An ancient sponge, similar to the modern creatures of reefs and seafloors, is the "Eve" from which all animals arose, says a researcher who studies the genetic code of marine organisms. The work is featured in a new National Geographic television series, The Shape of Life, on the origins of the animal kingdom's remarkable diversity.
Acting on their motto of "First There," a highly specialized group of elite U.S. Air Force fighters known as combat controllers were among the first to arrive behind enemy lines in Afghanistan a month after September 11. They are critical go-betweens in the success of U.S. Special Operations Forces and precision air power.
South Africa's law-enforcement authorities are engaged in an armed battle to save the country's abalone stocks from extinction at the hands of poachers and international smuggling syndicates. The giant sea snail is prized by gourmets, particularly in Asia, as a delicacy reputed to have aphrodisiac properties.
For several decades, the United States has been burying plutonium-contaminated radioactive waste in shallow pits atop a Snake River aquifer in Idaho. Activists and the state are concerned that it will leach into the water and want it moved somewhere else. Federal officials insist it's okay where it is.
Regions devastated by natural disasters still have one thing in abundance: dirt. Architect Nader Khalili has used it to build the prototype of dome-shaped emergency housing that could be used for millions of people worldwide who lack basic shelter.
Scientists have identified an asteroid a thousand yards wide that may be heading for a collision with Earth—878 years from now. Radar and optical measurements from the past 51 years suggest a one-in-300 possibility that Asteroid 1950 DA will slam into Earth on March 16, 2880.
As 700,000 visitors flock to see 3,750 cherry blossom trees blooming at the height of their glory, Washington, D.C., is having one of the best Cherry Blossom Festivals in the history of the event. Cherry blossoms came to the U.S. capital as a gift from Japan in 1912 to symbolize the friendship between the two countries. Ninety years later, many of the original trees are still flourishing—and giving pleasure to thousands of visitors.
In a study based on measurements of the bite force of living crocodilians, researchers have concluded that the ancient Sarcosuchus imperator, or "SuperCroc," had jaws of steel that no prey—not even small dinosaurs—could pry open.
As far back as the 1880s, miners in North Canada, South Africa, and Scandinavia have reported mysterious, foul smelling gases that hiss and spit from crevices deep in mineshafts. Now scientists have discovered the origin of these gases and have found that these anomalous emissions may provide insight into how and where simple organic molecules formed.
Researchers from the University of Washington and China have cracked the genetic code of rice, a scientific sequencing feat that should lead to improved grain crops and help reduce hunger and malnutrition around the world. Rice is a staple for more than half the world's population.
The state champions of the 2002 National Geographic Bee were determined in contests across the United States last Friday. The 55 champions, representing every U.S. state and several territories, will gather in Washington, D.C. on May 21 and 22 to determine this year's national Bee champion—and who gets to win a college scholarship of $25,000.
Ninety years after the Titanic sank, artifacts are being carried away and adventure tourism is taking a growing number of divers to the site. Scientists, victims' families, and heritage buffs argue that the site should be treated as a memorial and put off limits to such activities.
What animal was the first to kill another? Paleontologists are tightening a dragnet around the prime suspect by gleaning clues from the fossilized remains of predators, their prey, and the tracks each left behind.
The mountaintop ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru are one of the most famous archaeological landmarks in the world. But what did the Inca city look like in its heyday, 500 years ago? Mapmakers at National Geographic have produced what they say is the most complete and detailed view of the ancient site ever done.
It's dark, slimy, and mysterious—a massive patch of blackish-green water floating off the Florida coast. Scientists are studying the strange formation, but they still don't know what caused it and whether it's harming local marine life.
Most Americans know the Mason-Dixon Line as the divider between North and
South, freedom and slavery. But it actually originated from a bloody land dispute when the United States was still a collection of British colonies. Now two surveyors are working to preserve the 239-year-old stones laid by Mason and
Dixon.
Thousands of Inca mummies—many with hair, skin, and eyes intact—have been rescued from beneath the streets on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. The 500-year-old bodies of men, women, and children, and more than 50,000 artifacts buried with them, are such a rich archaeological find that scientists say they will provide enough information to rewrite Inca history. Full story and photo gallery:
African herders rely on cattle for food and other basic needs, and as beasts of burden. But how cattle domestication occurred in Africa has been obscured by long-ago migrations and trade. Now, by studying the DNA of cattle in 23 countries, scientists are filling in the picture.
Primatologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Jane Goodall is in Washington, D.C. for the premiere of her new television documentary Chimps in Crisis, airing on National Geographic EXPLORER on MSNBC on Sunday. She talks about the crisis and her changing role as a spokesperson on hot-button environmental issues.
The male lions of Tsavo, Kenya, which gained notoriety in the late 19th century as man-eaters, lack the majestic golden mane commonly associated with male lions. Two scientists are investigating the possibility that the lions' social structure and absence of a mane all boils down to hormones.
More than 300,000 people a year make the trek to Peru to marvel at the extensive stone ruins of Machu Picchu, the best known Inca landmark. Now, that overwhelming interest may be putting Machu Picchu at risk.
Peruvian-born archaeologist, author, and Andean expert Guillermo Cock began a salvage operation in 1999 in the shantytown of Tupac Amaru, which had taken root directly on top of an extensive and important Inca cemetery. Cock and his team have recovered one of the most impressive collections of Inca remains, mummies, and funerary bundles ever excavated, but Cock believes that they have saved no more than 40 percent of what lies beneath the surface.
At the age of 22, South African Mark Shuttleworth founded a company that helped improve the security of business transactions on the Internet. Four years later, he sold his company for 400 million dollars. Today, Shuttleworth is using the earnings for a lofty goal: to become the first African citizen in space.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has honored primatologist and environmentalist Jane Goodall as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. As a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, Goodall is famous for her pioneering research with chimpanzees in Tanzania, which began with a grant from National Geographic in 1961.
At the age of 22, South African Mark Shuttleworth founded a company that helped improve the security of business transactions on the Internet. Four years later, he sold his company for 400 million dollars. Today, Shuttleworth is using the earnings for a lofty goal: to become the first African citizen in space.
Atrazine, one of the top selling weed killers in the United States and the world, has been found to dramatically affect the sexual development of male frogs, turning them into hermaphrodites—creatures with both male and female organs—at concentrations 30 times lower than those deemed safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Once an icon of Indian culture, snake charmers today are struggling for survival. They blame stringent wildlife protection laws and the advent of cable television, which has ushered in nature programs that take the magic out of the once-entrancing street performances.
Scientists have acquired new data supporting the idea that the last ancestor shared by all living primates walked with the dinosaurs more than 80 million years ago. The results came from a new technique used to reconstruct the course of animal evolution.
Squabbling parties within the European Union could learn a lot about how to get along from the invasive ant population. Researchers have discovered an enormous "supercolony" of Argentine ants extending across 6,000 kilometers of Southern Europe.
The greatest land deal in history. That's the consensus on the Louisiana Purchase, a transaction in which the United States paid France $15 million for around 828,000 square miles of land, and nearly doubled its size. Now, the privately owned original handwritten proclamation in which President Jefferson announced his acquisition to the American public has gone on public display for the first time.
Forty years ago Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, documenting the chemical warfare that human beings were waging on the natural world. The book is widely credited with launching today's environmental movement. In observation of Earth Day on April 22, National Geographic News looks at what's changed and what hasn't since Carson sounded the alarm.
The round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race is one of sailing's greatest challenges. The eight competing teams in this test of skill and will have arrived in Baltimore-Annapolis waters after completing six of the race's nine legs. The overall outcome is still in doubt, which means exciting racing lies ahead.
The Senate Thursday defeated 46 to 54 an amendment to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration by refusing to end debate on the measure. The mostly Republican supporters of the amendment failed to draw enough support for the measure to defeat a promised Democratic filibuster.
Norwegian explorer and archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl, 87, set off Thursday on his last great adventure. The man who challenged scientific thought and sailed primitive craft across vast oceans to buttress his views on human migration, died at his home of a brain tumor.
Environmental activism is getting a new lease on life, sparked by a public backlash against runaway and poorly planned development of towns and cities. Citizens' groups are calling for radical changes in current methods of land-use planning to avert "sprawl" and preserve valuable ecological features of the landscape.
A controversial computer reconstruction of a 36,000-year-old Neandertal skull has revealed that the individual was violently bashed with some sort of tool. But the wound was not fatal and shows signs of healing, say the authors of the study, who suggest that the individual was nursed back to health.
Researchers have discovered the earliest known ancestor of the group of mammals that give birth to live young. The finding is based on a well-preserved fossil of a tiny, hairy 125-million-year-old shrewlike species that scurried about in bushes and the low branches of trees.
The Volvo Ocean Race is a marathon event, with world-class racers battling each other around the globe for nine months. During port call at the end of each leg, the race doesn't stop—it just shifts gears. A firsthand report from Baltimore as weary crews take a break and gear up for the next stage.
According to widely accepted theory, the universe was born in an instantaneous creation of matter and energy. Or was it? A new model views the Big Bang as a transition in an endless cycle of cosmological rebirth.
Ancient skeletal remains from a Moche temple complex in northern Peru show that the victims suffered shockingly brutal deaths. Were they executed as human sacrifices to the gods, or ritually murdered as the losers in fierce power struggles between competing city-states? A National Geographic EXPLORER TV program tracks forensic efforts to find the answer.
More than U.S. $220,000 has been given to the National Geographic Society's Afghan Girls Fund since it was created five weeks ago. Inspired by Sharbat Gula, the "Afghan Girl" who was found years after her photograph was taken in a refugee camp, thousands of readers donated to the fund. Many have asked for more information about Sharbat.
The Volvo Ocean Race is ultimately about speed and competition on the seas. But the competing boats also team with NASA and research institutions to aid oceanic science and environmental education.
Jet-stream winds of up to 70 miles per hour (120 kilometers per hour) have trapped several climbing expeditions on the slopes of Mount Everest, including a group sponsored by the National Geographic Society to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of the world's tallest mountain.
It may sound like lunacy, but a scientist says that beaming solar power to Earth by way of the moon could provide a clean, emission-free, and unlimited source of energy.
Alien species are using trash in the ocean to raft their way to new territory, where they can colonize and possibly overwhelm local marine ecosystems, reports a British marine biologist.
In the century and a half since Sir John Franklin made an ill-fated attempt to find a northern sea route to Asia, no traces of his two ships have been found in the Canadian Arctic. A new expedition launched today hopes to change that.
High in the Andes of Peru, life is changing one thread at a time for the Quechuan women of Chinchero, a small village outside Cusco. Women weavers are learning skills to make themselves self-sufficient and changing the tapestry of family economics.
Jesús Rivas has the kind of job that would keep most of us lying awake at night hoping to keep the nightmares at bay: He does field research on anacondas, which can weigh more than half a ton. And he looks for them in swamps by feeling for them with his bare feet. This Five Days of Snakes story airs tonight on the National Geographic Channel.
Space scientists have hitched a ride aboard a U.S. fighter jet to search the twilight regions of space for evidence of small asteroids known as "vulcanoids"—named for a speculative planet called Vulcan. If they exist, such asteroids may be debris left over from the formation of the planet Mercury.
