National Geographic Magazine - UK November 2018

NAT GEO TV Trek Into the Field on the New Season of Explorer Follow new Explorer host Phil Keoghan—well known for his work on television’s The Amazing Race—as he travels to the Himalaya, the Amazon, and other intriguing spots to meet National Geographic explorers on the front lines of research and adventure. Now in its 11th season, Explorer is part of a multiplatform project that includes an online field-journal forum, as well as live events. The season premiere airs November 12 at 10/9c on National Geographic. BOOKS See the World Like Never Before Ready to be enlightened? The 2019 National Geographic Almanac is a great place to start. New discoveries and top travel trends share space with deep dives into topics such as the science of addiction. Thanks…

‘OPTIMISM IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT’S A FORM OF SEEING WHAT’S POSSIBLE AND THEN HELPING MAKE THAT A REALITY.’—MELINDA GATES In 2015 at the United Nations, world leaders adopted 17 goals aimed at reducing poverty, inequality, and other global ills by 2030. Such goals have long been championed by philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates. So in 2017 the Gates Foundation launched Goalkeepers, an initiative to spur action and track progress toward the goals. Its 2018 status report says there have been “mind-blowing improvements in the human condition”—but it also calls for more investment and innovation in fighting poverty lest progress against it stall. I recently sat down with the Gateses for a rare joint interview on the new report. Susan Goldberg: I’ve just read the Goalkeepers report. Why did…

This is childhood malnutrition at life-size: Each of these children is severely malnourished—and the red circle around each photo equals the circumference of that child’s arm. The circle is much larger if a child is not malnourished, as the key below shows. Despite some gains against global hunger, malnutrition in children under age five left 22.2 percent of them stunted (too short for their age) and 7.5 percent of them wasted (too thin for their height) in 2017. UNICEF’s Diane Holland says catching acute malnutrition early is key to bringing children back to healthy growth. The “MUAC bracelet” (right), used to measure mid-upper-arm circumference, helps gauge the severity of acute malnutrition so a child can be given lifesaving treatment and care. MUAC (MID-UPPER-ARM CIRCUMFERENCE) 8.7 cm (MUAC circle in life-size)…

Six months is a long time to spend away from Earth. But that’s what we sign up for as astronauts, and I loved living and working on the International Space Station (ISS). What struck me most during my stay in space about two years ago was just how fragile and remote our planet is. While Earth appears to be a vibrant and stunning oasis of life, it also seems precarious and insignificant when set against a backdrop of a hundred billion stars. This perspective accentuates the importance of the work we are doing on board the ISS—scientific research for the benefit of people on Earth while also striving to understand and extend human presence in the solar system. After the space station is handed over to commercial management in the…

IF ALL GOES TO PLAN, the European Space Agency’s robotic rover, part of the ExoMars mission, will be looking for signs of life on Mars in spring 2021. The mission will launch from Kazakhstan in July 2020, when the journey between Earth and Mars will be shortest. Eight months later the rover will land near the red planet’s equator, where the surface is fairly flat. Frenchman Francois Spoto, who’s with the European Space Research and Technology Centre, is the mission’s project manager. He explains that the rover contains a laboratory with a suite of sophisticated instruments that will seek out optimal spots to take soil samples and analyze biomarkers such as water vapor and methane. Should the mission prove successful, Spoto is convinced that any traces of life found will…

IN THESE PHOTOGRAPHS taken from the International Space Station, I tried to capture what I was feeling as I looked at Earth. It was impossible not to be mesmerized by the fragile beauty of our planet. I was struck by just how thin our atmosphere—that tiny strip of gas that sustains all life and differentiates Earth from the barren, hostile conditions of Mars or Venus—really is. It was difficult to spot signs of human habitation by day. Instead, our planet revealed itself as a vast geological puzzle sculpted by nature’s forces and the passage of time. It was clear to see how water is shaping Earth: Glaciers carve out entire mountain ranges as they grind inexorably toward the oceans and vast rivers create striking patterns on their leisurely journeys. We…