Borneo's Methane-Bubbling Seabed

Scientists exploring a cave in Borneo found that a child had undergone a successful surgical leg amputation over 30,000 years ago, surviving 6-9 years afterward with no signs of infection, pushing back the origins of complex surgery by tens of thousands of years. In 2022, researchers in Gabon then watched wild chimpanzees catch flying insects, squeeze them between their lips, and deliberately apply them to the open wounds of unrelated individuals, suggesting that medicine itself may predate our species.

Deep within Borneo's limestone mountains lies the oldest figurative painting ever discovered.

Here in the Celebes Sea, green sea turtles navigate thousands of kilometers of open ocean by sensing the planet's invisible magnetic field.

In a remote Borneo jungle, ancient microbes build the cave walls that display the world's oldest figurative art.

In Borneo's Mahakam Delta, vast underground fires smolder for years, releasing more carbon than millions of cars and creating a haze that can darken skies across Southeast Asia.

An invisible ocean boundary where Asian wildlife ends and Australian wildlife begins. The strait between Bali and Lombok is only 35 km wide, yet tigers never crossed while kangaroos never went the other way. Even during Ice Ages when sea levels dropped, this trench remained too deep.