First double above-knee amputee conquers Everest

Hari Budha Magar hopes his achievement will inspire others to ‘climb their own mountains’

published 25 May 2023

A former British Army Gurkha has become the first double above-knee amputee to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Hari Budha Magar, who lost his legs in an explosion while serving in Afghanistan in 2010, started planning the challenge in 2018, to raise funds for veterans’ charities. Speaking from base camp last week, he described the climb in freezing conditions, using specially adapted prosthetic legs, as “harder than I could have imagined”, but said he hoped it would prove an inspiration. “My big goals were simply to change perceptions on disability and to inspire other people to climb their own mountains.”

Titanic 3D ‘digital twin’ is created

Research scientists have created a “digital twin” – an exact 3D scan – of the Titanic, to reveal the wreck as it has never been seen before. Owing to the lack of light 12,500ft below the surface of the Atlantic, photographs of the liner have only shown small parts of it at a time. The new reconstruction, created using 715,000 images covering every inch of the wreck, reproduces it in extraordinary detail and clarity – and should shed new light on why, exactly, the ship sank.

Farmers use stable laboratory to test river pollution

A group of farmers in Wiltshire have created a makeshift laboratory in a stable, so that they can monitor pollution levels in a local chalk stream. The 31 members of Wylye Valley Farmers have raised £18,000 to buy a photometer that will enable them to test nitrate and phosphates levels in the Wylye – and help them pinpoint their source. They say they are braced for one of their own being identified as a culprit, but told The Times that their aim is to find solutions that will lead to a cleaner river, not to prosecute people.