Printed on August 27, 2007 National Geographic Channel

January 2009 Archives

Explorer Goes Inside Guantanamo

January 12, 2009 4:18 PM

"So much of what defines us as a nation in the last decade is crystallized at Guantanamo. And whatever you think about Guantanamo ... it will soon be gone."

-- Director Jon Else

As reported today in the news, the military prison at Guantanamo Bay is something of a controversial topic. Over the past eight years this military prison has been a lightning rod of controversy.

Allegations of torture, illegal incarceration and human rights abuses have turned this military detention center on the island of Cuba, created following the September 11 terrorist attacks, into a potent symbol of America's war on terror. Now facing closure, "Gitmo's" legacy -and the fate of its estimated 250 remaining detainees -- remains in question.

As President-elect Barack Obama discusses options for shutting it down, National Geographic Channel's Explorer offers viewers a surprisingly intimate portrait of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay in its twilight. In a special two-hour episode premiering in April 2009, Explorer: Inside Guantanamo goes behind the razor wire to document what life is really like for the detainees and the military personnel who guard them.

Explorer's crew spent nearly three weeks inside the prison, documenting the pressurized interaction and contest of wills among soldiers and detainees, as well as briefings and operations that have previously been off-limits. The film includes candid interviews with troopers at Guantanamo, top officials who believe there is an active al-Qaida cell in the facility, a former interrogator and former detainees, as well as attorneys representing those still being held.

Have an opinion of whats going on in Guantanamo? Tell Us. Sound off in our Explorer forum.

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Virus Hunters

By Greg Chapman

January 8, 2009 10:32 AM

David Elisco

Producer

Biologists Mark Young looks me straight in the eye, sizing me up, wondering if I am prepared for what he is about to say. We are standing, in a barren landscape, a wasteland. Steam pours from the ground, blanketing us, and there's a strong stench of sulfur in the air. Nearby hot springs gurgle and churn with water that can reach in access of 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and some pools are so acidic that they would instantly burn human flesh. Young is a virus hunter. And he and his hunting partner, chemist Trevor Douglas, venture to some of the most extreme environments on Earth in pursuit of their quarry.

I anxiously wait for Young to speak; he draws a deep breath, and then says, "Look, I think it's really easy to come to the conclusion, and I've come there, that we are viruses."

Humans are viruses? What could that possibly mean?

Young's statement isn't the only shocking declaration I've heard lately. I'm producing a film that investigates a startling new idea that posits that viruses are a major driver - and perhaps the major driver--in the evolution of life on Earth.

Continue reading Virus Hunters.

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January 2009 Archives

Explorer Goes Inside Guantanamo

Virus Hunters

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