Can we claw back? Plus, happy Lunar New Year; Sparta’s last stand; a new marble craze; Elizabethan cookies; the trailblazing Black woman lawyer who applied for the Supreme Court (in 1971)
|  | Monday, January 31, 2022 | | | | |
| In today’s newsletter, Sparta’s last stand; Lunar New Year; a new marble craze; Elizabethan cookies … and the trailblazing Black woman lawyer who applied for the Supreme Court (in 1971). | |
 | COURTESY OF THE BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS
| | By Glenn Oeland, Senior Editor, HISTORY and CULTURE
How close is humanity to destroying itself? Alarmingly close, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and other scientists who developed the first atomic weapons, the Bulletin created the symbolic Doomsday Clock two years later to convey the risk of an atomic Armageddon.
“The editors were afraid that the nuclear weapons they had helped create were not fully understood by either politicians or the public,” the Bulletin’s current editor, John Mecklin, told writer Bill Newcott, who reported our story on the clock’s 75th anniversary. “They wanted people to understand that these weapons could literally end civilization—and even, perhaps, the human species.”
Every year since the clock’s creation, the Bulletin’s experts have come together to gauge whether the world is safer or in greater peril, and to reset the time accordingly. Back in 1947, when the clock debuted on the cover of the Bulletin’s first bound issue, they set the time at seven minutes to midnight—midnight representing planetary apocalypse. Back then the scientist-editors “were concerned solely with the likelihood that atomic bombs would soon rain down on the world’s capitals,” Newcott writes.
Over the past 75 years, however, serious threats to our species’ survival have multiplied, and the clock’s timekeepers must now factor in such dangers as climate change, COVID-19, and disruptive technologies. As a result, for the past three years running, they’ve set the time at a mere 100 seconds to midnight (pictured above)—the closest the clock has ever been to Earth’s inglorious end.
What to do? The Bulletin offers a suggestion: Share stories on social media of actions people are taking to help #TurnBackTheClock.
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH VIA PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY | | Anne Frank: Dead nearly 77 years ago at 15, the diarist and Holocaust victim keeps making news cycles. In the past two weeks, Anne Frank (pictured above) was denigrated by a leading anti-vaxxer and featured in a new book that raises questions about who revealed her family’s Dutch hiding place to the Nazis, who shipped them off to concentration camps. Here’s our look at Anne Frank’s enduring power—and still-contentious legacy.
Supreme Court: 115 people have been on the top U.S. court since 1789, 108 of them white men. Of the five women justices, three are on the court now. None were there in 1971, when trailblazing African American lawyer Pauli Murray sent a letter to President Richard Nixon and directly applied for an opening court spot. “My application is to forestall the popular misconception that no qualified women applied or are available,” Murray concluded. Fifty years after Murray’s bid, a president may finally nominate a Black woman to sit on the nation’s highest court.
How did Notre Dame become so special? The novelist Victor Hugo brought attention to Paris’s jewel in the 19th century, giving an oomph to a master restoration then, according to a Nat Geo video explainer. The video accompanies National Geographic’s February cover story on the cathedral’s history and never-seen-before images of its latest restoration.
$2.35 million: Speaking of the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s personal library of 1,000 books and memorabilia sold at auction for nearly $2.4 million. An autographed copy of Gloria Steinem’s memoir fetched $53,000 while RBG’s copy of the 1957-58 Harvard Law Review went for $100,312.50, CNBC reports.
Perchance to snack: Teaching fellow Ella Hawkins brings art history to her cookies. She spends two hours or so decorating each cookie with her favorite Elizabethan costume designs. “I decided to look to my academic life for inspiration,” Hawkins, who teaches early modern English, tells the Washington Post. See her designs.
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNN JOHNSON, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION | | Happy new year! By the time you read this, part of the world already has begun celebrating the Lunar New Year. This holiday, known to some in the West as Chinese New Year and in China as the Spring Festival, traditionally spurs the world’s greatest annual migration of people, Erin Blakemore reports. Hundreds of millions of Chinese are traveling, many to their hometowns. That’s despite pleas to stay put from China’s government, which is fighting COVID-19 and hosting the Winter Olympics in Beijing, beginning this week. (Pictured above, women play mahjong to celebrate the new year in Guizhou Province, China. This image by Nat Geo Explorer Lynn Johnson was recently featured in our Photo of the Day archival collection.)
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 | | BRIDGEMAN/ACI | | Sparta’s last stand: The Persian leader, with a vastly superior force, asked the Spartans guarding a narrow mountain pass to surrender—and clear the way for an invasion of Greece. The Spartan king responded: “Come and take them!” Nat Geo’s History magazine examines the legendary battle of Thermopylae, in which Spartans fought to the death, their bravery raising Greek resistance to the invasion. (Illustrated above, a Thermopylae battle scene by Stanley Meltzoff.)
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 | | Maps are incredibly influential, and our lives are often guided by maps. But can we trust every map that we see? History—and our daily experiences—have shown that maps can lie and stretch the truth. | | | | Jim Enote | | Zuni tribal member, farmer, and Nat Geo Explorer | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK
| | Marble hunt: This pandemic has pushed many people to binge watching, puzzles, and Wordle. Add weekend hunts for colorful marbles to the list. Tens of thousands of people spend time outdoors searching for a few handmade glass orbs. Enthusiasts then hide the marbles in public spaces, take images, and post them as clues on Facebook groups. It’s fun and doesn’t hurt the environment, glass artist Josh Simpson, who has a few of his orbs in the International Space Station, tells Nat Geo. “It’s melted sand. It will last for thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years, but it doesn’t pollute anything.” (Pictured above, marble hunter Shayne Sines holds one of his collection.)
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Today's newsletter was curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. Have an idea or link to a story you think is right down our alley? Let us know at david.beard@natgeo.com.
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