National Geographic Magazine

Amazing discoveries and experiences await you in every issue of National Geographic magazine. The latest news in science, exploration, and culture will open your eyes to the world’s many wonders.

Planes (and Trains) and Automobiles

POISONED BEAUTY

THE BACKSTORY • A PHOTOGRAPHER MOUNTS AN ARTISTIC PROTEST AGAINST INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION IN IDYLLIC TRANSYLVANIA.

Introducing ATEM Mini Pro • The compact television studio that lets you create presentation videos and live streams!

The Persistence of Pay Inequity • FOR EACH DOLLAR A MAN IS PAID IN THE U.S., A WOMAN IS PAID LESS, SOMETIMES HALF AS MUCH. WHY HAVEN’T WE CLOSED THE GAP?

FOR EACH $1 A MAN MAKES… • … A WOMAN MAKES 82 CENTS (among full-time, year-round U.S. workers). That gender wage gap varies notably by state, and it is dramatically wider for most women of color. It’s so wide, in fact, that October 21 is Equal Pay Day for Latinas because they need that long—one whole year plus 10 months of a second—to make what non-Hispanic white men make in a single year. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed more women than men out of their jobs; that likely will exacerbate the wage gap in the long run as women return to the workforce.

AGES TO EQUITY

Driven to capture the night sky • National Geographic photographer Babak Tafreshi and top NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace team up to capture the stars.

THE FRIGID FIFTH OCEAN OF THE SOUTH • NEWLY RECOGNIZED BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, the Southern Ocean joins the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific as a primary division of Earth’s marine environment. For our maps, the northern limit has been set at 60° south latitude (with adjustments for the Scotia Sea and Drake Passage), a compromise given the shifting path of the west-to-east–flowing Antarctic Circumpolar Current ringing Antarctica. Scientists consider these waters—colder and denser but less salty—a separate ocean, bounded by the strong current.

GENERATING BUZZ • ANGELINA JOLIE TALKS ABOUT HER LOVE OF BEES, TRAINING WOMEN TO CARE FOR THEM, AND POSING FOR THIS STRIKING IMAGE.

99 TIP TO MAKE OUR RETIREMENT MORE COMFORTABLE

A fly that’s a gene thief

Grind glass, get sand

WHO’S THAT BEAR? • A NEW HIGH-TECH TOOL PROM ISES TO HELP SCIENTISTS IDENTIFY AND PROTECT GRIZZLIES.

AERIAL ACROBATICS • Look up on a fall or winter day in the Northern Hemisphere and you might see a cloud of starlings swirling over their roosts. These movements are called murmurations, for the murmur-like sound of thousands of wings flapping at once. Photographer Nick Dunlop estimates that this convergence of tens of thousands of starlings was a quarter mile at its widest and several hundred feet tall. The purpose of the shape-shifting phenomenon remains a mystery; it may afford a feeding advantage or a defense against predators—but can also end up attracting them.

When mealtime dish duty calls, follow these five tips to save water and energy.

Extreme Measures • DRIFTING WITH AN ICE FLOE IN THE POLAR NIGHT, A PHOTOGRAPHER ON AN ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION DISCOVERS PROFOUND BEAUTY—AND HER OWN LIMITATIONS.

THE FUTURE IS ELECTRIC • A GREEN REVOLUTION IN TRAVEL HAS BEGUN. MODERN BATTERY-POWERED CARS ARE SELLING FAST, AND ZERO-EMISSION PLANES ARE COMING.

CHARGING AHEAD • All-electric cars and plug-in hybrids (EVs) are just 4 percent of global car sales today. That will change with increased governmental support, improvements in battery cost and technology, more public and private charging ports, and new electric versions of popular car and truck models.

AN ECLECTIC ELECTRIC HISTORY • Hardly a product of the modern age, electric cars evolved along-side those powered by the internal combustion engine. The height of their popularity was at the turn of the 20th century, when they were a third of all...