National Geographic Kids magazine - the perfect balance between learning and fun! A must-have for children ages 6 and up. Each issue is packed with colorful photos, games, puzzles, fun features and facts about animals, science, technology, and more.
Fireflies were crawling all over my face while I made this photo in a misty forest in the town of Nanacamilpa in southern Mexico. I came here specifically to make long-exposure pictures of these insects. This camera setting means the shutter stays open longer than usual, allowing the camera to better capture things in motion, like these fast-moving fireflies. The trick with this type of photography is to keep the camera very steady. But these animals were super interested in my camera—and me. So I had to stand completely still as they explored my arms, my hair, and my face. This was tough because they were making my nose and cheeks tickle! I returned to this spot for three nights, but I only had about 20 minutes in the early…
Messages from your brain travel along your nerves at up to 200 miles an hour. The first bubble gum, made in 1906, was called Blibber-Blubber. If you traveled at the speed of light, you could reach Pluto in just four hours. Dolphins can hear sounds underwater that are 15 miles away. The world’s largest pizza was 13,958 square feet, about as big as three basketball courts. It had 630,500 slices of pepperoni. Some salamanders can regrow their tails, legs, and even parts of their eyes. If you never cut your hair, it could grow more than 30 feet in your lifetime. About 10,000 of the cells in your body could fit on the head of a pin. CHECK OUT THE BOOK!…
THE PROBLEM: When it rains, water slides off city sidewalks and roads straight into drains, transporting lawn fertilizers and other harmful chemicals into lakes, rivers, and bays. This stormwater runoff pollution harms marine animals like oysters.! THE SOLUTION: Make pavement more like soil! A company called AquiPor invented a new material that lets rain soak through to the ground below while it filters pollutants out of the water. That means fewer chemicals enter waterways. Bonus: This invention might also help reduce flooding on city roads after heavy rain. HELP CRITTERS LIKE US! Ask your parents to use native plants in your garden. These growers don’t need fertilizers, which pollute our water. Plus, their roots can hold more rainwater in the soil than non-native plants. GET MORE EARTH-SAVING TIPS! natgeokids.com/savetheearth…
THE ANIMAL King vulture; native to Mexico, Central America, and South America THE PHOTO SPOT Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas When I first arrived to photograph King Max the king vulture, I thought he looked like a warrior. Standing about two and a half feet tall, he seemed so powerful and serious. But I quickly realized that King Max is actually a total sweetheart. His mom couldn’t raise him, so King Max was brought up by caregivers at the zoo. That meant he was totally comfortable around people, even perching on keepers’ arms and playing with their shoestrings. The staff placed King Max in the perfect position for my photoshoot. All he needed was a dead mouse to snack on, and he happily posed for me! Some people find…
“Iceberg right ahead!” Just after 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 14, 1912, the R.M.S. Titanic is steaming across the North Atlantic Ocean when a lookout sees a dark shape in the ship’s path. The 882-foot-long passenger ship, the largest and most luxurious on the seas, is carrying 2,240 people on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, in the United Kingdom, to New York City. But the lookout’s warning is too late—the iceberg scrapes the ship. Within three hours, the Titanic sinks and more than 1,500 lives are lost. Scientists discovered the Titanic’s wreck on the ocean floor over 70 years later, in 1985, and they’ve studied it carefully ever since to try to understand the ship’s final hours. Since the Titanic broke apart as it sank, experts haven’t been able…
LOCATION: Danakil Depression, Ethiopia Towers of salt, bright yellow rocks, neon green ponds, and electric blue lava often dazzle at this landmark, where temperatures reach as high as 125°F and the ground can suddenly split open beneath your feet. Welcome to Ethiopia’s Danakil(pronounceddah-NUH-keel) Depression. Part of a wider African desert that stretches into Eritrea and Djibouti, the depression is one of the hottest and lowest places on Earth. This sunken piece of land is the meeting point for three tectonic plates, or giant slabs of rock that form Earth’s crust. When they shift, they can cause earthquakes and can force lava aboveground. And the Danakil’s tectonic plates are constantly shifting. “When you’re driving around here, it’s not unusual to see some of the roads breaking apart,” says Felipe Gómez Gómez,…
