Innehållsförteckning för November 2022 från National Geographic Magazine

Light interacting with microscopic ridges on the wing surfaces of the African Cynandra opis butterfly gives rise to iridescence. These “structural colors” can appear in a wide spectrum of visible hues, including some not in the butterfly’s pigmentation. Now researchers in Switzerland have replicated the wings’ nanostructure with 3D printing on translucent plastic. The innovation could be used for banknotes, inks, and display screens.…

WHEN I RETURNED TO EGYPT in June for the first time in 15 years, I struggled to recognize it. In Cairo, alongside the Nile River, the first mile of a promenade called the Mamsha Ahl Misr (“walkway of the Egyptian people”) had just opened, affording sweeping views of the famed waterfront. The sprawling nearby neighborhood known as the Maspero Triangle was in the middle of a drastic face-lift. Run-down sections had been razed, and pricey riverside condos will take their place—part of a plan to demolish 357 residential areas throughout Egypt’s 27 governorates. Hundreds of houses on Warraq, a small island in the Nile, have been bulldozed to make way for hotels. The river’s storied houseboats were being dismantled or towed off one by one. Departing the city on the…

The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, has funded Explorer in Residence Enric Sala and the Pristine Seas project since 2008. THE MOST ASTONISHING AND HEARTENING CORAL REBIRTH THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN CAME TO LIGHT RECENTLY. To understand how it happened, you have to go back to April 2009. That’s when I assembled and led a team of young, passionate marine biologists on our first expedition to the remote and uninhabited southern Line Islands, which belong to Kiribati, in the central Pacific. The five islands are the tips of ancient volcanoes that rose to the surface between 85 million and 70 million years ago, forming an underwater mountain ridge that crosses the Equator—the “line” in their name. Our goal was to conduct the…

VOLATILE ISLES As the African tectonic plate migrates northeast, scientists suspect a stationary plume of superheated rock drives eruptions at the surface, creating islands. But not all of the eruptions in the Canaries follow this trend, suggesting that other subterranean forces may also be at work. BENEATH THE SURFACE Hundreds of earthquakes shook La Palma in the eight days before the eruption on September 19, 2021. More than 40,000 earthquakes also were detected during the prolonged eruption—but scientists believe twice as many simultaneous quakes may have gone undetected. First tremblings Low-magnitude earthquakes begin on September 11 and rapidly increase to several hundred daily. Pressure exerted on the rock opens fractures, allowing magma to rise. Surfacing Magma that has accumulated under the island starts to ascend, rising to the surface through…

The United States leads the world in meat consumption per capita, with an intake three times as high as the world average. But in the U.S. and other high-income nations, demand is expected to level off as populations age and add more diverse protein sources to their diets. The shift to poultry over the past three decades has been driven by the perception that white meat is a better food choice and more convenient to prepare.…

CRESTED AUKLET Native to the northern Pacific Ocean, the seabird flocks in ice-free waters and nests in colonies on coastlines and cliffs. Although the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assesses it of least concern now, the population is affected by invasive predators and climate change. FOR 36 YEARS, BIOLOGIST IAN JONES has been studying the crested auklet (Aethia cristatella). The small seabirds flock in ocean waters between Siberia and Alaska. They nest in colonies on rocky coasts of remote islands. And each spring, they hold courtship displays that resemble rowdy, carnal swim parties. Jones, a professor at Memorial University in Newfoundland, has observed the birds’ eight-week breeding season: the sights, sounds, smells, and moves. In sum, he says, “it looks like some sort of 1960s-style love-in.” When the snowmelt signals…

LADY FIONA HERBERT, the eighth Countess of Carnarvon, turns the folio pages of a leatherbound guest book, pointing out the signatures of illustrious visitors who frequented her famous home a century ago. We are high in Highclere Castle, the grand country estate some 50 miles west of London that in recent years became the setting for the popular period drama Downton Abbey. Now every table, chair, and much of the floor in Lady Carnarvon’s small study is stacked with books and original documents from the 1920s: letters, diaries, and yellowed photographs mounted in albums or rolled up like ancient papyrus scrolls. The guest register contains the cast of characters for a book Lady Carnarvon is writing about her husband’s forebear, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon.…

ERAS OF AUTHORITY Egypt was shaped by the ebb and flow of myriad dynasties over thousands of years of centralized pharaonic rule until outside powers conquered the ancient civilization. It was reduced to a dependency of the Ottoman and then British Empires, winning independence in 1922. The British continued to control Egypt’s military until 1952. DESERT CITY RISING A new capital is under construction 30 miles east of Cairo. The ambitious project aims to create a modern city of more than six million. A major impetus was to relocate people from the overcrowded Nile Valley.…

THE AIR AHEAD SHIMMERS with heat as I approach an entrance to the underworld. Wind roaring in my ears, I carefully follow the footprints of my guide, Octavio Fernández Lorenzo, across a blackened landscape on La Palma in the Spanish Canary Islands. “This is almost as far as we can go,” he says suddenly, stopping a few yards from our target, the maw of a volcanic cave known as a lava tube. We continue a few more steps toward the entrance, where a private drone operator had recently registered temperatures of 338°F—hot enough to bake bread. Fernández Lorenzo, vice president of the Canary Federation of Speleology, has been keeping close watch on the slowly cooling cave; he hopes to eventually enter to gather clues about one of the archipelago’s most…

WHO A Spanish photographer focused on natural history and wildlife conservation WHERE Outside of Mindo, Ecuador WHAT Sony Alpha 7R IV with a 90mm lens and two external flashes Ecuador’s humid cloud forests are home to a high concentration of plants and animals. Near the village of Mindo, west of Quito, Aznar spent four days and nights hiking with friends in search of remarkable wildlife scenes. On the last evening, he found snakes, grasshoppers, spiders, tree frogs, millipedes—and these photogenic orange fungi from the genus Mycena helping decompose a log. As the rain picked up, he doubled down on capturing the tiny tableau. National Geographic is the most popular brand on Instagram, with more than 312 million followers. This page showcases images from our accounts: @natgeo, @natgeotravel, @natgeointhefield, @natgeoadventure, @natgeoyourshot.…

AS THE DAUGHTER of two flight attendants who took her on work trips to far-flung places—Singapore, Venezuela, Australia, India—photographer Stephanie Gengotti was used to a life on the go. So when she began following family circus troupes through Europe six years ago, the experience seemed familiar to her. “I feel very similar to these people because I also come from a family of travelers,” Gengotti says. “I connected to them. It reminded me of who I was.” The troupes she tracks come from the nouveau cirque school, in which trained humans, not trained animals, are the stars of the show. While the circuses might include a few laying hens or horses that pull their caravans, most scenes are performed by artists who lead audiences through a story arc via theater,…

Saying no when Fidogives you his best “puppy-dog eyes” can be extremely difficult. For thousands of years, dogs have been cajoling people by making this pitiful, adorable expression—an ability that may be the result of selective breeding, a new study says. Tiny muscles around the eyes and mouth enable terrestrial mammals to form myriad facial expressions. Those muscles are more similar in dogs and humans than in dogs and wolves, says the study by researchers from Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University. In wolves, most of the facial muscles are slow-twitch fibers, which adjust less rapidly, while in humans and domesticated dogs, most of the muscles are fast-twitch fibers, which react quickly. It’s this musculature difference that allows dogs to make puppy-dog eyes and other animated, humanlike expressions that wolves can’t. Communicating with…

OCTOPUSES FASCINATE US with their dexterity and keen intelligence, their capacity for problem-solving and play. Most coastal octopus species live for about a year; the largest and longest-lived, the giant Pacific octopus (shown here), may live up to five years. Most octopuses reproduce just once, late in life, and at this time they enter senescence, a monthslong period of decline marked by diminished feeding and coordination, tissue breakdown, and even self-cannibalization. What explains these phenomena? Scientists suggest that this fast-growing, competitive species evolved an internal self-destruct system that triggers mature animals’ death after reproduction, to make way for a new generation. EIGHT-ARMED RECORD HOLDER The giant Pacific octopus grows larger than any other octopus; it averages about 25 to 45 pounds, though one individual topped out at 402 pounds. Carnivorous, the…

WAX. PAINT. REAL HAIR. FAKE EYEBALLS. Where else but Madame Tussauds do these parts add up to onlookers’ delight in the (unblinking) presence of their favorite celebrities? At the Tussauds location near New York City’s Times Square—one of 25 such attractions worldwide—studio manager Matt Hilshorst and four other artists maintain the roughly 200 figures on view, from Albert Einstein and Ariana Grande to Kamala Harris, the first ever VP in wax. By hand, the artists touch up and, when necessary, repair the sculptures, ensuring they’re always ready to greet their fans.…

‘IT WAS A SIGHT SURPASSING ALL PRECEDENT, AND ONE WE NEVER DREAMED OF SEEING.’—HOWARD CARTER, NOVEMBER 27, 1922 GRAPHICS BY ALBERTO LUCAS LÓPEZ FANTASTICAL GILDED CREATURES. Life-size effigies of a king. Parts of chariots that were “glinting with gold.” These were just a few of the treasures cataloged by British archaeologist Howard Carter and his team as they ventured into a previously overlooked tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. They would eventually uncover three layers of coffins; in the final, solid-gold one, they found a golden masked mummy, stuck fast to its encasement by a libation poured by ancient priests.…

IT’S AN UNUSUAL MUSEUM DIRECTOR who wears camouflage clothing and combat boots to work, but Maj. Gen. Atef Moftah isn’t your typical museum director, and the Grand Egyptian Museum isn’t your typical museum. Seen from a distance, the sprawling, postmodern GEM, as it’s called, is so huge that it’s hard to make sense of. Its jutting, prowlike lines resemble an enormous ship run aground in the desert. Closer up, the museum’s exterior is covered in pyramid motifs, echoing the Pyramids at Giza that rise little more than a mile away. The design may be disorienting, but the message is clear: This is a museum fit for a pharaoh. An engineer by training, General Moftah is compact and erect, with close-cropped hair, a swift gait, and a take-charge manner, though his…