Ford Cochran
Hope for Haiti: Progress in Broken Shoes
Posted by Ford Cochran on January 12, 2012 
January 12, 2012 marks the second anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti, leaving more than 180,000 homes destroyed and 1,500,000 people homeless. While the United Nations and a number of governments, NGOs (such as SOIL, lead by NG Emerging Explorer Sasha Kramer, a project to transform wastes into resources), and volunteers have worked…
9/11: Remembering Ann and Joe
Posted by Ford Cochran on September 6, 2011 
For most Americans, this September 11—like the nine before it—will prompt recollections of the shock, the horror, and the grief we experienced a decade ago, of all we lost on that grim morning. It will also be a day to reflect on the moments of courage and unity, on the worldwide outpouring of sympathy that…
Worth Talking About: Silence
Posted by Ford Cochran on April 8, 2011 The devastation following a large oil spill might naturally prompt anger, grief, frustration—or an effort to learn why it happened so as to better avert the next one. For conservationist, author, and National Geographic Education Fellow John Francis, the collision of two Standard Oil tankers near the Golden Gate Bridge in 1971, and the subsequent…
Salas y Gómez Expedition: Departing Rapa Nui
Posted by Ford Cochran on March 11, 2011 As the Salas y Gómez team concludes its work near Easter Island, Chile, and disperses to points around the globe, marine scientist and expedition co-leader Enric Sala looks back on several weeks in one of the most isolated, intriguing, and ecologically unique corners of the vast Pacific. Petroglyphs depicting a tangata manu, or birdman, near…
Costa Rica Expands Marine Protected Area Around Cocos Island
Posted by Ford Cochran on March 6, 2011 Costa Rica has created a huge new marine park that increases five-fold the area of protected waters surrounding Cocos Island–home to some of the highest abundances of sharks and other large ocean predators recorded anywhere. A loophole that permits long-line fishing in some of the newly protected waters, however, may threaten the park’s sharks, tuna,…
Leaders Gather in Monaco to Promote Marine Protection
Posted by Ford Cochran on February 14, 2011 European national leaders and environment ministers have gathered in Monaco to discuss the need for more marine protected areas and other strategies to conserve life in the oceans. National Geographic Executive Vice President for Mission Programs Terry Garcia addresses European environment leaders about the United States system of marine protected areas (MPAs) at the Monaco…
The giant extinct invertebrate Arthropleura resembled some modern millipedes, but could grow to be more than one-and-a-half feet wide, and may sometimes have been more than six feet long. Reconstruction of the giant millipede Arthropleura from the Pennsylvanian and earliest Permian of North America and Europe. The head capsule (marked by an asterisk) is shown…
Mission Blue: Tracking Whale Shark Wanderings
Posted by Ford Cochran on January 14, 2011 University of Southern Mississippi ecophysiologist Eric Hoffmayer received a National Geographic Society/Waitt grant to tag and track whale sharks in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Last June while diving with Sylvia Earle and a filmmaking team led by Bob Nixon, Hoffmayer witnessed roughly 100 of the sharks–the largest gathering ever recorded of this, the world’s…
Mission Blue: The Wake-Up Call
Posted by Ford Cochran on January 11, 2011 Aboard ship in the Gulf of Mexico, ecologist and author Carl Safina of Stony Brook University’s Blue Ocean Institute talks with Sylvia Earle about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its aftermath. “It was a wake-up call,” says Carl, “and I hope we don’t hit the snooze button because it will happen again. There are…
Google Unveils Global Science Fair With National Geographic
Posted by Ford Cochran on January 11, 2011 National Geographic has joined Google, CERN, the LEGO Group, and Scientific American to launch a global online science competition for students ages 13 to 18: The Google Science Fair. By Ford Cochran The next generation’s Albert Einsteins and Marie Curies got a chance to jumpstart their careers this morning with the debut of the Google…
Mission Blue: Team of Leading Scientists Explores Oil Spill’s Legacy
Posted by Ford Cochran on January 4, 2011 PENSACOLA, Fla.–Scientists and representatives of several organizations head into the northern Gulf of Mexico from Pensacola this week on an expedition led by Dr. Sylvia Earle, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, and Dr. Thomas Shirley, professor at the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. The expedition aims to explore and document several areas west and…
Jon Waterhouse’s Healing Journey: Sudan
Posted by Ford Cochran on January 4, 2011 In a war-ravaged world that is beyond remote lurks an unseen killer named Kala-azar. National Geographic Education Fellow Jon Waterhouse shares a story of Old Fangak. By Jon Waterhouse In a very few days–on January 9, 2011–the people of southern Sudan will vote on a referendum for independence as part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement…
Population, Exploration: Talk of the Nation at NGS
Posted by Ford Cochran on December 30, 2010 NPR’s Talk of the Nation returns to National Geographic’s Washington, D.C. headquarters from 2-4 p.m. ET on Thursday, January 6 for a second free NG Live event and radio broadcast. The first hour focuses on “The Next Two Billion: Can the Planet Take the Strain?” The past 50 years have seen the most rapid population…
Healing Journey: Shrimp Sniffing Certificates
Posted by Ford Cochran on December 10, 2010 National Geographic Education Fellow Jon Waterhouse continues his chronicle of the Gulf oil spill’s aftermath from Grand Isle on the Louisiana coast. By Jon Waterhouse When last I wrote, my traveling companions and I were speaking with Karen Hopkins and Dean Blanchard, two residents of Grand Isle, Louisiana, whose lives and community have been dramatically…
Bryan Smith Talks Extreme Filmmaking
Posted by Ford Cochran on December 9, 2010 In an NG Live! event at National Geographic’s D.C. headquarters, kayaker and videographer Bryan Smith shares the endurance trials and the adrenaline rush of out-there adventure filmmaking. By Valentine Quadrat With his arms outstretched, Robin Avery takes another barefooted step across a highline in Squamish, British Colombia. A camera pan-out encapsulates the reality of the…
Remembering Antarctica, 20 Years Later
Posted by Ford Cochran on December 7, 2010 Two decades after leading a multi-national team on the first complete dogsled traverse of Antarctica, polar adventurer and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence emeritus Will Steger reflects on the expedition–and what climate change means for our planet. On March 3, 1990, a team of six men from six different countries and their 42 sled dogs completed the…
Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth
Posted by Ford Cochran on November 24, 2010 A new study of venomous reptile fossils sheds light on the evolution of snake fangs. By Hans-Dieter Sues Venom is a highly effective means to subdue and kill prey before eating it, as well as a great defense against predators. Furthermore, studies have shown that some snake toxins can also help in breaking down proteins…
Secrets of the Happiest Places on Earth
Posted by Ford Cochran on November 22, 2010 Best-selling National Geographic author and speaker Dan Buettner shares the factors that boost quality of life in four of the happiest places on Earth. Photo of Dan Buettner courtesy Blue Zones By Ford Cochran For much of the last decade, Dan Buettner has traveled to the places where people live longest and where they claim…
Gil Grosvenor: The Freshwater Crisis
Posted by Ford Cochran on November 20, 2010 During Geography Awareness Week 2010, which focuses on “Freshwater” as its theme, National Geographic Chairman of the Board Gil Grosvenor shares his view that access to clean freshwater for drinking, cooking, and hygiene is the paramount challenge facing humanity today. By Ford Cochran Gilbert M. Grosvenor, past editor of National Geographic magazine and president and…
Gil Grosvenor: Why We Need Geography
Posted by Ford Cochran on November 18, 2010 During Geography Awareness Week 2010, National Geographic Society Chairman of the Board Gil Grosvenor discusses why effective democracy requires geographic literacy, and other benefits of a thorough geographic education. By Ford Cochran Gilbert M. Grosvenor, past editor of National Geographic magazine and president and chief executive of National Geographic, now chairs the Society’s Board of…
Healing Journey: A Costly Coastal Legacy for the Gulf of Mexico
Posted by Ford Cochran on November 18, 2010 National Geographic Education Fellow Jon Waterhouse writes from Louisiana’s Gulf Coast that, for some residents who rely on marine life for a living, reports that we’re past the worst of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill’s consequences don’t ring true. By Jon Waterhouse All is not right with the world–not in Louisiana, at least. As the…
Great Migrations: Tracing Birds, Bats, Butterflies, Bumblebees
Posted by Ford Cochran on November 14, 2010 Martin Wikelski uses tiny sensors and radio transmitters to trace the secret journeys of even the most elusive birds, bats, butterflies, and bees–some of them astonishingly small. Great Migrations continues tonight in the U.S. on the National Geographic Channel. By Ford Cochran The largest programming event in the ten-year history of the National Geographic Channel,…
Healing Journey Goes to the Gulf
Posted by Ford Cochran on November 11, 2010 National Geographic Education Fellows Jon Waterhouse and John Francis will gather firsthand accounts of life on the Louisiana coast long after Hurricane Katrina and soon after the Deepwater Horizon spill. Wherever you live, ideas you send their way over the next week could help shape environmental policy across the North American continent. By Jon Waterhouse…
Great Migrations: March of the Crabs
Posted by Ford Cochran on November 7, 2010 Princeton doctoral student Allison Shaw discusses the Christmas Island red crab’s improbable migration to the sea, and the forces that prompt and guide all animal migrations. Great Migrations premieres tonight in the U.S. on the National Geographic Channel. By Ford Cochran The largest programming event in the ten-year history of the National Geographic Channel, Great…
Three National Geographic Explorers–Albert Yu-Min Lin, Sandra Postel, and Roshini Thinakaran–joined a lineup of more than two dozen speakers on the theme “What If?” at today’s TEDxMidAtlantic event in Washington, D.C. In case you weren’t in the audience at Sidney Harman Hall or glued to your laptop watching the live stream, here’s some of what…
