In the early 20th century, Western explorers became obsessed with the peak of Mount Everest. The roughly 29,000-foot-tall mountain had never been summited before, and the first person to do so would earn a spot in the record books.  Among those who tried was George Mallory. In 1922, he was at the top of the mountaineering world, having just set a world altitude record on Everest; that expedition later earned his team Olympic medals for alpinism. But despite knowing the dangers of the mountain — several porters didn’t survive the 1922 expedition — he continued to pursue the summit, ultimately disappearing on Everest’s Northeast Ridge in 1924.  Prior to his fatal attempt, a reporter asked Mallory why he wanted to climb the mountain, to which he famously replied, “Because it’s there.” But plenty of other people knew Mount Everest existed and had no desire to summit it. So what sets people like Mallory — we’ll call them “elite risk-takers” — apart from the rest of us? Wired for adventure Biology seems to play a small …