National Geographic Magazine - UK

What's inside the yellow box? Amazing discoveries and experiences await you in every issue of National Geographic magazine.

FROM the EDITOR

THE JOURNEY OF GEMSTONES • One may think of rocks as static, immovable objects that silently observe the world slowly changing around them. And yet their story is actually one of constant change and movement: From their birth in Earth’s core, to globe spanning journeys, and becoming artistic inspirations.

Our WORLD • BEHIND THE SCENES WITH NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORERS • These contributors have received funding from the National Geographic Society, which is committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world. Learn more about the Society’s support of Explorers at natgeo.com/impact.

IN FOCUS • JUST IN FROM OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS

UNLOCKING NATURE’S MIRACLE • An organic material that is five times stronger than steel? It exists in the natural world but has historically been impossible for us to manufacture. Now, thanks to breakthroughs in genetic engineering, we’ve created something very close: supersilk. And it’s poised to upgrade far more than our clothing.

How a spider spins its silk • Spider silk owes its special powers to both a unique molecular structure and an arachnid’s intricate spinning process. Scientists have spent decades trying to replicate the spider’s all-natural (but not-so-easy-to-make) supermaterial.

Making spider silk, minus the spider • The production of spider silk at scale hinges on genetic engineering: Scientists have coaxed a variety of hosts into making a recombinant version that could unlock breakthroughs in everything from clothing to medicine. Here’s how this new supermaterial is being made and put to use.

Can TikTok RESURRECT SCOTS? • Inside the decidedly modern campaign to revitalize a lost language (that some say isn’t truly a language)

The GREEK CANAL That Took 2,500 YEARS TO BUILD • How the Corinth Canal went from elusive dream to engineering marvel—with an unexpected fate

LEARNING TO LISTEN IN JAPAN • In the warm glow of the country’s jazz cafés, a subculture of vinyl aficionados is preserving a communal form of music appreciation—and cultivating the kind of deep sensory experiences that our noisy world has forgotten.

Does the NAKED MOLE RAT Hold the Secret TO A LONG LIFE? • The wrinkly rodent barely seems to age and appears almost impervious to cancer, heart disease, and mental decline. Can the animal’s astounding abilities be adapted for humans?

SEARCHING FOR GHOSTS • After decades of armed conflict in Angola, the country’s elephants were thought by many to have disappeared. But the people who revere and live among them knew different. Now, a quest to find these ‘ghost elephants’ reveals a remarkable truth about how the giants survived.

The KALEIDOSCOPIC BEAUTY of HIDDEN SWAMPS • Deep in the inaccessible boglands of Russia, one photographer found a way to capture a stunning moment of change.

THE VIKINGS WHO VANISHED • NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL CLUES ARE SHEDDING LIGHT ON ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST PERPLEXING MYSTERIES: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ISOLATED NORSE COLONIES OF GREENLAND THAT DISAPPEARED IN THE MIDDLE AGES?

From Colony to Collapse: the Viking Timeline • Viking expeditions had crossed several seas and reached deep into Europe before one arrived in Greenland circa A.D. 985. Some 450 years later they were gone, with little explanation left behind. Archaeologists are still piecing together theories on why the Vikings vanished, with the latest hinging on a combination of a changing climate and dwindling demand for walrus ivory, their most valuable asset.

From the VAULT • ARTIFACTS FROM THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES