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THE ‘GLITCHES’ THAT OPEN THE DOOR TO CANCER

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

In today’s newsletter, we learn how cancer outmaneuvers the body’s natural defenses, explore the chance discovery that changed our view of ancient Egypt, unwrap the 5,000 treasures of Tut, learn why two Omicron subvariants are poised to take over in the U.S. … and shake through 16 spooky places around the world.

A picture of a woman giving herself a breast exam

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOEL SARTORE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Writer Mary Elizabeth Williams knows better than most of us what a brilliant machine our body is—but not all the time. “Sometimes, the system glitches,” she writes for Nat Geo.

And then? “Cancer happens.”

She spoke with experts, including the doctor who treated her cancer, on why the body can be an open door to cancer—or fail to stop an elusive tumor. What can we do to better protect ourselves?

Read her full story here.

Please consider getting our full digital report and magazine by subscribing here.

A boat full of women paddle a boat

PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNN JOHNSON, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

What you can do: In the image at top, a woman performs a breast self-examination to check for changes in the tissue. Self-examination accounts for about 65 percent of breast cancer discoveries. Pictured above, Nat Geo Explorer Lynn Johnson shows a dragon boat team of breast cancer survivors, called Pink Steel, practicing in Pittsburgh for a festival. Read more.

STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

A black and white picture of items from King Tut's tomb

PHOTOGRAPH BY HARRY BURTON

How King Tut was found Related: Unwrap the mummy’s 5,000 treasures (Pictured above, Tut’s tomb on November 26, 1922)

Why Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are poised to take over in the U.S.

The werewolf that horrified Europe

Has science solved one of history’s greatest adventure mysteries?

Easter Island fire causes irreparable damage to mysterious statues

Ötzi the Iceman: What we’ve learned since his body was discovered

16 spooky places throughout the world

Hungry? Don’t miss these 10 fabulous food markets

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Orange light from a wildfire illuminates the night sky

PHOTOGRAPH BY STUART PALLEY, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Wildfires intensify faraway storms: A giant wildfire kicked off in California. Days later, a massive storm pummeled states like Wyoming and Colorado with flooding rains, baseball-sized hail, and 90 mph gusts, writes Nat Geo’s Alejandra Borunda. Researchers wondered if the two events could be connected—and despite the distance, it turns out they were. Wildfires (like the one in Calistoga, California, above) can make storms as much as 38 percent more intense.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Turtle hatchlings crawl over each other towards the ocean

PHOTOGRAPH BY @HANNAHREYESMORALES

Maiden voyage: Female olive ridley turtles can lay about a hundred eggs up to three times a year, but their numbers are still declining worldwide. The ridley hatchlings pictured above from our Instagram, jostled their way to the sea in the Philippines. “Witnessing moments like this expands my understanding of what it means to call these islands and waters home, and who I share it with. And it is a joy sharing it with these tiny ones,” says photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Hannah Reyes Morales.

Related: How turtle-watching tours can actually help conservation

THE SMALLEST SEA TURTLES

THE NIGHT SKIES

Illustrations of several constellations in the night sky

ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW FAZEKAS

Watch bits of Halley’s Comet rain down: As meteor showers go, Friday night’s peak of the Orionid shower is more of a sprinkle—perhaps 10 or 20 an hour. However, the debris is part of that shed from the most famous of all icy visitors, Halley’s Comet, on its 76-year journey around the sun. Late-night meteor watching should be ideal because the crescent moon rises only a few hours before sunrise.— Andrew Fazekas

Fascinated with the night sky? Catch the new Nat Geo Stargazer's Atlas, available here.

HALLEY’S COMET

LAST GLIMPSE

A picture of a brown mussel on a black background

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOEL SARTORE

Disappearing bivalves: It’s one of the rarest creatures in the world. To find just nine monkeyface mussels, researchers searched Appalachian rivers for more than 1,100 hours over four years. Through clever breeding techniques, conservationists successfully released a new batch of the critically endangered bivalves into the wild. Mysteries about the health of freshwater mussels remain, though, Nat Geo reports.

We asked, you answered: Our item yesterday on pickleball’s growth prompted readers such as Christina O’Sullivan to write in. “Love it! Have courts across the street and play regularly,” she emailed. Cliff Durlacher wondered if pickleball has an unacknowledged debt to platform tennis: “Invented in the 1920's with the exact same size court, and is not considered a forerunner to pickleball? I don't understand.” Volley your thoughts and ideas our way at [email protected]. And thanks!

This newsletter has been curated and edited by Jen Tse, Sydney Combs, David Beard, and Heather Kim. See you tomorrow.

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