Pictures: National Geographic's Top Ten Discoveries

10,000 Strong
Photograph by Sandesh Kadur, National Geographic
As of today, the National Geographic Society has issued 10,000 grants funding research and exploration since 1890—including, on the following pages, the ten National Geographic grant projects that, according to an internal panel, "have made the greatest difference in understanding the Earth."
(Watch a video highlighting National Geographic-funded research projects.)
Now—after a 120-year history of supporting the excavation of Machu Picchu, the discovery of the Titanic wreck, Jane Goodall's chimpanzee research, and much more—National Geographic is awarding its 10,000th grant. The funding goes to Krithi Karanth (pictured), a conservation biologist with Duke University and the India-based Centre for Wildlife Studies.
Karanth will use her funding to assess human-wildlife conflicts in five parks in India's Western Ghats region, which is home to tigers, Asian elephants, and other endangered and threatened animals. (Learn more about Karanth and her work, in her own words.)
"Krithi is emblematic of the direction of National Geographic in many ways," said John Francis, Vice President for Research, Conservation, and Exploration at National Geographic.
"She studies human interactions with declining and impacted wildlife, and she has had a rich personal history as a field biologist."
A native of Bangalore, Karanth also represents the increasingly international nature of National Geographic grantees, Francis added. "About 40 percent of our grants are to non-North Americans, and every decade for the past four decades, we've increased that by 10 percent," he said.
(The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)
—Ker Than
Published December 8, 2011
Lightless Life Discovered
Photograph by Emory Kristof and Alvin Chandler, National Geographic
Oceanographer Robert Ballard used a 1977 National Geographic grant—and the Alvin submersible (file picture)—to help discover hydrothermal vents deep in the Pacific Ocean's Galápagos Rift, which contained the first known life-forms not dependent on photosynthesis. (Watch video of hydrothermal vents.)
National Geographic's Francis said, "The idea that there are still unique life-forms on the planet that have yet to be discovered is something that most people don't fully appreciate." (Also see "Deepest Volcanic Sea Vents Found; 'Like Another World.'")
In 1985 Ballard made headlines again as leader of the expedition that found the wreck of the H.M.S. Titanic. (Join a live video chat with Ballard on the National Geographic Facebook page, December 14 at 3:30pm ET [20:30 UT].)
The first National Geographic grant was awarded in 1890, when the two-year-old National Geographic Society decided to launch an exploration program to increase geographic knowledge of Earth. That grant was given to a team to explore Canada's Mount St. Elias. The explorers had to turn back because of menacing weather and avalanches, but they returned with a wealth of scientific information, including the first documented sighting of Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak.
The combined total of National Geographic's grants awarded since 1890 is U.S. $153 million. Several committees, consisting of experts in their fields, review more than a thousand grant applications every year and give awards to about a third of them.
"We like to think of ourselves as a risk-taking enterprise," Francis said. "We like for people to come to us with their new ideas and to give them an opportunity to test things that perhaps others wouldn't take a risk on."
(Watch video: "Why Nat Geo Exploration Is 'Important to Us All.'")
Published December 8, 2011
Goodall Unlocks Ape Secrets
Photograph by Vanne Goodall, National Geographic
Beginning in 1961, primatologist and grantee Jane Goodall, seen in an undated picture with a wild chimpanzee, used her National Geographic support for pioneering research on chimps, including the discovery of toolmaking—long seen as a behavior unique to humans. (Photos: Being Jane Goodall.)
"One thing that many people don't know about Jane Goodall is that, compared to today—where we tend to focus on people who have strong records as academics for our science grants—Jane was untested. But she came forward with an enthusiasm and curiosity that really ignited the interest of the leaders at National Geographic at the time," Francis said.
"We're doing more of that today," he added. "We have a Young Explorers grant program, and we identify emerging explorers and celebrate them at a yearly symposium. We are constantly looking for the new and the untested, not just of people but also ideas."
Published December 8, 2011
Machu Picchu Revealed
Photograph by Hiram Bingham, National Geographic
The legendary Inca mountaintop city of Machu Picchu in Peru is pictured shortly after Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham began excavations in 1911 with funding from a National Geographic grant.
"This part of Inca culture was completely unknown to most of Western society, and it was one of our first significant ventures into archaeology at the Society," Francis said.
"It was otherworldly and exciting and has become emblematic for National Geographic exploration in the century to follow."
(Related: "What Was Machu Picchu For? Top Five Theories Explained.")
Published December 8, 2011
Redwoods Protected
Photograph by Paul Zahl, National Geographic
Two scientists, including National Geographic grantee Chester Brown (center), measure the girth of the world's tallest redwood tree in Redwood Creek, California, in the mid-1960s. (See more redwood pictures.)
Brown, of the U.S. National Park Service, received a grant in 1963 that helped establish Redwood National Park—decades after National Geographic magazine had played a role in the establishment of the Park Service itself.
"The Organic Act, which gave rise to the national park system, was motivated in part by an [April 1916] issue of National Geographic, which had a foldout of the General Sherman tree, the largest of the giant sequoias," Francis said.
(Also see "Oldest Living Tree Found in Sweden.")
Published December 8, 2011
Antarctic Flight and Photography
Photograph courtesy Admiral Richard A. Byrd Polar Center
Admiral Richard Byrd checks a sun compass from an aircraft in Antarctica (Watch a video on the Byrd expedition).
In 1929, carrying both the compass and a National Geographic Society flag, Byrd and four companions became the first to fly over the South Pole. In the process they photographed 60,000 square miles (155,400 square kilometers) of Antarctica from the air.
"The fact that the Poles were much harder to reach than other parts of the planet made them obvious categories for exploration," Francis said.
"There is this concept of exploration where you're filling in the white spaces on a map ... and [Byrd] was doing just that. Of course, now exploration takes many new forms—including a variety of remote sensing devices—beyond the photographs that Byrd used in his reconnaissance."
Published December 8, 2011
Cousteau Exposes Ocean World
Photograph by Thomas J. Abercrombie, National Geographic
Ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau poses with one of his underwater research vessels—a rudderless diving saucer that could maneuver with thrusting nozzles like an underwater airplane—in an undated photograph.
"Besides being a very charismatic communicator about the beauties of the ocean world, Cousteau was also instrumental in establishing the Aqua-Lung"—an underwater breathing device—"as a technology that expanded the realm of ocean exploration."
Starting in 1952, Cousteau received a total of 37 grants from National Geographic and took its magazine readers along on a dozen expeditions via stories and photography.
Marine ecologist and National Geographic explorer-in-residence Enric Sala continues Cousteau's legacy by conducting research that helps explore and conserve the ocean's last pristine places.
(Related pictures: "World's Largest Marine Reserve Announced.")
Published December 8, 2011
Leakeys Find Evolutionary Evidence
Photograph by Melville B. Grosvenor, National Geographic
Paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey examine fossils at a field site in Kenya.
The search for evidence of early humans by a succession of Leakeys—Louis and Mary, their son and daughter-in-law Richard and Meave, and their granddaughter Louise—has received a total of 76 grants from the National Geographic Society, beginning in 1960.
"We've given a long string of grants" to the Leakey family, Francis said. "They have had a legacy impact on the advancement of our understanding of human origins, which continues to this day."
Published December 8, 2011
Finding a Fin-Limb Link
Photograph by John Weinstein, National Geographic
University of Chicago paleontologist Neil Shubin poses with a reconstruction of Tiktaalik. Discovered in 2004 during a National Geographic-funded project, Tiktaalik is a 375-million-year-old fish that scientists think was one of the first creatures to emerge from the oceans onto land.
"Paleontology is a tremendous arena for us. If we don't know where the world has been, we'll have a hard time understanding where it might go," National Geographic's Francis said.
Numerous Society grants have funded paleontology around the globe, including the discovery of new dinosaur species on nearly every continent by paleontologist and National Geograhgic grantee Paul Sereno.
"The fossil world is one that continues to deliver exciting discoveries," Francis said, "and we've been there from the early days."
(Related evolution pictures: "From Fins to Wings.")
Published December 8, 2011
Charting the Seafloor
Photograph by Nathan Benn, National Geographic
Cartographers Bruce Heezen and Marie Tharp pore over a map of the ocean floor in an undated picture.
In 1970 Heezen and Tharp used a National Geographic grant to map the seafloor for the first time, showing ridges and contours as rugged as any landscape on shore.
Their research led to the creation "of a classic map in National Geographic that showed ridges in the ocean floor," Francis said.
"That map was used everywhere, and it was a very creative step in cartography that ended up having a lot of impact on how people envisioned things like continental drift, the spreading of the seafloor, and the understanding that the ocean bottom had structure with a deep history."
(Related video: "Scientists 'See' Ocean Floor via Sonar.")
Published December 8, 2011
Uncovering Monarch Eden
Photograph by Bianca Lavies, National Geographic
A guide in Mexico wears a hat festooned with monarch butterflies (file picture). National Geographic funding in 1975 helped biologist Fred Urquhart discover the butterfly's winter destination (Read the National Geographic article on the monarch butterfly discovery.)
"The large distances that these delicate creatures travel is a wonderful hallmark of the absolutely phenomenal processes on the planet," Francis said.
National Geographic continues to fund research investigating the migratory behavior of creatures, including the work of zoologist Martin Wikelski, who uses miniature radio transmitters to study migrating birds and insects.
To encourage the cross-pollination of ideas among its diverse grantees, National Geographic holds an annual Explorers Symposium at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
"We bring together people who are identified as leaders in their field, and we arrange dialogues on stage where they talk about big questions and look for solutions across the boundaries of their disciplines," Francis said.
"People sometimes think of National Geographic as a media company, but the people who get our magazine and watch our shows empower this enormous engine of continued support in the areas of exploration, research, and conservation."
(Read more about National Geographic's 1st and 10,000th grants in the January issue of National Geographic magazine.)
Published December 8, 2011