National Geographic Magazine - UK February 2026

LIKE MANY PEOPLE who enjoy a glass of good wine, a cold pint of beer, or a wellmade cocktail, I drink less these days than I used to. The evidence is ample that alcohol is bad for your health, with strong links to cancer and a host of other physical and mental ailments. Many health organizations that once sanctioned moderate drinking now advocate for abstaining altogether. And yet I cannot shake my love of pairing wine with food. Lately I’ve been trying out dealcoholized wines, as well as other alcohol-free wine alternatives. I’ve found some I quite like, but for me, none compete with the real thing for aroma, mouthfeel, and flavor. In this issue, writer Adam Rogers and photographer and National Geographic Explorer Justin Jin report from Belgium—arguably the…

The Brazilian country tunes that will make you a fan of sertanejo music While chronicling the rise of sertanejo music (“How Brazil Went Country,” p. 72) in sync with Brazil’s agricultural ascendance, writer Mac Margolis and photographer Luisa Dörr had plenty of time to listen to the radio-dominating cowboy pop. Here, a few of their favorite tracks: “Os Menino da Pecuária,” Léo and Raphael “The title means ‘cattle boys.’ Shamelessly glorifying Big Ag, performed by cosplaying stockmen. So over the top.”—Margolis “Evidências,” Chitãozinho and Xororó “A national anthem of longing and confession. You hear it at weddings, in bars, at the end of parties when everyone’s singing together.”—Dörr “Moradia,” Bruna Viola “Just a 10-string caipira viola and vocals like the howling wind.”—Margolis WHAT MAKES MONGOLIAN WOLVES HARD TO FIND Texan…

Justin Jin’s pursuit of a perfect pour While photographing the lab where Belgian yeast researchers are out to create the ultimate nonalcoholic suds (“The Quest to Reengineer Beer,” p. 14), Justin Jin became so fixated on capturing the beverage’s essence—“the luminosity, the translucence, the color”—that the lab’s director eventually handed him a flask and tulip glass and told him to take them home. Jin, who’s lived in Brussels for 15 years, wrapped the shoot at his kitchen table. What two Explorers pack for the poles To take the photos accompanying this month’s profile of sea ice ecologist and National Geographic Explorer Allison Fong (“The Poles Are Teeming With More Life Than We Can See,” p. 108), Luján Agusti sailed with Fong aboard an Antarctic research vessel, and Esther Horvath joined…

14 Camera traps that Jaime Rojo placed to photograph wildlife navigating the remote landscapes on both sides of the United States–Mexico border (“The Mission to Keep the Borderlands Wild,” p. 44). 101 Photos of black bears that Rojo captured. They’re among the animals whose movements are most hindered by human development in the region, including by construction of the U.S. border wall. 31 Times that Rojo or his assistants showed up to find an elaborate camera trap setup had been demolished by a curious black bear—including when Rojo found a steel tripod snapped in half like a toothpick.…

OCEAN LIFE While “muck diving”—that is, scouring the seafloor for surprising creatures—in Indonesia’s Lembeh Strait, photographer Ross Gudgeon came across a cluster of what he recognized as cauliflower soft coral. “Really boring from the outside,” Gudgeon says, since it simply resembles its namesake. But when he carefully poked his special underwater probe lens into a clump of the coral, he captured a fractal universe of towering, polyp-tipped branches. CULTURE Opera performers prepare to take the stage at a community center in New York City’s Chinatown, part of a production sponsored by the Mencius Society for the Arts. Some cast members are professionals from China, while others are local amateurs curious about an ancient art form linked to their heritage. Among the latter, photographer Andrew Kung says, there’s “a yearning to know…

THE SECRETIVE BEER LAB inside the headquarters of the world’s biggest brewing company doesn’t often allow visitors. But today AB InBev has something it would like to show off. So David De Schutter, the head of AB InBev’s Global Innovation and Technology Center—the official name of the beer lab—is showing me around the squat black building on the outskirts of Leuven, Belgium, about a half hour east of Brussels. Belgium is one of beer’s ancestral homelands. Across the street from the lab is the brewery that makes Stella Artois. Leuven is crisscrossed by canals originally built by brewers to move their product. This is a beer company in a beer town in a beer country. So the office building has a dedicated tasting room. With a kegerator. When we get…