Tag archives for Ford Cochran
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
Great Migrations: Running With the Herd
Posted by Ford Cochran on November 2, 2010 Wildebeests traverse the Serengeti’s plains each year in numbers nearly too vast to count. But research shows that by forming enormous herds, they manage to make themselves scarce to free-roaming predators. By Ford Cochran The largest programming event in the ten-year history of the National Geographic Channel, Great Migrations premieres in the U.S. beginning at…
The Best Things in Life Aren’t Things
Posted by Ford Cochran on October 28, 2010 University of British Columbia psychologist and 2010 PopTech conference speaker Elizabeth Dunn made cash “rain from trees” to examine the relationship between money and happiness. Turns out that, for most of us, giving money away makes us happier than spending it on ourselves, and experiences–not possessions–bring lasting joy. By Ford Cochran National Geographic traveled to…
Climate Certainties, Climate Confusion: Kim Cobb at PopTech
Posted by Ford Cochran on October 27, 2010 Scholars need to do a better job of distinguishing between what’s known (that fossil fuel use warms the planet) and what we’re still learning (what that means in terms of droughts, monsoons, big storms, and other consequences), says climate scientist Kim Cobb. By Ford Cochran Georgia Tech geochemist and climate scientist Kim Cobb is one…
How to Change the World: PopTech’s School for Social Entrepreneurs
Posted by Ford Cochran on October 22, 2010 FrontlineSMS developer, National Geographic Emerging Explorer, and PopTech Social Innovation Fellow Ken Banks shares practical tips on what works when you want to use a simple idea to change the world. By Ford Cochran National Geographic is on Maine’s Atlantic coast for the 2010 PopTech Conference, which is being webcast live from the Camden Opera…
Building a Health Care Network in a Ravaged Land
Posted by Ford Cochran on October 21, 2010 As a boy 20 years ago, PopTech Social Innovation Fellow Rajesh Panjabi fled civil war in Liberia with his family. Now he’s back, helping create a community health care network to serve a ravaged country. By Ford Cochran National Geographic is on Maine’s Atlantic coast for the 2010 PopTech Conference, which will be webcast live…
Prelude to PopTech 2010: ‘Brilliant Accidents, Necessary Failures, Improbable Breakthroughs’
Posted by Ford Cochran on October 18, 2010 The PopTech 2010 conference–an annual gathering of “visionary thinkers, leaders and doers in science, technology, design, the corporate and social sectors, entrepreneurship, education and the arts”–kicks off this Wednesday in Camden, Maine. By Ford Cochran Curated by futurist and National Geographic Fellow Andrew Zolli, the event (much of which will be webcast live Thursday through…
Jane Goodall Institute Honors National Geographic on 50th Anniversary of Gombe Chimp Research
Posted by Ford Cochran on October 12, 2010 Half a century after beginning her storied field research on the lives of Gombe’s chimpanzees, Jane Goodall and her non-profit institute have bestowed their Global Leadership Award on National Geographic, which funded much of her pioneering work. By Ford Cochran As celebrated in the October 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine, this year marks the…
Linguists Discuss ‘Hidden’ Koro Language, Search for Last Speakers
Posted by Ford Cochran on October 6, 2010 Linguists working in India’s remote Arunachal Pradesh state have uncovered the hidden Koro language, which was previously undocumented and unknown to science. In an exclusive interview, they describe Koro’s survival, the Enduring Voices Project’s search for last speakers, and their efforts to promote humanity’s threatened linguistic diversity. By Ford Cochran Yesterday, linguists and National Geographic…
Cesar Millan shares rules for raising better dogs
Posted by Ford Cochran on October 5, 2010 Training a well-behaved dog begins, says Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan, with a respect for canine instincts and the recognition that dogs aren’t people. By Ford Cochran Renowned “Dog Whisperer” Cesar Millan stopped by National Geographic’s Washington, D.C. headquarters yesterday to discuss Cesar’s Rules: Your Way to Train a Well-Behaved Dog. The book, which Cesar authored…
Hear Your Imagination: All Roads Festival Opens Tonight in D.C.
Posted by Ford Cochran on September 28, 2010 National Geographic’s 2010 All Roads Film Festival runs tonight through Sunday at the Society’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. By Ford Cochran All Roads debuted in 2004 to showcase the work of indigenous and underrepresented minority-culture storytellers and promote “knowledge, dialogue, and understanding with a broader global audience.” Now the festival includes dozens of films, photo exhibitions,…
The health of the ocean: What’s at stake?
Posted by Ford Cochran on September 20, 2010 Renowned oceanographer and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle discusses why the health of the ocean should matter to everyone, and what individuals–including kids–can do to help make it better. By Ford Cochran National Geographic hosted a live recording of National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation at our Washington, D.C. headquarters yesterday. During the program’s…
Who will restore the ocean?
Posted by Ford Cochran on September 17, 2010 National Geographic Fellow Enric Sala explains why a healthy reef is a landscape of fear, how our perception of what’s “natural” in marine ecosystems has evolved, and what we can do to restore balance to the seas. By Ford Cochran National Geographic hosted a live recording of National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation at…
Kindred killers: Monkeypox rising in the wake of smallpox eradication
Posted by Ford Cochran on September 3, 2010 The end of smallpox vaccinations in sub-Saharan Africa three decades ago appears to have opened the door to monkeypox, another deadly disease caused by a related virus. By Ford Cochran Humans have lived, and died, with smallpox for thousands of years. Variola major, the more lethal of two viruses responsible for smallpox, claimed at least…
Sala y Gómez clears protection hurdle
Posted by Ford Cochran on August 17, 2010 A Chilean Senate committee unanimously recommends making waters surrounding the remote Sala y Gómez island a marine protected area. By Ford Cochran The waters off Sala y Gómez–a tiny Pacific island about 250 miles east of Easter Island–have come one step closer to becoming a marine protected area with the unanimous endorsement of Chile’s Senate…
Russia in flames: A fire line photographer’s perspective
Posted by Ford Cochran on August 11, 2010 Veteran wildfire photographer Mark Thiessen discusses Russia’s worst fire season on record. By Ford Cochran In the photo below, locals try to extinguish a forest fire near the village of Dolginino, Russia. As of this week, professional firefighters were combating more than 500 wildfires over a 670-square-mile area in Russia. The toxic smog over Moscow…
Effort to study, save African elephants earns top conservation prize
Posted by Ford Cochran on June 19, 2010 By Ford Cochran Zoologist and conservationist Iain Douglas-Hamilton went to Africa more than 40 years ago to study wild elephants. His passion for the creatures evolved into a crusade to protect them, an effort he pursues through the non-profit he created, Save the Elephants. National Geographic has supported Douglas-Hamilton through its research and exploration grant…
Cleopatra Exhibition Unveiled Today in Philadelphia
Posted by Ford Cochran on June 5, 2010 By Ford Cochran Cleopatra VII ruled Egypt as its final pharaoh, and she ruled the hearts of at least two powerful Romans: Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Today, more than two millennia after she took her own life rather than suffer humiliation following defeat by her enemy Octavius (soon to become Augustus Caesar), Cleopatra returns…
U.S. Consumers Lag Others in Sustainable Choices
Posted by Ford Cochran on June 3, 2010 By Ford Cochran Results of the Greendex survey of sustainable consumption patterns reveal that consumers in most of the 17 countries profiled have adopted more environmentally friendly behaviors over the past year. All but one of the countries polled in both 2008 and 2010 showed improvement over the past two years. National Geographic and the…
Alex Trebek on the importance of geography
Posted by Ford Cochran on May 26, 2010 By Ford Cochran Ten young finalists from among 54 state geographic bee winners competed at the Society’s Washington, D.C. headquarters this morning for $50,000 in college scholarships, a cruise to the Galapagos, lifetime National Geographic membership, and the title of 2010 National Geographic Bee champion. 13-year-old Aadith Moorthy, an 8th-grade student at Palm Harbor Middle…
