National Geographic Magazine

Amazing discoveries and experiences await you in every issue of National Geographic magazine. The latest news in science, exploration, and culture will open your eyes to the world’s many wonders.

FROM the EDITOR

IN FOCUS • JUST IN FROM OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS

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.

THE HUNT FOR THE OTHER HUMANS • Stunning discoveries and fresh breakthroughs in DNA analysis are rewriting the evolutionary history of our species—and offering a new picture of the mysterious ‘other humans’ that our ancestors met as they fanned out across Europe and Asia.

HOW EARLY HUMANS MIGRATED AND MIXED • Homo sapiens are the only humans left on Earth today, but at one point we shared the planet with other species of ancestral humans, collectively known as hominins. As climates and ecological opportunities shifted, hominins migrated out of Africa, reconnecting and interbreeding with the descendants of their relatives who had made similar journeys thousands of years before.

REIMAGINING HOW HUMANS EVOLVED • Homo sapiens are a terminal species, meaning we are the only ones left from a group of multiple species that occasionally coexisted and sometimes even interbred. These separations and rejoinings of our various lineages have led some scientists to think of human evolution as less of a traditional family tree and more of a meandering “braided stream.”

FINDING THE FACE OF A LOST PAST • How a new image of a mysterious hominin was made for National Geographic

THE SECRET to a Long, HEALTHY LIFE • Your lifespan is overrated. It’s health span that really matters now.

THE MYSTERY OF THE RINGS • When hundreds of eerily perfect circles were discovered on the ocean floor, theories abounded about what they could mean. Four years of underwater research revealed a lost world.

Secrets below the surface

GHOSTS of the GUANO ISLANDS • In Peru, a photographer finds a novel way to pay homage to seabirds that were lost.

THE REDISCOVERED SECRETS OF PROJECT ICEWORM • At the height of the Cold War, a classified military program built an improbable nuclear base under the Arctic ice. Now scientists are taking a fresh look at what went on there—and drawing critical new insights about climate change.

ON A FREEZING DAY IN OCTOBER 1960

ARCTIC AMBITIONS • Camp Century, completed in 1960, was a pilot project for an ultimately unrealized but even more audacious plan to build hundreds of miles of connected tunnels, rail tracks, and missile silos across the Greenland ice sheet. Dug 25 feet beneath the snow, the camp provided both the comforts of home and cutting-edge research facilities in one of the world’s most inhospitable regions.

THE TINY FOREST of a BONSAI GIANT

Inside the NFL’s FOOTBALL FACTORY • Making iconic game balls requires more than 100 craftspeople perfecting a century-old design. Here’s how they do it.

MEET THE HIDDEN KEEPERS OF THE FOREST

HEATING THE HILL • The sprawling mounds of the red wood ant Formica polyctena are the largest aboveground ant nests in the world. They’re also heat-retaining wonders, thanks to the thermoregulating prowess of millions of ants devoted to sustaining themselves and their young in Europe’s chilly forests.

SECRETS TO LIVING SUPER SMALL • A red wood ant’s engineering and defensive skills transcend its tiny stature in the natural world. These other critters also possess surprising adaptations that help them thrive in their surroundings.

NEW from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC