National Geographic Magazine July 2021

SCIENCE TELLS US unequivocally that the world is getting hotter: The past six years have been the warmest on record. Each of us may note this differently. For me, it’s the birds that no longer migrate south in the winter; I see them all year long now. And why in the world is the forsythia blooming in January? Ultimately, to solve global warming, we must drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Part one of this month’s cover story package addresses that challenge. It looks at heat and how humans—who evolved during the past 10,000 years in an average air temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit—must adapt to a steamy new reality but also work to mitigate it. Part two of the package explores a low-tech, immediate solution to heat: shade. We’re well aware of its…

There’s meaning beyond the beauty of Nigerian hairstyles, as shown by photographers from two eras. VOL. 240 NO. 1 There’s meaning beyond the beauty of Nigerian hairstyles, as shown by photographers from two eras.…

IN THE WORK OF J.D. ’Okhai-Ojeikere (1930-2014), we see hair as storytelling. Over nearly half a century, the renowned photographer documented thousands of intricate, gravity-defying hairstyles that were the fashion in his native Nigeria after it won independence from the British Empire in 1960. Before then, hairstyles were social markers symbolizing marital status, ethnic origins, socioeconomic class. With Nigerian independence, they took on political meaning too. Ojeikere’s work seems to have had a threefold purpose. He captured the resurgence of indigenous hairstyles that had fallen from favor under colonial powers. He documented hairstyle innovations as citizens reestablished their identity. And after a time, his approach became more archival, to preserve the memory of the styles in the face of globalization. Photographer Medina Sage Dugger, a California native based in Lagos, launched her project…

ILLUMINATING THE MYSTERIES-AND WONDERS-ALL AROUND US EVERY DAY SIX MINUTES. THAT’S HOW LONG it took for Martin Shkreli to go from being just another CEO of a drug company to one of the most hated men in America. When Shkreli’s company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, bought the rights to the antiparasitic drug Daraprim in 2015, Turing promptly hiked the price from $13.50 a pill to a whopping $750—even though it costs only pennies to make. In a six-minute interview with CNBC, Shkreli justified the move by claiming his company would use the profits to invent new drugs. That’s when his smug non-apology, and his name, went viral. Now, four years after Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud, America still loves to hate the “pharma bro.” But for all the attention Shkreli gets, he’s just…

“. .. the worst examples of profiteering and dysfunction in health care.” That’s what the Lown Institute seeks for the sardonic awards it has bestowed since 2017. Not surprisingly, the 2020 “winners’” actions were all related to the COVID-19 pandemic. 1. Federal personal protective equipment task force gives lifesaving supplies to private companies to distribute, causing bidding wars and delays. 2. Drug company takes nearly a billion dollars in taxpayer funding to develop its COVID-19 vaccine, then sets highest price of any vaccinemaker. 3. Hospitals with extra beds refuse to take uninsured patients from neighboring hospitals that are overrun. 4. Nursing homes fail to protect vulnerable Americans from COVID-19. 5. Pharma firms compete for profit instead of cooperating on COVID-19. 6. Hospital CEO pens op-ed justifying high vaccine prices; neglects to disclose $487,500 received in stock…

Scientists studying deep-sea life off the New Zealand coast identified three species of sharks that are bioluminescent—that is, they glow in the dark. These species—the blackbelly lanternshark, southern lanternshark, and kitefin shark (right)—produce a soft blue-green light using specialized cells in their skin. The kitefin shark, at nearly six feet long, is one of Earth’s largest animals capable of emitting light. The find is a reminder of “how much we still have to discover and understand about the deep ocean and its inhabitants,” says biologist Diva Amon, a National Geographic emerging explorer. More research is needed on how common bioluminescence is among deep-sea sharks, and how they employ it. Scientists suspect that the sharks, by making their bellies glow, can hide their silhouette from predators lurking in deeper, darker waters—a trick…