Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2025 i National Geographic Magazine - UK

ONE OF THE MANY extraordinary things about humans is our capacity for dreaming. I don’t mean what we do when we sleep (although that’s pretty extraordinary too). I mean our ability to invent, to envision different and better futures, and to apply our brainpower—and our increasingly sophisticated technology—to turning ideas into reality. There’s a lot of dreaming on display in this issue. Our feature on the mega project known as ITER takes an in-depth look at a massive undertaking in southern France that, after decades of effort, is making new progress on the dream of nuclear fusion. Given fusion’s potential to generate massive amounts of energy without polluting the planet, the timing couldn’t be more critical. Another story heads into the lab and the field with the scientists dreaming up…

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORERS These contributors have received funding from the National Geographic Society, which is committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world. Learn more about the Society’s support of Explorers at natgeo.com/impact. Corey Arnold, p.112 At labs and field stations in Alaska, Oregon, and his home state of Washington, Arnold photographed scientists probing the secrets of animal hibernation, part of this month’s feature on how humans might be put into a state of torpor. He’s been an Explorer since 2019. Matt Black, p.92 Based in California’s Central Valley, Black has spent nearly three years photographing the landscapes of the American West using a thermal camera, creating the singular images on display in this issue, which show how wildfires are remaking the Sierra Nevada. Paolo Verzone, p.14 A…

Total funding for the private fusion energy industry in billions STELLARATOR Invented in 1951, stellarators use a magnetic confinement method similar to that of ITER’s tokamak. Their torqued design, as seen with the Wendelstein 7-X (left), requires absolute precision but potentially yields more stable plasma. Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics Greifswald, Germany Z PINCH Inspired by lightning strikes, the Z-pinch process uses electric currents to generate magnetic fields that rapidly compress and confine plasma, producing fusion reactions that release energy. Zap Energy hopes its device’s compact, modular design will make it relatively simple to commercialize. Zap Energy Seattle, Washington INERTIAL CONFINEMENT Inside a spherical chamber, highenergy lasers compress a tiny fuel capsule filled with deuterium and tritium, creating a fusion reaction. The publicly funded National Ignition Facility was the first fusion…

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THE DOCTORS had it wrong. For decades, many psychiatrists believed that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—commonly known as ADHD—might simply outgrow it. But new evidence reveals a different truth. While approximately seven million children in the United States are currently diagnosed with ADHD, a recent survey from the Centers for Disease Control shows that 15.5 million American adults also have the disorder. In fact, about half of them were diagnosed as adults. Today, researchers recognize that adult ADHD tends to look different because adults are often better at masking the symptoms. People living with ADHD typically have difficulty paying attention or staying on task. They may feel restless, talk excessively, act impulsively by interrupting others, or struggle in situations that require waiting their turn. “Where a child may not…

AVOIDING STROKES A hibernating bear’s heart rate drops from 80-100 to some 10 beats per minute, slowing circulation by 25 percent. In humans, that kind of drop can lead to blood clots, causing cardiac arrest or stroke. Bears are blessed with genes that slow down coagulating proteins, inhibiting blood clots. PREVENTING DIABETES In hibernation, bears’ liver and fat cells become insulin resistant—meaning they burn excess fat rather than energy-providing sugars. That resistance to insulin ceases when hibernation ends. Scientists are searching for the genes that trigger the switch, hopeful that such discoveries might be applied to humans. FATTENING IN THE RIGHT PLACES Bears can increase body fat by 40 percent before hibernating. In humans, weight gain like that contributes to chronic diseases such as heart failure, sleep apnea, and certain…

THE SIGNS WERE there but subtle. Dustin Chandler never did his homework. He was labeled lazy at school. It wasn’t until years later when his mother, now working at a pediatric clinic, watched him struggle to renovate his first house that something clicked. “Son, I’m sorry for this,” she told him. “But you need to go get tested for ADHD.” Chandler was officially diagnosed at 25. He learned that the developmental disorder could be passed on to his children, so he and his wife looked for signs in their kids. Like her father, their second child, a daughter, seemed to be the quiet, daydreamy type. She enjoyed reading independently since she could go at her own pace, and she excelled when her teacher taught her one-on-one. In elementary school, however,…

TODAY’S FIRES ARE DIFFERENT. Blazes have scarred and scorched the western United States for ages, but for scientists who study extreme climate events, like UCLA’s Daniel Swain, the wildfires are now defying historic precedent, moving and growing with a devastating intensity. As Swain puts it, these new fires are doing “seemingly impossible things.” Take Northern California’s 2020 “gigafire,” the first in the state’s modern fire-tracking history to burn more than a million acres, a footprint larger than Rhode Island. Its size wasn’t unprecedented. The speed of the destruction was. “Two hundred years ago, you probably would have seen million-acre fires, sometimes in California,” Swain says. “They wouldn’t have burned a million acres in a few days. It would have taken months.” More recently, Swain was monitoring the 2024 Bridge fire,…

A LIVING MEMORY UNESCO estimates that over three million shipwrecks, some dating back thousands of years, rest at the bottom of the oceans. Far from being mere relics, these submerged remains are true time capsules containing tangible traces of our collective memory. They bridge the past and the present, revealing the importance of maritime routes, the richness of intercultural exchanges, and valuable know-how that has now disappeared. Underwater archaeology allows us to uncover these ships, lost ports, submerged cities, and the treasures they hold. It plays a crucial role both in preserving our shared heritage and in contributing to the fight against climate change. A THREATENED HERITAGE Rising sea levels, coastal erosion, human activities, and climate change threaten underwater heritage, just as they do biodiversity and marine ecosystems. While some…

LAST OCTOBER, a slender 18-year-old Sherpa climber stood atop a snowy peak in Tibet and recorded a selfie video in the dark. It was 6:05 a.m., and with this summit of a mountain called Shishapangma, Nima Rinji Sherpa had topped all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks, becoming the youngest person ever to do so. Like several international climbers who reached the peak that morning, he also had support: Nima had been led by a Sherpa guide. Breathless in the thin air and wearing a puffy down suit, Nima thanked his mom for praying for him and his dad for funding his expeditions. He alluded to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza and asked for an end to war, hate, and racism. “As a teenager, this is my message to each…

AT AGE 23, RACH IDOWU was convinced she had dementia. She found herself forgetting birthdays, missing work meetings, and struggling to manage her credit card debt. Her Google searches suggested that she had early onset dementia, which her doctor quickly dismissed. It would take her another four years and the assessments of two psychiatrists before Idowu was finally diagnosed with ADHD. Suddenly, everything in her life began to make sense: her constant fidgeting as a child, the caffeine-fueled all-nighters she spent finishing school assignments, and the weeks it took to answer messages from friends. “It was a massive eureka moment,” Idowu, now 31, says. She is one of millions of women diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number has continued to…