High-Speed Underwater Rail Project Sets Eye On Record

The UAE is not stopping in their pursuit of hi-tech development as they start working on an underwater rail project that could revolutionize travel as we know it.

The Brighter Side of News reported on the Gulf nation's ambitious plans to build a 1,200-mile bullet train route from Fujairah to Mumbai that will operate at speeds of around 370-620 miles per hour below the ocean's surface.

The route will make that trip faster than air travel and could be a bucket-list item for travelers and tourists to marvel at the beauty of the ocean. To that end, the train will feature panoramic windows offering stunning views of marine life.

Sara Ahmed, a Dubai-based travel blogger, told The Brighter Side of News that the train could be a "major draw" for the UAE and that "it's about relishing the wonders of the marine world."

Plans for the underwater train first surfaced in 2018. If completed, it would completely rewrite the record books for the longest underwater train route used by bullet trains. Right now, the Seikan Tunnel holds the title with a route that spans 33 miles, per The Brighter Side of News.

As far as the longest bullet trains in the world, Beijing's route to Kunming tops the heap with a nearly 1,650-mile journey that takes from 10 to 15 hours.

The 35-mile Channel Tunnel that connects England and France first showed that underwater construction was possible. Of course, the scale of this project at 50 times larger and operating at 10 times faster speeds is in a different stratosphere entirely, as Interesting Engineering noted.

The UAE's bold underwater train can perhaps be compared to Saudi Arabia's US$ 500 billion (and rising) NEOM project that aims to build a city of the future in the desert with sustainable rewilding. NEOM has drawn the scorn of critics who have pointed to the high casualties of workers on the project, cost overages, practicality concerns, and leadership struggles.

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Evidence Found On The Murdered Two Princes In The Tower

The discovery of a will is considered as the "smoking gun" evidence in the unsolved murder case of the Princes in the Tower, historians believe.

This case is about uncrowned Edward V and his younger brother Prince Richard, who both disappeared in 1483 from the Tower of London without a trace. Despite attempts to solve the crime, it was believed that the princes were murdered on the orders of their uncle, Richard III.

The discovery of the will shows that the prime suspect in the murders left a piece of Edward V’s jewellery to his sister-in-law.

The chain – likely to have been a chain of office, a golden symbol of status and his prized possession – was part of Lady Margaret Capell’s estate. She is related to Sir James Tyrell, who was a trusted knight of Richard III and believed by many to be responsible for the murder under his orders.

Professor Tim Thornton, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, uncovered the find in Lady Margaret’s previously overlooked will.

In the 1522 document, she left her son his "faders Cheyne which was young king Edwarde Vth" (his father’s chain which was young King Edward V's).

Tracy Borman, the historian who oversees the Tower of London as co-curator of Historic Royal Palaces, said the "extremely exciting" find gave credibility to the theory the boys were murdered on the orders of their uncle.

"This chain provides a vital link to the young Edward V, and the fact that it was in the possession of someone closely linked with one of the prime suspects in their presumed murder could be hugely significant," she said.

She called it the "smoking gun" in the case.

The discovery backs up Prof. Thornton’s previous written work on Sir Thomas More, a former lord chancellor, who blamed Richard III for the princes' deaths.

The research is being published in the journal History and will be revealed in Channel 5 documentary "The Princes in the Tower: A Damning Discovery."

"Historians don’t work on the basis of beyond reasonable doubt," Prof. Thornton added.

"We have to work on the evidence that survives. We work on the balance of probabilities and increasingly that balance of probabilities is tilting towards the suggestion that Richard is responsible for the boys' deaths and the account given by More is more likely than not to be true."

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The First Solid-Wood Spacecraft Was Just Launched

This should be an interesting news for space enthusiasts. Earlier in October this year, the world's first wooden satellite built by Japanese scientists was launched into space from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. This is expected to set an exciting precedent for future space travel.

The satellite, called LignoSat, was created by Kyoto University and Japanese construction company Sumitomo Forestry in a preliminary trial of using wood for lunar and Mars expeditions.

Launched atop a SpaceX rocket at the space center to the International Space Station, it will remain in orbit for six months about 250 miles above Earth to show that it can withstand the extreme conditions of outer space, per Reuters.

LignoSat is named after the Latin word for wood, lignum, and is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Yet, it has a mighty purpose: to prove that this sustainable material can hold up in space as we take steps to explore living beyond planet Earth.

"With timber, a material we can produce by ourselves, we will be able to build houses, live and work in space forever," Takao Doi, a Japanese astronaut, engineer, and veteran of two NASA Space Shuttle missions, told Reuters.

It turns out timber is incredibly resilient, able to withstand the extreme temperature fluctuations in space, which can range from -148 degrees to 212 degrees Fahrenheit depending on whether darkness or sunlight is present, as Reuters explained.

The aim is to construct timber dwellings and plant trees over the course of 50 years on Mars and the moon if LignoSat's mission proves successful. Kyoto University professor Koji Murata is confident in the humble yet durable satellite because planes in the early 20th century were made of wood, as he told Reuters.

Murata explained that since no water or oxygen exists in space, wood is more resilient in the cosmos than on Earth. In addition, the material is more environmentally friendly than typical materials used to make satellites, such as aluminum, titanium, and carbon fiber.

Instead of reentering the atmosphere and releasing harmful metal particles into space, wooden satellites are simply incinerated, leaving no pollution or toxic materials behind.

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This Shipwreck Could Be From Vasco da Gama’s Final Voyage

Archaeologists believed that they may have found the São Jorge, the famed sunken ship from Vasco da Gama’s final voyage, off the coast of Kenya. This was supported by an investigation on the remains of a shipwreck, first spotted on a coral reef between 2013 and 2016.

Now, researchers have published a new paper in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology detailing their analysis of artifacts recovered by the local community and timbers from the ship's hull and frame that they excavated themselves.

Despite the challenges posed by the shipwreck's condition and location, evidence suggests this Portuguese vessel sank over 500 years ago.

Earlier this year, nautical archaeologist Filipe Castro announced the discovery of a galleon from Vasco da Gama's third armada in shallow waters off the coast of Malindi, Kenya.

While the vessel's identity remains unconfirmed, it is potentially one of eight known Portuguese shipwrecks from that period found in the area. An international team of archaeologists from the University of Coimbra, the National Museum of Kenya, and the Bergen Maritime Museum have narrowed the possibilities down to the São Jorge or the Nossa Senhora da Graça.

"The provisional dates of the artifacts," such as elephant tusks and copper ingots, "point to a shipwreck on the outward journey to India and a shipwreck date in the first quarter of the sixteenth century."

Castro told Live Science that if the wreckage does belong to the São Jorge, "it may be one of the earliest European shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean."

Furthermore, the "treasure," though wrecked, would have "significant historical and symbolic value as a physical testimony to the presence of Vasco da Gama’s third armada in Kenyan waters."

"It’s not every day that you get to be part of something timeless, standing at the edge of history and peering into the depths of our shared past," wrote Faith Milgo, who attended the media launch for the ship in Kenya. "Laden with ivory, copper, and cinnabar, it represented the bustling commerce of a bygone era."

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