"The true republic: men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less." —Susan B. Anthony

It's not a new concept. The '90s resurgence of the identity struggle between the sexes is only the latest in a long history of this societal balance. Let's start back in Ancient Egypt. Queen Nefertiti and her husband forced a religious renaissance on the country that successfully lasted throughout their rein (on another note, new studies indicate that every family line still in existence today is related to Queen Nefertiti. It's a small world). Cleopatra cleverly seduced Marc Antony to make sure her kingdom would have a prominent place in the world with the help of Rome's mighty civilization. Even more recent, the Women's Suffrage Movement of the 1920s combined a patriotic message with bold tactics to bring about reforms for equality in voting. The Lifetime channel came on the scene in the 1980s, with Oxygen TV quickly on its heels, both providing a dizzying array of programming specific to women's issues.


Get swept away into the Spice World


Track women in the roaring '90s and historical equality issues

"Tis the Dreamer whose dreams come true! —Rudyard Kipling

On Friday, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute embarked on its sixth expedition in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ocean Exploration Program. The two week adventure returns to the famous beginnings of deep sea discovery, when scientists in 1977 "found seafloor vents gushing shimmering, warm, mineral-rich fluids into the cold, dark depths... the vents were brimming with extraordinary, unexpected life."


This discovery made a 180º change in how we understand how life can be sustained - even at extreme depths were sunlight never reaches: instead the heat and chemicals from within the earth supplied the ecosystem's energy. Alvin, the submersible who originally made these historic dives with the likes of Robert Ballard and Ken Macdonald, is taking the science community back to see what's changed in the Galapagos Rift during the last twenty-five years.


Dive into the new expedition at the Galapagos Rift.


Go down in the Alvin with Discovery freelance writer, Hannah Holmes.

". . . a howling wilderness of three thousand square miles full of all imaginable freaks of a fiery nature." —Rudyard Kipling

Volcanoes can excite; deadly hot lava can be downright cool. But what about those other subterranean forces that make themselves known in slightly more subtle ways? Step onto a terrain that shifts with every season (and sometimes everyday), where the colors of rock and water are a bountiful as the rainbow and the geysers seem to dance with wild passion. Well, maybe it's not that subtle.


It's Yellowstone, the oldest national park in America, where the incredible expanses captured both explorer and politician enough to give this land that protective distinction. While 'traditional' volcanoes (such as Mount St. Helens or Mount Etna) have a special place in the hearts of lava-lovers or ash-enthusiasts, Yellowstone is quite different in its fascination.


When you enter the park, you are driving right into a caldera, a volcanic region of unprecedented size (the word is originally from Spanish and Latin, meaning "cooking pot"). Just beneath your feet, the magma boils and the pressure builds. However, instead of molten rock in more mature volcanoes, the young Yellowstone region releases its pressure in the form of gasses, steam and earthquakes. Heat flow, higher than almost anywhere on the continental earth, is the primary reason Yellowstone is so unique. It is no wonder that the first explorers to see this spectacular place were awe-struck by its matchless beauty and danger.


Witness John Colter's heaven or hell through Aubrey Haines' book.


See Old Faithful blow every 90 minutes or so.

"We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place - or not to bother." —Dr. Jane Goodall

Gregory Bateson was a philosopher, author, photographer, filmmaker, naturalist, poet, but foremost an anthropologist. He and his wife - another well known anthropologist - Margaret Mead, led the way in studying visual communication, cybernetics, and the related logic of biological and artificial systems. His work on the evolutionary process of thinking was ground-breaking and widely recognized in his writings for Steps to an Ecology of Mind.


The book starts with a series of metalogues between a father and daughter. Bateson defines metalogues as "conversations about some problematic subject... such that not only do the participants discuss the problem but the structure of the conversation as a whole also relevant to the same subject." In other words, the conversation evolves and adjusts to its surroundings, also known as its interpretative frame. Take a look:


Daughter:   Daddy, why do Frenchmen wave their arms about?
Father:   What do you mean?
D:   I mean when they talk. Why do they wave their arms and all that?
F:   Well - why do you smile? Or why do you stamp your foot sometimes?
D:   But that's not the same thing, Daddy. I don't wave my arms about like a Frenchman does. I don't believe they can stop doing it, Daddy. Can they?
F:   I don't know - they might find it hard to stop.... Can you stop smiling?
D:   But Daddy, I don't smile all the time. It's hard to stop when I feel like smiling. But I don't feel like it all the time. And then I stop.
F:   That's true - but when a Frenchman doesn't wave his arms in the same way all the time. Sometimes he waves them in one way and sometimes in another - and sometimes, I think, he stops waving them.


This is only a taste of his problem-defining and problem-solving discussions in the book, where a greater connection between man and nature is revealed. Bateson would be celebrating his 98th birthday today (born May 9, 1904): he died July 4, 1980 after battling lung cancer.


Learn more about this extraordinary man and his accomplishments.


Listen in on a conversation between Gregory and Margaret.