Dan Buettner
Encyclopedia
Dan Buettner is an American explorer
, educator
, author, public speaker and co-producer
of an Emmy Award
-winning documentary
who also holds three world record
s for endurance bicycling. He is the founder of the online Quest Network, Inc., which provides opportunities for students to interactively engage with explorers on expedition. In February 2007, an expedition led by Buettner to Nicoya
, Costa Rica
uncovered the longest-lived people known in the Western Hemisphere
.
After graduating from the College of St. Thomas in 1984, Buettner took a year to explore Spain
before taking a job with National Public Radio in Washington, D.C.
recruiting celebrity participation in a fund-raising croquet
tournament with journalist George Plimpton
.
to Argentina
and was completed in 1987; the second, "Sovietrek", in 1990 covered 12,888 miles; the third, inspired by 1992's Los Angeles riots, was "Africatrek", covering 11,885 miles through Africa
. Buettner has completed these treks in spite of suffering from Ménière's disease
.
In February 1995, he and a team including Mayanist Julie Acuff, photographer Douglas Mason, and his two brothers, Steve and Nick, embarked on a three-month, 3,244-mile mountain bicycling expedition known as MayaQuest. They travelled through Mexico
's Yucatan Peninsula
, Belize
, Guatemala
, and Honduras
to gain insights into the causes of the collapse of the Maya civilization
around A.D. 900. Carrying laptop computers and a minisatellite dish on loan from Rockwell
, these adventurers were able to link up with 40,000 schools involved in the project via Prodigy, as well as other Internet users. The team logged on twice a week, uploaded their findings, fielded questions from students and teachers, and received input from more than one million online participants.
Buettner first utilized the internet in publicizing his adventures on the last of these trips, as he and his companions posted on Mosaic
the details. The last of these trips also became the subject of an Emmy-winning PBS documentary co-produced by Buettner and a book he authored, Afratrek: A Journey by Bicycle through Africa, which won the Young Reader Award of Scientific American
.
His Africatrek
and MayaQuest were adapted into educational computer games by MECC
in the late 90s.
and longevity
and began his research into "blue zones
", his term for the regions on Earth with the longest life expectancy, disability-free life expectancy or concentration of persons over 100, He began investigating these "blue zones" with physicians and demographers, focusing his initial efforts in Sardinia
, Italy
; Okinawa, Japan
;, Monterrey
, Nuevo Leon
and Loma Linda
, California
.
Buettner reported his interest in "blue zones" in his cover story for National Geographic Magazine
's November 2005 edition, "Secrets of Longevity". When Costa Rica
n demographer Dr. Luis Rosero-Bixby revealed in 2005 that Costa Ricans who survive to the age of 60 "have the longest life expectancy of anyone in the world", National Geographic funded an expedition led by Buettner to investigate. Buettner's expedition confirmed Rosero-Bixby's findings and discovered further that in the specific region of Nicoya
, in the northwestern part of Costa Rica, residents were longer-lived even than other Costa Ricans, making it the "blue zone" of the Americas
.
In April 2008, Buettner released a book on his findings, The Blue Zone: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest, through National Geographic Books.
. His next Quest Network project covered his return visit to Nicoya in early 2007. Quest Network's interactive classroom experiences allow students worldwide to vote on upcoming activities of the expedition team.
Exploration
Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
, educator
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, author, public speaker and co-producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
of an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-winning documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
who also holds three world record
World record
A world record is usually the best global performance ever recorded and verified in a specific skill or sport. The book Guinness World Records collates and publishes notable records of all types, from first and best to worst human achievements, to extremes in the natural world and beyond...
s for endurance bicycling. He is the founder of the online Quest Network, Inc., which provides opportunities for students to interactively engage with explorers on expedition. In February 2007, an expedition led by Buettner to Nicoya
Nicoya
Nicoya is a town in Costa Rica's Guanacaste province, and one of its most important tourist zones. It serves as a transport hub to Guanacaste's beaches and national parks. According to the 2000 census, the city's population was 13,334—second only to Liberia in the province...
, Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
uncovered the longest-lived people known in the Western Hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
.
Early life
Raised by an adventurous father, Buettner's appreciation of travel was encouraged by a series of international trips he won as a teenager selling newspapers. His brothers Steve and Nick also followed in their father's footsteps.After graduating from the College of St. Thomas in 1984, Buettner took a year to explore Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
before taking a job with National Public Radio in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
recruiting celebrity participation in a fund-raising croquet
Croquet
Croquet is a lawn game, played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport. It involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing court.-History:...
tournament with journalist George Plimpton
George Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, and actor. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.-Early life:...
.
Expeditions
The experience taught him a lot about the fundraising value of publicity, so he set off to achieve several world records, cycling thousands of miles on several continents. The first trip, called "Americastrek", covered 15,500 miles from AlaskaAlaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and was completed in 1987; the second, "Sovietrek", in 1990 covered 12,888 miles; the third, inspired by 1992's Los Angeles riots, was "Africatrek", covering 11,885 miles through Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. Buettner has completed these treks in spite of suffering from Ménière's disease
Ménière's disease
Ménière's disease is a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance to a varying degree. It is characterized by episodes of vertigo and tinnitus and progressive hearing loss, usually in one ear. It is named after the French physician Prosper Ménière, who, in an article published...
.
In February 1995, he and a team including Mayanist Julie Acuff, photographer Douglas Mason, and his two brothers, Steve and Nick, embarked on a three-month, 3,244-mile mountain bicycling expedition known as MayaQuest. They travelled through Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
's Yucatan Peninsula
Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel...
, Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, and Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
to gain insights into the causes of the collapse of the Maya civilization
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
around A.D. 900. Carrying laptop computers and a minisatellite dish on loan from Rockwell
Rockwell International
Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate in the latter half of the 20th century, involved in aircraft, the space industry, both defense-oriented and commercial electronics, automotive and truck components, printing presses, valves and meters, and industrial automation....
, these adventurers were able to link up with 40,000 schools involved in the project via Prodigy, as well as other Internet users. The team logged on twice a week, uploaded their findings, fielded questions from students and teachers, and received input from more than one million online participants.
Buettner first utilized the internet in publicizing his adventures on the last of these trips, as he and his companions posted on Mosaic
Mosaic (web browser)
Mosaic is the web browser credited with popularizing the World Wide Web. It was also a client for earlier protocols such as FTP, NNTP, and gopher. Its clean, easily understood user interface, reliability, Windows port and simple installation all contributed to making it the application that opened...
the details. The last of these trips also became the subject of an Emmy-winning PBS documentary co-produced by Buettner and a book he authored, Afratrek: A Journey by Bicycle through Africa, which won the Young Reader Award of Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
.
Activities in Support of Classroom Education
In 1993, Buettner first began transmitting videos and stories from his expeditions into classrooms and in 1995 founded "Earthtreks, Inc." to support that effort. He sold the company to textbook publisher Classroom Connect in 1997, but continued to lead expeditions until 2004.His Africatrek
Africa Trail
Africa Trail is an educational computer game based on the similar idea of The Oregon Trail. It was published by The Learning Company. In this game, players traveled across Africa via bicycle. Players choose three of six people to aid them in their trip. You can start in Bizerte, Tunisia; Lagos,...
and MayaQuest were adapted into educational computer games by MECC
MECC
The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium , most commonly known as MECC, was an organization founded in 1973. The goal of the organization was to coordinate and provide computer services to schools in the state of Minnesota; however, its software eventually became popular in schools around...
in the late 90s.
Blue zone research
During his bicycling trips, Buettner became interested in demographicsDemographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
and longevity
Longevity
The word "longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography or known as "long life", especially when it concerns someone or something lasting longer than expected ....
and began his research into "blue zones
Blue Zone
A Blue Zone is a region of the world where people commonly live active lives past the age of 100 years. Scientists and demographers have classified these longevity hot-spots by having common healthy traits and life practices that result in higher-than-normal longevity.The name Blue Zone seems to...
", his term for the regions on Earth with the longest life expectancy, disability-free life expectancy or concentration of persons over 100, He began investigating these "blue zones" with physicians and demographers, focusing his initial efforts in Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
; Okinawa, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
;, Monterrey
Monterrey
Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...
, Nuevo Leon
Nuevo León
Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...
and Loma Linda
Loma Linda
Loma Linda may refer to:* Loma Linda, California, a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States**Loma Linda Academy, a K-12 college preparatory WASC-accredited school run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Buettner reported his interest in "blue zones" in his cover story for National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic, formerly the National Geographic Magazine, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. It published its first issue in 1888, just nine months after the Society itself was founded...
's November 2005 edition, "Secrets of Longevity". When Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
n demographer Dr. Luis Rosero-Bixby revealed in 2005 that Costa Ricans who survive to the age of 60 "have the longest life expectancy of anyone in the world", National Geographic funded an expedition led by Buettner to investigate. Buettner's expedition confirmed Rosero-Bixby's findings and discovered further that in the specific region of Nicoya
Nicoya
Nicoya is a town in Costa Rica's Guanacaste province, and one of its most important tourist zones. It serves as a transport hub to Guanacaste's beaches and national parks. According to the 2000 census, the city's population was 13,334—second only to Liberia in the province...
, in the northwestern part of Costa Rica, residents were longer-lived even than other Costa Ricans, making it the "blue zone" of the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
.
In April 2008, Buettner released a book on his findings, The Blue Zone: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest, through National Geographic Books.
Quest Network, Inc
Following his association with Earthtreks, Buettner founded a new company, Quest Network, Inc., to carry on his educational goals, beginning with his 2005 "blue zone" exploration of Okinawa, JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. His next Quest Network project covered his return visit to Nicoya in early 2007. Quest Network's interactive classroom experiences allow students worldwide to vote on upcoming activities of the expedition team.
External links
- Blue Zones website founded by Dan Buettner