Adventurers Contribute to Science A nonprofit pairs researchers
with extreme athletes. During a recent ascent of Mount Everest,
world-renowned alpinists Willie and Damian Benegas stopped at
about 21,000 feet to pick a few plants. They were helping out
microbiologist Rusty Rodriguez, who studies how fungi enable
plants to adapt to stress. “It’s not an area I’m ever going to
be able to get to, that’s for sure,” Rodriguez says. “There’s
limited funding for science anymore. Yet there are people
traveling all over the world to unique places. To have them
collect data for us is a real service.” The partnership is just
one of dozens set up through Adventurers and Scientists for
Conservation, a nonprofit that pairs researchers with extreme
athletes. Enlisting adventurers from the famous, like the
Benegas brothers, to intrepid college students, the unlikely
teams have enhanced the understanding of grizzly bears, ice
worms, microbes, and more. Gregg Treinish founded the
organization last January after spending two year