Category archives for NG Library & Archives
Escape From Vietnam
Posted by Cathy Hunter on April 30, 2013 
On April 30, 1975, the Vietnam War officially ended with the fall of Saigon to Communist forces. Many Vietnamese fled their country, including one Special Forces officer who painstakingly planned his escape and paid $200 on the black market for a copy of a March 1971 National Geographic map to guide him.
National Geographic and the National Parks: A Brief History
Posted by Alyson Foster on April 24, 2013 
April 22nd through April 28th is National Park Week. It’s a celebration of the more than 400 national parks in the U.S., including canyons, forests, beaches, historic houses and battlefields. While National Geographic can’t take any credit for these spectacular places, we do take pride in our long-standing connection to the national parks, a connection that stretches back all the way to the 1800s – before either the National Geographic Society or the National Park Service even existed.
Scientists Create “Nano-Suits” That Allow Bugs to Survive in A Vacuum
Posted by Alyson Foster on April 18, 2013 
Scientists at the Hamamatsu University School of Medicine in Japan have come up with a special kind of spacesuit that can help keep insects alive in a vacuum. Unlike the gear astronauts wear, the nano-suit — as scientists are calling it — is more than 1,000 times thinner than a human hair and it’s made using electrons.
The Society and Washington’s Flowering Cherry Trees
Posted by Alyson Foster on April 9, 2013 
Each spring, as the Japanese cherry trees bloom in Potomac Park and around the Tidal Basin, something tugs at our memories. Didn’t the National Geographic Society have something to do with getting those trees here? Wasn’t Eliza Scidmore, the first woman on our board of trustees, somehow involved?
Like People, Bees Learn From Watching One Another
Posted by Alyson Foster on April 8, 2013 
Bumblebees may not have the large, highly-developed brains that certain other animals possess – us highly intelligent primates, for example – but they can perform surprisingly sophisticated tasks, like using logic and picking up cues from their fellow bees.
Cleaning Up the World’s Ballast Water
Posted by Michael Fry on April 2, 2013 
According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations agency responsible for the prevention of marine pollution by ships, water carried in ships’ ballasts is a top threat to global biodiversity and marine ecosystems. How? By transporting thousands of species out of their native environments and depositing them elsewhere around the world, where they…
Scientists Link Urban Noise To Decline In City Songbirds
Posted by Alyson Foster on March 14, 2013 
It’s a fact: cities are loud. All that noise can have a deleterious effect on our lives, but humans aren’t the only ones negatively impacted by urban noise. Scientists have linked high levels of urban noise to a decline in songbird diversity.
Declining Forests In The Eastern United States As Seen From Space
Posted by Alyson Foster on March 7, 2013 
Forests in the eastern United States have become less green over the past decade. That’s what scientists at NASA have concluded after analyzing a series of satellite images compiled between 2000 and 2010.
Why Do Women Talk So Much?
Posted by Michael Fry on February 26, 2013 
Because their brains may be built that way. So says a University of Maryland School of Medicine study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, which found that young girls have a greater abundance of a protein that’s associated with language development in mammals. And this might explain why men tend to be less talkative than…
Rock Hyrax Urine Offers Clues About Climate Change
Posted by Alyson Foster on February 20, 2013 
What can the rock hyrax – or, more specifically, the rock hyrax’s pee – tell us about climate change? More than you might think.
The Great Emu Caper
Posted by Michael Jourdan on February 15, 2013 
An emu was stolen this week from a wildlife park near Sydney, Australia. Could this be the perfect crime?
Scientists Discover How Bacteria Changes Ions Into Gold
Posted by Alyson Foster on February 6, 2013 
Bacteria with the ability to change ions into solid gold? This scenario may sound like a biochemist’s version of a fairy tale, but it’s real and scientists at McMaster University have just figured out how the process works.
Urban Weather: How Cities May Be Changing the Climate
Posted by Alyson Foster on January 30, 2013 
Air pollution. Light pollution. Radical changes to local ecosystems. The profound environmental impact of cities is a popular topic among scientists these days. Now it appears that cities may actually be changing the weather — and the effects are being felt not just in urban areas, but in places thousands of miles away from major metropolises.
Surgical Masks–Not Just for the E.R.
Posted by Michael Fry on January 15, 2013 
Particulate levels in Beijing broke records last weekend, when the Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center recorded levels of PM2.5 that Reuters said may have reached 900 micrograms per square meter–more than 30 times what the World Health Organisation considers a safe daily level.
A Toast to Our Founders on the Occasion of the Society’s Quasquicentennial
Posted by Cathy Hunter on January 11, 2013 From the top of Mount Everest to the depths of the sea, from the world beneath the microscope to the stars in distant galaxies, the National Geographic Society has reported on “the world and all that is in it” for 125 years. On January 13, 1888, thirty-three men attended a meeting to discuss the “advisability of organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge,” and voted to set up such an organization.
Why Hot Chocolate Looks Better in an Orange Cup
Posted by Suzan Eaton on January 10, 2013 
What’s the trick to making a truly satisfying hot chocolate? It may be less about the ingredients you use and more about which mug you use to drink it.
The Kilogram’s New Diet Plan
Posted by Michael Fry on January 8, 2013 Environmental contamination, and not the holiday season, has caused the International Prototype Kilogram to put on some extra pounds over the decades. Scientists are now looking for a safe and reliable method of cleaning the cylinder so that its mass remains stable and equal to that of several dozen copies around the world.
George Melville: A Survivor, A Rescuer, A National Geographic Founder
Posted by Cathy Hunter on December 28, 2012 
In 1879, National Geographic founder George Melville boarded a ship called the Jeannette for what would become one of the epic stories in early American Arctic exploration. The men on the expedition hoped to find a warm current that might take them to the North Pole; instead the ship was caught in the polar ice pack and drifted nearly two years before it was crushed.
Winfield Scott Schley: A Hero, But Not Without Controversy
Posted by Cathy Hunter on December 20, 2012 
As a U. S. Navy commander, National Geographic founder Winfield Scott Schley performed several daring feats, including the rescue of fellow National Geographic founder Adolphus W. Greely after Greely and his men became stranded in the Arctic during their disastrous 1881 expedition. But Schley’s conduct in battle left some critics questioning his judgment, calling him not brave, but impetuous.
What lies beneath the streets of Moscow
Posted by Cathy Hunter on December 19, 2012 
Since the end of the Soviet era, archaeologists have unearthed a treasure trove of information on the mysteries beneath Moscow’s streets.
The Perils of Early Arctic Exploration
Posted by Cathy Hunter on December 14, 2012 
National Geographic founder A.W. Greely’s expedition to Lady Franklin Bay in 1881 tragically demonstrated the hardships and deadliness of attempts to explore the Arctic. Despite his many other achievements — including leading the relief efforts after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake — his reputation would forever be tainted.
So That We May All Know More Of The World Upon Which We Live…
Posted by Cathy Hunter on December 7, 2012 
National Geographic founder Gardiner Greene Hubbard was not a scientist, but he was a forward-thinking man in a still-young country brimming over with promise and a belief in the marvels of the industrial age. When he met Alexander Graham Bell, something new and bold was bound to result.
Mapping The Blitz
Posted by Michael Fry on December 7, 2012 
Bomb Sight, a year-long project to map Nazi Germany’s bombing campaign against London, is now complete. The interactive tool, based on Bomb Census Survey maps from the United Kingdom’s National Archives, depicts the location and type of bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe from Oct. 7, 1940 through June 6, 1941.
A Gallant Gentleman, an Ideal Friend
Posted by Cathy Hunter on November 30, 2012 
Otto Tittmann may be one of National Geographic’s lesser-known founders, but his contributions to the Society were held in high regard. So much so that Gilbert H. Grosvenor pulled strings to get a relief bill from Congress that paid Tittmann $150 per month for the rest of his life. Grosvenor told him: “It is not possible to measure the benefits conferred on The Society by your faith in the purposes of The Society and your wise counsels given these forty-seven years without remuneration.”
South Georgia’s Rats To Face Unprecedented Airborne Assault
Posted by Michael Fry on November 30, 2012 
For urbanites, rats are an often unavoidable by-product of city living. Though well-known as disease vectors, they’re probably more cringe-worthy than genuinely threatening to most human inhabitants. But on South Georgia island, rats are an invasive species, introduced more than two centuries ago by sealing boats. And now, their population estimated in the millions, they’re…
