Mark Piesing

Oxford

"Diligent and delightful," I write on sci, tech+history @airandspace @BBC_Future @TheSpectator | Author N-4 DOWN @marinerbooks | Finalist Aviation Media Awards

Articles

Why Norway is restoring its Cold War military bunkers

3 weeks ago | bbc.com | Mark Piesing

Why Norway is restoring its Cold War military bunkersNorwegian Armed ForcesBunkers like the ones at Bardufoss can keep expensive fighter planes safe from attacks by drones (Credit: Norwegian Armed Forces)Norway's proximity to the USSR during the Cold War led to it building many military bunkers – some of them vast secret bases for planes and ships. Tensions with Russia have brought the bunkers back into focus. Tourists in their hundreds of thousands visit northern Norway each year.
Pathfinder 1: The airship that could usher in a new age

2 months ago | bbc.com | Mark Piesing

Pathfinder 1: The airship that could usher in a new ageLTA ResearchPathfinder 1, bankrolled by a Google billionaire, is an attempt to revive the airship. A century after terrifying disasters, is a safe-enough bet?
Pathfinder 1: The airship that could usher in a new age

2 months ago | flipboard.com | Mark Piesing

Which mammal holds its breath the longest? Meet the extreme deep-sea diver that can hold its breath for almost 4 hoursThe average human can hold their breath for between 30 to 90 seconds – but what mammal holds its breath for the longest, and for how long? While …
Servant or master?

2 months ago | thebookseller.com | Mark Piesing

I open Grammarly and upload a chunk of a chapter, and soon it queries a word I have used. It is an archaic word, but I like it and want to keep it, so I click "dismiss". Moments later, it queries it for a second time, and I again dismiss its suggestion. Then it does it one more time, and again I dismiss it – and it does it again, and I have quickly found myself in a battle of wills with the tool that is meant to be helping me.
Sunil Amrith's The Burning Earth bristles with indignation

Oct 25, 2024 | thespectator.com | Peter Frankopan |Toby Young |Mark Piesing |Philip Womack

“Walking by the banks of the Chao Praya on a breezy evening after a day of intense heat,” writes Sunil Amrith at the start of his melancholic new book, “I struggled to connect the scene before me.” While the river that flows through Bangkok looked idyllic, “crowded with noisy pleasure boats festooned with lights,” Amrith was struck by the realization that half of the city “could be underwater by the end of this century.” This thought was the latest stage in a process that he says has taken...
Cómo se construyen los "sarcófagos" subterráneos para aislar peligrosos residuos nucleares

Oct 23, 2024 | 24horas.cl | Mark Piesing

Es un día frío de inicios del verano boreal. Pero a 450 metros bajo las onduladas colinas de la región de Champaña, en el noreste de Francia, hace mucho más calor. Las luces fluorescentes de esta instalación son brillantes y el aire es seco. Puedo saborear el polvo de la atmósfera. Las pesadas mascarillas de emergencia que tengo que llevar conmigo me recuerdan los peligros a los que podría enfrentarme a esa profundidad.
The powerful, gripping and brutal story of Polish resistance fighter Elżbieta Zawacka

Oct 21, 2024 | thespectator.com | Mark Piesing |Esme Bright |Philip Womack |Frank Lawton

In May 1942, Agent Zo was in the home stretch after a long and risky mission that had placed her in Berlin, at the heart of Nazi Germany. As usual, she picked up a small stone and threw it at the second-floor window of her sister’s apartment in a grimy industrial city in occupied Poland, south of Warsaw. But no one in the flat turned on a light, the agreed signal. She threw another. Nothing happened.
The powerful, brutal story of Polish resistance fighter Elżbieta Zawacka

Oct 21, 2024 | thespectator.com | Mark Piesing |John Keiger |Jonathan Sumption |Michael Moorcock

In May 1942, Agent Zo was in the home stretch after a long and risky mission that had placed her in Berlin, at the heart of Nazi Germany. As usual, she picked up a small stone and threw it at the second-floor window of her sister’s apartment in a grimy industrial city in occupied Poland, south of Warsaw. But no one in the flat turned on a light, the agreed signal. She threw another. Nothing happened.
How to build a nuclear tomb to last millennia

Oct 19, 2024 | bbc.com | Mark Piesing

How to build a nuclear tomb to last millenniaTapani Karjanlahti/ TVONuclear waste remains toxic for thousands of years. How do you build a storage facility that will keep it safely buried for millennia? It is a chilly day early in the summer. But 1,500ft (450m) beneath the rolling hills of the Champagne region in northeastern France, it feels much warmer. This facility's fluorescent lights are bright, and the air is dry. I can taste the dust in the atmosphere.
The Secret History of Drones

Sep 23, 2024 | airandspace.si.edu | Mark Piesing

Pilotless aircraft have been around longer than you might think. In 1898, newspapers heralded the dawn of a new age with the invention of a device that would “render fleets and guns useless.” Physical distance was said to “have no effect on its magic results,” which could be controlled “with the touch of a switchboard key.” On top of that, the device didn’t cost much.