Latest news with #mermaids
The Independent
16-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Study unravels mystery of how Haenyeo women spend hours underwater without oxygen
A new DNA analysis of Korea's all-women extreme divers has uncovered genetic adaptations that uniquely protect them from the intense stresses of plunging into coastal waters without oxygen. The Haenyeo women live their entire lives diving off Jeju Island, 50 miles south of mainland South Korea, spending hours each day harvesting seaweed, abalone, and other food items from the seafloor. The women, often dubbed real-life mermaids, have been diving to the ocean floor, without oxygen, for hundreds of years. The practice is waning, however, and most accomplished divers are now in their 60s and 70s. 'The practice of breath-hold diving is so integral to Jeju's culture that the shortening of words characteristic of the Jeju language is colloquially attributed to the need for divers to communicate quickly at the water's surface,' scientists who conducted the new analysis say. Some Haenyeo divers jump into the sea even during pregnancy when women must avoid potentially fatal blood pressure conditions like preeclampsia. What exactly enables the Haenyeo women to survive such extreme conditions has remained elusive. Studies have shown that factors like relative isolation shape the genetics and physiology of human populations such as those in Greenland and Tibet. Now, scientists have confirmed that the Haenyeo, renowned for their remarkable diving abilities in frigid waters, are another such population that has 'evolved for diving'. Typically, holding the breath while diving not only limits the body's oxygen supply but also raises blood pressure. In other contexts, such as sleep apnea, holding the breath is associated with pregnancy-related blood pressure disorders. 'This is not something that every human or every woman can do,' says evolutionary biologist Diana Aguilar-Gómez from the University of California, Los Angeles. 'It's kind of like they have a superpower.' 'They're absolutely extraordinary women. Every day, they head out and get in the water, and that's where they work all day. I saw women over 80 diving off a boat before it even stopped moving,' genetics researcher Melissa Ilardo from the University of Utah adds. The new study examined whether the Haenyeo women's diving abilities were aided by genetic differences. It measured factors related to their diving ability such as blood pressure and heart rate and sequenced their DNA. The study, published in Cell Reports, found two changes related to diving physiology that appeared to give the Haenyeo advantages underwater. One change makes the women over four times more likely than mainland Koreans to have a genetic change linked to lower blood pressure while diving, keeping them and their unborn children safe even when they dive during pregnancy. The second genetic adaptation appears to provide them greater tolerance to pain, specifically against cold-based pain. Even when air temperatures off Jeju Island drop to around freezing point in the winter, the Haenyeo don't stop diving. 'I asked them once if they would stop diving if it got cold enough,' Dr Ilardo said. 'They said that as long as the wind alarm doesn't go off, they'll still get in the water. The wind alarm is to keep them from blowing out to sea.' In addition, a lifetime of practice appears to be central to what makes the Korean women's diving abilities special. Previous studies have found that lifetime divers, whether Haenyeo or not, experience subtle heart rate changes to conserve oxygen for longer. But while an untrained person may see their heartbeat slow down by about 20 beats per minute over a simulated dive, an accomplished Haenyeo diver experiences a drop up to twice that number, researchers say. The latest study linking genetic differences to diving ability could advance health care for high blood pressure conditions, like stroke. 'If there's something about it that actually reduces the risk of stroke mortality, then we could help people everywhere by understanding what's special about these women,' Dr Ilardo said.
Times
13-05-2025
- Business
- Times
The best bespoke yacht trips for children and parents
• This article contains affiliate links that can earn us revenue For those families with dreamy budgets, who can travel wherever they fancy on their own or with a chartered superyacht, the British travel company Pelorus ( has a simple answer to the perennial question of 'what should we do with the children this summer?' They ask the children what sorts of experiences and activities they would like to do. Then they start planning magic-filled expeditions that might spark their passions. Last year, for instance, Cecilia, aged seven, said, 'I want to swim with mermaids and rescue turtles.' Turtles were no problem: the planners created an itinerary for the 45-metre sailing yacht Celestia from which she could watch green turtles and manta rays while snorkelling in Komodo. And mermaids? 'We hired a freediver to dress up,' Geordie Mackay-Lewis, the co-founder and chief executive of the company, says. 'The kids spent the afternoon in a glass-bottom kayak and snorkelling with her.' Treasure hunts costing anything from £12,000 to six figures are a stock in trade, in settings from Antigua to Costa Rica, with a novel-worthy narrative and actors in pirate costume. 'We can bury chests on a remote beach or underwater,' Mackay-Lewis says. 'When kids can't dive because they're too young, we use remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to go down and unlock the chest, grab a scroll and bring it back up to the surface.' This means parents are off the hook to sip cocktails on the aft deck of the yacht, which works well for everyone. 'Teenagers usually respond well to a guide,' says Rob McCallum, the co-founder of Eyos ( which has led 1,500 expeditions across all five oceans and seven continents. 'The guide is showing them cool things they might not want to be seen to be learning in front of Mum and Dad. But a guide is independent.' Eyos's guides are extravagantly overqualified. 'They'll have their own specialist discipline but will be able to speak with authority on history, geography and climate as well as having all sorts of field skills,' says McCallum, who has led submersible missions to all of the world's 10,000-metre-plus trenches, the Titanic (seven times) and has broken expedition records in the Ross Sea and North West Passage. If tropical climes are a client's scene, he recommends hopping through the Solomon Islands to Papua New Guinea, where children might learn how coconuts are harvested, play with locals — 'kids are a passport to another culture' — snorkel reefs or go bamboo rafting down a freshwater river. In Antarctica, meanwhile, McCallum suggests a wildlife-focused itinerary, starting at Punta Arenas in Chile and then flying two hours to King George Island to meet an expedition yacht to go on to the great white south. To prepare younger children for expeditions off the mothership on Zodiac tenders, they might sketch different species of penguin, so when they do see them on the journey they can identify them — and perhaps teach their parents a few things. Attaching experts to a trip can deepen the experience further. For Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, Eyos has used a professor of anthropology and a marine biologist, while for the Antarctic McCallum would recommend a penguin researcher and a PhD-level cetacean specialist. Pelorus's experts have included astronauts for stargazing cruises with space-mad children, BBC photographers for wildlife expeditions and Michelin-starred chefs for foraging adventures. Prices for their time run from £700 to more than £7,000 a day. Whether it's through experts or imaginative approaches, the idea is to take an extraordinary experience and make it transformative. 'Even for kids that are privileged, not many have seen 'a whale being a whale',' McCallum says. 'To spend quality time with one while it's feeding as a family pod …' Well, you might say it's priceless but that's not quite true. Certain yachts lend themselves to family trips more than others. Legend, which costs about €1.5 million for ten days with Eyos, is popular in the Antarctic. At 77.4 metres it can accommodate an extended family of 22 and keep everyone busy between the Swedish spa, cinema, 200-metre-rated submarine and every conceivable water toy and bit of ice-diving equipment. The 126-metre Octopus ($3 million for ten days), originally built for the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has dual helipads, a cinema, glass-bottomed observation lounge, spa, pool and an internal marina with decompression chamber from which to easily deploy its expedition kit. • The most expensive yachts that cost €3 million a week Next year the ultimate family toy will be launched: the 194.9m REV Ocean, whose back half is a cutting-edge research vessel and front half a serious superyacht. During charters through the brokerage house Burgess ( the in-house science team can custom-design projects for families using the expedition specialist Joro Experiences ( As well as a 6,000-metre ROV and a submarine that can go down to 2,300m, there will be a broadcast-quality media room where teens could create a documentary and, quite possibly, hologram tech in the two-deck auditorium, so David Attenborough could be beamed in for an afternoon lecture. Price on application — make that call near a fainting couch.
Gizmodo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Mikey Madison and Kirsten Dunst Join Mermaid Thriller Reptilia
Last month, we learned Mikey Madison, fresh off her Best Actress Oscar win for Anora, declined to join the cast of Star Wars: Starfighter. Now, we know what her next big role is, and it's an interesting one: Reptilia, a movie about mermaids. Per the Hollywood Reporter, this is a 'unique thriller' wherein a dental hygienist winds up 'seduced by a mysterious mermaid into the dark and wet underworld of Florida's exotic animal trade.' Madison's costar is Kirsten Dunst, recently of Civil War and the upcoming Roofman, and according to THR's Borys Kit, she'll be the one doing the seducing. The film, which begins production in the fall, comes courtesy of director Alejandro Landes Echavarría, director of 2019's war thriller Monos, working off a script he cowrote with Duke Merriman. Not counting the recent Little Mermaid remake, it's been a while since we've had a major movie about the undersea people. But we're in an era where classic monsters like vampires and mummies are coming back to the silver screen (or Netflix), so Reptilia is coming in at a good time. Can't wait to see more about it, and what a mermaid's doing over in Florida, in the coming months
