PopTech! the New Explorers

Ben Saunders...Extreme blogging...rather than new explorer. Holiday snaps from the North Pole. 800 miles on ski, 72 days alone. May 11 stood alone on at the geographic North Pole. 31 marathons back to back. Life at the edge of the envelope. Dreamt of being a polar explorer. Pen and Ben, the polar men.

Trying to do it unsupported... 110 kilos of stuff, dragging it. No idea what he had gotten himself into. Had two videos running in his mind. Being at the pole, and then back at Heathrow. But didn't get to the pole, and no one met him other than his family at the air port.

For those of you reading this, Ben is showing these remarkable slides of the arctic, and of his gear. White out...like being trapped inside a ping pong ball.

1. What did achieve... youngest person, 4th in history to ski across the North Pole.

2. What's next... Antarctica

3. Why.... Exploring limits of technology and human potential.

People only reaching 3,4 or 5% of their ability.

No one else is the authority your potential. Brilliant talk. Charming young man.

Spencer Wells... Journey of man, a genetic odyssey. Paleosexologist. Who had sex with whom and where.... How different are we really? How did we come to occupy the corners of the globe?

The question of origin is about genealogy...Interesting chart of of the first family tree of humans based on biochemical data. Very complex presentation, delivered quickly and professionally, but you might benefit by having a degree in biology to stay up with the speakers. 

Adam lived 60,000 years ago in Africa, which is an eye blink.  Aborigine song lines, compared with European science. On to India trying to find the missing link. When all else fails, time to talk about the weather.

Family tree DNA...every traces back to Africa, about 60k years ago.