Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2018 i National Geographic Magazine - UK

Rome is a city so steeped in history it can be hard to see beyond the past, but its ancient streets are a hotbed of innovation — even its 2,000-year-old monuments are getting a facelift. The Colosseum, Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain now gleam in the sunlight, the soot scrubbed from their walls. Old has been made new, and even the ways to experience some ancient sites have been given a modern twist. A new exhibit at the Ara Pacis Museum brings this altar’s bloody history to life. In ancient times, the monolith was used for animal sacrifices, carried out by priests for peace and prosperity. While a narrator gives an historical rundown, visitors wear goggles to see it in virtual reality, as its wonderfully intricate paintwork is revealed. Meanwhile,…

When explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes finally summited Mount Everest in 2009 on his third attempt, he became the first British old age pensioner (OAP) to reach the top of the world. “It’s amazing where you can get with a bus pass these days,” he joked. Now 73, the former Special Air Service soldier has spent the past 50 years exploring the planet. His initial expeditions were in the 1960s, when there were still a few undiscovered regions. Even during his famous Transglobe Expedition, from 1979 to 1982, when he circumnavigated the Earth via both poles, he broke virgin ground in Antarctica. “We were lucky to find a huge section that had never been flown over by any aircraft, or visited by anybody,” he says, referring to an area between the…

If birds left tracks in the sky, what would they look like? For years Barcelona-based photographer Xavi Bou has been fascinated by this question. Just as a sinuous impression appears when a snake slides across sand, he imagined, so must a pattern form in the wake of a flying bird. But of course birds in flight leave no trace—at least none visible to the naked eye. Bou, now 38, spent the past five years trying to capture the elusive contours drawn by birds in motion, or, as he says, “to make visible the invisible.” First he had to shed the role of mere observer. “Like a naturalist, I used to travel around the world looking at wildlife,” he says. He began exploring photographic techniques that would allow him to express…

We see evidence of the kill first: a shockingly broad spread of scarlet, probably the blood of a ringed seal, on snow-covered sea ice. Then the polar bear appears. She’s big, maybe 500 pounds, trailed by a single cub. They’ve just jumped into a lead—a long fissure of open water in the frozen sea. In seconds they’re out of the water again, running across the ice, spooked by the approach of our helicopter. Prolonged running can harm polar bears: Fat and fur insulate them so well they risk overheating. François Létourneau-Cloutier, our 33-year-old Québécois pilot, takes us higher, and the mother and cub slow to an amble. After following them for several minutes, Létourneau-Cloutier sets the helicopter gently onto the ice a few hundred feet away and cuts the engine.…

How the circuit is activated Biological Genetic variations enable some people to recognize facial expressions better or produce more of an enzyme related to lower aggressiveness. Psychological A nurturing childhood can potentially transform someone who is genetically predisposed to lack empathy into a social, nonviolent citizen. Social Watching a friend cry or hearing a dog whimper, for example, can evoke empathy and a desire to end what is perceived as shared suffering. The Empathy Spectrum Empathy can be measured through empathy quotient (EQ) tests. Questions aim to determine the magnitude of one’s interest in how others feel and think. Extreme altruists fall at one end of the spectrum, those who totally lack empathy at the other. How the circuit is suppressed Biological Some 70 percent of psychopathic traits are genetic,…

‘IF YOU TAKE CARE OF THE BIRDS, YOU TAKE CARE OF MOST OF THE BIG PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD.’ That’s what Thomas Lovejoy says, and he should know. The famed biologist and conservationist, a National Geographic–funded scientist, helped introduce the term “biological diversity” to the world. And he long predicted that by early in the 21st century, the Earth would start losing a dramatic number of species—a prediction, unfortunately, that is turning out to be spot-on. We were taken with Lovejoy’s quote about birds and decided to use it as a launchpad for what we’re calling the Year of the Bird. In this 12-month multi-platform exploration—with our partners from the National Audubon Society, BirdLife International, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology—we’ll examine how our changing environment is leading to dramatic…

The caracaras of Guadalupe only became valuable once they’d nearly vanished. Abundant on the Mexican island in 1876, the raptors were systematically shot and poisoned as pests. By the late 1800s the endemic birds of prey had become extremely rare—and of interest to collectors. People started trapping them, hoping to sell the live birds to the highest bidder. They went extinct anyway—which makes them an appropriately ironic subject for Laurel Roth Hope. Years ago Hope, a self-taught artist who once worked as a park ranger, found herself observing urban pigeons. “I started thinking about the way we ascribe value to things that are rare and denigrate things that are common, and how that affects the way we see wildlife,” she says. “I wanted to put the two together.” Hope began…

‘Run!’ María Magdalena Padilla’s brother yelled to her mother. “This time it’s for real. Get away right now!” María Magdalena, a 10-year-old known as Mayito, could see the black smoke coming from farther down the hill as the paramilitares, criminals with a right-wing ideological bent, advanced on the town of El Salado, setting fire to her neighbors’ houses as they approached. Mayito’s mother emptied all the corn out of a burlap bag so the chickens would have enough to eat, threw some clothing into it, and climbed on the back of the family donkey with Mayito, as her two older brothers walked alongside. For a full week they hid, with little water and almost no food, in the shacks that campesino families keep in their fields here. “I remember that…

ARCTIC AMPLIFICATION The Northern Hemisphere is warming faster than the planet as a whole—and the Arctic is warming nearly twice as fast. ACCELERATING MELT As Arctic sea ice melts, the exposed ocean absorbs more sunlight, amplifying the warming of the air above and causing even faster melting. Projected data Scientists estimate sea ice extent before the satellite era from ship and aircraft data; they project the future with climate models, assuming no change in climate policies. Beaufort Gyre Sea ice in this clockwise current can circulate and thicken for years until it gets pulled into the Transpolar Drift Stream. Transpolar Drift Stream The polar edge of this broad current pushes ice toward land, where it gets trapped between currents and compressed to form the Arctic’s thickest ice.…

Norway In 1970, a team led by Sir Ranulph Fiennes parachuted onto Josteldalsbreen, continental Europe’s largest glacier, to conduct scientific research. Ronit Singh Bhullar Mumbai, India Bhullar had read that birds flocked near one of New Delhi’s Yamuna ghats, stairs that lead down to the river. One evening a man in a boat fed the birds, which brought them together in Bhullar’s frame. “The sun was about to set, so I was aware of the perfect color the sky would give me,” he says.…

Decades of displacement The total number of internally displaced people in Colombia has swelled to more than seven million, one of the largest such crises in the world. For years they have crowded into cities and away from embattled rural areas. EXTERNAL FLIGHT In 2016 hundreds of thousands of Colombians were refugees in neighboring countries, mostly in Venezuela and Ecuador. Many are now returning. URBAN-RURAL DIVIDE Artificial light brightens roads, industry, and cities, where the state presence is strong. Elsewhere, instability and lawlessness can prevail. DEMINING CHALLENGES More than 11,400 people have been injured or killed by land mines since 1990. Uncleared minefields remain an obstacle to development and resettlement. CASH CROP Growing coca continues to be lucrative for farmers awaiting subsidies to switch to legal crops. The UN estimates…

On Fridays residents of the Khwaja Rawash apartment complex on the outskirts of Kabul climb to their rooftops to fly kites. But on one recent afternoon they stood watching a more ominous sight: white smoke curling skyward after Taliban mortar shells launched from the mountains to the north hit the airport nearby. Khwaja Rawash, in a neighborhood called Qasaba, opened in 2017. It’s home to some 9,000 tenants from an Afghan middle class that has been bolstered since 2001 by foreign aid and military contracts. For many residents the appeal is safety: With the departure of foreign troops, downtown Kabul is under growing threat from Taliban insurgents. These new apartments have running water and central heating, unlike the city’s ubiquitous slum dwellings with their polluting woodstoves. Outside in Qasaba, women…

From the kitchen window of her mobile home in Auburn, Illinois, Ashley Aldridge had a clear view of the railroad crossing about a hundred yards away. When the 19-year-old mother first saw the man in the wheelchair, she had just finished feeding lunch to her two children, ages one and three, and had moved on to washing dishes—one more in an endless string of chores. Looking up, Aldridge noticed that the wheelchair wasn’t moving. It was stuck between the tracks. The man was yelling for help as a motorcycle and two cars went by without stopping. Aldridge hurried out to ask a neighbor to watch her kids so she could go help. Then she heard the train horn and the clanging of the crossing gate as it came down, signaling…