned of a flow stone deposit four inches thick formed of coarsely crystalline calcite on the floor of one of the caves, topped by stubs of stalagmites. This was proof that the caves contained spiliothems that could be brought back and studied in the lab, and since no one had ever constructed a cave based climate record of Greenland, it would be an important contribution to science.

But first she had to get there. Researching polar out fitters, she found an explorer named Clive Johnson. She explained she wanted the cheapest trip she could get. He stripped out helicopters, which was a big cost, mose says, but that meant the group would have to make a punishing track across rugged terrain carrying all their gear. The new figure seemed unattainable. Determined, Mosely applied for small grants and reached out to potential donors.

In the end, a total of fifty nine individual and institutional sponsors, including the National Geographic Society, provided the funds she needed, about one hundred twenty five thousand dollars. On July twenty nine, twenty fifteen, Moseley in shown, along with three others, boarded a plane from a Danish military base and flew to an air stripped next to Centrum Lake in northeast Greenland. Along with their camping gear and rations. The group had brought along an inflatable boat and an

outboard engine. The plane flew off, leaving them to chart their course through the Brown Arctic wilderness. After crossing the lake, the expeditioners set up base camp and then began a three day trek to the valley where the caves were located. Most team members had put in one of physical training

to prepare for this arduous hike. Each had taken courses on how to defend themselves in case they ran into polar bears, including the best ways to set up a camp and how to use flares and rifles a last resort. What they weren't ready for was the mosquitoes, relentless clouds of them. At one point, I counted more than two hundred bytes on my arm, Mosley says. They also weren't prepared for the scale of the landscape. There's nothing to

give a sense of proportion shown, says. You see a river and think it's just a short walk, but it'll take half a day to reach it. They ended up documenting twenty six caves, including several that had not been explored previously, and collected sixteen spieliothem samples. They treked back to camp over two days, with their backs nearly bursting

with pieces of flow stones. I got this little video of Gina with my phone shown, says she can barely walk because she's got this massive rocksack full of samples. Their hand hard work paid off. A radio chemistry analysis of one sample showed that it was formed between five hundred thirty seven thousand and five hundred eighty eight thousand

years ago. Since the creation of spiliothems requires the drip or flow of water, the very existence of the sample analyzed by the researchers indicates that Greenland was wetter and warmer back then. Moseley led two more Greenland expeditions to other caves in twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen. With each punishing trip and a glowing collection of spiliothems, she was traveling back in time and creating a detailed archival record of Greenland's paleo climate. Still, the wolf Land Cave loomed.

I couldn't get it out of my head, Moseley says. But accessing it would require more funds and more planning. She'd need a helicopter, and there would need to be an advanced trip to cache aviation fuel Finally, in July twenty twenty three, after the birth of the couple's daughter, weeding out pandemic lockdowns and raising about four hundred thousand dollars from more than a dozen supporters, including an award

from Roelix's Perpetual Planet Initiative. Moseley's shown in their three members of their expedition team took off from Iceland and flew to wolf Land, about thirty miles from the large cave and a cluster of others they'd identified. The team planned for the helicopter to fly them back and forth from base camp to the rock formations, allowing them to explore the whole area. For that to happen, the weather had to hold. On the first day of exploration, the

visibility was good. It felt like a dream, Moseley says. As the helicopter approached the cliff, they could see the mouth of the cave again without any familiar objects for scale reference. The opening didn't seem that big. Blakely, the technical climbing specialists remarked, well, that's an anti climax. Blakely and Showne headed out to scout the site. Once atop the cliff, Blakely built an anchor point and began repelling to cave entrance. He had been gone for some time

when Shown heard him shout for more rope. He had one hundred fifty meters shown thought. Shown came down after him, wondering how Blakely could possibly have run out of rope. He looked down and saw Blakely. I saw how small he looked in comparison to the cave entrance Shown recalls, and I thought, oh, my goodness, this is a giant cave. The pair returned with the exciting news. With great anticipation, four members of the team ventured out and down the

cliff to the entrance. Together, they finally stepped inside. It felt as if they had walked into a cathedral. The cave ceiling was at least one hundred thirty feet high. Birds nesting inside the caves soared high above their heads. There was a turquoise icy pool near the entrance. Mostly says The floor was strewn with huge boulders the size of cars. At the back of the cave, they observed several passages high up and large hoar frost crystals covering

the walls. Impressed as she was by the mammoth's size, Moseley also had reason to be disappointed there were no speliothumbs. Even if any had formed in the past, they were likely to have been crushed by the boulders that covered the floor. There were, however, the other caves to explore in the vicinity, but bad weather slammed shut the window of opportunity. Low clouds and strong winds, combined with fog

and snow, made it risky to fly the helicopter. The team had to wait hoping for the weather to turn. We spent a lot of time sitting around a base camp, drinking cups of tea and dreaming about what we could be doing if, Moseley says. But the weather did lift, allowing two teams to explore the other nearby caves. Moseley and Shone discovered one that had several passages with walls covered in ice and ice crystals. Shown was preparing to

photograph it. One Blakely, rigging ropes to another cave, called on the radio he'd spotted spiliothumbs. Mosey and Shown raced to collect what would prove to be the only cave samples they'd bring back from the trip. What's the thing about expeditions? To unknown places. Shown says, you never really know how they're going to turn out, but you also

never really know where science will lead you. Several months after returning from wolf Land, dating analysis came back for the handful of Spiliothum samples they were about to collect able to collect in twenty fifteen. In twenty nineteen, the dating methods Moseley's lab normally uses can go back only about six hundred thousand years, but she'd found a lab in China that used a method that could go much

further back in time. According to their analysis, samples collected in twenty fifteen in twenty nineteen are several million years old, a stunning result. The samples grew during a time when atmosphere carbon atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were either similar to today or where they're protected to be going projected to be going in the near few decades to centuries, Moseley says,

her voice rising with enthusiasm. Study of the twenty twenty five three specimens continues, and Mosey is hopeful that they too will reveal deep insight into Greenland's past. But the twenty fifteen and twenty nineteen results are thrilling, Perhaps a thrilling as climbing down a cliff face to reach a cave no one has ever entered before. It's a world

where the atmosphere, the composition resembles the present. We can learn a lot about the state of the Arctic climate under those conditions to better inform ourselves about the future. She says. That's exciting, but perhaps also terrifying. But pushing herself and pushing the science into the unknown is just where Moseley wants to be. Perched on the edge of discovery. High Arctic Caving Greenland hosts some of the world's northernmost

caves and one of its most unforgiving environments. In twenty twenty three, a team of scientists launched a mission into its icy, unexplored cliff side caverns to search for spaleothums, layered mineral deposits holding clues to Earth's earliest climate history. Next article The truth about Dry January by Rachel Fairbank. What happens when you quit alcohol for a month is more sobering than you might think. Every year, millions of people across the world pledged to give up alcohol for

a month during what many call now Dry January. The tradition started over a decade ago in the United Kingdom, and by twenty twenty four, more than twenty percent of Americans were participating. Others are taking breaks from alcohol later in the year thanks to a similar movement called sober October. Such month long challenges may be appealing because they represent

a different kind of resolution. Instead of committing to a complete lifestyle change, people can experiment with how sobriety feels. Then they can reflect on whether it makes sense to quit or modify their alcohol consumption to state the obvious. Research clearly shows many benefits to cutting down on your overall alcohol use. According to the World Health Organization, no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health. But does a single month without it make a meaningful difference

in your life? The answer is yes. There are several ripple effects to consider. Alcohol harms are bodies in many ways. The most prominent effects are on the liver, but there are secondary effects on other organs such as the heart, gastro intestinal tract, pancreas, and brain. The severity of the impacts depends on how much you consume, which influences how

long alcohol stays in your bloodstream. Blood alcohol levels are a major factor that damages the organs, says Paul Thomes, a researcher who studies treatments for alcohol damage at Auburn University. As Thombs explains, the liver first breaks alcohol down into a acidtelehyde, which is highly toxic and unknown carcinogen. In turn, the acetelehyde gets broken down very quickly into a less

toxic chemical called acetate. However, if this process gets delayed or disrupt because of either high blood alcohol levels or another underlying factor, such as medications that interfere with liver metabolism,

then stealhyde can build up in the body. How long the toxic molecules are being accumulated in the cells and tissues determines the degree of damage, though says, Heavy alcohol use, often defined as consuming five or more drinks a day for men or four or more drinks a day for women, has been associated with long term health problems, including high blood pressure, heart disease, liver disease, and an increased risk

of developing certain types of cancer. Such continual consumption can also weaken the immune system and impair proper functioning of the brain. Even moderate alcohol use, no more than one drink a day for women, two for men, increases overall risk for chronic disease. What's less clear, though, is just how quickly the body can recover when a person stops drinking.

The effects are going to be different for different place people, depending on how long they have been consuming alcohol, says sch Shazad Merwat, a liver disease specialist with the University of Texas Health System. Most of the research on abstaining from alcohol is focused on heavy drinkers, but it's generally good news. Within weeks, the liver can start to reverse the damage done in most early stages of alcohol related liver disease, which starts with the accumulation of fat, then

progresses to chronic inflammation, scarring, and ultimately cirrhosis. The liver has an enormous regenerative capacities, says Carrie Mints, a psychiatrist and medical director the Harris House Foundation. The first three stages are reversible. During abstinence from alcohol, a patient may be able to halt the progression of cirrhosis to live longer. Although the condition is irreversible, there are other immediate gains. In a twenty eighteen study of ninety four moderate to

heavy drinkers who gave up alcohol for a month. Researchers found that participants experienced improvements in insulin insulin resistance, blood pressure, and weight loss, while their peers who continued to drink did not. The benefits of a dry January may be greatest for the heaviest imbibers, but even in lighter drinkers you can have noticeable health effects. Mintz says. For instance, researchers have found that some people develop healthier skin and

resolve stomach issues. Alcohol has been shown to disrupt the microbial composition of the gut, a condition called dysbiosis, and damage to the lining of the intestines, causing some contents to spill over into the bloodstream in the gut. This dysbiosis can be reversed, but not completely, even after three to five weeks. Tomes says, it takes a longer time to restore the gut microbiome and the damage caused to the gut. A month without drinking can improve your well

being in other ways, too. Alcohol use can contribute to poor sleep, to press or anxiety, says Stephen Tait, a physician at Stanford University who specializes in addiction medicine. For some regular alcohol consumption may also be an attempt to self medicate underlying sleep or mood disorders. By giving it up for a month, they have the chance to unentangle

whether alcohol is causing or masking such health issues. It can be very insightful, Tates says in his experience, a defined period of sobriety can also help people better understand their relationship with alcohol, including whether their consumption has gotten out of control. It's sometimes hard to realize when you slip into an addiction, Tate says. It's tricky to know where that line is, and sometimes people don't realize it

until they're already across it. Researcher are now finding that some dry January participants will adopt better habits even after their month long experiment is over. Many of the participants tracked in the UK study reported drinking significantly last six months after they abstained for a month. A larger survey of more than eight hundred fifty adults who took part in Dry January showed a similar benefit, with those people also reportedly drinking less six months after their drinking hiatus

than they typically had before. Given the issues that alcohol can cause, especially at higher blood alcohol levels. Any reduction in consumption is a good thing. If you are drinking less, you are at a lower risk to incur some of those damages. Mintz says next Enchanted Sudha a journey above remarkably distinct from the rest of Saudi Arabia. Suda's traditions, nature, and way of life are unlike anywhere else on Earth.

Nestled in the Asir region, Suda's mountains reach over ten thousand feet three three thousand, fifteen meters above sea level,

making them the highest point in the country. Given its unique terrain, geographical position, and culturally focused people, the area offers an unmissible opportunity for intrepid travelers to immerse themselves in the regions human and natural wonders, traditions in the clouds obscured in the verdant heights of Suda, a group of men danced to the beat of tradition and the

rhythm of communal spirit. These are the flower Men, embodiments of a time passed and symbols of heritage across the region, donning black robes embroidered with gold and carrying ceremonial swords. This cultural dress is a key part of their tribal identity. Many of the flower Men have roots in Rijal Alma, a village over nine centuries old and located at the crossroads between the south of the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant.

While its location connected merchants to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, naturally becoming an important ancient trade route, its geographical positioning also helped the village to fight off threats. What was once designed for defense against the elements and enemy attacks now protects and presuer the culture of Suda's local people. Being perched atop the highest peaks in the kingdom, the landscape is bright and colorful, a stark contrast to

the arid desert that defines much of the country. With this color comes plenty of biodiversity, including tree frogs, butterflies, birds, lizards, and more. Determined to help preserve and protect the wildlife in the region, conservationists have embarked on a re wilding project in the Red Rock region of Sudha. Among the species being supported is the Nubian Ibex, an elusive desert

dwelling goat species native to the region. Suda inspires an adventurous way of life that rubs off on all who visit. Adventures drawn to its rugged terrain and high altitudes find in Suda both a challenge and a sanctuary. This is particularly two for Suda's local athletes. This concludes readings from National Geographic Magazine for today. Your reader has been Marsha. If you've enjoyed hearing this content, please give us a call at eight five nine fort two two six three

nine zero. Thank you for listening, and have a great day.