When developing countries look to the rest of the world for help, it's important to make sure the response is a grassroots effort and not just solutions imposed from the top down, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and other panelists said Wednesday night at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Steve Wolter gets calls from people needing advice on whether they can salvage concrete that has been damaged or involved in a fire. But last year, Wolter was hired to study concrete that came from a building hit by the most extreme conditions that Wolter had ever seen—the Pentagon.
Bright yellow radiation suits are not standard-issue attire for archaeologists. Nor is a Geiger counter. But these precautions are sometimes required for the researchers exploring the eerie A-bomb rubble and ghost towns left over from Cold War blasts at the Nevada Test Site, formerly the Nevada Proving Grounds, on 1,375 square miles of desert 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
A researcher in Britain has found a very rare fossil of a crocodile-like creature that she believes provides a stepping stone between our aquatic ancestors and the first four-legged land dwellers. The 348- to 344-million-year-old fossil falls in a 30-million-year gap in the fossil record that has stumped paleontologists.
National Geographic presented a map cabinet to President Bush at the White House Wednesday. The handcrafted walnut cabinet contains copies of 22 current maps, including maps of Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Middle East. National Geographic has presented map cabinets to every President since first presenting one to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941.
The Pentagon was targeted by terrorists in the September 11 attack because of its symbolism as the heart of America's military power. The loss of life and physical destruction were devastating, but America rallied almost immediately. The Phoenix Project is rebuilding the sections that were directly hit by the airplane. Workers have been on the job round-the-clock to meet a daunting goal: to complete construction by September 11, 2002.
A Quebec power company plans to build a hydroelectric plant on the Rupert River that threatens to curb the flow of water that draws sports enthusiasts and sustains the region's Cree people. In a new turn in a series of bitter battles over such development, Cree leaders are supporting the project.
Nearly one-third of Americans age 16 and older—more than 66 million—fed, photographed, and observed wildlife in 2001, and they spent $40 billion doing so, according to the latest figures of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
The National Geographic Society is making its debut in feature film production making with the July 19 release of the movie K-19: The Widowmaker. The film, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, is inspired by the true story of a narrowly averted nuclear submarine accident at the height of the Cold War, and the heroism of ordinary people when faced with impossible choices.
National Geographic and its partner have resumed a marine field study project in the Channel Islands that was tragically halted last September after two key organizers were killed in the U.S. terrorist attacks along with three pairs of D.C. teachers and students who were headed to the program on the West Coast.
A new report released today by the U.S. Education Department shows that average geography scores of the nation's fourth and eighth graders, while low, have improved from 1994. No overall changes were seen for 12th graders.
Archaeologists working at a desert site in Jordan have excavated a large and very well-preserved copper factory from the Early Bronze Age. The discovery is providing insight into mass production of metal as the first urban cultures emerged.
Jason Carter spoke with National Geographic News about his experiences in rural South Africa on a Peace Corps project to reform the educational system in predominantly black areas. His two years in the Peace Corps are the subject of his new book, Power Lines: Two Years on South Africa's Borders.
Shot, trapped, and poisoned for many decades, America's national bird was almost exterminated in the lower 48 states by 1963. Today, thanks to strong protection and public awareness, the bald eagle is again breeding in all but two states. But it remains threatened and its situation needs vigilance.
