Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2025 i National Geographic Magazine - UK

THE FIRST TIME I saw a tiger in the wild was in 2006. It was in India’s Bandhavgarh National Park, and I was staying at a new lodge opened by an African safari company. Ahead of my visit, lodge management had tried to set realistic expectations. Tigers are elusive animals, and there was no promise I’d see one during my time there. But on my second day in the park, one strode out behind our vehicle onto the path, pausing its stride to take the measure of us in a penetrating gaze before heading back into the forest. That sighting (the first of several) felt particularly momentous because tigers were in a perilous position at the time. Their numbers had been steadily declining for decades, hastened by poaching and habitat…

In evolutionary terms, humans are pretty new at getting old. Since 1900, we’ve managed to increase our life expectancy, from 47 to 78, even though we’re only just now beginning to understand the science of longevity—and what exactly human beings are capable of as we live deeper, and healthier, into our 70s, 80s, 90s, even 100s. To help you harness all that we’re learning about how to age athletically, National Geographic found a handful of people hitting their stride in the last leg of their lives. We also share some pointers about how to start extending your health span right now, no matter how old you are, and some wisdom—pep talks, really—from four of the greatest athletic specimens of the 20th century.…

NADIA COMĂNECI 63 “Comăneci was just 14 years old when she scored the first ever perfect 10 by an Olympic gymnast, at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal, and then she did it six more times in what many sports historians consider the greatest performance of the modern games. Her combination of athleticism and artistry captivated a global television audience. Five years after her retirement in 1984, she defected from Communist Romania to the United States and later married U.S. Olympic gymnast Bart Conner. They now run a gymnastics academy in Norman, Oklahoma. ▶ GYMNAST ▶ 7X ‘PERFECT 10’ AT OLYMPIC GAMES ▶ 5X OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST • ALL AROUND • UNEVEN BARS • 2X BALANCE BEAM • FLOOR ▶ 2X WORLD CHAMPION “IN MY TIME, athletes used to compete…

THE CRUX OF THE DISPUTE We tend to agree where the summits are. But where to measure up from? Does sea level make sense when a peak is far from the coast? Measure from the base, some might say—except that most mountains are surrounded by complex terrain, with differing relief on all sides, and there is no agreed-upon method for determining a mountain’s base. To gauge a mountain’s stature, geographers and mountaineers might use one of several systems.…

CLOSE YOUR EYES and picture a map of the world. You’ve likely brought to mind a distorted vision of the Earth based on the work of 16th-century geographer Gerardus Mercator. The Flemish cartographer devised a projection, the technique for representing the three-dimensional Earth in two dimensions, that underpins the most ubiquitous map of the modern era. Nearly 500 years after its creation, the chart still adorns classroom walls, and a digital version, called Web Mercator, is used in almost all the navigation applications in our smartphones. But the Mercator projection also has its critics, who bemoan the way it distorts reality—Greenland is not that big! Russia isn’t larger than Africa! Here’s the thing: The geographer wasn’t trying to create the perfect map, just a useful one for sailors. Until Mercator,…

FOR NORA LANGDON, the moment of truth came on the stairs. She was 64 years old. Up to that point, Langdon had lived a largely satisfying life. She’d raised two kids, had good friends, and was in her third decade as a real estate agent in the Detroit area. But as time went by, she’d gained weight, slowly at first, until suddenly she hit 220 pounds. She’d never been an athlete—never played sports, hit the gym, or exercised consistently—but she wasn’t a couch potato either. Her dad had worked in a steel factory, waking the kids at 5 a.m. for prayer and breakfast, and at night they all helped with the family’s soul food catering business. In her world, effort had always mattered. And yet here she was, struggling to make…

TO SECURE ITS FUTURE, Egypt had made the hard decision to let go of its past. It was 1960, and construction had just begun on southern Egypt’s Aswan High Dam, which would generate hydroelectric power, provide more arable land, and control the flood-prone Nile River. But for all the good a dam would do, it was also going to be disastrous for the area’s archaeological wonders. The massive reservoir was expected to destroy dozens of priceless historic sites, including the majestic twin temples of Abu Simbel. Built more than three millennia ago, the monument was commissioned by Ramses II and chiseled directly into a sandstone cliff on the western bank of the river. The imposing facade of the main temple was guarded by four towering Ramses II colossi, each 67…

BY CAPTURING THE SAME THING FROM VERY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES, A NASA ASTRONAUT AND A NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER CREATE A WHOLE NEW WAY OF SEEING OUR WORLD. GRAND CANYON In their effort to highlight the same location from vastly different perspectives, astronaut Don Pettit and photographer Babak Tafreshi took aim at the desert of the southwestern United States. Pettit caught ribbons of streaking light, formed by the bright lights of Los Angeles. From the Grand Canyon, Tafreshi pointed his camera skyward, snapping a quasi portrait of the International Space Station as it skipped overhead. Earlier this year, two photographer friends had just finished shooting the Grand Canyon when they began discussing what they might capture together next. Don Pettit was eager to train his camera on Madagascar and sent his friend…

IN ONE VIEW, Vanguard 1 is space junk: an antennaed aluminum ball that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev dismissively compared to a grapefruit. The United States launched it in March 1958, and the satellite returned radio signals until May 1964. Defunct since, it’s the oldest human-made object in orbit. But to space historian Matt Bille, that grapefruit is “one of the most precious objects” of the early space age, deserving of a place in the Smithsonian. And scientists, he says, could glean much from it about long-term exposure to space. Bille, along with a few like-minded engineers and historians, made this case at a recent conference of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, presenting detailed plans for a hypothetical mission to deorbit Vanguard 1 and bring it home. The idea…

CARE FOR YOUR BRAIN BY BEING SOCIAL Most people understand that making an investment in your physical health, like quitting smoking or getting in shape, could lead to a longer, healthier life. It turns out that the same can be said for investing in your personal relationships. Spending time with friends and family—or signing up for a recreational sports league team—could pay dividends down the road. Maintaining social ties seems to work like mental exercise, by promoting new connections in your brain and slowing down age-related cognitive decline. And you don’t. need to be a social butterfly to reap the benefits of connecting with other people. A recent study found that having even one social interaction a month can cut the incidence of developing dementia in half. And the benefits…