Adventure has been at the heart of National Geographic storytelling for 125 years, and this year those stories were more alive than ever. Aided by constantly improving technology and gear, today’s adventurers continue to define the unknown, from climbing virgin peaks in Antarctica’s Queen Maud Land to descending into a lava lake in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to embarking on a 21,000-mile odyssey in the footsteps of humankind.

Out of Africa

The phrase “epic journey” gets used a lot, but it’s usually an exaggeration. This time it’s an understatement. Earlier this year Paul Salopek (seen here in Ethiopia’s Afar desert) embarked on a seven-year global trek, walking from Africa to Tierra del Fuego in the footsteps of our ancestors. Why? “For many reasons,” he writes in the December issue of National Geographic. “[T]o relearn the contours of our planet at the human pace of three miles an hour. To slow down. To think. To write. To render current events as a form of pilgrimage. I hope to repair certain important connections burned through by artificial speed, by inattentiveness. I walk, as everyone does, to see what lies ahead. I walk to remember.” Photograph by John Stanmeyer, National Geographic See More

Kayaking Over Tomata 1

“This is the critical moment when everything goes right or everything goes wrong,” said extreme kayaker Tyler Brandt, describing this shot of him—an online Extreme Photo of the Week—going over the 65-foot Tomata 1 waterfall in Tlapacoyan, Mexico. It’s important for waterfall kayakers to land precisely, an outcome influenced by their actions at the lip of the waterfall and into the first 20 feet of free fall. “At this moment,” explained Brandt, “I was focused on setting my angle correctly.” Photograph by Tim Kemple See More

Discovery: First Flight?

The fathers of flight are the Wright brothers, right? Maybe not. As National Geographic Daily News reported in May, some aviation historians now believe a German-born inventor named Gustave Whitehead—seen here with his daughter Rose—beat the brothers into the air by as much as three years. Though many experts disagree or remain dubious, an Australian flight historian named John Brown has convinced the aviation bible Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft that an enhanced photograph shows Whitehead flying his plane in Fairfield, Connecticut, on August 14, 1901. Which way this piece of history tilts remains up in the air. Photograph from Corbis See More

Game Changers: Adventurers of the Year

What does an adventurer look like? Kevin Pearce, for one. The snowboarder was Shaun White’s chief Olympic rival four years ago when he fell and suffered a traumatic brain injury. His family, friends, and doctors helped him make a remarkable, still ongoing recovery. And though he can’t compete again, he’s still a leader in the snowboarding community. He’s also one of our ten Adventurers of the Year. Photograph by Adam Pearce See More

Maxed Out

Ascending Earth’s tallest mountain used to be the province of professional climbers. Today loose regulations and a boom in commercial climbing have made the 29,035-foot-tall Mount Everest accessible to anyone who can afford to pay the price. As hundreds of people try to climb it every year—and more than half succeed, as this graphic shows—the peak is being ruined with garbage and waste. At the same time, say professional climbers, the experience itself is being ruined by the glut of visitors. “The most dangerous thing about Everest,” says one guide, “is everyone else who’s trying to climb it.” Mark Jenkins’s story in the June issue of National Geographic examines how Everest has become an icon of everything that’s wrong with climbing. Martin Gamache and Matthew Twombly, NGM Staff; Mesa Schumacher. Sources: German Aerospace Center; Raymond B. Huey, University of Washington; Richard Salisbury; Himalayan Database See More

Zero to 60

Adventure filmmaking keeps getting better. To showcase it, we developed Zero to 60, a weekly video series that celebrates the beauty, athleticism, and humor of outdoor adventure and exploration. Each 60-second cinematic episode features world-class adventurers in action, such as climber Alex Honnold deep-water soloing in Oman, kayaker Tyler Bradt hunting for the perfect waterfall in Mexico, and photographer Jimmy Chin ski mountaineering in the Grand Tetons. Video by Camp 4 Collective See Video

Untamed Antarctica

One way to get to Antarctica is to read Freddie Wilkinson’s words and look at Cory Richards’s photographs in National Geographic. Another way is to watch this accompanying video, which offers an up-close look at the cold hostility of Queen Maud Land and the unique challenges faced by these devoted climbers. As photographer Cory Richards says: “You definitely have to work for everything in Antarctica. Nothing is a given; you have to earn it.” Video by Cory Richards and Keith Ladzinski See More

Community: BASE Jumping

Mankind has always dreamed of flying. For some brave souls today, BASE jumping—where people leap from fixed objects (“BASE” is an acronym for “building, antenna, span, cliff”) and use a parachute to control their fall—comes pretty close. This shot, taken in Italy by Stela Prodanovic, was published in the Your Shot “Travelogue” story. Photograph by Stela Prodanovic, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Boiling Point

As a scientist, it’s not always about lab coats and pocket protectors. For geothermal scientist and National Geographic grantee Andrés Ruzo, being boiled alive is a distinct possibility. While standing at the edge of a scalding hot river in Peru—water temperatures can reach 210°F—Ruzo was suddenly engulfed in a rainstorm. “It was like a curtain rising: The temperature differential between the rain and the river caused a whiteout. I couldn’t see, but I whistled to let my partner know I was OK,” he says. “At 130°F flesh cooks. My eyes would have cooked in less than a minute, and I couldn’t have seen how to get out. I’d seen rats and an opossum fall in, their eyes turning milky white. I kept whistling.”Illustration by Istvan Banyai, National Geographic See More

Everest

Fifty years ago a team of Americans stood on the roof of the world for the first time. Much has changed on Mount Everest in the past half century. We asked some of the leading Everest authorities—from living legends such as Jim Whittaker (the first American to reach the summit), Tom Hornbein (the first to ascend the perilous West Ridge), and Dave Dingman (who forfeited his own shot at the summit to search for his teammates, missing on their descent) to the new generation of leaders such as Conrad Anker, Melissa Arnot, and Jake Norton—to share their candid thoughts on the state of the world’s most iconic mountain.Photographs by Cory Richards See More

Devils Tower

Looming above the landscape in northeastern Wyoming sits the Devils Tower. This monolith came from the bowels of the earth as magma, cooling into vertical columns, most of which are six-sided. Popular with climbers, the Tower is also an important figure in many American Indian traditions, including the Cheyenne, Crow, and Arapaho. Photograph by Aaron Huey, National Geographic See More

Famous Failures

Where would we be without failure? Hannah Bloch takes up this existential question in the September issue of National Geographic, examining the necessary flip side of success. “Failure,” writes Bloch, “is the specter that hovers over every attempt at exploration. Yet without the sting of failure to spur us to reassess and rethink, progress would be impossible.” Famous failures abound, including that of explorer Robert Peary, seen here in 1909 peering over Arctic ice on his third try to reach the North Pole. “Even at their most miserable,” writes Bloch, “failures provide information to help us do things differently next time." Photograph by Robert E. Peary See More

Our most ancient ancestors made headlines this year with a series of discoveries about the human family tree. As National Geographic made clear—by covering stories on everything from the oldest human DNA to how disparate human species belonged to a single one 1.4 million years ago—that family tree now resembles a tangled bush.  

Sacred Cenotes

The Maya civilization has long fascinated those curious about the past, as well as the future. In the August edition of National Geographic, we explored underwater wells—called cenotes—to understand how the Maya used the water, the position of the sun, and a series of shadows to influence their architecture and craft their highly regarded calendar. Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic See More

Ancient Footprints

To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the National Geographic Society, the October issue of National Geographic focused on discoveries through photography. This portrait shows footprints in volcanic ash at Engare Sero in Tanzania—believed to belong to a fast-moving party of adults and adolescents in the Pleistocene era, more than 10,000 years ago. The footprints provide evidence of modern humans moving through East Africa. Photograph by Robert Clark, National Geographic See More

Afghanistan’s Smuggled Antiquities

For decades Afghanistan has been at the crossroads of culture and conflict, leaving the country strewn with a plethora of buried artifacts. By one estimate, more than 99 percent of Afghanistan’s archaeological sites have been looted, items stolen by farmers enriched by the high value of rare antiquities. National Geographic Daily News went digging with several looters to get an inside look at the country’s historic artifacts and how people avoid arrest for breaking the law. Photograph by John Wendle See More

Royal Tomb

In June, archeologists uncovered the first unlooted royal tomb from the Wari civilization. The ancient people are often overshadowed by their historic successors, the Inca, but the Wari built South America’s earliest empire in modern-day Peru between 700 and 1000. The high quality of Wari artwork has long attracted international attention, to the point that a pair of wooden ear ornaments with global frontal discs were a big hit for archeologists—and readers of National Geographic Daily News. Photograph by Robert Clark, National Geographic See More

Game Changer: Cave Man

A few years ago Lee Berger shook up the paleontological world with a discovery: two complete skeletons of a new hominid species, which he named Australopithecus sediba. He shook up the field even more by publishing quickly: Within 18 months his data was accessible to other paleontologists. Now, after three weeks of excavations in a South African cave, he’s brought to light hundreds of new fossil specimens. He’s also launched a worldwide Facebook search for qualified spelunker-scientists, to help him study the fossils and publish the results within a year. And he’s publicly chronicling the excavations as they happen—via live tweeting, daily blogs, and videos from the site—in hopes of making his open-access policy the new norm in a famously secretive field. Photograph by Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic See More

A King Uncovered

More than 500 years have passed since the death of Richard III, the vilified English monarch who died in battle in the 15th century. Four centuries after Shakespeare wrote about the king, National Geographic Daily News reported on how the king’s bones were found and thoroughly analyzed. Earlier this year, English archaeologists declared there was virtually no doubt that the body—found beneath a British parking lot—belonged to the former king. Photograph courtesy University of Leicester See More

Mysterious Human Ancestors

Bone fragments studied in Siberia revealed this year that a third human, called Denisovan, existed in Asia along with Neanderthals and early modern humans. The bones of the latter groups have long been documented in the family tree of human ancestors, but the only evidence of Denisovans comes from one bone chip and two teeth. The entire story, along with photos of the bones, was reported in the July issue of National Geographic. Illustration by Jon Foster. Source: Ofer Bar-Yosef, Harvard University See More

Cold Case

It’s one of the oldest unsolved crimes on Earth. About 5,300 years ago, a man wandered into the Ötztal Alps near the present-day border of Italy and Austria and was killed. Fortunately for archaeologists and anthropologists, the icy conditions preserved him extremely well—so well that five millennia later, he’s still being analyzed in an Italian lab for clues about human origins and evolution. In October, National Geographic’s Onward team visited Ötzi and the site where he died. Video by Spencer Millsap See Video

Community: Spatial Art

Each week, National Geographic Daily News publishes a handful of the best space photos, many taken from orbiting satellites and others from the ground pointing up. Here, Native American art was shot against the vibrant Milky Way. Photograph by Tony Rowell, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Maya Frieze

Archaeologists unearthed an ancient stucco frieze—a panel with sculpted designs—in the buried Maya city of Holmul. In the current region of Petén in Guatemala, the frieze is large: more than 26 feet tall. It’s also one of the best preserved examples of Maya art and architecture ever found. When it was uncovered in July, National Geographic Daily News reported on the find and published a gallery of photographs showing its many details. Photograph courtesy Francisco Estrada-Belli See More

Hand Signals

Cave paintings from ancient humans have been discovered all over the world. The artists behind them, it turns out, were primarily women—says a study uncovered in April and reported on National Geographic Daily News. How did researchers know? Along with images of game animals, handprints on cave walls were analyzed for their anatomical sizes. On male hands, the ring finger is generally longer than the index finger. On female hands—like many of the ones found on cave walls—the lengths were reversed. Photograph courtesy Dean Snow See More

From the crocodile-rich waters of Brazil to a “lost world” discovered in Australia, National Geographic scoured the Earth this year for amazing animal stories. When we found them, we launched a new immersive experience that took readers into the world of African lions, broadcast the brutal slaughter of African elephants, and highlighted new, unusual species.  

The Sultans of Streams

Eurasian otters are enjoying a fragile revival in the British Isles. For decades industrial pollutants—insecticides, fungicides, organochlorides, and DDT—leached into rivers there, and by the late 1970s the British otter population had all but collapsed. The mammals also went extinct in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and in most of France, Germany, and Italy as well. But as chemical bans slowly took effect, writes Adam Nicolson in the February issue of National Geographic magazine, “the population started to climb back toward health.” By 2010 nearly 60 percent of English riverbanks were occupied by otters. Today “only the London area and some northern industrial cities remain otter-free.” Photograph by Charlie Hamilton James, National Geographic See More

Lions

If you read the August issue of National Geographic magazine, you probably learned a thing or two about lions of the Serengeti. But if you really want to get up close and personal with the Vumbi pride, dip into this interactive online feature. Photographer Michael “Nick” Nichols and videographer Nathan Williamson made several extended trips to the Serengeti between July 2011 and January 2013. Using high-tech tools—cameras mounted on a remote-control toy car and a rugged robot tank, night-vision cameras and goggles—as well as old-fashioned, camera-in-hand technology, Nichols shot 242,000 images (including this one of a male named C-Boy mating with a female in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park), and Williamson recorded 200 hours of video. The result is a multimedia presentation you have to see—and hear—to believe. Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic See More

Big Bird

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis,” writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests—by moving seeds from one place to another—“if they vanish,” Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. Photograph by Christian Ziegler See More

Wrangel Island

Russia’s Wrangel Island couldn’t be colder or more remote—a nature reserve on the 180th meridian that requires government permits to visit and a helicopter or icebreaker to reach. But that splendid isolation, writes Hampton Sides in the May issue of National Geographic magazine, “has led to an astonishing abundance of life,” past and present. Paleontologists say it’s the last place where woolly mammoths lived. Today it’s home to snowy owls, muskoxen, arctic foxes (like this pup playing with a lemming carcass), reindeers, and the largest population of Pacific walruses. It also serves as the world’s biggest denning ground for polar bears. This photo gallery of its current residents merely flicks at the island’s biodiversity. Photograph by Sergey Gorshkov, National Geographic See More

The Comeback Croc

“Thirty years ago the yacare caiman appeared to be heading for oblivion,” writes Roff Smith in the July issue of National Geographic magazine, “ruthlessly hunted to supply a lucrative market for crocodilian leather. Their numbers dropped alarmingly.” But “a Brazilian government crackdown on poaching and a 1992 global ban on the trade of wild crocodilian skins eased the pressure on the beleaguered yacare population. The crocs themselves did the rest. After a string of intense rainy seasons—ideal for breeding—caiman numbers rebounded dramatically. As many as ten million yacare caimans are estimated to live in the wetlands today.” Photograph by Luciano Candisani See More

Pinocchio Lizard

For a lizard with such a prominent protrusion, the Pinocchio lizard has proved to be quite elusive. First formally described by scientists in 1953, the species seemingly vanished several years later, according to an October 8 National Geographic News article. “For 40 years, no one saw it,” says Jonathan Losos, an evolutionary biologist and herpetologist at Harvard University who has studied the animal. “At that point, we thought the species had gone extinct.” But then, in 2005 a group of bird-watchers near Mindo, Ecuador, spotted one of the strange lizards walking across the road. After sharing the picture when they returned home, reptile researchers soon learned that the Pinocchio lizard was indeed still alive. Subsequent expeditions have been sent to study the lizard in the wild. Photograph by Alejandro Arteaga, tropicalherping.com See More

Ghost Cats

What’s in a name? Puma, panther, painter, brown tiger, catamount, mountain screamer, mountain lion—the cougar answers to all of them. And with a range that extends from Chile to the edge of Canada’s Yukon, writes Douglas Chadwick, it’s the most widespread large, land-dwelling mammal in the Western Hemisphere. Yet cougars are among the least seen and most elusive. For a better look at this controversial, poorly understood cat, see what photographer Steve Winter’s camera—and camera traps—turned up in the December issue of National Geographic magazine. Photograph by Steve Winter, National Geographic See More

Lost World

In March a team of scientists and filmmakers explored a remote Australian peninsula—a “lost world” that’s been cut off for millennia. They found three new species there, including a leaf-tailed gecko. Funded by the National Geographic Expeditions Council, the Cape York Biodiversity Expedition was led by Harvard University researcher and National Geographic photographer Tim Laman. “What’s really exciting about this expedition,” Laman told National Geographic Daily News, “is that in a place like Australia, which people think is fairly well explored, there are still places like Cape Melville where there are all these species to discover. There’s still a big world out there to explore.” Photograph by Tim Laman, National Geographic See More

Game Changer: Cat Detective

In 1990, Jaroslav Flegr learned he was infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that lives and reproduces in cats. When the Czech evolutionary biologist learned more about how the parasite moves from host to host, he risked his reputation on a hunch his colleagues called crazy: Toxo might be controlling his brain, as it does animals, making him more reckless. Turns out he was right.

A lot has changed since 1888, when National Geographic was founded. But at least one thing is the same: Exploration is the heart of what we do, and risk is part and parcel of exploration. Modernity and technology can remove only so much danger and uncertainty. As long as people keep pushing limits—physical, political, scientific, financial—they are taking risks. To celebrate that questing spirit, National Geographic ran a yearlong series profiling explorers who take risks for the benefit of others. Photograph by Marco Grob, National Geographic See More

Natural Colors

Katydids (pictured) are oblong-winged insects. Most of them are green, but a few have been found sporting bright colors: yellow, orange, even hot pink. Geneticists aren’t sure why. Entomologists suspect erythrism, an anomaly similar to albinism. Scientists working with a related species in Japan point to genetics over environmental factors. Meantime, recent mating trials in New Orleans have posited green as a recessive trait—good camouflage just makes them fittest for survival. Meaning it’s easier being green. Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic

Great Backyard Bird Count

Citizen scientists are for the birds—or at least for counting them. Since 1998 a vast project’s been under way called the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), which asks amateur bird-watchers to record which species they see over four days every February. This year the long-term study, previously conducted only in the United States and Canada, tapped the Internet. Now the GBBC is really taking flight, with people from 110 countries having sent in their bird lists. Art by Karl Mårtens, NGM Maps. Source: Great Backyard Bird Count

Community: Brown Bear Resting

In a Finnish boreal forest near the Russian border, a brown bear cub rests against a tree after a long evening of playing with other young bears. This playful picture, taken by Erik Mandre, was a Your Shot hit twice over: National Geographic’s photo editors chose it in March for the online Daily Dozen, then published it again in October in the magazine. Photograph by Erik Mandre, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Songbird Migration

“Every year,” writes Jonathan Franzen in the July issue of National Geographic magazine, “from one end of it to the other, hundreds of millions of songbirds and larger migrants are killed for food, profit, sport, and general amusement. The killing is substantially indiscriminate, with heavy impact on species already battered by destruction or fragmentation of their breeding habitat. Mediterraneans shoot cranes, storks, and large raptors for which governments to the north have multimillion-euro conservation projects. All across Europe bird populations are in steep decline, and the slaughter in the Mediterranean is one of the causes.” Franzen’s eye-opening article is accompanied by David Guttenfelder’s affecting photographs. In this one, a songbird rescuer in Cyprus uses his saliva to remove sticky plum tree sap from a blackcap’s feather and feet, so that the bird can safely fly when released. Photograph by David Guttenfelder, AP/National Geographic See More

American Bison, Yellowstone

In honor of our 125th anniversary, we’re sharing National Geographic photographs—many never before published—that reveal cultures and moments of the past. In this one, taken in 1967 by the famed photographer William Albert Allard, American bison charge through heavy snow in Yellowstone National Park. Many more treasures are on view for the first time in the curated online collection we call FOUND. Photograph by William Albert Allard, National Geographic See More

From Siberian cowboys to Romanian haymakers to Europe’s wild men, National Geographic continues to explore what makes us human. In some cases, that means getting rid of customs. One example: National Geographic Young Explorer Lale Labuko, an Ethiopian man from the Omo Valley, works to save children from his tribe’s practice of killing those deemed cursed.  

Siberia, Russia

Nenets lead a hard life. Each year these 40,000 indigenous reindeer herders—“the real cowboys of Siberia”—make an epic journey across the frozen tundra, driving their flocks hundreds of miles to grazing land and back again. This man’s trek was captured by Sebastião Salgado for Genesis, a new book of black-and-white photos documenting the world’s still pristine places, shot in 32 countries over eight years. Excerpts of Salgado’s haunting work were published this October in Visions of Earth, a trio of images that appear in each issue of National Geographic magazine and reveal the richness and variety of life on our planet. Photograph by Sebastião Salgado, Contact Press Images See More

Changing Faces

What face does America show the world? The answer used to be more black and white. But today more and more people are of mixed heritage. In the 2000 census, when a multiple-race option appeared for the first time, 6.8 million Americans checked it off. Ten years later that number grew by 32 percent. The quickly changing fabric of our country—where familiar racial categories are being joined by new ones rooted in self-determined identity—provides an opportunity to re-examine our definitions and assumptions. It’s also a chance to gaze at a gallery of intriguing faces and features, photographed by Martin Schoeller. Photographs by Martin Schoeller, National Geographic See More

New Old Libya

Libya has been a recent flashpoint of global conflict and foreign policy debate. In 2011 civil war engulfed the North African country, prompting a NATO-led military intervention that ended Muammar Qaddafi’s life and long dictatorship. In 2013, Robert Draper’s February cover story in National Geographic magazine looked at how Qaddafi’s “warped vision” and “tangled philosophy” twisted Libya’s connection to its own rich history, neglecting cultural and archaeological treasures from Cyrene in the east to Sabratah in the west. Yet the story also looked forward, optimistically, to a post-conflict country and the challenge its citizens face in forging a new identity (re)attached to their past. Photograph by George Steinmetz, National Geographic See More

Beauty Recovery Room

In South Korea plastic surgery is everywhere, geared toward everyone. Even pre–high school students feel pressure to physically alter themselves in pursuit of a fantasy ideal. Photographer and artist Ji Yeo’s Beauty Recovery Room project visualizes this disturbing cultural trend in an October post from PROOF. Yeo describes her series as using “the wounded faces and bodies of women who have recently undergone plastic surgery to show the physical cost of social pressure in Korea. Going under the knife, enduring bruises, scars, and being under general anesthetic several times are no longer considered risky or extravagant. They have all had multiple procedures and have plans for future augmentation.” Photograph by Ji Yeo See More

Visual Village

We are all photographers now. Once upon a time you needed talent, training, and technical savvy to take a great picture, plus high-end equipment and the money to buy it. Today all you need is a smart phone with a camera app. People are taking—and sharing, and saving—more photos than they ever have before. It’s a revolution both aesthetic (filters make saturation and faux-vintage tones easy) and political (democratizing photography can encourage actual democracy, as citizen journalists in Tehran and Taksim Square showed). As these pictures—shots of everyday life in Africa, on an Instagram feed—make clear, the digital age is creating a world simultaneously bigger and smaller. From top left: Laura El-Tantawy, VII Photo Mentor Program; Glenna Gordon; Shannon Jensen; Nichole Sobecki; Glenna Gordon; Holly Pickett See More

Game Changer: Child Saver

Lale Labuko doesn’t know when he was born—his tribe in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley doesn’t keep written records—but he does know he has to stop an ancient local custom: killing babies believed to be cursed. So far he’s rescued 37 children, ages one to eleven. Today they live in a home he built with the help of photographer and filmmaker John Rowe, co-founder of Labuko’s Omo Child organization.

A lot has changed since 1888, when National Geographic was founded. But at least one thing is the same: Exploration is the heart of what we do, and risk is part and parcel of exploration. Modernity and technology can remove only so much danger and uncertainty. As long as people keep pushing limits—physical, political, scientific, financial—they are taking risks. To celebrate that questing spirit, National Geographic ran a yearlong series profiling explorers who take risks for the benefit of others. Photograph by Marco Grob, National Geographic See More

The “Beautiful Game”

When the World Cup came to Africa for the first time in 2010, soccer fans trained their rabid attention on South Africa. But photographer Jessica Hilltout had other ideas. “The Belgium-based photographer set out to see what soccer looked like far from the bright lights and big stadiums,” writes Jeremy Berlin in the February issue of National Geographic magazine. “What she found—over seven months, ten countries, and 12,500 miles—was a grassroots game where passion trumped poverty, a do-it-yourself ethic prospered, and one ball could ‘bring happiness to an entire village.’” Hilltout kept a journal of the improvised soccer balls she came across, while making a promise to herself to return to these villages with proper equipment. Photograph by Jessica Hilltout See More

Country Scenes

Old ways of life are alive and well in rural Transylvania. A story in the July issue of National Geographic magazine showed how haymaking and other cultural traditions still thrive in this provincial region of Romania. A video offers an even more detailed look at these people’s deep attachment to their land and ancient customs. Video by Rena Effendi and Sebastian Meyer See Video

Europe’s Wild Men

Beneath Europe’s modern veneer is a primal connection to nature. From the beginning of December till Easter, festivals across the continent celebrate harvests and solstices, rites of passage and superstitions. Though most are tied to Christian holidays, many feature pre-Christian rituals—a “tribal Europe” where men cavort in costumes that blur the lines separating human and animal, civilization and wilderness, death and rebirth. A gallery of Charles Fréger’s photographs, from a story in the April National Geographic, show how these wild men, in full regalia, represent the complicated relationship human communities still have with nature. Photographs by Charles Fréger, National Geographic See More

Yi Peng Lantern Festival 2012

Every day National Geographic readers send us their amazing photographs. This one—of red-robed monks and a night sky filled with thousands of lanterns—was a winning entry for a Your Shot assignment called “The Night.” More unforgettable images, chosen by our editors to appear in National Geographic magazine and in the online Daily Dozen, are just a click away. Photograph by Justin Ng, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Does Science Show What 12 Steps Know?

Modern science is starting to tell us much about addiction and methods of treatment. Medicine and psychology, for instance, offer substantive reasons why the 12-step programs espoused by Alcoholics Anonymous and other groups work for so many people. As this August 9 story in National Geographic Daily News explains, a “psychic change” prompted by such 12-step programs can result in fundamental shifts—neurological, chemical, emotional, behavioral—that result in long-term sobriety. Photograph by Juan Carlos Ulate, Reuters See More

Community: India’s Festival of Colors

This close-up image—of a Holi Festival celebrant in Vrindivan, India, coated in neon-colored powder—was submitted to National Geographic’s Your Shot in the last week of March. On April 1 we published it on our Daily News site, along with seven other bright scenes captured during the Hindu spring Festival of Colors. Photograph by Tinto Alencherry, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Looking Back

In honor of our 125th anniversary, we’re sharing National Geographic photographs—many never before published—that reveal cultures and moments of the past. In this one, taken in 1966, women in a packed London crowd use mirrors to catch sight of the queen. Many more treasures are on view for the first time in the curated online collection we call FOUND. Photograph by James P. Blair, National Geographic See More

Humanity’s imprint on Earth deepened in 2013, as ships sliced through Arctic ice like butter and wildfires charred new pathways across the American West. National Geographic has always brought you unforgettable stories and images about the environment. As our planet continues to change based on our presence—via nitrogen fertilizer, hydraulic fracturing, carbon dioxide, and rain forest depredation—we’ll continue to cover it closely. 

Rain Forest for Sale

Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park is one of the wildest places in the world. Sitting at the intersection of the Andes, the Equator, and the Amazon region, it’s home to countless plant and animal species, and to two indigenous nations. It also harbors a buried treasure: hundreds of millions of barrels of untapped Amazon crude. Now demand for that oil is imperiling life in the park. A feature story in the January issue of National Geographic magazine—written by Scott Wallace, photographed by Steve Winter—asks: What will happen if economic interests ultimately trump conservation? Photograph by Steve Winter, National Geographic See More

The New Oil Landscape

Hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking, is a controversial method of extracting oil from the ground. It offers new opportunities for domestic gas and oil production, but its environmental implications are unclear—and alarming. With a national debate raging over fossil-fuel consumption and renewable-energy strategies, National Geographic’s March cover story examines the potential risks and rewards of fracking in North Dakota. Photograph by Eugene Richards, National Geographic See More

Current Work

Rotating currents called gyres swirl in the world’s oceans, trapping and concentrating man-made debris. In June a team of scientists, artists, and filmmakers spent a week exploring remote beaches of Alaska. Their goal? To assess the environmental impact of plastic and other items (some pictured on this page) that are washing out of gyres in the Pacific Ocean. Their findings—in the form of multimedia reportage and art—will be showcased in February. To see how the project is going so far, News Watch sat down with filmmaker J. J. Kelley for a Q&A. Photographs by Rebecca Hale, National Geographic See More

A Mixed Blessing

Nitrogen fertilizer has shaped our planet. The crops we depend on for survival—corn, wheat, and rice—are grown using a hundred million tons of the stuff each year. But its toll on water, air, and wildlife is steep. As Dan Charles writes in the May issue of National Geographic, “runaway nitrogen is suffocating lakes and estuaries, contaminating groundwater, and even warming the globe’s climate. As a hungry world looks ahead to billions more mouths needing nitrogen-rich protein, how much clean water and air will survive our demand for fertile fields?” Photograph by Peter Essick, National Geographic See More

Taiwan Fishermen

These fishermen in Taiwan are the last practitioners of an old technique. Working in the waters near New Taipei City, they go out in a boat and light acetylene torches—then watch as the sulfuric fire draws mackerel into their nets. This image was published in September’s Visions of Earth, a trio of photos that appear in each issue of National Geographic magazine. Photograph by Chang Ming Chih See More

Rising Seas

Earth’s oceans stayed at roughly the same level for almost 2,000 years. But in the late 19th century, as the world began to warm, waters began to rise. As Tim Folger writes in the September cover story of National Geographic magazine, “A profoundly altered planet is what our fossil-fuel-driven civilization is creating, a planet where Sandy-scale flooding will become more common and more destructive for the world’s coastal cities. By releasing carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, we have warmed the Earth by more than a full degree Fahrenheit over the past century and raised sea level by about eight inches. … [S]cientists are still uncertain about how fast and how high seas will rise.” Jason Treat, Matthew Twombly, Web Barr, Maggie Smith, NGM Staff. Art: Kees Veenenbos. See More

Game Changer: Ice Investigator

For nearly 40 years Lonnie Thompson has climbed to mountaintop glaciers and retrieved climate data from deep inside the ice. Some say Thompson has spent more time above 18,000 feet than anyone alive. His data show the planet is warming at a historic rate—meaning his vital, dangerous work is taking on new urgency.

A lot has changed since 1888, when National Geographic was founded. But at least one thing is the same: Exploration is the heart of what we do, and risk is part and parcel of exploration. Modernity and technology can remove only so much danger and uncertainty. As long as people keep pushing limits—physical, political, scientific, financial—they are taking risks. To celebrate that questing spirit, National Geographic ran a yearlong series profiling explorers who take risks for the benefit of others. Photograph by Marco Grob, National Geographic See More

Aerosol Cans

Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, contain ozone-depleting substances. Once upon a time they were found in aerosol propellants, refrigerants, foams, and other industrial processes. But in the late 1980s the Montreal Protocol was enacted, phasing out CDCs and other ozone-damaging substances. By the late 1990s CFC production had all but stopped, making modern spray cans ozone-safe. Though scientists say the ozone layer won’t return to pre-1980s levels till after 2050, the amount of CFC in the atmosphere is steadily waning. It’s a start. Photograph by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic See More

The Last Chase

The renowned storm chaser Tim Samaras died on May 31, at age 55, when he was overtaken by a tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma. The monstrous twister—at 2.6 miles, the widest ever recorded—also claimed the lives of Tim’s 24-year-old son, Paul, and Carl Young, 45, their colleague at TWISTEX, the Denver-based field research team Samaras founded. A multimedia time line—featuring interviews, video footage, maps, and more—takes you through Samaras’s final 40 minutes, from a variety of perspectives. Video by Shannon Sanders, Spencer Millsap, Thomas Zothner, and Robert Gongoll See Video

Twister Nation

The research community lost one of their own when storm chaser—and National Geographic explorer—Tim Samaras perished in a tornado that hit El Reno, Oklahoma, on May 31. The United States is hit with more tornados than anywhere else in the world, including Australia, India, and the United Kingdom. America’s unique topography and climate spawn more than a thousand twisters a year. At once beautiful and terrifying, the video at the link below shows tornadoes that have hit the U.S. from 1950 to 2013. It was published as part of a National Geographic magazine package on Samaras in November. By Martin Gamache and Vito Zarkovic, National Geographic; Craig Howarth, 422 South. Sources: NOAA, TWISTEX See More

Cloud of Tadpoles

This photograph—an underwater shot of tadpoles swimming through a jungle of lily stalks in Cedar Lake on Vancouver Island, Canada—was our online Photo of the Day back on January 2. Our editors liked Eiko Jones’s picture so much they published it again, this time in the April issue of National Geographic magazine. To see more great reader-submitted images, or to submit one yourself, join our Your Shot community. It’s just a click away. Photograph by Eiko Jones, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Irreplaceable Places

The Western Ghats in India—a World Heritage site—contains mountains older than the Himalaya. The area is one of several places around the world researchers have pegged as truly irreplaceable—vital for the preservation of mammals, birds, and amphibians. Although experts urge the continued creation of protected areas to safeguard our planet’s natural heritage, they also point out the need to effectively manage the ones we already have. Click the link below to see a list of six of these one-of-a-kind habitats, home to some of the most imperiled plants and animals on Earth. Photograph by Kalyan Varma See More

Community: Locust Migration

Another Your Shot standout, this picture by Michele Martinelli was one of 18 images chosen by our editors as the top “Explore Our Changing World” photos. Photograph by Michele Martinelli, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Wall of Water

A man on the Belt Parkway seawall near Brooklyn’s Fort Hamilton braces for impact as a wall of water looms above him in this picture taken in October 1948. Published as a Flashback in the September issue of National Geographic magazine, parts of the area were inundated again when Hurricane Sandy roared ashore in October 2012. Photograph courtesy New York Daily News, National Geographic Creative See More

Despite our name, National Geographic has always been international. This year was no exception. As our coverage showed—in words and images, blogs and videos, magazine stories and news reports—the global game is changing all the time. In 2013 that meant aftershocks of the Arab Spring, revelations of the NSA’s widespread surveillance, and much, much more.  

The Price of Precious

The laptops, cameras, gaming systems, and other electronic gear that consumers eagerly buy often come with a hidden, painful cost. Many of these items, as well as pieces of high-price jewelry, contain minerals—gold, diamonds, tin, copper, and tantalum, among others—that have been illegally dug out from mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Government officials, soldiers, and militia warlords fight over the spoils, killing thousands of people each year, most of them civilians. In the October issue of National Geographic, writer Jeffrey Gettleman and photographer Ed Kashi reported on the bloody business of conflict minerals—and on whether a budding campaign to stop companies from using ill-gotten resources will make a difference. Photograph by Marcus Bleasdale, National Geographic See More

Last of the Viking Whalers

Fifty years ago 200 fishing boats went out every summer into Norway’s coastal waters to harpoon whales for meat, bringing wealth to the small villages in the Lofoton Islands above the Arctic Circle. Today only 20 whaleboats go out on the hunt, as the children and grandchildren of whalers leave the remote communities to seek new pursuits. A June feature in National Geographic reports on the demise of the traditional whaling industry and the approaching end to a hardy way of life. Photograph by Marcus Bleasdale, National Geographic See More

Living With Lions

Humans and lions have almost every reason to stay clear of one another; each is too dangerous to the other. But even as the number of lions continues to decline rapidly in Africa, their interactions with people have increased as farms, hunting preserves, and other development encroach on wilderness. Brett Stirton’s images for an August feature in National Geographic reveal how both lions and humans suffer when home territories collide. Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty Images/National Geographic See More

Game Changer: Documenting the Undocumented

Archaeologist Jason De León, a National Geographic emerging explorer, collects trash in the wilderness of Arizona’s Sonora Desert. All kinds of found items, from torn shoes and empty water bottles to a dropped rosary, help him record the human story of the hundreds of thousands of persons who cross the Mexican border every year to illegally enter the United States. Cataloging the discarded possessions of migrants is “archaeology of ten minutes ago,” De León says in a June posting by Virginia Hughes in National Geographic’s Phenomena blog. Her story helps flesh out De León’s Undocumented Migration Project, for which he has interviewed hundreds of desperate border crossers. Photograph by Rebecca Hale, National Geographic See More

Now You See It

North Korea is the most secretive, walled-off nation in the world. Its totalitarian regime demands total obedience. Its citizens cannot travel or speak to foreigners without permission. Propaganda clouds what is real and what is not. In July’s eye-opening story in National Geographic, writer Tim Sullivan and photographer David Guttenfelder used their access as journalists for the Associated Press to move around the country and peer beyond the facade. “We’ve traveled to collective farms, attended countless political rallies, and visited Pyongyang hot spots like the Gold Lane bowling alley,” writes Sullivan, “where the capital’s elite hoist battered balls made in America.” Photograph by David Guttenfelder, AP/National Geographic See More

Nobel Prizewinners

Every October since 1901, the Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm announce winners of the Nobel Prize, the superstar of international awards. In the competitive spirit of the award, a National Geographic online graphic looks at which countries and institutions have produced the most prizewinners in chemistry, physics, and medicine. Juan Velasco and Kelsey Nowakowski, National Geographic See More

Portrait With Rifle

A man to reckon with, a painted tribesman from southern Ethiopian guards his village with an AK-47 cradled in his arms. The imposing stance, the confident expression, and the way light highlights his face made this photograph by Benjamin Eagle for Your Shot an editor’s choice in February for “Pictures We Love.” Photograph by Benjamin Eagle, My Shot See More

Ivory Crush

One of the most urgent conservation issues of the day is how to slow the booming illegal trade in African ivory. Crime syndicates continue to slaughter African elephants by the tens of thousands each year and smuggle the tusks into Asia, where the ivory is carved into everything from chopsticks to religious figurines. As part of its ongoing coverage of the ivory crisis, National Geographic Daily News reported in June on how the Philippines became the first Asian country to destroy its seized ivory to keep it off the black market. Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty Images/National Geographic See More

Breaking the Silence

During the oppressive 33-year reign of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s once healthy economy has collapsed and its diversity of voices has been stifled. A “common bond of suffering,” writes Alexandra Fuller, is now emboldening some citizens to speak out and imagine a different future. A digital extra to May’s feature in National Geographic on the turmoil in Zimbabwe adds voices to photographer Robin Hammond’s striking portraits of people with little left to lose. Photographs by Robin Hammond, National Geographic See More

The War for Nigeria

In its 50 years of independence Nigeria has suffered a civil war, six military coups, numerous political assassinations, and three domestic insurgences. The latest threat to the fragile democracy is Islamic extremism. Terrorist attacks by Boko Haram, a separatist group, and harsh retaliation by the military have created a state of terror across northern Nigeria. James Verini’s article in the November issue of National Geographic explores the breakdown of law and authority in the region and the challenge this poses to the survival instinct of Nigeria. Photograph by Ed Kashi, VII/National Geographic See More

It was a busy year in science. If you followed National Geographic in 2013, you learned that caffeine is the key to the first cloned human embryonic stem cells, cosmic rays spring from exploding stars, and U.S. President Barack Obama called for a $100 million Human Brain Project. But perhaps the biggest news was a really big number: 100 billion—the minimum estimate for the number of planets orbiting stars in our Milky Way.  

Portrait of an Invertebrate

Tardigrades are extremophiles. The tiny invertebrates can survive in both low- and high-pressure environments, and in temperatures as low as minus 328ºF (-200ºC) and as high as 304ºF (151ºC). But these millimeter-long, multicelled organisms have always been too elusively small to sit for a portrait. This year, however, German scientists used an electron microscope to make a high-resolution photograph of a single tardigrade—revealing a creature that resembles both a bear and a piglet. This image was published in July’s Visions of Earth, a trio of photos that appear in each issue of National Geographic. Photograph by Eye of Science/Science Source See More

Sweet Story

The story of sugar is the story of modern humans. Initially domesticated in Papua New Guinea nearly 10,000 years ago, sugar is ubiquitous in our food—and has fueled a spike in diabetes and other health conditions. Why do we crave sugar? It has the same brain-stimulating properties as heroin and cocaine, writes Rich Cohen in National Geographic’s August cover story. Accompanying photos show the sweet substance in hundreds of forms. Photograph by Robert Clark, National Geographic See More

Brain-Eating Amoebas

Each year, the parasite Naegleria fowleri finds its way into four or five human hosts. The organism, primarily contracted in warm fresh water such as a lake, slowly eats away at the human brain, usually leading to death. After a 12-year-old girl contracted the parasite in a lake in Little Rock, Arkansas, the story appeared in National Geographic Daily News, along with a photograph showing the parasite looking characteristically demonic. Image by D.T. John and T.B. Cole, Visuals Unlimited See More

Human Longevity

Living to 100 used to be a rare mark of longevity. It still is, but the advanced age is no longer quite so rare, thanks to a series of genetic changes and research studies that illuminate the maladies of old age and how they might be avoided. The May cover story of National Geographic featured newborn babies likely to live well past 100, and people like Ruby Timms, 85, who are already well on their way. Photograph by Fritz Hoffmann, National Geographic See More

Extinction Revival

Should extinct species be brought back to life? That was the provocative question asked by the April cover story of National Geographic. As science now makes it possible to recover genetic material from animals that disappeared from the wild, bygone species like the passenger pigeon and the thylacine, a relative of the kangaroo, are candidates for rebirth. But should they be resurrected? Researchers and ethicists continue to debate the effects and wisdom of introducing yesterday’s species into today’s world. Photograph by Robb Kendrick, National Geographic See More

Game Changer: Hunting Elements

Everything in the universe is made of atoms, the foot servants of elements. Only 90 elements are known to exist in nature, but for decades researchers have been working to create more of them. A group of scientists known as element hunters were profiled in the May edition of National Geographic. Their work in research labs is fleeting—some man-made elements only exist for fractions of a second—but the reward of adding a new element to the periodic table is eternal. Photograph by Max Aguilera-Hellwig, National Geographic

Nano Flowers

Building micro- and nano-particles is a growing field, especially to build ever smaller electronics. National Geographic Daily News reported on a team of Harvard researchers who are learning how to grow new structures in precise shapes and sizes using different combinations of chemicals. They usually start with flowers, which are easy shapes to make. Here, a field of green stems was decorated with thickened flowers. On another test, the scientists created a red rose that looks as though Dr. Seuss imagined it. Image courtesy Wim Noorduin See More

Genome Repository

The Smithsonian Institution has built the world’s largest biorepository, a facility that amounts to a library of genetic material from different species. The reason? To categorize life on Earth, and to guard its building blocks. The tissue is kept frozen in a secure lab, which National Geographic Daily News toured for this video at the link below. Videographers: Melissa Conner, Jason Kurtis, Spencer Millsap See Video

Tiny Ecosystem

We’re covered in bacteria—about three pounds of them—and that’s actually a good thing. Research has shown that for the most part, they’re either harmless freeloaders or beneficial for our health. Bacteria help regulate our guts, train our immune systems, and keep our skin from cracking. Take a look at what lives on your body, and where. Graphic: Lawson Parker, National Geographic See Video

Community: Peach Skin

A moldy peach doesn’t look quite as revolting when seen up close. Taken by macro photographer Harry Colquhoun, the Your Shot image was chosen by our editors for publication in the March edition of National Geographic. Colquhoun’s portfolio is full of other macro shots of food, including nuts, berries, and even candy. Photograph by Harry Colquhoun, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Violin Fungus

A Stradivarius is considered the world’s rarest, best violin, dating back to the 18th century. What makes the 600 or so that still exist so special? Wood from when the instruments were made grew during a uniquely cold period: 1645 to 1715. Long winters during that time created low density in the wood, which helps create a richer sound for a violin. Stradivarius violins, named after the family that made them, can’t be re-created. But a Swiss researcher uncovered how to make similar wood that can create an indistinguishable sound. The secret? A fungus that changes how wood grows, detailed in the April edition of National Geographic. Photograph by Christian Grund, 13 Photo

Multicolored Light

In honor of our 125th anniversary, we’re sharing National Geographic photographs—many never before published—that reveal cultures and moments of the past. In this one, taken in 1953 by Jack Fletcher, a scientist in Beltsville, Maryland, studies how different wavelengths of light affect how plants grow. Many more treasures are on view for the first time in the curated online collection we call FOUND. Photograph by Jack Fletcher, National Geographic See More

National Geographic covers life on Earth—and what’s happening above it. In 2013, we reported on everything from the biggest astronomical blow dealt to our planet in a hundred years to how a hoped-for “comet of the century” burned up when it passed too close to the sun, disappointing sky-watchers. 

Space Exploration

Will humans ever travel to the stars? Tim Folger considers the question in the January issue of National Geographic magazine, which kicked off our 125th anniversary year’s theme of exploration. “To get to the stars,” Folger writes, “we’ll need many new materials and engines but also a few of the old intangibles. They haven’t vanished. In fact … in the conversation of certain dreamer-nerds, especially outside NASA, you can now hear echoes of the old aspiration and adventurousness—of the old craziness for space.” That old craziness appears on the cover itself, where Stephan Martiniere’s art shows a 22nd-century dream: an unmanned probe powered by nuclear fusion exploring a new solar system, after traveling several decades from Earth at 100 million miles an hour. Art by Stephan Martiniere See More

Night Sky Contest

In this view of Salzburg, Austria, a blanket of cold fog filters out light from the city, allowing the stars above the surrounding mountain range to sparkle. And despite the glow of a near full moon, the wintertime constellations of Orion and Taurus, as well as the planet Jupiter, burn brightly. The photo, taken by Andreas Max Böckle, was a winner in the Fourth International Earth and Sky Photo Contest. It was published—along with a gallery of other winning shots—by National Geographic Daily News in May. Photograph courtesy Andreas Max Böckle, TWAN See More

Bombardment

About 3.8 billion to 4 billion years ago, Earth suffered what scientists call the Late Heavy Bombardment, a mysterious rain of asteroids and comets that pummeled most of our planet’s surface. The moon was heavily cratered then too. This artwork, by Dana Berry, is part of an online interactive gallery that accompanied Robert Irion’s feature story, “Our Solar System,” in the July issue of National Geographic magazine. Illustration by Dana Berry, National Geographic See More

Light and Dark

Our universe is expanding faster and faster as time ticks forward, and experts blame dark energy. A mysterious force that scientists struggle to find, dark energy makes up about 68 percent of the universe, according to NASA. One of the more recent efforts to pin down this maddeningly elusive part of the universe involves holes—lots and lots of holes. Researchers make perforations in metal plates the size of manhole covers that correspond to the locations of known galaxies. They then slide that plate in front of a telescope’s mirrors. The holes funnel the light from each galaxy into instruments that help scientists map the universe’s structure and motion, which they hope will lead them to dark energy. Photograph by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic

Game Changer: Spacewalker

Sunita Williams has spent 322 days in space and 50 hours walking out there, the most spacewalking of any female astronaut. A former Navy pilot, she first met astronauts two decades ago during test pilot school—and discovered that she could join them based on her flying experience. Now a 47-year-old astronaut, she says spacewalking is like flying a helicopter with a battle group: You focus on your job but always know where the other guy is.

A lot has changed since 1888, when National Geographic was founded. But at least one thing is the same: Exploration is the heart of what we do, and risk is part and parcel of exploration. Modernity and technology can remove only so much danger and uncertainty. As long as people keep pushing limits—physical, political, scientific, financial—they are taking risks. To celebrate that questing spirit, National Geographic ran a yearlong series profiling explorers who take risks for the benefit of others. Photograph by Marco Grob, National Geographic See More

Space Suits

How do astronauts stay alive when they venture into the vacuum of space? They wear space suits like this one—shown as a composite x-ray image to highlight internal aluminum coils and tubes—made by the Air Research Corporation in 1968. It’s part of a traveling exhibit called “Suited for Space,” which uses photos, x-rays, and artifacts to trace the 60-year evolution of space suits. A National Geographic Daily News photo gallery, posted in July, offers more up-close x-ray views. Photograph by Ron Cunningham and Mark Avino, Smithsonian Institution See More

Exploration Time Line

Humans have traveled to the far shores of the solar system through the eyes of robotic explorers—spacecraft, probes, and rovers that have sent back progressively more astonishing data and images. This infographic, which first appeared in the June issue of National Geographic magazine, uses colored lines to illustrate nearly 200 unmanned missions since 1958. Sean McNaughton, National Geographic

Community: Alkhoba Milky Way

Back in September, we challenged the online Your Shot community with a question: What does the night mean to you? By way of an answer, we received 8,520 reader-submitted photos. Our editors selected 35 to publish, including this one—a view of the Milky Way above Oman, taken by Al-nahdi Mohammed. The rest of the nocturnal gallery is here as well. Photograph by Al-nahdi Mohammed, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Looking Back

In honor of our 125th anniversary, we’re sharing vintage National Geographic photographs—many never before published—that reveal cultures and moments of the past. In this one, taken by NASA in 1967, astronaut Neil Armstrong floats in his space suit in a pool of water. Many more treasures are on view for the first time in the curated online collection we call FOUND. Photograph from NASA/National Geographic See More

Our PROOF blog invited the photo editors of National Geographic to look back through each issue in 2013 and select one image that spoke to their heart, intrigued them, inspired awe, or made them smile—in short, to choose their favorite photo from this past year, whether breathtaking, touching, imperfect, or beautiful. 

Kinshasa, Urban Pulse of the Congo, September 2013

Jenna Turner, Photo Coordinator Luxury and adversity mingle in this dichotomous image made by Pascal Maitre. The opulent ensembles these men style look out of place in the littered streets of Kinshasa. For Les Sapeurs, members of the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elégantes (the Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People), their clothes are as much about extravagance as they are about creativity. But beyond being a form of self-expression, it is a lifestyle about poise and propriety. Good manners, attention to detail, visual perfection, and social etiquette are of utmost importance to these gentlemen. Although often spending exorbitant amounts of money on clothes in a country where nearly half the population lives beneath the national poverty line, like all of us, they are striving to carve out their identities in the world, moving beyond class and circumstance. Photograph by Pascal Maitre, National Geographic See More

First Australians, June 2013

David Whitmore, Design Director I can see Edward Steichen’s pond in moonlight and Maurice Sendak’s enchanted bedroom of wild things in this nocturnal scene. Smudged umbers and coal-black embers contrast against cool gray green grass dissolving into lavender sky. The Dreamtime. The time of ancients, alive in that space, not quite night, not quite day. With this image, Amy Toensing captures what she set out to find in this story: a spirit presence in the land and our closer understanding of the Aboriginals’ sustained state of awakening to that spirit. Photograph by Amy Toensing, National Geographic See More

Last of the Viking Whalers, June 2013

Pamela Chen, Senior Photo Editor For our story “Last of the Viking Whalers,” photographer Marcus Bleasdale captured this picture of schoolgirls painting golden streaks on their skin and hair by smearing dandelions on each other after a coming-of-age ceremony on the remote island of Røst, Norway. Some island fishing communities like Røst have become so small that they cannot support a local high school, and parents must send their children to live on the mainland, away from home, to continue their education when they turn 15. These girls here are part of the next generation who must leave the island to continue their schooling. At first you don’t even realize how close Marcus must be standing to the girls to compose this image in a way that feels as if you are right there with them. And by doing so, he takes us there at once, to see the stunning natural beauty of the island and the joy of a normal day in one honest, elegant moment. Through this photograph, we understand more about why it is so hard to leave this place altogether. I love that a photograph can celebrate the in-between, and remind us that life happens here, even as it is bittersweet.
Elizabeth Grady, Rights Manager After glancing through the entire year, this image drew me in the most for some reason. I love the innocence, the ephemeral quality, the movement, the sweetness. Photograph by Marcus Bleasdale, National Geographic See More

The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion, August 2013

Ken Geiger, Deputy Director of Photography One of the most amazing stories I’ve seen in the short time I’ve worked here is Nick Nichols’s photo coverage of “The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion,” which ran in the August 2013 issue. Not only is this image hauntingly beautiful, as are many images in the story, but what makes this image gripping is the moment created by the intensity of the lion’s eyes combined with the intimacy of having the camera on the same level as the lion. Those two factors create such a gripping image that I’ve never tired of seeing it. I also have such an amazing respect for this set of images—they reset the bar for all brilliant wildlife photography. Nick, along with the gift of time on the ground, used and cobbled numerous pieces of technology so that he could capture never before seen images of lions. That kind of dedication to the craft of photography—and using every tool available to tell a story that moves the dial on lion conservation—is a pleasure to behold. Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic See More

Rain Forest for Sale, January 2013

Sadie Quarrier, Senior Photo Editor One of the most memorable stories I worked on this year was Yasuní National Park (“Rain Forest for Sale”). It was a special story because we conducted a photo blitz, sending five photographers for one month to document every aspect of this Ecuadorian park, from threatened species and isolated tribes to oil drilling and deforestation. They delivered a wealth of visual riches. Photographers Ivan Kashinsky and Karla Gachet worked together to cover the Waorani people, immersing themselves in the daily lives of the tribe and documenting the impact oil companies have had on their culture. This image of Waorani hunters by Ivan stays with me. I love its rawness—both how it was shot and what it portrays. It speaks to the purity of the people, still hunting for food and relatively untouched by the modern world and possessions. The image transports me to another time. Ivan breaks the rules by putting a person in the middle of the frame and by cutting off half a body. Yet with the angled gun and machete in the foreground, and the hunter in the background giving dimension, the image is arresting. Photograph by Ivan Kashinsky, National Geographic See More

Bringing Them Back to Life, April 2013

Kim Hubbard, Senior Photo Editor When you ask a museum for permission to photograph their prized specimen of an extinct species, it’s not always easy to get approval. When you also tell them that you’d like to photograph the species with a technique that requires potassium cyanide to be in close proximity, it’s nearly impossible. Nevertheless, Robb Kendrick persevered, and he came away with my favorite photo of the year. Robb is known for his tintype photography, a method popular in the 1800s. Also called wet plate collodion, it produces one-of-a-kind images, but requires a darkroom on site for immediate processing of the exposed plates. When Robb and I were assigned a story about resurrecting extinct creatures, we knew this type of photography could work really well with the subject matter. Our goal was to make the extinct creatures look as alive as possible, as if they’d been photographed during their lifetime. Artist Fernando Baptista created backgrounds appropriate for each species, and we used grasses, branches, and rocks in the foreground to put the animals in an “environment” where they would’ve lived. I think we succeeded best with the Tasmanian tiger at the American Museum of Natural History. I love this picture not only because it was difficult to produce, but also because it allows you to believe, if only for a moment, that the Tasmanian tiger is still among us. You can almost hear it growl. Maybe someday. Photograph by Robb Kendrick, National Geographic See More

Living With Lions, August 2013

John Baxter, Senior Design Editor This picture delivers exactly what I’ve come to expect from National Geographic. We asked Brent Stirton to go off to a distant place and come back with a story about the cost that can arise from humans and lions living near each other. We expected him, like all the great photographers we work with, to bring back a story told economically, convincingly, and memorably. A man lost both arms in a lion attack and now depends on others to bathe him. Brent’s image is touching, shocking, intriguing—and you just can’t wait to read about it. Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty Images/National Geographic See More

The Weed That Won the West, December 2013

Todd James, Senior Photo Editor My love for this photograph by Len Jenshel and Diane Cook is more layered than a Viennese pastry. The scene is so sunny and yet so ominous. Tumbleweeds have invaded suburbia! Where are the kids? Something has gone terribly wrong at the end of this cul-de-sac. A Russian tumbleweed invasion! If you were writing a chapter for a photography text about implied narrative, including this photograph would be a must. But my layer cake of appreciation for this photograph goes much deeper. I first saw Len and Diane’s photographs of the American West more than 20 years ago. They were my introduction to a new generation of color landscape photographers that included Joel Sternfeld, Stephen Shore, Joel Meyerowitz, and Richard Misrach. These photographers were using big cameras to capture big landscapes and reshaping how we think about photography today. Len and Diane’s work shared that sensibility but also offered a subtle wink, wink at times. A stone wall at the edge of the parking lot added a touch of irony to a Monument Valley landscape. Their sensibility seemed perfectly suited to this science story with a twist. The tumbleweed, a symbol of the American West, turns out to be an invasive species from the Russian steppes. Of course I knew Len and Diane loved the western landscape but I had no idea about their tumbleweed obsession, which they trace to a 1964 episode of The Outer Limits. In the show, a couple is stranded in the desert and stalked by a bunch of tumbleweeds. Len and Diane’s photograph of the lonely red wagon surrounded by tumbleweeds sets the scene for this story perfectly. It is also a perfect expression of their lifetime body of work with a wink and a nod to their favorite episode of The Outer Limits. I waited 20 years for this photograph, and it is well worth it. Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel, National Geographic See More

Return to River Town, March 2013

Elizabeth Krist, Senior Photo Editor The truth is that on another day I could have picked a different picture altogether. It didn’t have to be Anastasia Taylor-Lind’s image of a fisherman’s kids floating on the Yangtze. I could have chosen Rena Effendi’s haymaking out of a Bruegel painting, Michael Yamashita’s Suzhou opera singers through the curtain, Matthieu Paley’s Khan with his wife tiny in the snow behind him, Diane Cook and Len Jenshel’s canopy of cherry blossoms, David Guttenfelder’s North Korean performer crying for her nation’s leader, or Jonas Bendiksen’s ancient skier propped up by skis. I love them all. How can you prefer one child over the others? And no offense, Anastasia, but the composition is messy, with that fish balloon overlapping the girl’s knee and giving her body such an odd shape. Why is she grabbing her foot, as the fish swims out of the frame, giving us the eye? But favorite is not the same as best. I suppose I just couldn’t resist such a casually lighthearted moment—the kids fooling around unself-consciously, the brother’s arm around his sister as he sprawls across the boat yelling or singing, her head trustingly on his shoulder. There’s an immediacy that draws us into their intimacy. So, go look at all the pictures from 2013 and choose your own favorite—this one’s mine. Photograph by Anastasia Taylor-Lind, VII/National Geographic See More

The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion, August 2013

Tess Vincent, Photo Coordinator Love at first sight. No phenomenon could better describe this image and its effect on me. When Nick Nichols’s assignment images started rolling in, I remember my eyes being drawn to this particular one early and often. I felt like the lone patron of a tiny museum, and, somehow, I discovered something new each time I revisited this piece. The tale of the Serengeti lion has been one of the most significant stories for me while at National Geographic, and Hildur, pictured here, one of its most compelling protagonists. This still (which is anything but) is a synthesis of beauty and burden, an illustration of the majesty of the Serengeti as well as the hardships of its inhabitants. When I first saw it, I felt hypnotized by the grace and movement in front of me; I could almost hear the swish of the grass and feel the rippling sinews of Hildur as he ran a punishing distance from one territory to the next. I wasn’t looking at a photograph; I was in it. And I was swimming in the painterly swirl of the Serengeti as it was brushed by the fading light of dusk. As I came to know this story more, though, I wasn’t only seeing Hildur’s streaked mane and primordial power; I was seeing each rib in his cage, each vertebra in his back, the indisputable evidence of an uncertain life on the plains. This image strikingly brings us into the intricate world of lions and all that makes it so extraordinary. Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic See More

Field Trip on Mars, July 2013

Elaine Bradley, Senior Design Editor Since 1997, NASA has been sending rovers to Mars to document the soil, dig up rocks, and take pictures of the Martian landscape. But never before has a rover managed to take photos of itself. On August 8, 2012, the aptly named Curiosity touched down and made this ultimate selfie. Stitched together from 63 images, it shows the entire rover and even the imprints in the sand of its scoop and wheels—but not the seven-foot robotic arm that was holding the camera. As we all know, a self-portrait is not a unique achievement. But to take one from 34.8 million miles away is extraordinary. Photograph by NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) See More

Deepsea Challenge, June 2013

Bill Douthitt, Senior Editor, Special Editions Being a science fiction geek, this picture of a glowing mysterious craft holds natural appeal for me. Though it may look like a fanciful spaceship, the mission of DEEPSEA CHALLENGE is quite real—to reach the deepest part of the ocean. Mark Thiessen’s brooding depiction of James Cameron’s one-man submarine is a perfect way to show this vehicle dedicated to exploring the unknown. Yet the picture came about quite by accident. During a night test dive, the sub surfaced some distance away from the recovery ship—a situation that took place only once during the expedition. Mark was in the water and realized that the brilliant lights of the ship as it approached to recover the sub would highlight the craft in an exceptionally dramatic way. He quickly swam to the front of the sub and then dove below it, waiting to make this picture, which became the lead to the story. Photograph by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic See More

Kinshasa, Urban Pulse of the Congo, September 2013

Susan Welchman, Senior Editor Pascal Maitre shot this image of Julie Djikley, a street artist in Kinshasa. Julie covered her body with engine oil and wore cans on her breasts as a statement about pollution in our environment created by cars and traffic. On several occasions she carried a gas tank on her back and a steering wheel in her hands, pushing a tiny car made of old cans. In her seminaked state she drew jeers and disapproval from crowds on Kinshasa streets but she continued to walk in silence throughout the city. Recently her doctor suggested she stop this practice because the oil was entering her body through her skin, our largest organ. The image is effective without a caption, the composition both momentary and studied. I don’t get tired of looking at this photo because there are so many subtle colors and textures worth gazing at. Unable to see her eyes or what she is thinking, her smile communicates peace and purpose. Her body is that of a strong young woman and makes you wonder why she risks her well-being. Having traveled to Kinshasa twice I keep this image as a reminder of the strength of poor and concerned artists who continue to communicate what is on their minds amid danger and strife in that dense urban African life. Photograph by Pascal Maitre, National Geographic See More

Bringing Them Back to Life, April 2013

Bill Marr, Creative Director Robb Kendrick photographed Martha, the last passenger pigeon, for our April story about bringing extinct species back to life. Robb’s specialty in tintypes was a perfect marriage of craft and concept. The tale of Martha has always struck me as one of the saddest stories of extinctions directly caused by the hand of man. From billions of birds in eastern North America down to just one, Martha died in 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo. Her remains were shipped to the Smithsonian Institution, where they were mounted and have been on display since. Robb refreshed our memory of her. Photography is personal. We all respond to pictures for different reasons—sometimes very obscure reasons. I love what Robb did to bring Martha back to life in a way. But also my sister’s name was Martha, and I think of her whenever I hear the name. Photograph by Robb Kendrick, National Geographic See More

The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion, August 2013

Kathy Moran, Senior Editor, Natural History My favorite photograph of 2013 has to be one of C-boy the lion. I’ve worked with photographer Nick Nichols for 20 years. “The Short Happy Life of the Serengeti Lion” is the 15th story that we’ve collaborated on for the magazine and the one that I have most wanted to do. I love big cats. For me, this image is the culmination of years of research, planning, and advances in photographic technology coming together in a simple yet powerful way. Lions come alive at night. By photographing C-boy in infrared black and white, without intrusive flash, Nick made the most naturalistic images ever of nocturnal lions. His photographs revealed lions as we rarely get to see them—in the dark, attuned to everything happening around them, in their element. When you look at C-boy, you know that you are playing in his world. It was a privilege. Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic See More

First Australians, June 2013

Jake Rutherford, Photo Coordinator I envy this girl. I want to wade just like Mawunmula and feel the sun shining through my closed eyelids. The feeling of buoyant bobbing almost overtakes me, even as I recline in my cubicle in the distant adjacent hemisphere. The composition is simple and the content straightforward, yet it is visually visceral in the way that it accesses my senses. It feels like a flood. For me, this image has a character of equality. It doesn’t matter if Mawunmula is poor and I am among the world’s wealthiest, nor does it matter if she has cotton undergarments and I have a pricey department store swimsuit. We are the same for a moment. We are alike, as we actually are. In front of the lens, particularly in this image, all things are treated as equals.
Zahira Khan, Photo Coordinator Buoyed by a sense of serenity and infinite weightlessness—seeing this young girl quietly floating along, both wild and limitlessly graceful, I’m immersed in this photograph’s ethereal qualities, which transport me to this moment of transient beauty. Photograph by Amy Toensing, National Geographic See More

Visions of Earth, October 2013

Sarah Leen, Director of Photography To take the all too familiar and to show it in an entirely fresh way that has the power to astonish and delight is a true gift. For a story called “Visions on Earth,” published in our October 125th anniversary issue, photographer Abelardo Morell worked his magic to show us the iconic landscapes of U.S. national parks in a way we had never seen them before. Using a portable camera obscura he calls a tent camera, Morell made this image of Old Faithful while it was erupting. The image is essentially being projected onto the gravelly ground through a lens on top of the tent camera and being re-photographed. It is actually a simple antique process, though one that’s complicated to explain. The results took my breath away. Old Faithful has been photographed since practically the invention of photography and by millions of tourists and professionals ever since. This image is a singularity; it is the captured moment of a timeless event, using an age-old technique to bring you something old yet new, magical, inexplicable, and beautiful.
Kurt Mutchler, Senior Editor, Science I have seen a lot of images from Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, but nothing like Abelardo Morell’s. The commonplace becomes an abstract collage yet the geyser still clearly dominates the landscape. Photography is all about gear and technique, yet it’s nothing without vision. Morell has taken the simple physics of the tenth-century camera obscura and brought it into the 21st century. National Geographic’s first image of Old Faithful appeared in the June 1912 issue with this caption: “In the 40 years that this geyser has been known to the white man, it has never failed to eject its graceful column of water at intervals of 65 minutes.” One hundred years later Morell captured the wonder of it all with his astute, graceful vision. Photograph by Abelardo Morell, National Geographic See More

The Power of Photography, October 2013

Adrian Coakley, Photo Coordinator It’s probably not well known but one of the perks you get working here at the Geographic is that you can choose two photographs and have them framed for your office. I took this offer very seriously when I first started working here almost seven years ago. I thought of it kind of like a tattoo—you better like what you get because you're going to be stuck with it. So naturally, it took me almost three years before I finally settled on my first selection. The photograph I had printed back then is the same one that appears on the contents page of National Geographic’s October issue on photography: the portrait of an Ojibwa woman taken by Roland Reed in 1907. It is a lovely and quiet image of a woman standing in profile wrapped in a blanket. There’s something about it that I find calming and introspective, and for me it’s a photograph that is broken down to its simplest and most beautiful elements. I’m still happy with the choice and, if you’re wondering, I still haven’t chosen my second print.Photograph by Roland W. Reed, National Geographic See More

The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion, August 2013

Alice Gabriner, Senior Photo Editor It’s hard to pick one. I don’t have a favorite food, song, or movie, so how do you choose a favorite picture? When editing a magazine story, I look at every frame shot by the photographer and whittle down one by one. In much the same way, I approached this exercise by relooking at every image published in 2013 and then narrowed my selects until just a few remained. There’s a beautiful Abelardo Morell from Olympic National Park that I would love to hang on my wall. Sebastiao Salgado’s Siberian herders stand out because—well, he’s a master. I’m drawn to the subtle cinematic quality David Guttenfelder captured in a picture from North Korea of a woman standing next to a fish tank. Having worked with Ed Kashi on his northern Nigeria feature, I’m particularly moved by his depiction of women running on railroad tracks strewn with garbage. Nick Nichols’s multiyear opus on lions is filled with iconic imagery. Yet, in the end, reflecting on the merits of each photograph—again and again—the most unusual, for me, is this scene of mating lions. Perhaps Nick’s passion for this project comes through and mirrors the ferocity portrayed. In any case, it’s unforgettable. Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic See More

Light and Dark, January 2013

Jeanne Modderman, Photo Editor What I love about this photo is that it exceeded anything I could have imagined. I am often tasked with making the non-visual visual. How was I going to illustrate a story about measuring an invisible quantity like dark energy? Staff photographer Mark Thiessen took this flat, dull metal disk and transformed it into a stunning object. His vision and technical skill made it intriguing and mysterious. This is what is so exciting about photography. With most everything already photographed, you can still see objects in new, provocative ways. Whether you’re interested in space or not, this compelling image encourages you to read the story and hopefully learn something you didn’t know before. Photograph by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic

Last Song for Migrating Birds, July 2013

Jenny Trucano, Budget Manager When David Guttenfelder showed us the pictures he shot for “Last Song for Migrating Birds,” a story about how poachers coat tree branches with glue to trap migrating songbirds, I was horrified. Who would want to eat a sweet little oriole? And how could there possibly be enough meat to make the effort worthwhile? It would be one thing if people need the birds to subsist, but that’s mostly not the case­­. These birds are considered delicacies that people pay a lot of money for. So when David projected this image of a man with the wing of a blackcap in his lips, I braced myself for a gruesome story about how the man ate the bird live. Instead, David told us, the man was actually a conservationist sucking the sticky sap from the wings of a bird that had been stuck in a glue trap. What at first glance looks like a moment of imminent violence and tragedy is actually a moment of incredible tenderness and hope. As with so many things, there is more than meets the eye in this picture. Photograph by David Guttenfelder, AP/National Geographic See More

The Weed That Won the West, December 2013

Mary McPeak, Photography Research Editor Having worked with Diane Cook and Len Jenshel on several stories, the tumbleweeds story is a favorite of mine. The photograph of the two masked workers in California holding a compact car-size tumbleweed above their heads catches your eye and makes you smile. The men seem to be surrounded by dangerous tumbleweeds almost inching toward them. It also illustrates what an invasive problem the weeds have become. Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel See More

To Walk the World, December 2013

Dennis Dimick, Executive Editor, Environment Standing as if waiting for signals from another world, these men on the Djibouti shores hope for a faint cell phone signal from neighboring Somalia. The power of this picture speaks to our enduring quest to explore—to connect with each other wherever we go—despite facing often daunting obstacles as we roam across the Earth. We are not alone. We are all connected, or try to be.
Elena Sheveiko, Photo Coordinator As it happens, I’ve worked with John Stanmeyer since his first ever story in National Geographic. And each story had an image that touched a hidden string in my soul. Years later, I still hear the sound. This picture from “To Walk the World” is one of them. It makes me want so much for everybody desperately trying to connect with others, to be heard and hear back from loved ones. Photograph by John Stanmeyer, National Geographic See More

Joy Is Round, February 2013

Keith Jenkins, Director of Photography, Digital I fell in love, on the opening spread, with the photo story on soccer in Africa by Jessica Hilltout. Young Orlando’s face, full of determination as he clutched his homemade soccer ball, reminded me of my own children, who I coached half a world away in suburban Virginia. Both of my boys struck similar poses for our youth soccer team photos—only they wore crisp blue jerseys and held perfect, regulation-size balls. All of their faces, Orlando’s and my two boys’, speak to their love of the game, but their means of expressing it are worlds apart. It is Jessica’s photo of the mini-goal in Burkina Faso that fascinates me the most, however, as it speaks to both the universal nature of the game as well as to the excess we take for granted here in the west. Can one enjoy this most special and universal of games playing on an overgrown field with a makeshift goal of sticks and cloth? Absolutely, these pictures say, and perhaps your enjoyment is even greater because by literally building your soccer match with your own hands you invest a bit more heart and soul in the process. I don’t see a broken-down goal when I look at this picture; rather I see the most pristine of altars to the game that lets us all be children again. Photograph by Jessica Hilltout See More

Stranded on the Roof of the World, February 2013

Alexa Keefe, Photography Producer, Digital I found many photographs from this story to be exquisite for their combination of vivid color and barren landscapes, of humor and harshness. The riveting gaze of this young girl, at once innocent and old beyond her years, draws me in. The contrast between her dead-center, sharp presence and the slightly out-of-focus, more candid air of the girl on the right reminds me this is a glimpse of everyday life in a remote and extreme corner of the world. Photograph by Matthieu Paley See More

To Walk the World, December 2013

Kate LaRue, Senior Designer This looks like the set of an M.I.A. video. Beautiful. Yet it has a simple significance: The captured bags are evidence of the many travelers who have passed through the desert. The people didn't stay, but Stanmeyer’s photo proves they were there. Photograph by John Stanmeyer See More

The Changing Face of America, October 2013

Sherry Brukbacher, Assistant Photo Editor, Digital When I was asked to participate in the casting of photo subjects for the Changing Faces story I was daunted to say the least. We needed multiracial subjects from all over the U.S., from every kind of community, for the photos to be accurately representative. We brainstormed for days to find the best way to locate our subjects. What it boiled down to was good old-fashioned research, phone calls, emails, and more phone calls. While scouring Facebook one day I came across this wonderful little angel’s face with platinum blond hair, green eyes smiling back at me. His profile was perfect for our story. After many emails and phone calls (and luck) I finally made direct contact with Tayden Burrell and his mother. “Of course” they were willing to be photographed by Martin Schoeller for our story! Almost everyone we contacted had the same enthusiastic reaction. I was even luckier to have found myself in New York City the day Martin was photographing little Tayden. Not only was I fortunate enough to watch Martin in action, I had the chance to touch those golden locks on Tayden’s head—and it was just as wonderful as you’d imagine.Photograph by Martin Schoeller, National Geographic See More

Now You See It, October 2013

Janna Dotschkal, Assistant Photo Editor, Digital This picture is really striking to me because of the beautiful window light and the woman’s expression. I’m drawn to pictures that inspire more questions, and this photo really accomplishes that well. Who is this woman? How does she feel about her life? The odd bareness of the fish tank reminds you of where she is: North Korea. Photograph by David Guttenfelder See More

Photographers on Photography

Pamela Chen, Senior Photo Editor The photographers of National Geographic come from all walks of life. Their pictures are proof of their passion. But beyond the images, these photographers are also our friends, our colleagues, our community. As part of our 125th anniversary special issue this October, we turned the camera around—on them. I sat down with 44 photographers this year at our headquarters to talk about how they found photography, and why they never left. From my interviewer’s chair, it felt like traveling to other worlds without moving an inch. We hope you’ll enjoy meeting these people—the makers of some of the most memorable images of our time—as much as we enjoy working with them every day. Photographs by Pamela Chen, National Geographic See Video

As the world grows increasingly digital and connected, people are spending more time than ever with their devices, and privacy advocates are gnashing their teeth. Twitter went public, “selfie” became the word of the year, Apple got some real competition in the high-end mobile space, and a virtual currency called Bitcoin became a household name. National Geographic explorers and storytellers also pushed the limits of human understanding, using such high-tech equipment as micro-drones to track lions and lasers to map the chiseled face of Mount Rushmore.  

32-Week Fetus, 3-D Ultrasound Scan

Ultrasounds have come a long way. Thanks to virtual illumination and images that rotate, fetuses in the womb—like this 32-week-old—can be seen more clearly than ever before. That means parents can make sure their unborn children have all ten digits. Doctors can get a leg up on diagnostics. And good baby pictures can be produced earlier than ever. Image from Science Source

Night Kitchen

A kitchen in Finland appears charged with energy—actually lines of LED light scribbled by the photographer during a 24-minute exposure. The figure on the floor moved away after a short time, leaving only her electric outline. This image was published in April’s Visions of Earth, a trio of photos that appear in each issue of National Geographic. Photograph by Janne Parviainen See More

Teleportation

Teleportation happens only in science fiction and comic books, right? Wrong. This year two new research experiments have reliably shown that quantum bits of information—though still not people—can be moved by teleportation. As National Geographic Daily News reported in August, the breakthrough could lead to widespread applications in computing and cryptography. Photograph courtesy Jonas Mlynek, ETH Zurich See More

Orange Wedges

Wedges of an orange generate enough current and electrical juice—3.5 volts—to power an LED. The fruit’s citric acid helps electrons flow from galvanized nails to copper wire in this 14-hour exposure. This image was published in September’s Visions of Earth, a trio of photos that appear in each issue of National Geographic. Photograph by Caleb Charland, National Geographic See More

Ring Mastered

To address traffic congestion, a city in the Netherlands called Einhoven is using circular logic. An elevated 360-degree circuit, suspended by cables and stabilized by counterweights, is helping 5,000 bicyclists a day bypass roads used by 25,000 cars. The result? A bottleneck reduction for all. Photograph by Chris Keulen, National Geographic

Unmanned Flight

Drones are controversial. After proving their prowess against al Qaeda, they’re poised for takeoff in American airspace: patrolling borders, dusting crops, and tracking perpetrators. But how safe are they? And what will they mean for our privacy and civil rights? A March story in National Geographic considered the issue, with a photo gallery—including this shot of robo-wings being tested in an Air Force lab—that illustrated new advances in drone technology. Photograph by Joe McNally, National Geographic See More

Game Changer: Walter Boggs

For 32 years Walter Boggs has been National Geographic’s Mr. Fix It. Mr. Build It, too. Surrounded by drawings, tools, and scraps of metal in his basement workshop, the mechanical engineer makes gear that can’t be bought. When photographers have a technical problem—like how to house an underwater camera or control a car remotely—Boggs crafts a solution, from sketched prototype to finished product. And he does it without a kit or directions. This video on PROOF at the link below offers a glimpse of Boggs at work. Video by Shannon Sanders See Video

Laser Archaeology

Groups of men and women have armed themselves with lasers and spread out to some of the world’s masterpieces. But they aren’t evil henchmen bent on destruction. They’re more interested in using their lasers to make precise measurements of monuments—like Mount Rushmore in South Dakota—so that they'll never disappear. You can read about what these researchers are doing in more detail in the December issue of National Geographic magazine. John Baxter, Todd James, John Tomanio, Amanda Hobbs, and Matthew Twombly, NGM Staff See More

Community: Electrify the Night

Back in September, we challenged the online Your Shot community with a question: What does the night mean to you? By way of an answer, we received 8,520 reader-submitted photos. Our editors selected 35 to publish, including this one—Randy Miller’s minute-long exposure of a car illuminated by blue electroluminescent wire, with the lights of the Milky Way glinting overhead. The rest of the nocturnal gallery is here as well. Photograph by Randy Miller, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Voyage to the Deep

Filmmaker James Cameron (not pictured) had a dream: to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench—the deepest spot in the ocean. But how to get there? No vehicle existed that could survive the crushing pressure at 36,000 feet. So Cameron decided to build one himself. After seven years researching, designing, and testing a harmonica-shaped submersible called DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, it was time to put the craft to the test. Bruce Barcott’s story from June, first published in the iPad edition of National Geographic, takes you behind the scenes. Photograph by Randy LaCombe, Great Wight Productions Pty Ltd and Earthship Productions, Inc See More

Looking Back

In honor of our 125th anniversary, we’re sharing National Geographic photographs—many never before published—that reveal cultures and moments of the past. In this one, taken in 1977 by Dean Conger, children in Murmansk, U.S.S.R., circle around an ultraviolet lamp to get a dose of vitamin D. Many more treasures are on view for the first time in the curated online collection we call FOUND. Photograph by Dean Conger, National Geographic See More

We went to the roof of the world and back in 2013, exploring the deserts of Abu Dhabi, the national parks of Uganda, and the sand dunes of Poland. We also engaged with our readers like never before, choosing a Daily Dozen from among the thousands of photos you submitted to drawing more than 15,500 entries for National Geographic Traveler’s 25th annual photo contest.  

National Parks

When photographer Abelardo Morell wanted to get back to his roots, he looked into a camera obscura. Essentially, it’s a way of focusing light through a small opening onto a dark surface. Morell projected some of his first images onto the walls of rooms, explains Tom O’Neill in the October issue of National Geographic. “Now Morell himself has gone outdoors, using the ground, rough and intimate, as his backdrop.” The photographer set out to re-imagine some of the most well photographed vistas in national parks around the United States, including this image of Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. Photograph by Abelardo Morell, National Geographic See More

Untamed

Men in Vimianzo—a city in Galicia, Spain—tackle wild horses barehanded in this photograph from the June/July issue of National Geographic Traveler. Both men and women participate in this ritual, wrestling horses to the ground in order to trim their manes and tails. Celts once populated this region of northern Spain, and horses played a large role in Celtic society, writes Jim Richardson. “Valued for their strength, they were associated with gods.” Photograph by Jim Richardson, National Geographic See More

Community: Hang Son Doong

On September 17, National Geographic editors chose their Daily Dozen from among the thousands of photographs submitted to the online Your Shot community the day before. Included in those 12 images was this picture of tents set up for a night of camping inside Hang Son Doong—an underground passage—in Vietnam. Check out the other 11 photographs from that day. Photograph by Ryan Deboodt, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Autumn in Pomerania

Vibrant blues, crisp greens, and warm reds pop in this photograph from our Travel 365 daily series. In the Pomerania region of Poland, on the southern end of the Baltic Sea, fall colors blaze as the lake reflects a soaring bird. The Pomeranian region is also known for Slowinski National Park—part of the UNESCO list of World Biosphere Reserves—which contains sand dunes that can tower 138 feet above sea level. Photograph by Kacper Kowalski, Panos Pictures See More

Community: Traveler Photo Contest

The winning photos in the 25th National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest—judged by a panel of our photographers and editors—make time stand still, allowing us to learn about our world, and perhaps ourselves. In all, 7,393 participants entered more than 15,000 shots this year, depicting everything from owls in the swamps of Georgia to reindeer herders in Norway to wave runners in Brazil (the winning image, seen here). Photograph by Wagner Araujo See More

Night Gardens

Explore the beauty of gardens that flower at night in the March issue of National Geographic. “A night garden invites reflection,” writes Cathy Newman. “Unlike the sun, the moon welcomes our gaze. We can wax poetic, wane with melancholy—howl, even—and admire the wonder of an obverse world where plants reach out, not to sunlight but to the faint glow flung to Earth by a diadem of stars.” Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel See More

Game Changers: Travelers of the Year

Where most people see a bike, Muyambi Muyambi and Molly Burke see potential. Their organization, Bicycles Against Poverty, uses a microfinance model to distribute bikes in rural Uganda, turning what would be a three-hour walk into a swift spin to health clinics, markets, and schools. Muyambi and Burke are just two of the exceptional individuals we crowned Travelers of the Year—people who travel with passion and purpose, have an exceptional story to tell, and represent a style of travel, motivation, or method that can inform and inspire us all. Photograph by Cade Martin See More

Roof of the World

Traders and their yaks cling to a treacherous mountain path in Afghanistan’s Little Pamir. These Kyrgyz nomads eke out a living in a high-altitude area they refer to as the “roof of the world.” That may sound romantic, but “it’s also an environment at the very cusp of human survivability,” writes Michael Finkel in the February issue of National Geographic. “Much of it is above 14,000 feet. The wind is furious; crops are impossible to grow. The temperature can drop below freezing 340 days a year. Many Kyrgyz have never seen a tree.” Photograph by Matthieu Paley, National Geographic See More

Past and Present

Modern-day Bedouin relax as evening falls in an Abu Dhabi desert in the April issue of National Geographic Traveler. This Middle Eastern country, about the size of West Virginia, holds nearly 10 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Although skyscrapers eat away at Abu Dhabi’s skyline, the country tries to preserve its Bedouin culture. “Abu Dhabi may be increasingly educated, affluent, and cosmopolitan, but beneath lies a culture of the desert and the tent,” writes Carl Hoffman. Photograph by Dave Yoder, National Geographic See More

Africa’s New Frontier

Water buffalo slosh through mineral deposits on the shores of a crater lake in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. National Geographic Traveler editors included this African country—dotted with savannas, lakes, rain forests, and mountains—in their annual list of 20 must-see places. Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic See More

Community: Italian Dolomites

Karin Eibenberger submitted this image of a winter sunset in the Italian Dolomites to the online Your Shot community on June 21. “I took this picture on the last day of the year 2012, freezing at [-22°F] in the tent,” Eibenberger writes. “The last rays of sunlight hit the Paternkofel Mountain on the left.” Photograph by Karin Eibenberger, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Flashback

Carts traverse the sky above the steelworks city of Hunedoara, Romania, in this image first published in the November 1975 issue of National Geographic. It was revived in the November 2013 issue as a Flashback, a section that showcases photographs from the magazine’s archives. Visitors to the castle (at center right) include Vlad III, known as Vlad the Impaler—Bram Stoker’s inspiration for Count Dracula. Photograph by Winfield Parks, National Geographic See More

The people have spoken. And what they’re saying—based on social media and user engagement—is that 2013 was a great year for great photos. Your picks included images of the starry heavens, the creatures of the deep, and the raucous energy of a crowded dance hall.  

Community: Our Changing World

Back in October, we challenged our Your Shot photo community to explore our changing world. Readers rose to the occasion and submitted a record-breaking 25,000 images. Our editors selected 18 to publish, including this one—a view of an eastern screech owl ensconced in a hole dug out of a pine tree in the U.S. state of Georgia. “We were mesmerized by this camouflaged screech owl, masterfully disguised perched inside a woodpecker’s nest,” says National Geographic photographer Cory Richards. “Part of a changing world is that which remains the same … or the adaptations that occur to fit it. Adaptation is a beautiful illustration of how living things learn from and grow with the world around them.” Photograph by Graham McGeorge, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Community: Identity

In May, we asked Your Shot photographers to show us who they were. Over 3,300 community members submitted nearly 8,000 photos. Our editors selected 20 to publish, including this selfie of Jane Sheng seemingly suspended in an infinite hall of mirrors in Auckland, New Zealand. “Nowadays the ubiquitous selfie can easily be overlooked as silly,” writes Monica Clare Corcoran, Your Shot managing editor. “However, if done well, a self-portrait can provide insight into that photographer’s unique vision and an appreciation of their life experiences and personal story.” Photograph by Jane Sheng, National Geographic Your Shot See More

World’s Ugliest Animal

Sporting a face only a mother could love, the deep-sea blobfish won the dubious honor of “world’s ugliest animal” in September. The contest, organized by the England-based Ugly Animal Preservation Society, invited comedians to submit short videos championing their pick for ugliest creature. The public then voted on which animal they wanted to be the face of the Society. “Simon Watt, biologist and President for Life of the [Society] organized the contest to raise awareness of endangered animals whose untraditional looks don’t garner as much attention as cuddly pandas and majestic tigers,” wrote Jennifer Holland.Photograph by Kerryn Parkinson, Caters/Zuma See More

Feral Cats

In one of the more contentious news stories this year, National Geographic writer and editor Christine Dell’Amore discusses an opinion piece in the Orlando Sentinel suggesting euthanasia as a means to deal with feral cats. “Over 80 million pet cats reside in U.S. homes and as many as 80 million more free-roaming cats survive outside,” writes Dell’Amore. Readers wrote in with over 700 comments expressing frustration over current control methods and horror over the Sentinel’s opinion piece while suggesting alternative ways of dealing with feral felines. Photograph by Melissa Farlow, National Geographic See More

Women in Science

In April, Christie’s auction house in New York sold a letter for six million dollars. Written by biologist Francis Crick in 1953, it described his recent discovery of the structure of DNA to his 12-year-old son. National Geographic’s online article about the sale generated a lot of discussion about how biologist Rosalind Franklin, a contemporary of Crick’s, got cheated of her share of the credit for the discovery. Those comments prompted a look at other female researchers responsible for some of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in recent memory that were similarly snubbed or overlooked. “Over the centuries, female researchers have had to work as ‘volunteer’ faculty members, seen credit for significant discoveries they've made assigned to male colleagues, and been written out of textbooks,” writes Jane J. Lee. Photograph from Science Source See More

Community: Supermoon

On June 23, the full moon loomed over skywatchers as a “supermoon.” This occurs when the moon is the closest it will be to the Earth in the calendar year. The lunar orb appeared 8 percent larger and 17 percent brighter than usual, drawing the eyes, and camera lenses, of readers around the world. Cheng Kiang Ng submitted this supermoon photograph, taken in Marina Bay Sands Skypark in Singapore, to the online Your Shot community on June 24. Photograph by Cheng Kiang Ng, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Heavy Metal Dancing

Originally published in February, this story analyzing dancers in mosh pits proves that researchers really will study anything. “To most scientists, heavy metal refers to elements on the lower end of the periodic table,” writes Nicholas Mott. “But to Jesse Silverberg and Matt Bierbaum, doctoral students at Cornell University’s department of condensed matter physics, [aggressive heavy metal] music—and the violent dancing that accompanies it—could be a key to understanding extreme situations such as riots and panicked responses to disasters.” Photograph by Lynn Johnson, National Geographic See More

Frozen in Time

In October, we published a gallery of eerie animals “calcified” in haunting poses on the shores of Tanzania’s Lake Natron. The lake contains so much soda and salt that it would “strip the ink of my Kodak film boxes in a few seconds,” says photographer Nick Brandt. The photographer stumbled on the animals unexpectedly when they washed ashore, writes Liz Langley. Brandt collected them and posed the creatures as they would have been in life. Photograph courtesy Nick Brandt See More

Community: Jaguar Kills Caiman

In August, photographer Paul Donahue captured a stunning event on film when he caught a jaguar stalking and killing a caiman in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Nicknamed Mick Jaguar, the feline ghosted over sandbars and swam through creeks for 30 to 40 minutes before seizing its prize in a quick-strike maneuver. Photograph by Paul Donahue See More

Ice Diamond

This glowing boulder of ice made National Geographic’s Photo of the Day on October 27. The 800-pound “ice diamond”—washed up on a beach in Iceland—combines the beauty, as well as the tragedy, of disappearing glaciers for photographer James Balog. Photograph by James Balog, National Geographic See More

Community: The Milky Way

Michael Matti submitted this portrait of himself staring at the Milky Way over Cannon Beach, Oregon, to the online Your Shot community on November 13. When Matti went down to the beach after sunset on October 4, the clear sky and a new moon allowed him to capture this ethereal view of the galaxy. Photograph by Michael Matti, National Geographic Your Shot See More

Community: A Fiery Splash

Light from a setting sun catches water ejected into the air by a rock thrown into the ocean at White Rock, British Columbia. Rob Leslie submitted this photo to the online Your Shot community. Taken with a tripod-mounted camera, editors selected Leslie’s photo as their Photo of the Day on February 8. Photograph by Rob Leslie, National Geographic Your Shot See More