Wader populations are plummeting globally, say ornithologists. The warning follows an international review of these mainly migratory shorebirds which suggests half of all waders are in decline.

China successfully launched its first manned space mission today. Carrying a single astronaut, the Szenzhou 5 rocket blasted off from northwest China. It will orbit Earth 14 times before returning. Despite the national pride associated with it, the launch was shrouded in secrecy.

Swedish stonecutters excavated limestone from the quarry in Dalarna for nearly 50 years. But since 1993, a different kind of rock has poured forth—along with opera and blues. With near-perfect acoustics and a spectacular natural setting, the defunct quarry now serves as a 4,000-seat amphitheater.

When deep-sea explorers combing the Baltic Sea floor located a Swedish spy plane shot down by the Russians more than 50 years ago, they ended one of the more enduring mysteries of the Cold War.

Energy derived from the moon now trickles into a village near the Arctic tip of Norway via a novel underwater windmill-like device powered by the rhythmic slosh of the tides.

In a windowless New York City lab, scientists are simulating conditions that triggered two of the most explosive volcanic events in recent history: the eruption of Mount Mazama and Mount Vesuvius. The project seeks to better understand and predict volcanic eruptions.

Exactly what happens while following the Kratt brothers on their adventures is a new approach to wildlife filmmaking. The premiere episode of Be the Creature finds them shadowing grizzly bears. "We're going deeper into the creature world now," says Martin, "to live on their turf, by their rules—and just see what happens!"

Archaeologists in Guatemala have unearthed a lost city believed to be one of the crowning jewels in the ancient civilization of the Maya. A six-year study of clues in hieroglyphics and palaces suggest the 1,400-year-old city disintegrated not from drought, as some experts believe, but from royal power struggles.

National Geographic Channel's reality series Worlds Apart premieres its first full season tonight. Viewers follow the Russell family as they travel from Birmingham, Alabama, to Ghana—trading comforts that they know in the hope of gaining understanding of a different culture and an awareness of the common bonds people share.

Since the digital film festival Resfest launched in 1997, digital filmmaking has exploded, with top Hollywood directors now embracing the new technology. This year's festival, which plays in 18 cities around the world, offers a new segment sponsored by the National Geographic Society focusing on geographic literacy.

This month, the National Geographic Society will publish Through the Lens: National Geographic Greatest Photographs, a collection of 250 images that span over 100 years of Geographic photography. The book includes many of the Society's most celebrated photographers, including Sam Abell, William Albert Allard, Annie Griffiths Belt, Jodi Cobb, David Doubilet, Chris Johns and more. Many of the photos have been published previously, while others are available to the public for the first time.

Ninety percent of the world's 45 million blind people are in developing nations. Many cases may be preventable or treatable, particularly as nearly half are caused by cataract, a condition routinely treated in affluent countries. Doctors in Nepal are showing how vision can be restored to even the poorest people.

This story also aired on National Geographic Ultimate Explorer in the U.S. on MSNBC, Sunday, September 28.

Silver mining in the Bolivian Andes was a well-established industry hundreds of years earlier than commonly thought, according to a geological study published today. But what happened to thousands of tons of silver extracted from the Earth a thousand years ago remains a mystery.

Far from being a pristine wilderness prior to Columbus's arrival in the New World, parts of the Brazilian Amazon more closely resembled a pre-historic version of urban sprawl, archaeologists have discovered. Interconnected villages were built according to a very large-scale plan, suggesting knowledge of mathematics, architecture, astronomy, and engineering.

A study of bones of ancient Britons has found that there was a sudden change in their diet about 5,000 years ago. Apparently they stopped eating seafood in substantial quantities. Did this, scientists wonder, coincide with the dawn of livestock farming? The beginning of the British passion for roast beef?