Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2019 i National Geographic Magazine

NAT GEO WILD Reforming the toughest canines on Dog: Impossible The most aggressive, dangerous, and misunderstood canines—the ones that most trainers won’t touch—are the dogs that Matt Beisner (above) takes on. Since transforming his own bad behaviors, Beisner says, he has dedicated his life to helping owners learn how to handle their dogs, as well as to rescuing and rehabilitating animals that others turn away. The six-episode series Dog: Impossible premieres September 8 at 10/9c on Nat Geo WILD. BOOKS A new Atlas of the World to explore The 11th edition of this classic reflects the state of the world today with authoritative maps, data-driven graphics, and much more. It’s available October 1 wherever books are sold and at shopng.com/books. TELEVISION Plunge back into Life Below Zero Back for a…

IN A SOUTHERN INDIAN FOREST, an amateur photographer spied a multicolored rodent. The pictures he took set the internet alight last April, and no wonder: Indian giant squirrels can weigh four pounds and stretch three feet from tail to snout—half again (at least) the size of most European and North American squirrels. Unlike those northern nibblers, these behemoths forage in the tropical canopy, where their flexible feet and ankles allow them to leap 20 feet from branch to branch. The vibrant fur may provide camouflage “in the mosaic of shade and sun flecks where these arboreal giants thrive,” says John Koprowski, author of Squirrels of the World. Or, says evolutionary biologist Dana Krempels, “there could be an evolutionary ‘tightrope’ that the squirrels must walk”—bright enough for other giant squirrels to…

TOOLS HE USES: GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY, MASS SPECTROMETRY, ION CHROMATOGRAPHY, ULTRAVIOLET-VISIBLE SPECTROSCOPY ‘Preventive conservation’ of art through chemistry Eric Breitung works at the intersection of art and science—literally. A conservation scientist at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, he uses analytical chemistry to help preserve priceless artwork. But where others concentrate on specific paintings or sculptures, Breitung—a lifelong art lover and former General Electric research scientist—takes a broad approach: “My focus is the environment of the whole museum.” That means preparing the Met for some 60 exhibitions each year, in spaces that range from 100 to 20,000 square feet. Design elements for each exhibit contain chemicals that could be damaging, depending on the art. For instance, acetic acid in a fabric display-case liner might be safe for a clothing exhibit but…

IT WOULD SEEM that musical genius has many dimensions. In the case of composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), an anatomical endowment may have enhanced his virtuosity. In a study published in a German scientific journal, anatomist and musician Andreas Otte deduced that Bach—a gifted organist and harpsichordist—had an exceptional reach at the keyboard. Using a photo (right) of what historians believe to be Bach’s skeleton, Otte calculated the hand’s size—nearly 8½ inches from wrist to fingertips—and its reach, as much as 10¼ inches from thumb to last finger with the hand open wide. Using those measurements, Otte figured that Bach could play what’s called a 12th: a position bridging 12 white keys. That reach—marked on the keyboard at right—is uncommon even today, when humans generally are larger than in Bach’s…

AS SOIL A COUPLE OF FEET DEEP GOES FROM FROZEN TO MUSH, THE RELEASE OF CARBON COULD PUSH CLIMATE CHANGE TO A TIPPING POINT. IN THE SPRING of 2018, my husband and I went to the Arctic on a National Geographic expedition. We’d never been before and were struck by the scale of its rugged beauty, the white-blue glaciers glinting in the midnight sun, and the abundant wildlife. I’ll never forget seeing an enormous walrus face down a young polar bear (which wisely decided to move along). I also won’t forget the ship’s captain, Leif Skog, announcing that we had traveled farther north than this expedition ever had before. We knew that was saying something—Skog had been navigating polar waters for four decades. How amazing, we initially thought. And then,…

THE DISCOVERIES OF TODAY THAT WILL DEFINE THE WORLD OF TOMORROW THERE MAY BE NOTHING more self-defining than our tastes. Whether in food, wine, romantic partners, or political candidates, our tastes represent our identity. So it made sense to me that my likes and dislikes were formed through careful deliberation and rational decision-making—that is, through choices where I wielded some control. Then I became acquainted with Toxoplasma gondii. In my research at the Indiana University School of Medicine, I observed how the single-celled T. gondii parasite can change the behavior of the host it infects. It can make rats unafraid of cats, and some studies show that it may cause personality changes (such as increased anxiety) in humans. These studies made me wonder if there are other things happening under…

ARE YOU READY TO ACTIVATE CHANGE? REAL CHANGE CAN START WITH YOU ACTIVATE is a partnership between National Geographic, Procter & Gamble, and Global Citizen designed to start a conversation about global issues around extreme poverty, inequality, and sustainability to mobilize global citizens (like you!) to drive change. WATCH the ACTIVATE documentary series on the National Geographic Channel starting September 5. EXPERIENCE through the eyes of activists like Hugh Jackman and Pharrell Williams the work that is being done to drive a global movement. VISIT nationalgeographic.com/ ACTIVATE to learn how you too can drive change. SOURCING RESPONSIBLY AND SAVING FORESTS FORESTS ARE FOUNDATIONAL FOR OUR FUTURE here on Earth. They filter our air and water, while preserving biodiversity and regulating climate. That’s why it is important to source our paper products…

THE WORLD’S CITIES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN MELTING POTS for immigrants. Do newcomers congregate in ethnic enclaves such as San Francisco’s Chinatown? Or do they scatter, getting fully absorbed into their new homes? To track integration, researchers took Twitter data from some 50 cities worldwide to identify language groups and their residential neighborhoods; findings were then compared with those of the city’s native-language speakers. By reading the Twitter patterns, researchers concluded that diverse and well-integrated immigrant communities like those in London exist in less than half the cities studied. In the rest, the data show varying degrees of self-segregation, with immigrants who share the same language sticking together in the same part of the city. How integration is measured Groups were identified by the languages used in tweets; Twitter users’ neighborhoods…

ILLUMINATING THE MYSTERIES—AND WONDERS—ALL AROUND US EVERY DAY IN HOPES OF SEEING why a peppercorn tastes peppery, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) soaked one in water and put it under a microscope. The Dutch scientist imagined that its taste came from tiny spikes or darts. Instead, he saw tiny ridged spheres—and tiny moving organisms, the first bacteria ever observed. Van Leeuwenhoek, aka the father of microbiology, glimpsed a world in the 17th century that photographer-scientist Martin Oeggerli explores today in far greater detail. Oeggerli made images of herbs and spices with a scanning electron microscope, then enhanced the plants’ parts with color. Some of the parts are both factories and silos, containing chemicals that we taste and smell when we use these herbs. The flavors of herbs are their arsenal. Since…

EVERY PHOTOGRAPHER has a dream shot. For Steve Winter, that shot was a tiger’s face seen from below. The challenge, says Winter—who has long covered big cats and other wildlife for National Geographic—was getting that perspective in a way that didn’t end with his own face inside the animal’s mouth. Enter this apparatus, a camera mounted on a four-wheel, remote-controlled vehicle. The “camera car” had been built by National Geographic engineers but never used. Winter saw its potential to capture that looking-upward view and asked if he could take it to India for a project on tiger conservation. In the field, the contraption didn’t last long. Though male tigers “ran away” from it, Winter says, a curious female batted it with her enormous paw. That probably did the camera in—but…

The unexpectedly rapid collapse of ice-rich permafrost in the Arctic could pump billions of additional tons of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year—a threat that has yet to be fully accounted for in climate models. Scientists are discovering destabilized landscapes where permafrost that once thawed a few inches a year can now abruptly thaw up to 10 feet within days or weeks, creating wetlands in once frozen regions and accelerating emissions from up to 1,600 gigatons of carbon still locked underground. Thawing fast and slow Twenty percent of permafrost is ice rich and at risk of abrupt thaw, which could double the amount of greenhouse gases released. 870 gigatons of carbon in atmosphere 1,600 gigatons in permafrost…

Arctic wolves live only in Canada’s high Arctic islands and along stretches of Greenland’s coast-line, but they are closely related to the gray wolves found in the Rockies, much of Canada, and parts of Europe. Scientists are unsure how many Arctic wolves inhabit this range today.…

LOOKING AT THE EARTH FROM EVERY POSSIBLE ANGLE…

Technically, yes. But embedded within your genome, there are many potential versions of you. The person you see in the mirror is just one of them, fished out by the unique things you’ve been exposed to since conception. The new science of epigenetics is the study of how chemical changes made to DNA, or proteins that interact with DNA, can affect gene activity. DNA can be modified by environmental factors in ways that can profoundly affect development and behavior. Recently, it’s also been shown that the microbes in your body—aka your microbiome—can be a significant environmental factor that affects myriad behaviors, from overeating to depression. In sum, we are our genes—but our genes cannot be evaluated outside the context of our environment. Genes are the piano keys, but the environment…

New Guinean men once warred with daggers made from cassowary—or human—bones. Anthropologist Nathaniel Dominy tested the strength of both types of weapon. He likens the bird-bone dagger (left) to a Timex watch: “It works just as well, but if it breaks, then it is easy to replace.” Daggers crafted from human femurs “are a bit like a Rolex watch—a prestige object and status symbol that one would rather not damage.”…

Important facts about FANAPT® (iloperidone) tablets PURPOSE Fanapt® is a prescription medication used for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults. Deciding to look at alternate medications is something your health care provider may do. Your health care provider needs to consider that Fanapt® may change your heart rhythm (meaning there is more time between heartbeats). When taking other drugs that may cause this same change in heart rhythm, you are at a higher risk of a serious, even life-threatening medical issue (torsade de pointes), which may result in sudden death. In many cases, your health care provider may prescribe another medication like Fanapt® first. Fanapt® needs to be taken as directed starting at a low dose and slowly increasing the strength. This may delay the control of symptoms in the first…

THE WESTERN TRAGOPAN is a scarce, shy, and elusive bird. Males are as beautiful to behold as they are rare to spot. Locals call the species jujurana, king of birds. Perhaps 3,300 survive in the wild, in India’s Himachal Pradesh state. That’s where filmmaker Munmun Dhalaria spent most of 2017 and 2018, making a documentary on the jujurana. One day as she hid in a bird blind, a male drew near, splendid in his orange-feather ascot and white-spotted black cloak. After browsing for food, he hopped onto a boulder and began calling, aiming to woo females and warn off rivals. Dhalaria, a National Geographic explorer, watched and filmed the bird for 35 minutes, one of the longest documented jujurana sightings in the wild. Witnessing a mating call is one thing—an…

THIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS THE HARDEST I’ve ever had to make. As I stood underneath that tree in Australia’s Northern Territory, I thought about what the saltwater crocodile hanging from it had lived through. Born some 50 years ago, the reptile had grown from a two-and-a-half-ounce hatchling into a 15-foot-long colossus weighing 1,000 pounds. It hatched toward the end of a 25-year period of intensive commercial hunting that had pushed the species to the brink of extinction. It was the perfect predator, and I feared that I was somehow celebrating its death. I made this photograph to commemorate an epic hunt and the men who took part in it. Some might assume that because they took its life, the men standing beside the crocodile have no respect for the animal. But…