Nat Geo Science

Tiny, Robotic Bees Could Change the World Robert Wood, a National Geographic 2014 Emerging Explorer and award-winning engineer, is working on entirely new classes of robots—including a fleet of tiny, robotic bees—that may one day transform space exploration, agriculture, and search-and-rescue operations.

Learn more about Robert Wood and his work:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140825-micro-robots-robert-wood-emerging-explorer-science-engineering-technology/

The Explorers Project chronicles the work of National Geographic's Emerging Explorers—tomorrow's visionaries who are making discoveries, making a difference, and inspiring people to care about the planet. Learn more at http://nationalgeographic.com/emerging.

DIRECTOR: Kat Keene Hogue
EDITOR: Julia Wall
COMPOSER: Matt Brandau
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Mike Schmidt and Jason Orfanon
SENIOR PRODUCERS: Anastasia Cronin and Jennifer Shoemaker
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Alexandra Verville
The U.S. Town With No Cell Phones or Wi-Fi Pocahontas County in West Virginia falls within the National Radio Quiet Zone. It’s home to quiet country living, friendly people, and one of the most impressive engineering marvels in the world—the Green Bank Telescope. The GBT measures radio waves from throughout the universe, but due to the telescope's extreme sensitivity, any operating wireless device can have a negative effect on its observations. But to the people who live in the NRQZ, the restrictions and the quiet, peaceful life that comes with them are welcome.

Watch a video about the GBT, the largest fully steerable telescope in the world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGGVy_M0zBY

Read more about the Green Bank Telescope and National Radio Quiet Zone:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141010-radio-telescope-green-bank-west-virginia-astronomy/

PRODUCER & VIDEOGRAPHER: Jason Kurtis
FIELD PRODUCER: Sasha Ingber
EDITOR: Nick Lunn
Breathtaking Time-Lapse Video of Earth From Space Using footage from NASA's Johnson Space Center, filmmaker Fede Castro creates a captivating time-lapse video of Earth from space. In a little over four minutes, "Nuestra Tierra—Our Earth" takes us around the world, sighting major cities and even catching the breathtaking aurora borealis.

See More From Fede Castro.
https://vimeo.com/fedecastro

Music: Divergence - The Black Parrot

The Short Film Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos selected by National Geographic's editors. We look for pieces that emphasize National Geographic's mission of inspiring people to care about the planet. The content presented here was created by the filmmakers themselves. The opinions expressed are those of the filmmakers, and not those of the National Geographic Society.

To submit films for consideration, please email SFS at ngs dot org.
Why Use 3D-Printed Drones? A crash for a typical model aircraft can mean disaster in the form of dollar signs and hours of labor. Enter 3-D printing, which allows for quick modification and the rapid creation of replacement parts. The University of Virginia and Mitre Corporation have teamed up to create a fully autonomous, hand-launchable drone made using a 3-D printer and off-the-shelf parts.

Watch: Can 3D-printed drones help save wildlife?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-GqV-xS138

VIDEOGRAPHER AND EDITOR: Jon Betz
PRODUCER: Sarah Joseph
ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE: Mitchell Powers, UVA
MUSIC: ThisBruceSmith / http://Pond5.com
Amazing POV: Jump With the Original Bungee Jumpers Bungee jumping officially began in 1979, but men on Pentecost Island in the South Pacific have practiced nagol, or land diving, for centuries. In a ritual full of symbolism and spirituality, men dive from a wooden tower up to 100 feet high with nothing but vines attached to their ankles. On a recent voyage aboard the National Geographic Orion, the ship's expedition team helped a jumper attach a wearable camera to his chest, capturing a thrilling view of this ancient tradition.

Learn more about the National Geographic Orion's expeditions:
http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/triptypes/tripsaboardthenationalgeographicorion

Click to see more video highlights from the National Geographic - Lindblad fleet of expedition ships traveling around the globe:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/ngexpeditions/

SENIOR MEDIA PRODUCER: Bill Kinzie
VIDEOGRAPHERS: Jim Napoli, Bill Kinzie, and Josh Newman
EDITORS: Brennan Guerriere, Bill Kinzie, and Jim Napoli
To a Billionth of a Meter: Go Inside a Telescope Mirror Factory Beneath the University of Arizona football stadium sits the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab. There, giant mirrors are meticulously shaped and polished, to be used in telescopes around the world that are helping unravel the mysteries of the universe. The time-consuming production process requires that each mirror's surface be polished down to a billionth of a meter.

Read more about how telescope mirrors help us explore the universe:
http://goo.gl/QG16IG

SENIOR PRODUCER: Jeff Hertrick
PRODUCER: John de Dios
ASSISTANT PRODUCER: Hannah Bergeron
Time-Lapse: Blood Moon Over the National Mall Oct. 8, 2014 - The moon disappeared for the second time in 2014 in a total eclipse seen early Wednesday morning in the Americas, India, and Central Asia. Dubbed the "blood moon," it acquires its reddish hue as sunlight bends through the Earth's atmospheric dust. In this time-lapse video, the blood moon passes over the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Inside an Ebola Clinic in West Africa Get an inside look at a Doctors Without Borders Ebola clinic in Monrovia, Liberia. Physician Daniel Chertow takes us through the clinic and shares his thoughts on what it's like to be volunteering in the midst of an epidemic like no other.

Read a Q&A with photojournalist Neil Brandvold about what it's like to cover an Ebola outbreak:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141016-neil-brandvold-isolation-ebola-health-medicine/

More about Doctors Without Borders
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

More about Plan International
http://plan-international.org/

PRODUCER/VIDEOGRAPHER: Neil Brandvold
SENIOR PRODUCER: Jeff Hertrick
EDITOR: Neil Brandvold
SPECIAL THANKS: Plan International
'River Monster': 50-Foot Spinosaurus Spinosaurus is the largest carnivore to ever walk the Earth. National Geographic Emerging Explorer Nizar Ibrahim and his team in Morocco discovered crucial elements of the dinosaur’s skeleton that led to some interesting conclusions. Spinosaurus may have used all four limbs to walk, unlike other carnivores, and it probably spent much of its time in the water. The dinosaur was first discovered by Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach, a Bavarian aristocrat, more than a century ago. His findings were displayed in Munich until they were destroyed by a bombing during World War II.
A 16-Year-Old Girl’s Solo Sail Around the World When 14-year-old Laura Dekker set out in 2012 to become the youngest person to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe, filmmaker Jillian Schlesinger documented the remarkable 518-day journey. In this excerpt from the full-length documentary Maidentrip, Dekker follows the route her parents took 20 years earlier through French Polynesia. Today, Dekker holds the record for the youngest person to sail around the world by herself.

Learn more about the film.
http://www.maidentrip.com/

Download the full-length documentary from iTunes.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/maidentrip/id824107566

The Short Film Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos selected by National Geographic's editors. We look for pieces that emphasize National Geographic's mission of inspiring people to care about the planet. The content presented here was created by the filmmakers themselves. The opinions expressed are those of the filmmakers, and not those of the National Geographic Society.

To submit films for consideration, please email SFS at ngs dot org.
Eyes: The Windows to Your Health Your eyes are tiny spheres of wonder. A doctor can find warning signs of high blood pressure, diabetes, and a whole range of other systemic health issues, just by examining your eyes. Ophthalmologist Neal Adams explains why the eye's tissues and blood vessels make such a good barometer for wellness.

PRODUCERS: Will Halicks and Hans Weise
EDITOR AND VIDEOGRAPHER: Hans Weise
Are You Eating Plastic for Dinner? This novel 3-D animation dives into how our consumption of plastics has affected marine species deaths and increased human health risks, and it explores possible long-term solutions. Motion graphic artist Andreas Tanner uses his compelling infographics to educate viewers on all aspects of plastic production, consumption, and breakdown. “Due to particular currents in the Pacific Ocean, a new continent has been born: a mass of plastic waste the size of Europe.” Tanner also offers ideas for alternative and sustainable buying habits to reduce our reliance on plastic.

See more from the filmmaker.
http://andix.ch/

Learn more about the film.
http://itsaplasticworld.com/

The Short Film Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos created by filmmakers from around the web and selected by National Geographic’s editors. We look for pieces that emphasize National Geographic's mission of inspiring people to care about the planet. The filmmakers themselves created the content presented here. The opinions expressed are those of the filmmakers, and not those of the National Geographic Society.

To submit films for consideration, please email SFS at ngs dot org.
Artist Inspires the World to Care About the Wild National Geographic 2014 Emerging Explorer Asher Jay translates animal rights and conservation issues into indelible images that demand action. Here, she describes how a nighttime lion encounter in the Serengeti deepened her connection to the wild, and chronicles the experience on canvas.

Learn more about Asher Jay and her work:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141009-emerging-explorer-art-asher-jay-elephant-ivory-china-rhinos-science/

The Explorers Project chronicles the work of National Geographic's Emerging Explorers—tomorrow's visionaries who are making discoveries, making a difference, and inspiring people to care about the planet. Learn more at http://nationalgeographic.com/emerging.

DIRECTOR: Kat Keene Hogue
EDITOR: Julia Wall
COMPOSER: Matt Brandau
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Mike Schmidt and Jason Orfanon
SENIOR PRODUCERS: Anastasia Cronin and Jennifer Shoemaker
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Alexandra Verville
Neil deGrasse Tyson on Creationism, Celebrity, and Kids "Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey" host Neil deGrasse Tyson, always provocative, sat with National Geographic News and talked about kids, the role of scientists, and the debate about teaching creationism in schools.

Learn more about Neil deGrasse Tyson and "Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey":
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/cosmos-a-spacetime-odyssey/

SENIOR PRODUCER: Jeff Hertrick
VIDEOGRAPHERS: Jason Kurtis, Hans Weise, and Art Binkowski
EDITOR: Nick Lunn
Magnificent Giant Tree: Sequoia in a Snowstorm See more: http://bit.ly/TVehd4

The world's second-largest known tree, the President, in Sequoia National Park is photographed by National Geographic magazine photographer Michael "Nick" Nichols for the December 2012 issue. The final photograph is a mosaic of 126 images.

More video can be seen in the magazine's digital editions on iPad, iPhone, and Kindle Fire.

To see Nick's photos, go to http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/12/sequoias/nichols-photography
How Food Can Make Us Sick How often does food make us sick? Our complicated food production system, and the underreporting of food poisoning, makes it hard to tell. But by monitoring the risks in our food chain, we all might dine with a little more confidence.

By 2050 we'll need to feed two billion more people. Click here for a special eight-month series exploring how we can do that—without overwhelming the planet: http://food.nationalgeographic.com
Where Ships Go to Die, Workers Risk Everything In Bangladesh, men desperate for work perform one of the world's most dangerous jobs. They demolish huge ships in grueling conditions, braving disease, pollution, and the threat of being crushed or stabbed by steel sliced from the hulls.

Explore the lives of ship-breakers online in National Geographic magazine:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/05/shipbreakers/gwin-text

PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEOGRAPHY: Mike Hettwer
EDITOR: Spencer Millsap
The Americas' Oldest Most Complete Human Skeleton May 15, 2014--- The skeleton of a teenage girl who lived during the last ice age has been determined to be the oldest most complete human skeleton ever discovered in the New World. Researchers expect that the 12,000- to 13,000-year-old remains, found in an underwater cave in 2007, will increase our understanding of the Americas' first people, and establish a definitive link between earliest Americans and modern Native Americans.

The expedition was led by the Mexican government's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and supported by the National Geographic Society. It will be featured in National Geographic magazine and on a National Geographic/NOVA special that will air on PBS in 2015.

Read more about this exciting discovery at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140515-skeleton-ice-age-mexico-cave-hoyo-negro-archaeology/

SENIOR PRODUCER: Jason Orfanon
EDITOR: Jennifer Murphy
FOOTAGE: National Geographic/NOVA
STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: Paul Nicklen
3-D ANIMATION: Corey Jaskolski, Ann Jaskolski, Roberto Chavez Arce & Ingemar Lundren
National Geographic Investigates the Future of Food By 2050, Earth will likely be home to more than nine billion people. That's a lot of mouths to feed. In a special eight-month series, "The Future of Food," National Geographic investigates how to meet our growing need for nourishment without harming the planet that sustains us.

Join the discussion in National Geographic magazine and online at http://food.nationalgeographic.com/.
Exploring Mars in Utah Join five scientists on a "mission to Mars" in Utah. Photojournalist Jim Urquhart embedded with Crew 138 of the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station for two weeks in March. The crew describes what it's like, in their own words.

VIDEOGRAPHER: Jimmy Urquhart
SENIOR PRODUCER: Jeff Hertrick
EDITOR: Nick Lunn
Journey to Chile's Wild Islands In February 2013, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala led a team of scientists and filmmakers to the Desventuradas Islands off the coast of Chile. What they found there was an abundance of beautiful life and a place in need of protection.

Pristine Seas is a series of expeditions to find, survey, and preserve the last wild places in the ocean. For more information, visit http://www.pristineseas.org.
Time-Lapse: Exploring the Cosmic Dawn Scientists are getting an unprecedented view of the early universe with the help of ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. This group of antennae is the equivalent of a city-size telescopic lens, bringing cosmic nurseries for planets and stars into view.

Learn more about ALMA and the cosmic dawn:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/cosmic-dawn/

PHOTOGRAPHY: Dave Yoder, Peter Wintersteller, and Pilar Elorriaga
EDITOR: Hans Weise
MUSIC: John Kusiak
Roman Shipwreck Raised After 2,000 Years Dive to the bottom of France's Rhône River, and experience the recovery of a sunken Roman boat that remains virtually intact after 2,000 years in the mud.

Learn more about this ancient Roman wreck:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/04/roman-boat/kunzig-text

PRODUCER: Hans Weise
VIDEO COURTESY: Musée Départemental Arles Antique
Ice Racing With Studs Third generation Ice Racer Jimmy Olson says he was born to build and drive. With a custom built engine and studded tires, Jimmy takes the wheel and hits the ice for a heart-pounding ride around the track.

For National Geographic:
PRODUCER: Jason Kurtis

For 3 Strings Productions
VIDEOGRAPHERS: Keith Ladzinski, Nelson Carayannis, Lilly Rosenthal
PRODUCER: Keith Ladzinski
DIRECTOR: Keith Ladzinski
INTERVIEWER: Andrew Bisharat
EDITORS: Keith Ladzinski, Josh Povec
SOUND DESIGN: Keith Ladzinski
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Lilly Rosenthal
Mammoth Tusk Treasure Hunt Siberian hunters once relied on mammoths for their meat. Now, their tusks are the prize. These relics—exposed by climate change, and hunters' increasing efforts to dig them up—can fetch tens of thousands of dollars, inspiring a bustling trade.

Read more about today's mammoth tusk trade:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/125-mammoth-tusks/larmer-text

VIDEOGRAPHER: Maxim Arbugaev
PRODUCER: Shannon Sanders
Stunning Brain Map Reveals Tiny Communication Network In images that one researcher likens to a "Google Map" for brains, a deep dive into a mouse's gray matter shows how its smallest parts communicate, driving the much larger machine of its body.

Explore more secrets of the brain online in National Geographic magazine:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/brain/zimmer-text

PRODUCER: Shannon Sanders
ANIMATIONS AND 3-D RENDERINGS: Jason Treat, Kurt Mutchler, Bryan Christie, Joe Lertola, and the Harvard SEAS Connectome Group: Jeff Lichtman, Seymour Knowles-Barley, Narayanan Kasthuri, Verena Kaynig-Fittkau, Mike Roberts, Amelio Vázquez-Reina, Bjoern Andres, Daniel Berger, Thouis R. Jones, Eric Miller, Hanspeter Pfister, Sebastian Seung (MIT), Richard Schalek, Kenneth Hayworth, and Juan-Carlos Tapia
Time-Lapse: Mesmerizing "Stormscapes" Dominate Skies The menacing, magnificent storm clouds of Wyoming come to swirling life in this time-lapse, "Stormscapes," by photographer Nicolaus Wegner. He braved lightning and the erratic fury of supercell storms to capture these images in the summer of 2013.

Learn more about the time-lapse and how it was made:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140219-great-plains-supercell-thunderstorm-video/

PHOTOGRAPHY AND PRODUCTION: Nicolaus Wegner
http://www.facebook.com/LightalivePhotography
http://www.lightalivephotography.com/

MUSIC: David Donges
http://www.facebook.com/AudioDamageProductions
http://soundcloud.com/xiphon_audio
Meet Our Vintage Collection Archivist, Bill Bonner Bill Bonner presides over eight million images as the longtime keeper of National Geographic's vintage collection. He's a keeper not only of photographs, but memories—and he treats each like it's the greatest treasure in the world.

Read more about Bill Bonner and his work:
http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2014/01/27/the-archivist/

PRODUCER: Kathryn Carlson
Turkish Dam Will Submerge 12,000-Year-Old City Scheduled for completion in 2014, Turkey's Ilisu Dam will generate nearly 2 percent of the country's electricity. It will also submerge dozens of towns on the Tigris River, including 12,000-year-old Hasankeyf. The dam also threatens to dry up Iraq's Mesopotamian marshes some 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) downstream, affecting the people and wildlife who depend on the marshes for survival.

Read more about the effects the dam will have downstream:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140221-tigris-river-dam-hasankeyf-turkey-iraq-water/

PRODUCERS: Anna Ozbek and Julia Harte
SENIOR PRODUCER: Jason Orfanon
VIDEOGRAPHER AND EDITOR: Anna Ozbek
ADDITIONAL AUDIO MIXING: Justin Elliot
MAP GRAPHICS EDITOR: Maggie Smith
Termite-Inspired Robots Can Build Unsupervised Termites building a mound don't need central guidance, or even to communicate directly. Researchers at Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have built robots that work with similar autonomy, as Dr. Justin Werfel explains.

Read more about the robots and the research:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140213-robots-building-blocks-termites-swarm-science-technology/

PRODUCER: Will Halicks
LABORATORY VIDEO: Self-Organizing Systems Research Group, Harvard University
THUMBNAIL PHOTOGRAPH: Eliza Grinnell, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Photographing the Grand Canyon from Space How do you touch space without even leaving the ground? Near Space Photographer John Flaig outfits weather balloons with cameras to capture novel images of iconic landscapes, such as the Grand Canyon.

Explore the Colorado River, the life and soul of the American West:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/americannile/

PRODUCERS: JJ Kelley and Sarah Joseph
VIDEOGRAPHY AND EDITING: JJ Kelley
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Katy Fox-O'Malley
COMPOSER: Chris Beaty
Making Snow for the Olympics A Michigan-based snowmaking company, SMI Snow Makers, is using the latest technology to create snow for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Their machines create snow crystals that are like two-week-old snow from Mother Nature. But while Mother Nature takes hours or days to manufacture the crystals, SMI's machines make the snow in 3 to 15 seconds.

VIDEOGRAPHERS: Eileen Mignoni and Nacho Corbella
EDITOR: Eileen Mignoni
ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE: SMI Snow Makers
Battling India's Illegal Tiger Trade The overwhelming demand for tiger parts on the Asian market means India's tigers face constant peril from poachers. Conservationist Belinda Wright and her team at the Wildlife Protection Society of India are working to save tigers by helping enforcement authorities track down and arrest suspected poachers.

Read more about Wright's work, and the challenges facing tigers:
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/12/illegal-tiger-trade-why-tigers-are-walking-gold/

PRODUCERS: Sharon Guynup and Steve Winter
VIDEOGRAPHER: Steve Winter
ADDITIONAL VIDEOGRAPHY: Hans Weise
SENIOR PRODUCERS: Jason Orfanon and Sarah Joseph
EDITOR: Jennifer Murphy
MAP GRAPHICS EDITOR: Maggie Smith
PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY: Wildlife Protection Society of India and Steve Winter
MAP RESEARCH DATA: Environmental Investigation Agency and Wildlife Protection Society of India
Building the Largest Space Telescope Ever In a global collaboration between NASA, ESA, and CSA, a team of more than a thousand scientists and engineers are building the largest telescope ever sent into space—the James Webb Space Telescope. Bigger and more powerful than its famous predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Webb telescope will be able to observe some of the earliest light that ever existed in the universe and possibly find clues to where we came from.

Learn more about what's next for the Webb telescope:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140204-nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-top-science/

VIDEOGRAPHERS: Jason Kurtis and Kathryn Carlson
PRODUCER: Jason Kurtis
EDITOR: Jennifer Murphy
ADDITIONAL VIDEO & ANIMATIONS: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and Advanced Visualization Laboratory at NSCA
What's Your Dream Storytelling Project? Get ready for the storytelling opportunity of a lifetime. With the Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship you could get funding to spend nine months abroad, working to bring the major social and environmental issues of our time to a global digital audience—all with the help of National Geographic's editorial staff and expenses provided by the U.S. Department of State's Fulbright Program. We want to know about your dream project covering a global issue that speaks to your curiosity and passion.

What's next? You tell us. Get started here: http://us.fulbrightonline.org/ngs.

Competition deadline: February 28, 2014 5 p.m. EST.
Do You Know Where Your Roses Come From? Boasting springlike temperatures year-round, northern Ecuador has the ideal conditions for growing roses. Supplying nearly a quarter of the roses sold in the U.S., the rose and cut-flower industry in Ecuador is providing thousands of jobs to local residents and keeping families together.

VIDEOGRAPHERS AND PRODUCERS: Jason Kurtis and Ashleigh DeLuca
EDITOR: Jason Kurtis
Beautiful 3-D Brain Scans Show Every Synapse Ultrathin slices of mouse brains offer a mesmerizing look at how brain cells communicate at the tiniest scale. This research may offer clues about how the dance of our own synapses guides and animates us.

Explore more secrets of the brain online in National Geographic magazine:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/brain/zimmer-text

PRODUCER: Shannon Sanders
ANIMATIONS AND 3-D RENDERINGS: Jason Treat, Kurt Mutchler, Bryan Christie, Joe Lertola, and the Harvard SEAS Connectome Group: Jeff Lichtman, Seymour Knowles-Barley, Narayanan Kasthuri, Verena Kaynig-Fittkau, Mike Roberts, Amelio Vázquez-Reina, Bjoern Andres, Daniel Berger, Thouis R. Jones, Eric Miller, Hanspeter Pfister, Sebastian Seung (MIT), Richard Schalek, Kenneth Hayworth, and Juan-Carlos Tapia
How an Amateur Built the World's Biggest Dome In 1418, Filippo Brunelleschi was tasked with building the largest dome ever seen at the time. He had no formal architecture training. Yet experts still don't fully understand the brilliant methods he used in contructing the dome, which tops the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence, Italy.

Read more about the dome in National Geographic magazine online:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/il-duomo/mueller-text

PRODUCER, EDITOR, AND WRITER: Hans Weise
ART DIRECTOR: Fernando G. Baptista
ART AND ANIMATION: Fernando G. Baptista and Matthew Twombly
MAP AND TYPOGRAPHY: Lauren E. James
ADDITIONAL WRITING: Jason Orfanon
NARRATOR: Paula Rich
RESEARCH: Fanna Gebreyesus and Elizabeth Snodgrass
SPECIAL THANKS: Riccardo Dalla Negra, Massimo Ricci, and Francesco Gurrieri
Time-Lapse: Spectacular Landscapes of the Southwest U.S. Filmmaker Anna Possberg went to the American Southwest expecting "dead rocks." What she found, and captured in the time-lapse "Petrified Life," was a rugged landscape alive with the shifting of sun and stars.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND PRODUCTION: Anna Possberg, http://possberg-media.com
MUSIC: David Raiklen, http://davidraiklen.com
Skulls Found in "Evil" Maya Sinkhole Researchers have discovered skulls and other human remains in a submerged cenote considered taboo by locals near the ancient city of Mayapán in Mexico's Yucatán peninsula. The cenote is seen as sacred, and local residents both respect and fear it.

Read more about the "haunted" sinkhole, and what archaeologists found:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140116-maya-mexico-yucatan-cenote-bones-haunted-taboo-archaeology-science/

DIVE VIDEOGRAPHERS: Bradley Russell, Rait Kütt, and Lisseth Pedroza Fuentes
INTERVIEW VIDEOGRAPHERS: Shannon Sanders and Hans Weise
MAPS: Maggie Smith
MAPS SOURCE: Proyecto Económico de Mayapán (PEMY)
SENIOR PRODUCER: Jeff Hertrick
EDITOR: Nick Lunn
Gorgeous Video: Rock Climbing in Oman Climbing Oman's sheer limestone cliffs without a rope is a beautiful, harrowing endeavor. Join a group of hard-core climbers as they tackle a relatively new kind of solo climbing, above water that can be as hard as pavement if the fall is far enough.

Read more about the expedition online in National Geographic magazine:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/01/oman-climb/synnott-text
National Geographic's 2013 Year in Review 2013 was an epic year at National Geographic. We traveled from Everest to Antarctica, from Mongolia to Brazil, to bring you unforgettable stories from around the world. Celebrate the new year with a look back at the best of the old. You'll find even more great photos and videos in our web experience: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/year-in-review-2013/.
Ancient Ancestors Come to Life See our ancient ancestors come to life through paleoartist John Gurche's realistic human likenesses for the Smithsonian's Hall of Human Origins. "The human story is really nothing short of the story of a little corner of the universe becoming aware of itself," says Gurche.

VIDEOGRAPHERS: Gabriella Garcia-Pardo and Dominic Mann
EDITOR: Gabriella Garcia-Pardo
Time-Lapse Captures California's Extraordinary Skies One year—and more than 12,000 photos—in the making, "Into the Atmosphere" is photographer Michael Shainblum's homage to the natural wonders of his native California.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the time-lapse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxxV5mIcI9E

See the time-lapse on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/81616727

Michael Shainblum
http://www.shainblumphoto.com/
https://www.facebook.com/shainblumphoto
Choosing the Year's Best Pictures: 2013 Photo Contest During the month of November, National Geographic magazine invited photographers from around the world to submit photos in three categories: People, Places and Nature. We received more than 7,000 entries from over 150 countries, with amateur and professional photographers across the globe participating.

We asked Senior Photo Editor Susan Welchman, and National Geographic contributing photographers Stephanie Sinclair and Ed Kashi, to judge this year's photo contest at the Society's headquarters in Washington, D.C., on December 9.

Read more about the contest and winners:
http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2013/12/19/the-2013-national-geographic-photography-contest-winners/

See a gallery of winning photos and honorable mentions:
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-contest/2013/entries/gallery/
Discovery: Buddha's Birth Earlier Than Thought The Buddha was born and lived as much as 300 years earlier than some previously thought. At one of Buddhism's most revered pilgrimage sites, a National Geographic archaeologist's team has uncovered evidence that the Buddha lived in the sixth century B.C., much earlier than some scholars had believed. The excavation at Lumbini, Nepal, long identified as the birthplace of the Buddha, revealed a previously unknown timber shrine once stood there, its walls mirroring more recent brick temples.

Read more about the discovery and its significance:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/11/131125-buddha-birth-nepal-archaeology-science-lumbini-religion-history/

A documentary on Coningham's exploration of the Buddha's life, "Buried Secrets of the Buddha," will premiere in February internationally on the National Geographic Channel.
National Geographic Live! - The Moonshot Artist adventurer Dean Potter turns a harrowing slackline walk into a thing of beauty—with a little help from the moon.

Upcoming Events at National Geographic Live!
http://events.nationalgeographic.com/events/

The National Geographic Live! series brings thought-provoking presentations by today's leading explorers, scientists, photographers, and performing artists right to your YouTube feed. Each presentation is filmed in front of a live audience at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. New clips air every Monday.
Onward: Drones Overhead — Protecting Orangutans from Above The population of orangutans in Indonesia has plummeted. But these tree-dwelling great apes can be difficult to find and count. Enter Conservation Drones, a group that flies camera-equipped drones to gather data about orangutans' whereabouts and numbers.

Learn more about Conservation Drones, and other surprising uses for drones:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131202-drone-uav-uas-amazon-octocopter-bezos-science-aircraft-unmanned-robot/

Onward is a project to explore the world and share its untold stories. Hit the road with National Geographic multimedia journalists Spencer Millsap and Dan Stone at http://onward.nationalgeographic.com, or tweet them at @spono and @danenroute to join the conversation.
Crashing a Camera Copter in China's Grand Canyon Minutes into a flight, National Geographic photographer Carsten Peter and remote imaging engineer Brad Henning watch as a malfunctioning radio-controlled heli-cam crashes into China's Enshi Grand Canyon.

Were they able to repair it? Find out on our photo blog, "Proof":
http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/14/crashing-a-helicopter-camera-in-chinas-enshi-grand-canyon/
Onward: A 5,300-Year-Old Mummy with Keys to the Future Anthropologist Albert Zink is trying to solve a classic "cold case": the death of Ötzi the Iceman, the famous mummy preserved in the frozen Italian Alps for millennia. For Zink, the real mystery lies in the ways Ötzi's remains might inform modern-day studies of heart disease.

Read more about Zink's research on Ötzi:
http://onward.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/31/a-5300-year-old-mummy-with-keys-to-the-future/

Onward is a project to explore the world and share its untold stories. Hit the road with National Geographic multimedia journalists Spencer Millsap and Dan Stone at http://onward.nationalgeographic.com, or tweet them at @spono and @danenroute to join the conversation.
Around the World in Seven Years: Paul Salopek Why walk across the planet for seven years? Journalist and National Geographic Fellow Paul Salopek is retracing the migratory path of humankind, from its origins in Ethiopia to the tip of South America. Just as early humans did, he's making this epic journey on foot.

Read Paul Salopek's article—the first in a series—in National Geographic magazine online:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/12/out-of-eden/salopek-text

Watch videos from the worldwide walk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk8DjvwJjLg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91rVcZihfzY

See where Paul is now, and get walk updates:
http://goo.gl/aGa1Wk
Meet the "Underground Astronauts" Recovering Hominid Fossils November 9, 2013—Meet the women described as "underground astronauts"—scientists tasked with squeezing into a narrow cave to recover what's believed to be early hominid bones. It's thought these bones could help shed more light on the origins of humans.

National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Lee Berger is heading the project to retrieve the bones from a largely inaccessible cave in South Africa. Read daily updates from the Rising Star Expedition at our "Explorers Journal" blog: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/tag/rising-star-expedition/.
Visit National Geographic's "Q" in His Inventor's Workshop James Bond wishes he had a "Q" like Walter Boggs. A mechanical engineer, Boggs has been at National Geographic for 32 years, developing technology to help photographers get the shot on their most challenging assignments—from remote-controlled camera cars to a life-size hippopotamus suit.

Read more about Walter and his work:
http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/30/before-the-story-with-walter-boggs/

See some of Walter's inventions at work in the field:
Remot-controlled camera car used to photograph tigers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbpXw95WbHE
Life-size hippopotamus suit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECNxBhkS6jw

PRODUCER: Shannon Sanders
Photographer Revisits Underwater Paradise National Geographic photographer David Doubilet explores the glittering world hidden beneath the waves of Papua New Guinea's Kimbe Bay. After shooting a photo assignment there 17 years ago, he was eager to return.

Hear about the challenges David Doubilet faced in the field:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2fNUos_Emw

See more of his photos from this assignment:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/11/kimbe-bay/doubilet-photography
First Look Inside the Fossil Cave (Expedition Update) Go inside the cave system where researchers have been working to retrieve ancient hominid bones. Steve Tucker and Rick Hunter are the cavers who spotted the remains initially. The two friends were out exploring for fun a few weeks ago, when they squeezed down a 20-meter vertical crack and saw bones—the kinds of fossils local paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Lee Berger had asked their caving club to keep an eye out for.

Read daily updates from the Rising Star Expedition at our "Explorers Journal" blog: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/tag/rising-star-expedition/.
Gorgeous Time-Lapse: Maui's Stunning Skies Sitting on a dormant volcano with a full view of the sky, the U.S. Air Force's Maui Space Surveillance Complex is ideally placed to monitor man-made objects orbiting Earth. This time-lapse from Airman magazine captures some of the truly stellar sights visible from this center, which sits at the top of Mount Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii.

Read more about the Maui Space Surveillance Complex, where these images were taken:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/11/131106-time-lapse-maui-air-force-base-satellites/
Inside Smithsonian's 3D Digitization Lab The Smithsonian's 3D Digitization Lab is not just making copies of artifacts. They're making digital records of objects, including "millions of x-y-z coordinates" for study and future research.

Read the article from National Geographic News:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/09/130904-3d-printing-smithsonian-whale-skeleton-technology-science/

VIDEOGRAPHER: Jason Kurtis
SENIOR PRODUCER: Jeff Hertrick
EDITOR: Jennifer Murphy
ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE: Smithsonian Institution
Climbing Antarctica's Unexplored Mountains A hostile realm battered by titanic winds, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, is one of the most challenging climbing environments on Earth. Four hard-core climbers describe what it takes to tackle the unexplored peaks at the bottom of the world.

Explore the wilds of Antarctica in the September 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/antarctica-climb/wilkinson-text

For National Geographic Magazine
PRODUCER: Spencer Millsap

For 3 Strings Productions
PRODUCER: Keith Ladzinski
VIDEOGRAPHY: Keith Ladzinski, Cory Richards
EDITOR: Andy Mann

MUSIC: "Cold Summer Landscape" by Blear Moon / blearmoon.com
Galapagos by Emancipator
Diving in a Sacred Maya Cave Altar, worship house and sacred sundial—to ancient Maya, natural wells called cenotes were all these and more. Diving in a cenote near Chichén Itzá, photographer Paul Nicklen snaps pictures of National Geographic Emerging Explorer and underwater archaeologist Guillermo de Anda as he explores an otherworld strewn with Maya offerings, from pottery to human bones.

Learn more about de Anda and his discoveries in National Geographic Magazine:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/sacred-cenotes/guillermoprieto-text
Kite-Skiing Canada's Northwest Passage Eric and Sarah McNair-Landry — an adventurous brother-sister team from Baffin Island — grew up with the Arctic Ocean and sled dogs in their backyard. Both have trekked across the polar regions since they were teens. Last year, on a National Geographic Young Explorers grant, the two kite-skied over two thousand miles through Canada's arctic archipelago, fending off polar bears and coping with unfavorable winds and melting ice along the way.

Videography by Sarah McNair-Landry & Eric McNair-Landry
Map source: NASA

http://events.nationalgeographic.com/events/speakers/2012/12/06/kite-skiing-northwest-passage/
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/sarah-mcnair-landry/
Close Encounters of the Giant Kind Brian Skerry describes the exhilaration of an up-close encounter with a curious, 45-foot-long right whale.
Headfirst Dive Off Mountain — National Geographic Magazine September Edition for iPad® The cover story of National Geographic magazine's September 2011 issue explores our quest to fly — from wing-suits to rocket-propelled jet packs to personal air vehicles. This video of BASE jumper Chris McDougall at Baffin Island launches off of the cover of the September edition of the magazine for iPad®.

Also in the edition for iPad are a video of orphan elephants in an African sanctuary, an interactive map of Roald Amundsen and Captain Robert Falcon Scott's race to the South Pole in 1911 (along with archival footage from Amundsen's expedition), and a then-and-now interactive comparison of a New Orleans street ""portrait"" shot in 2006 and then again in 2011. The September edition for iPad is available on the App Store(SM) now.

iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.
National Geographic Live! - Robot vs. Tiger Photographer Steve Winter tries out a unique gizmo to get an in-your-face view of tigers.

Upcoming Events at National Geographic Live!
http://events.nationalgeographic.com/events/

Buy Photographs by Steve Winter
http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_steve-winter
DNA and "Life on Ice" The Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History has started the largest biorepository in the world. It stores frozen specimens from hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species, primarily for genomic research.

Read the article from National Geographic News:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130805-genome-smithsonian-dna-sequencing-science/
Portable Scanners "Read" Brains on the Go August 1, 2013—Though EEG (Electroencephalography) has been around for decades, now, new technology allows us to detect and measure brain activity with a lightweight headset and mobile phone. National Geographic Emerging Explorer and entrepreneur Tan Le demonstrates how her company's EEG headset and software can be used for a variety of research purposes.

Read the article from National Geographic News:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130801-tan-le-portable-brain-scanning-headsets-neuroscience/
Everest - Getting to the Top 50 years ago, James Whittaker, accompanied by Sherpa Nawang Gombu, became the first American to reach the summit of Everest by climbing the Southeast Ridge, the same route pioneered in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Today, hundreds of climbers each season brave crevasses, crowds, and corpses to make it to the top of Everest.

Click here to read the article http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/125-everest-maxed-out/jenkins-text
Wearing a Glove of Venomous Ants Beast Hunter: Nightmare of the Amazon : FRI MAR 4 10p et/pt : http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/beast-hunter/5107/Overview

Pat takes on an Amazonian bullet ant ritual and is thrown into 24 hours of mind-numbing pain.
Shooting in a Dust Storm Great Migrations: Behind the Scenes : SUN NOV 14 10P et/pt : http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/great-migrations-episode-guide/4994/Overview

Cameraman Bob Poole was filming elephants with ease -- until a giant dust storm rose up and swallowed all the light.
Face-Off With a Deadly Predator Paul Nicklen describes his most amazing experience as a National Geographic photographer - coming face-to-face with one of Antarctica's most vicious predators.
In Her Words: Sylvia Earle on Women in Science Read the article on National Geographic News : http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/14/in-her-words-sylvia-earle-on-women-in-science/

June 14, 2013—On June 13, aquanaut, oceanographer and marine biologist Sylvia Earle received the Hubbard Medal, the National Geographic Society's highest honor, for distinction in exploration, discovery and research. In light of recent public discussions about women in the sciences, National Geographic asked Sylvia to discuss her experiences as a woman in a field previously considered a man's world.
Fighting Wildfires Join National Geographic photographer Mark Thiessen as he joins some of America's bravest as they fight wildfires.
Exploring Ancient Springs in Texas Researchers are exploring freshwater springs in Texas that date back to the end of the last ice age. Spring Lake, near San Marcos, Texas, is unique because it was dammed 150 years ago, creating an underwater archaeological preserve.
Alien Deep - More Dangerous Than Space Join Dr. Bob Ballard as he prepares two deep sea subs to enter an undersea volcano.

Alien Deep: Premieres SUN, Sep 16, 7P et/pt
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/
The Unexplored Depths Beast Hunter: Sea Serpent of the North : FRI MAR 18 9p et/pt : http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/beast-hunter/5104/Overview

Pat Spain heads to the bottom of the ocean to catch a glimpse of alien-like sea creatures.
Mysterious, Ancient Bible on Display December 27, 2013—In the exquisite Peacock Room at the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art, one of the oldest Bibles in existence recently went on display. This priceless artifact from the personal collection of Charles Freer contains a passage not seen in any other biblical manuscript, in which Jesus proclaims the end of Satan's reign on Earth.

To read more about the Freer Logion go to: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131227-ancient-bible-codex-washingtonianus-freer-logion-religion-culture/
Replacing Florida's "Stolen" Orchids Wild orchids in South Florida were all but eliminated by humans turning them into disposable potted plants, beginning in the 1800s. A comeback is difficult because orchid seeds have only about a one-in-a-million chance of creating a new plant. But there's an effort to bring the wild orchid population back to its former glory.

PRODUCER: Gabriella Garcia-Pardo
Dive With Malaysia's Master Fishermen These are sights and sounds of life among Malaysia's Bajau people. The Bajau fish and dive for almost everything they eat. Some live in houses on the beach or nearby on stilts; others live on their boats.

In its September 2014 issue, National Geographic magazine explores the evolution of the human diet across a wide spectrum of cultures:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/evolution-of-diet/

By 2050 we'll need to feed two billion more people. Click here for a special eight-month series exploring how we can do that—without overwhelming the planet:
http://food.nationalgeographic.com

VIDEOGRAPHER: Matthieu Paley
PRODUCER: Shannon Sanders
I Didn't Know That - Concrete Tent Watch Richard Ambrose and Jonny Phillips quickly construct a building made of concrete canvas—a material that has all the elements of concrete, but is flexible enough to be turned into any shape. This technology allows people to erect permanent structures in a fraction of the time needed for traditional building techniques.

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