National Geographic Magazine - UK June 2020

About four decades after the United States created its first national park (Yellowstone), Sweden set aside nine wilderness areas, “and the rest of Europe then followed.” So says this glorious guide to 460 parks, including the one above in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Organized by region, Complete National Parks of Europe spotlights historic sites, cultural treasures, scenic hikes, flora, fauna, and more. The richly illustrated volume is available wherever books are sold. BOOKS Almanac 2021 from Nat Geo Kids The latest edition of this best-selling kids’ almanac brims with fun facts; games; features about animals, science, technology, conservation—even homework help. Kids Almanac 2021 is available wherever books are sold. TELEVISION Savor adventure alongside this renowned chef The second season of Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted follows the chef as he journeys off the beaten path.…

THE PARTICIPANTS WHO SURVIVED THAT CONFLICT ARE NOW MOSTLY IN THEIR 90S, AND IT’S IM PORTANT TO HEAR FROM THEM. IN 2005, my husband, Geoffrey Etnire, and I went with his parents to visit Normandy, France. We knew that Geoff’s father, Bob, had been involved in some way in D-Day, but like many men of his generation, he never spoke of it. When asked for details about what happened, Bob would only say that he went over “later.” No one pushed the point, and the family came to assume that “later” meant days or even weeks after the first D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. Standing on Omaha Beach, we found out how wrong we were. I knew I wasn’t supposed to press Bob about his experiences in World War…

LOOKING AT THE EARTH FROM EVERY POSSIBLE ANGLE…

GABRIELE GALIMBERTI placed two stands of photographic lights in front of a window outside a dwelling. He retreated so the people inside could safely retrieve the lights. Shouting through the window, Galimberti directed the positioning of lights and people, then made his photos. This is quarantine portraiture. “It’s the strangest moment I’ve lived in 42 years of life,” says Galimberti, an Italian photographer who was in Milan in late February when the lockdown went into effect. He and journalist Gea Scancarello spent the following weeks documenting how coronavirus changed life in the city. In hopes of making portraits of some of Milan’s inhabitants, they began calling their friends. “I immediately felt a sort of fear in their voices,” Galimberti recalls. “Fear about the idea of going out and, a couple…

IN THIS SECTION Visible shock waves How cuttlefish see Conservation gaming A whale of a spy? ILLUMINATING THE MYSTERIES—AND WONDERS—ALL AROUND US EVERY DAY IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, or any of the other sharp-tongued talk show hosts of late-night TV. In this instance, it was Samantha Bee, on her program Full Frontal, doing a stand-up routine about opposition to childhood vaccinations. “The anti-vax movement has been spreading faster than Legionnaires’ disease at the Playboy Mansion,” Bee declared, barely pausing for audience laughter. Claims that these vaccines are harmful rest on shoddy science, she said; the vaccines have been deemed safe by the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Who are you going to believe?” she asked. “Leading authorities on medical…

ARTIFACTS Honoring how Inca kept records Because the Inca Empire lacked alphabetic writing, bureaucrats made notes with a quipu, a tool of colored strings and knots. Researchers studying 1,000 or so surviving quipus say they likely were used to record census data, taxes, and stories about Inca rulers. In January the Peruvian Ministry of Culture gave the quipu national heritage status, hailing it as an ingenious legacy of the indigenous culture. —NINA STROCHLIC Magnetic heart passes test At least 26 million people worldwide suffer heart failure; only about 5,500 a year get transplants. Artificial hearts so far have been heavy and complex—but a new “maglev heart” (right), powered by a single, magnetically levitating disk, could be a solution. Tested successfully in cows, the palm-size titanium device will soon begin human…