National Geographic Magazine

join the search for lost treasures of egypt

Follow international teams of Egyptologists as they mine the world’s richest seam of ancient archaeology: Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. See highlights of a full season of excavations as the dig teams use innovative technology to pursue finds such as this wall painting of King Tut. Lost Treasures of Egypt’s six episodes air Tuesdays at 10/9c starting March 5 on National Geographic.BOOKSChronicling The Impossible ClimbAuthor Mark Synnott shadowed rock climber Alex Honnold during his secret preparations to free solo Yosemite’s El Capitan. The result: a riveting account of Honnold’s ropeless climb up the 3,000-foot rock face. The Impossible Climb arrives in bookstores March 5.TELEVISIONMore Story of GodMorgan Freeman continues his global exploration of the power of religion. New episodes look at the nature of divine visions and at beliefs about…

uncertain future

Cecilia Martínez (seated), a native of El Salvador, lives in the United States under the immigration classification known as temporary protected status. She poses in front of her Long Island, New York, home with her son, Andrew, and her daughter, Gracie, who were born in the United States and are U.S. citizens.CECILIA MARTÍNEZ WAS 15 in 1998 when she slipped into Arizona from Mexico. She came with no family and arrived to none, striking out on her own, scraping by on babysitting and bagging groceries. It was hard but preferable to her native El Salvador: “I came to work. Everyone said you could make a better life here.”Indeed she has. Three years after she arrived, Martínez received temporary protected status (TPS), an immigration classification given to people from countries where…

conjuring clouds

With water misters and smoke machines, Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde creates the vaporous puffs—and poses them.LOOKING AT THE EARTH FROM EVERY POSSIBLE ANGLE(CASSANDER EEFTINCK SCHATTENKERK)The artist’s creations in gallery spaces include a sky-grazing cloud at the De Groen Fine Art Collection in Arnhem, the Netherlands (top), and a low-hanging cloud in the Visual arts center in Carlow, Ireland. (MICHAEL HOLLY)(R.J. MUNA)Smilde’s settings range from the ornate—the Green Room in the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center (top)—to the spare: the Hotel Maria Kapel exhibition space in Hoorn, the Netherlands. (CASSANDER EEFTINCK SCHATTENKERK)In Cologne, Germany, a cloud hovers in the Sankt Peter Köln, a late Gothic church that’s also used as a center for spirituality, art, and music. (PHOTO: CASSANDER EEFTINCK SCHATTENKERK) ■…

the backstory

Photographer Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk captures an image of a cloud that Smilde created in the Baths of Diocletian, part of the National Roman Museum. (PHOTO: ANNEGRET KELLNER)BERNDNAUT SMILDE CREATES fluffy clouds in locations where nature never would place them. The Dutch artist’s sculptures last five seconds—10 seconds tops—before they disappear.Smilde’s ongoing project, called “Nimbus,” explores the visual effects of clouds. A church or museum interior looks different behind a cloud, and an everyday cloud is peculiar in a castle or a canyon. Each scene is made more intense by lasting only moments.The ingredients for Smilde’s clouds: just smoke and water vapor. He requires a cold and damp space with no air circulation, lest the clouds never form or fall straight to the ground. He mists an area with a spray…

a wake-up call on water quality

THE DISCOVERIES OF TODAY THAT WILL DEFINE THE WORLD OF TOMORROWIN THIS SECTIONRoaches vs. Wasps Opium Poppy DNA Plasticized Plankton On Wings of GlassWHEN MY YOUNG DAUGHTER says she’s thirsty, I take for granted that the water from our kitchen tap is clean and safe. In fact, that’s what most Americans assume. But should we?As we mark World Water Day on March 22, the disturbing truth is that roughly a quarter of Americans drink from water systems that violate the Safe Drinking Water Act. Violations range from failing to properly test water to allowing dangerous levels of lead or arsenic—and occur everywhere: in rural communities and big cities, in red states and blue ones.The lead contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, was extreme—and shocking because of the role that race played.…

pfas: chemicals most of us carry

What are perfluoroalkyl substances? Generally known as PFAS, they’re a class of human-made chemicals found in everything from nonstick pans to raincoats and firefighting foam. They’re also known to harm human health.Two of these chemicals, PFOS and PFOA, are present at unsafe levels in the drinking water of six million Americans and found in the bodies of 98 percent of Americans. They enter water supplies when manufacturers dispose of PFAS or, in the case of firefighting foam, when used at places such as airports and naval bases.The world around us is full of PFOS and PFOA. They don’t break down in the environment or degrade easily when they enter the human body. Even at low levels, PFAS are linked to a range of serious illnesses, including cancer of the kidneys…