The Rock Beneath the Foundation

In 2010, engineers in Santiago, Chile, drilled a narrow borehole 2,300 feet into the earth to reach thirty-three miners trapped in the San José copper mine. For seventeen days, no one on the surface knew if anyone below was alive. When the drill finally broke through, a note came back wrapped around the bit: "Estamos bien en el refugio, los 33" — "All 33 of us are well in the shelter."…