National Geographic | Your Weekly Escape

National Geographic

Your Weekly Escape

Extraordinary people, discoveries, and places

NG STAFF

Staring at the sun—a safe (but close) look at our home star

Some 4.6 billion years ago, when a dusty cloud of gas collapsed and began to generate energy, our sun was born. In this interactive, explore the birth—and eventual death—of our home star.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

JIM BRANDENBURG, MINDEN PICTURES/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

The strange story of the greatest discovery that never was

In 1906, the legendary explorer Robert Peary claimed he had discovered a new land mass in the Arctic. There was just one problem: It wasn’t there. Was he lying?

IMAGE BY ARIEL POKHOJAEV, SACKLER FACULTY OF MEDICINE, TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

Is this the skull of a previously unknown human ancestor?

This unusual skull, which has features of archaic hominins, is no more than 120,000 to 140,000 years old—a time when modern humans were already around. "The implications are astonishing," say anthropologists.

A HUMAN FAMILY SAGA

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MINERALOGICAL & GEOLOGICAL MUSEUM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

This is the world's rarest form of gold. New clues are revealing why.

More than 130 years after its discovery, scientists just got their first high-tech peek at the unexpected crystal structure inside the Ram's Horn.

PHOTOGRAPH BY KENNETH CATANIA

Inside the bizarre life of the star-nosed mole

It's nearly blind, is the world's fastest eater, and is one of two animals in the world known to smell underwater. Thirty years of research has revealed just how strange the underground animal with the odd nose really is.

QUOTE

In the mole's dark underground world, sight is useless—instead, it feels a world pulsing with prey.

Erika Engelhaupt, writer

From: Inside the bizarre life of the star-nosed mole

CAMERAPHOTO/BRIDGEMAN/AC

Herod I: The controversial king who transformed the Holy Land

He's known as the villain of the Christmas story—the tyrant who supposedly ordered the "Massacre of Innocents." But the real-life Herod was a skilled administrator who realized a bold new vision of a Roman Judaea and saved his people from famine. Why was he unable to win their hearts and minds?

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON LARKIN

See inside these bizarre war museums

In addition to holding artifacts, museums are also houses of memories, of ways to remember who won, who lost, and who lived and died. But who controls how history should be remembered? One photographer documented how different cultures remember their past.

MORE GREAT READS

The people who believe plants can talk (BBC) ››

Reuniting an orphan elephant and her mom, perhaps, with DNA and luck (NY Times) ››

Sign up here to receive Your Weekly Escape and/or our daily newsletters—covering History, Environment, Science, Animals, Travel, and Photography news.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

{We'd like to hear from you! Tell us what you think of our emails by sharing your feedback in this short survey.

TAKE THE SURVEY

Clicking on the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and National Geographic Channel links will take you away from our National Geographic Partners site where different terms of use and privacy policy apply.

This email was sent to: [email protected]. Please do not reply to this email as this address is not monitored.

This email contains an advertisement from:
National Geographic | 1145 17th Street, N.W. | Washington, D.C. 20036

Stop all types of future commercial email from National Geographic regarding its products, services, or experiences.

© 2021 National Geographic Partners, LLC, All rights reserved.