New Scientist
Image: Marcos Martinón-Torres
The first English people to settle permanently in the Americas included early scientists, known as “chymists”, who battled hunger and disease in an ill-fated bid to find and mine gold.
In the early 17th century, the English were eager to explore and exploit North America. It had been just over 100 years since Christopher Columbus’s first transatlantic voyages, and during that time, the Spanish had mined large quantities of gold and silver from South and Central America.
The English failed to find gold – but while this has previously been attributed to a lack of skill, it turns out geology was to blame. Read more on newscientist.com…
