Fifty years after Apollo 1 we continue to stumble forward — even if it doesn’t look that way — Fifty years ago today, in the afternoon of Friday, January 27, 1967, what was at the time the most prestigious crew of astronauts ever assembled was strapped into the command capsule of an Apollo spacecraft, running through test procedures. On the left of the three-person module was Gus Grissom, the…

With any luck, in 2017, you will never meet someone you disagree with — On Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, there is an underground river that connects a series of flooded caves in the heart of the jungle to the Caribbean Sea. It is one of Earth’s odd little miracles, having cradled one of the Americas’ most remarkable civilizations, the Mayans, while also remaining an absolute…