Malaria and the Panama Canal

The wrap up of things unearthed in the second quarter of 2026 includes the potpourri category, lots of books and letters, shipwrecks, and neanderthals. Research: Addley, Esther. “Solstice-aligned 5,000-year-old monument ‘once in a lifetime find’, say archaeologists.” The Guardian ...  Show more

Part one of the mid-year coverage of things literally and figuratively unearthed in the last quarter includes updates, more updates, animals, edibles and potables, and accidental finds. Research: Addley, Esther. “Solstice-aligned 5,000-year-old monument ‘once in a lifetime find’, ...  Show more

A 50-mile man-made waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the creation of the Panama Canal was arguably the greatest infrastructure project the world had ever seen. But its journey from concept to completion was anything but simple, as it failed repeatedly, and pass ...  Show more

The Panama Canal plays a critical role in today’s global commerce, but it almost didn’t happen. A group of French engineers led by Charles De Lesseps spent nine years in Panama excavating earth to no avail. Later, Theodore Roosevelt took up the canal dream. Another 10 years of ...

What madcap schemes did French engineers use to drum up support to build the Panama Canal in the 1880s? How did the Gold Rush affect the flow of travellers through Panama looking for a shortcut? Who was the eccentric Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps and why did he fly a hot air bal ...  Show more

Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal has long been regarded as a triumph of American ingenuity, a conquest over nature that helped secure the United States’ position as a world power. Taking ten years to build, it opened up new trading routes between East and West by providing a v ...  Show more