05.

2019

THE HOT ZONE P R E M I E R E S M O N D AY, M AY 2 7,

AT 9/ 8 C , O N N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Leonardo A RENAISSANCE
MAN FOR THE
21ST CENTURY
 FURTHER M AY 2 0 1 9

C O N T E N T S On the Cover
The 500th anniversary of
Leonardo da Vinci’s death
is bringing renewed atten-
tion to his notebooks—and
the artistry, curiosity, and
genius they contain.
ILLUSTRATION: RICCARDO VECCHIO
IMPRINTS

17
P R O O F E M B A R K E X P L O R E

THE BIG IDEA

The Future of
Dying in Style
We memorialize
the dead with the
tools of our times.
BY G L E N N M C D O N A L D

34
8
BASIC INSTINCTS

Toads’ Sex Life

Hinges on Finding
the Perfect Pool
Their choosiness
may endanger them.
BY PAT R I C I A E DMO N D S

THROUGH THE LENS

Finding Dignity
What’s Keeping in a Dirty Job
Modern Girls, Scientists From Bayakou perform
Ancient Rite Vanquishing Ebola? an essential service
A village in Spain Four reasons that the that they hide from
welcomes spring the extremely lethal virus other Haitians.
same way it has for is so hard to fight. BY A N D R E A B RU C E
centuries, by placing BY R I C H A R D P R E STO N
a few chosen girls on ALSO

flowery pedestals. ALSO

Electric Spiders
P H OTO G R A P H S BY Astronaut Brains A Farrier’s Tools
DA N I E L O C H OA D E O L Z A China’s Science Boom Melting Mount Rainier
F E AT U R E S Sea of Plastic Leonardo’s A New Day in
Plastic waste washes Enduring Brilliance Mozambique
into the oceans at an Five hundred years Gorongosa National
average rate of about after his death, Leo- Park recovers from war.
nine million tons a year. nardo da Vinci’s stun- B Y D AV I D Q U A M M E N
Much of it eventually ning creativity and P H OTO G RA P H S BY
breaks down into foresight in science, C H A R L I E H A M I LTO N JA M E S
barely visible bits— the arts, and engineer- ...................................... P. 94
microplastics, which ing continue to amaze
are so abundant that us—and to inform mod- Smokejumpers
larval fish are eating ern work in the fields These elite crews para-
them in their first he studied so long ago. chute into forests to
days of life. BY CLAUDIA KALB keep small fires from
B Y L A U R A PA R K E R P H OTO G RA P H S BY becoming major ones.
P H OTO G RA P H S BY PA O L O W O O D S A N D BY MARK JENKINS
D AV I D L I I T T S C H WA G E R GA B R I E L E GA L I M B E RT I P H OTO G RA P H S BY
...................................... P. 42 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 56 M A R K T H I E S S E N . . . . . . P. 120
M AY | W H AT ’ S C OM I N G

TELEVISION

This Is Not Your High

School’s Science Fair
Each year 1,700 teen
scientists are invited to
compete in the Inter-
national Science and
Engineering Fair, where
more than four million
dollars in scholarships
and awards are at stake.
Go inside the event
with the documentary
Science Fair, airing
on May 9 at 8/7c on
National Geographic.

BOOKS

The Ideal Book for

a WWII History Buff
Full of rare photos,
covert documents,
and maps—vintage
and new—National
Geographic’s Atlas of
World War II is an infor-
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guide to the battles
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world. Available where
books are sold and at
NAT
Scientists Confront a shopng.com/books.
Lethal Foe in The Hot Zone
GEO

TV

Richard Preston’s best-selling book The Hot Zone tells BOOKS

the story of the origins of the deadly Ebola virus in Get a Moon Rush
the central African rainforest and its arrival on U.S. Space journalist Leonard
soil in 1989. Now the book is a television miniseries David looks at tech-
in which Nancy Jaax, the heroic U.S. Army scientist nologies that allow us
to explore Earth’s only
who helped prevent the virus’s spread, is played by
natural satellite. Moon
Julianna Margulies (above, at right). The six-part Rush is available where
series will air two episodes a night starting at 9/8c, books are sold and at
on May 27, 28, and 29 on National Geographic. shopng.com/books.

Subscriptions For subscriptions or changes of address, contact Customer Service at ngmservice.com Contributions to the National Geographic Society are tax de-
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M AY | FROM THE EDITOR

PLANET OR PLASTIC? Oceans of Debris

BY SUSAN GOLDBERG P H O T O G R A P H B Y D AV I D L I I T T S C H WA G E R

of plastics in ocean water samples.

Writer Laura Parker’s reporting took her
to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration lab in Honolulu, where
oceanographer Jamison Gove and fish
biologist Jonathan Whitney study
microplastics in the slicks where larval
fish spend their first days of life.
In some of those slicks there are more
plastics in the water than fish. That
raises the odds that just hatched fish
will mistake plastic bits for food and
eat them. “The most critical moment
is that first feeding,” Whitney said. “If
they get a piece of plastic, that could be
it. A single thread in the stomach of a
larval fish is potentially a killer.”
Fish that ingest plastic and survive
raise other concerns, Parker writes:
“Flying fish appear to eat plastic espe-
cially frequently. Besides serving as
prey for larger fish, including sharks,
flying fish are primary prey for 95 per-
cent of Hawaiian seabirds. Are birds
ingesting plastic with their flying fish,
and is that affecting them? For every
question the researchers answer, Gove
says, 10 new ones come up.”
THERE’S THE PLASTIC waste we can Most of us won’t see microplastics’
see—bottles, bags, discarded fishing harm at the level that scientists do. But
nets, and all manner of other objects with about nine million tons of visible
littering shorelines and bobbing in plastic waste washing into oceans each
oceans. And then there’s the plastic year, we see clearly how it’s hurting tur-
waste we can’t see: microplastics, tles, seabirds, whales, and many other
whittled by sun, wind, and waves into species. Isn’t that reason enough to join
bits so small that some are visible only the global effort to reduce plastic waste?
One net off the
coast of Hawaii col- under a microscope. Scientists are just So far in our #PlanetOrPlastic initia-
lected 2,459 plastic beginning to understand the impact tive, more than 150,000 people have
particles—most the these particles are having on fish, the pledged to use nearly 200 million
size of a grain of food chain, and ultimately, us. fewer single-use plastic items. I’d call
sand. The net also For this month’s story about micro- that a good start. j
scooped up a
plastics—part of National Geographic’s
bottle cap (bottom
#PlanetOrPlastic initiative to reduce Learn more about plastic waste
right) and a wad
plastic waste—photographer David and take the pledge to reduce it
of degraded fishing
at natgeo.com/plasticpledge.
net (top right). Liittschwager documented the ubiquity
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OUTLET FOR
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RECHARGE.
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 P R O O F

P H OTO G RA P H S BY DANIEL OCHOA DE OLZA

N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C L O O K I N G AT T H E E A RT H F R O M E V E RY P O S S I B L E A N G L E

8 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
MODERN GIRLS, ANCIENT RITE
In May a village in Spain welcomes spring the way it has for centuries, by featuring girls on altars.
VO L . 2 3 5 N O. 5

A young girl does her

part to celebrate the
festival of La Maya,
which marks the arrival
of spring in Colmenar
Viejo, Spain.

M AY 2 0 1 9 9
P R O O F

La Maya, a tradition in central Spain for many years, has only a few written rules. Altars must be decorated
with fresh flowers, and the young centerpieces must sit perfectly still for the two-hour observance.

10 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
Aspiring Mayas might have to wait a long time before they sit on an altar. Only about five are chosen
each year. Festival officials keep a running list of local girls who may be eligible in the future.

M AY 2 0 1 9 11
P R O O F

12 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
Crowds pass through
the village’s streets for
a glimpse of each altar.
After the festival, the
Mayas come down and
attend evening Mass
with the community.

M AY 2 0 1 9 13
P R O O F

THE BACKSTORY
A F E W LU C KY G I R L S I N A S PA N I S H V I L L AG E B E C OM E SYM B O L S
OF SPRING IN FLOWER FRAMES.

W H AT M A K E S A T R A D I T I O N —and why an armored, devil-like character with

do people keep traditions alive? You turnips. And there’s the famous festival
might ask any of the children chosen of San Fermín in Pamplona, Ochoa de
to be Las Mayas in Colmenar Viejo, a Olza’s hometown—the running of the
village in Spain. Each spring, a few girls bulls. “It’s stupid and it’s dangerous,
typically between the ages of seven and but it’s our tradition,” he says, admit-
11 sit in elaborate altars decorated with ting that he’s run nine times.
fresh flowers to mark the new season. The Maya girls create the composi-
As crowds pass by for two hours, the tions in which they star, so the portraits
girls are to sit perfectly still, their facial aren’t photographically daring, says
expressions a sign of how seriously Ochoa de Olza. But they’re revelatory in
they take their roles. Families are hon- the sense that, even in one’s own coun-
ored if their daughter is selected from try, there are always new customs to
the dozens of young girls who apply to discover—practices with vibrancy and
participate in this local tradition with beauty, even if they may be fleeting.
ancient roots. But taking part means The magic of being a Maya tends to
weeks of feverish activity preparing fade as the girls grow beyond child-
the elaborate altars and dresses. hood, says Ochoa de Olza. As teenagers,
Photographer Daniel Ochoa de Olza onetime Mayas tend to laugh off their
has spent his career documenting past participation, projecting cool by
Spanish traditions, from the serious disavowing their youthful enthusi-
to the sublime. At each, he wonders asm. And yet, as former Mayas have
why they continue. He recalls a festival daughters of their own, the tradition
in Piornal, Spain, where villagers pelt continues. — DA N I E L S TO N E

For one day, Mayas are the center of attention in their village. Passersby marvel at each altar.

14 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
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 IN THIS SECTION

Ebola’s Staying Power

E M B A R K Zero Gravity Brains

Secret Orchards
Science in China

T H E D I S C O V E R I E S O F T O D AY T H AT W I L L D E F I N E T H E W O R L D O F T O M O R R O W

N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C VO L . 2 34 N O. 5

The Future of
Dying in Style
WE MEMORIALIZE THE DEAD WITH THE TOOLS OF OUR TIMES. IN THE
H I G H - T E C H 2 1 S T C E N T U R Y, T H E R E A R E S O M E P R E T T Y O D D O P T I O N S .

T
BY GLENN MCDONALD

have devised elabo-

T H RO U G H O U T H I S TO RY, P E O P L E
rate ways to memorialize the dead: the pyramids of
Egypt, Europe’s Gothic mausoleums, the Taj Mahal
in India. What some mourners consider meaningful,
others would call macabre. In 19th-century Europe
and America, “death photography” produced portraits
of the departed in lifelike poses; in the Tibetan Bud-
dhist rite known as sky burial or bya gtor (alms for the
birds), earthly remains are set out to feed vultures.
Notions about honoring the dead are shaped by
many factors—culture, tradition, geography, reli-
gion. But the notion is one thing, and the execution
is another. In every era, it’s the available technology
that determines our range of memorial options.
The intersections of death and technology have
long been busy crossroads. In these early years
of the 21st century, they’re getting really interest-
ing. Because I write about science and technology
for a living, I’ve lingered at these intersections,
E M B A R K | THE BIG IDEA

USING HIGH-TECH MACHINES,

ENGINEERS CAN TRANSFORM
THE CARBON FROM HUMAN ASHES
INTO DIAMOND GEMS THAT ARE
PHYSICALLY AND CHEMICALLY
IDENTICAL TO NAT URAL DIAMONDS.

observing the innovations: digital memorials on

social media, eco-friendly green burial options, even
interactive tombstones.
Among the tech-savvy options for modern dece-
dents, one stands out because it’s so genuinely weird.
Thanks to startling advances in industrial engineering,
we can now synthetically re-create colossal geological
forces to shape our ultimate destiny on this planet. It’s
gratuitous and extreme and wonderful: We can turn
our mortal remains into diamonds. Real diamonds.
Ashes to Ashes:
Other Options
now offer services
S E V E R A L C O M PA N I E S WO R L DW I D E
to families that have the notion, and the resources, Memorial diamonds (right) are just
to memorialize their loved ones in arguably the most one of many contemporary options
permanent way possible. The Swiss company Algor- for processing cremation ashes.
danza is one of them.
Using high-tech heavy-industry machines, engi- Long live rock! A British company
neers can transform the carbon from human ashes will press your loved one’s ashes
into diamond gems that are physically and chem- into a custom-made vinyl record.
ically identical to natural diamonds. The geologic Puns provided at no extra cost:
process that otherwise takes hundreds of millions The company’s name is And Vinyly
of years can now be managed in weeks. (say it aloud).
It works like this: After the cremation, the bereaved
family ships one pound of ashes to Algordanza’s labo- Under the sea: Ocean lovers may
ratory in Switzerland. Scientists process the ashes to want to make their afterlife plans
extract the pure carbon elements and remove other with a Florida company that incor-
impurities. (The remaining ashes are shipped back.) porates cremains into artificial reefs
From there, Algordanza uses the same tools Mother and marine habitats.
Nature uses to make diamonds: heat and pressure.
In the next step, the carbon ashes are converted Space oddity: A Houston-based
into graphite, a stable allotrope of carbon in which business has partnered with com-
the atoms are packed into tight, flat sheets. Then mercial spaceflight companies to
the carbon settles down for a long bake inside Algor- send ashes into orbit, to the moon,
danza’s high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) or even into deep space. Heads
machines. Temperatures rise as high as about 2,400 up, though: The prices are, yes,
degrees Fahrenheit. For comparison, consider that astronomical.
cast iron melts at about 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Then there’s the pressure. Within the HPHT
machine, a system of cubic presses exerts a force
of 870,000 pounds per square inch on the graphite,
gradually changing the molecular structure and
transforming the carbon into pure diamond.
To be clear, these diamonds aren’t just similar to a
natural diamond; they are identical down to the atomic C H R I S T I N A M A R T O I A WA S 1 8 when
level. The gem that emerges can be kept in its rough her father died. Ten years later, she
state or cut and polished by Algordanza’s specialists. and her mother had his ashes trans-
The entire operation—from initial receipt of ashes formed into this half-carat diamond.
“Every time I show someone my
to final delivery of the diamond—typically takes five
memorial diamond, I get to talk
to eight months. The company processes approxi- about my dad,” says Martoia, the U.S.
mately 1,000 memorial diamonds a year and has representative of Algordanza, the
representatives in 34 countries. company that makes the diamonds.

18 N A T I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C PHOTO: DAN WINTERS

M AY 2 0 1 9 19
E M B A R K | THE BIG IDEA

Algordanza offers packages with prices starting at Dead in the Twenty-First Century. She says that as a
about $3,000, says Christina Martoia, its U.S. repre- mourning custom, memorial diamonds and smart
sentative. About that pricing—perhaps it’s impolite urns are really just modern iterations of much older
to ask, but we all want to know, right? cultural traditions. Both are associated with the
“The largest Algordanza memorial diamond pro- psychological concept of continuing bonds.
duced to date was a 1.76-carat brilliant cut,” Martoia The idea is that keeping the decedent in one’s life,
says. “The price was $38,000.” in some form, is healthier than the detachment of, for
instance, putting Dad six feet under. The diamond
WHILE THE HARD SCIENCE of memorial diamonds is or the urn reflects “the need for continued rituals
fascinating—a billion years in a matter of weeks!— that incorporate and acknowledge the role of the
the price may be out of reach for us budget-minded loss of the deceased person,” Cann says. “It allows
afterlife planners. Death is already mandatory and the living to grieve without being forced to ‘move
largely unpleasant. Does it have to be expensive too? on’ or forget the dead.”
Happily, another company has stepped into this If you’re interested in going down this particular
odd little marketplace. Headquartered in Barcelona, rabbit hole, Cann suggests looking into the strange
the Spanish start-up Bios Urn offers a much more beauty of Victorian mourning jewelry. “The bereaved
affordable high-tech memorial option. would take a lock of the decedent’s hair and turn
By way of a smartphone app and a kind of interac- it into wearable and functional jewelry,” she says.
tive funeral urn, the Bios system lets grieving families “Often the hair was woven into an intricate design
turn their departed loved one into an indoor tree for and turned into a ring, a brooch, or a pin. Only the
their home. A capsule of cremains is bedded in a large bereaved knew the origins of the hair.”
pot, in which a seedling is planted. As the seedling Cann says such jewelry is meant to serve the same
grows, it sends roots into the cremains, and the Bios function as today’s diamond or interactive urn—or
Incube automatically waters and cares for the memo- yesteryear’s death photography, for that matter. It’s
rial sapling. Built-in sensors monitor temperature, about people turning to the technology of their era
humidity, and soil conditions. Information beamed to navigate death and dying. The Romans did it. The
to the smartphone allows the family to nurture the Persians did it. The Maya did it. We’re doing it with
sapling as it grows into a tree. delicate microchips and massive machines. The
The company offers two versions. One provides technologies change, but the basic human experi-
the basic biodegradable urn and planter for $145. The ence remains.
more expensive version, incorporating the sensors Since I have some time (I hope), I plan to postpone
and the app, is around $700. I could swing that, and any decisions until I’ve surveyed all my 21st-century
I kind of like the idea of making my kids take care of options. Right now I’m leaning toward the tree. It’s
me through my oaken golden years. more cheerful, and I’ve always admired the sedentary
style of flora as a lifestyle choice.
CANDI K. CANN is one of the world’s leading experts Besides, that diamond thing seems like a lot
on modern mourning. She teaches comparative of pressure. j
religion at Baylor University in Texas and is the Glenn McDonald writes about science, technology, and culture
author of the book Virtual Afterlives: Grieving the from his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Katie Thornton has scarce land. “Without

been thinking quite a planning, the stories
bit about death. For buried at cemeteries
the past few years, the could be lost forever,”
cemetery historian has Thornton says—but
examined epitaphs and technology may offer
researched the “resi- a solution. Thornton
dents” buried at Lake- is launching a pod-
wood Cemetery in her cast, Death in the Dig-
hometown of Minne- ital Age, to explore
apolis, with the goal how global urbaniza-
of preserving stories tion and the rise of

Will bytes replace

for posterity. “A lot is digital documentation
at stake right now,” are changing conven-
says the Fulbright- tions for memorializing

gravestones?
National Geographic the dead, especially in
digital storytelling fel- England and Singapore.
low. Around the world, Thornton discusses her
people are questioning work on National Geo-
A H I STO R I A N A S KS H OW W E ’ L L whether cemeteries graphic’s Open Explorer
M A R K D E AT H A N D M E M O R I A L I Z E are a sustainable use of platform. — A N N I E R O T H
LOV E D O N E S I N A D I G I TA L F U T U R E . Learn more at openexplorer.nationalgeographic.com.

PHOTO: GARY BURKS, CITY OF LONDON CEMETERY AND CREMATORIUM

E M B A R K

Why is Ebola so
hard to fight?

FOUR REASONS SCIENTISTS 1 . T H E VA C C I N E ’S

REQUIREMENTS

HAVEN’T YET STOPPED EBOLA

Ebola vaccine has to be kept
cold. But in tropical areas
where little refrigeration is
available, the vaccine can
quickly become useless. And
we don’t yet have a dried
or otherwise nonperishable
BY RICHARD PRESTON form of the vaccine.

2. CONSTRAINTS AND
COSTS OF NEW DRUGS
IN THE 25 YEARS since my book The Hot Zone There are experimental,
traced the emergence of extremely lethal viruses, one genetically engineered drugs
for Ebola, but it’s not yet clear
of them has proved to be the most destructive: Ebola. At if they’ll be broadly effective,
this writing, Ebola has killed hundreds in the Democratic and affordable enough that
they’ll be feasible for mass
Republic of the Congo, in the second largest outbreak treatment of Ebola victims.
since the virus was identified in 1976. The largest—
3 . T H E FA I L U R E O F
from 2014 to 2016 in three West African nations— A T E C H N I Q U E T H AT
resulted in almost 30,000 cases, nearly half of them S T O P P E D PA S T V I RU S E S
fatal. Fierce international efforts helped quell Ebola that In 1966, during a large
outbreak of smallpox virus,
time, but there are no assurances that the virus (below) vaccinators tried a technique
called ring vaccination with
has ended its assaults on the human species. Ebola is great success: They vacci-
hard to arrest for many complicated reasons (right). But nated people in a ring around
the infected person. This
scientists keep trying—and what they learn will equip trapped the virus inside a
us to face this virus, and possibly worse, in the future. wall of immune people and
stopped it from spreading.
But attempts to use the
technique with Ebola have
run into problems. Ring
vaccination requires a stable
government or other author-
ity maintaining civil order.
The Ebola areas in the Demo-
cratic Republic of the Congo
are controlled by violent mili-
tias that won’t let vaccinators
do their work.

4. GAPS IN SCIENTISTS’
U N D E R S TA N D I N G O F
HOW EBOLA KILLS
Ebola remains mysterious.
It is unbelievably aggressive
in the human body, but scien-
tists still don’t understand all
the virus’s mechanisms, and
they aren’t sure exactly how
Ebola kills a human being.
The great military strate-
gist Sun Tzu said, “Know the
enemy.” We’re still getting to
know Ebola. When we finally
do, we’ll know the paths to
defeat it. — R P

Watch The Hot Zone

Richard Preston’s international
best seller—inspired by the
true story of Ebola’s origins
and first arrival on U.S. soil in
1989—is now a global mini-
series. Two episodes of The
Hot Zone will air each night on
May 27, 28, and 29, starting at
9/8c, on National Geographic.

PHOTO: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
 H I S F U T U R E C A N B E YO U R L E GAC Y

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E M B A R K | BREAKTHROUGHS

Bee Backpacks
Researchers have created sensors
small enough for bumblebees to
D I S PAT C H E S wear and still fly. While the bees
buzz around, the devices col-
FROM THE FRONT LINES lect data such as humidity and
OF SCIENCE temperature, which can be used
A N D I N N O VA T I O N to better understand plant and
insect biology—and benefit
agriculture. — D O U G L A S M A I N

FOOD

Secret
Gardens
California gold
rush–era mining
sites hold hidden
treasure: rare
heirloom fruits and
nuts. Scientists
hope to learn from
the mountain
orchards, which
have survived
drought, diseases,
and pests without
human help for
more than 150
years. “They’re
growing in an
environment that
may be more like
environments we’re
SPACE
going to have in
the future…hotter,
BRAINS
O U R F L E S H LY F O R M S E VO LV E D
to work within the tug of gravity. drier,” says Charlie
Without it, the clockwork of bodily Brummer, director
IN SPACE functions doesn’t run smoothly.
One recent study in the New England
of UC Davis’s Plant
Breeding Center.
HUMAN BODIES
Journal of Medicine raises concern for
— M A RY N M C K E N N A
W E R E B U I LT F O R a particularly vital organ: the brain.
G R AV I T Y. W E ’ R E By scanning 10 cosmonauts’ crani-
S TA R T I N G T O ums before and after six months in
U N D E R S TA N D H O W space, scientists found that their gray
LIVING WITHOUT IT
matter—responsible for things like
C O U L D M E S S U S U P.
muscle control, memory, and sensory
perception—became compressed
by an increase in the cerebrospinal
fluid that cushions it. Returning to
Earth helped the gray matter mostly
bounce back but seemed to cause
shrinkage in white matter, which
connects parts of the brain. More
study is needed, but the find suggests
life among the stars may be hard on
Earthlings. — M AYA W E I - H A A S

PHOTOS (FROM TOP): MARK STONE, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON; STEVE SWANSON, NASA; LUISA DORR
oƜɡŵőȂEɱɱƜ žƜɱŵǠɡƜ ƜʸǠɱǗƜ˛ɡɱDžȂŵőȂǗőǠɡžőɡƜŵɡő Ɖ
ʴƜƜƉő ƉőʗǗƜ ǠžőƜƉŵˁãˁőȂ&ő ǠždőɡƉƜ ɱƜʸ

HEALTHY HAIR
by HERBAL ESSENCES
E M B A R K | DATA S H E E T

EARTH &

CHINA’S LIFE SCIENCES

36%

SCIENTIFIC PAPERS BY FIELD

PHYSICAL SCIENCES
34%
CHEMISTRY ENVIRONMENT
21% 10%

SCIENCE
BOOM
BY MANUEL CANALES
& SEAN MCNAUGHTON

S C I E N C E I S getting a boost in
China. Research funding is sec-
ond only to that of the United UNITED STATES CHINA GERMANY FRANCE U.K. JAPAN SWITZ.
States, and the largesse is bear- 32% 24% 16% 12% 7 6 3
ing fruit: The number of papers
that Chinese scientists pub-
lished in major journals rose
BY COUNTRY
17 percent from 2016 to 2018.

REVERSING THE
BRAIN DRAIN
In 2013 nine out of 10 Chi-
nese students were still
in the U.S. five years after
earning Ph.D.’s. In 2017
more than 480,000 schol-
ars in advanced studies
abroad returned to China.
STANFORD UNIVERSITY

TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
MAX PLANCK SOCIETY

NANJING UNIVERSITY
CHINESE ACADEMY

PEKING UNIVERSITY

KYOTO UNIVERSITY
U OF CAMBRIDGE

U OF MICHIGAN
ASSOCIATION†

UC SAN DIEGO
U OF OXFORD
OF SCIENCES

UC BERKELEY

ETH ZURICH‡
HELMHOLTZ

U OF TOKYO
CNRS*

UCLA
MIT

NIH

1 4% 12 % 10% 7 6 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 2

research institution is
backed by the Chinese TOP 20 INSTITUTIONS
government. The Chinese
Academy of Sciences con-
sists of 60,000 scientists in
114 institutions and main-
tains most of the country’s
big science facilities.

* FRENCH NATIONAL CENTER

FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
† HELMHOLTZ ASSOCIATION OF
GERMAN RESEARCH CENTERS
‡ SWISS FEDERAL INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY ZURICH
§ NONGOVERNMENTAL
ORGANIZATION/NONPROFIT
INSTITUTION TYPE
ORGANIZATION
PERCENTAGES MAY NOT ADD
UP TO 100 DUE TO ROUNDING. A C A D E MI C 6 2 % G OV E RNM EN T 28% NG O/N PO § 1 0%

SOURCES: NATURE INDEX; R&D MAGAZINE; ICEF MONITOR

 OUR TRIPS ARE
THE POLAR OPPOSITE
O F O R D I N A RY

Join us for a National Geographic expedition to the Arctic or Antarctica.

Paddle a kayak past towering icebergs, wander among penguins, or bask in the
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N AT G E O E X P E D I T I O N S . C O M / T R AV E L 1 - 8 8 8 -2 4 9 -7 2 3 7
 IN THIS SECTION

A Farrier’s Tools
E X P L O R E Melting Mount Rainier
Toads’ Pool Sex
Dignity in a Dirty Job

I L L U M I N AT I N G T H E M Y S T E R I E S — A N D W O N D E R S — A L L A R O U N D U S E V E R Y D AY

N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C VO L . 2 3 5 N O. 5

UPPER ATMOSPHERE

SOARING SPIDERS by the spiders that landed on

C H A R L E S DA RW I N WA S FA S C I N AT E D
(POSITIVE CHARGE)

the H.M.S. Beagle nearly two centuries ago. Spiders don’t have
wings, yet they alighted on his ship 60 miles offshore. Recent
research on flying spider species, however, provides some new Global circuitry
clues as to how the Earth’s electric field might help them pull off In fair weather the atmosphere
this aerial feat. They take to the skies in a process called ballooning, holds a positive charge, while
in which they position their bodies to catch air, spinning out silk Earth’s surface is negative. The
charges attract one another. The
that uses wind—and the electric field—to create lift. They may fly electric field is strongest at high,
in search of better locations but have little control once airborne. pointy areas—such as flower tips.

Fine hairs called trichobothria Silk glands produce multiple Silk may intrinsically carry
can sense and react to wind types of silk, released from a charge or acquire it from
and electrical conditions. pairs of spinnerets. friction or from the air.

Trichobothrium
hair Posterior
spinnerets Balloon
silks Frictional
charge
Other Middle
hairs
Anterior Anchor
silk Intrinsic Balloon silks
charge Acquired made of 70-140
charge nanofibers

Spinnerets
Silk glands

Anchor silk
The spider raises its front secured by
legs to sense conditions. rear leg

1
Ghost spider
(continental
species)

On tiptoe
The spider climbs to a high point,
secures itself with an anchor silk, and
tests conditions with its front legs.
Then it “tiptoes” on its back legs,
raises its abdomen, and releases silk.

EARTH SURFACE
(NEGATIVE CHARGE)

28 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 Juan Fernández
SOUTH
AMERICA Archipelago CASTAWAYS IN THE SKIES
415 MILES Only a fraction of spider species fly, but
MAP AREA Santiago
those that do are great colonizers. Some
AREA ENLARGED
BELOW may fly while carrying eggs to spread their
CHILE populations, but what drives them to fly
San Juan
Bautista is unknown. The ghost spiders of Robinson
Sightings of PACIFIC Crusoe Island flew from mainland Chile
new ghost OCEAN
two million years ago and have since
spider species
thrived and diverged into new species.
0 mi 2
Robinson
0 km 2 Crusoe Island DECODER BY DAISY CHUNG

HORIZONTAL WIND
(Spiders balloon only when
wind is less than 10 ft a sec.)

ELECTROSTATIC- WIND-
INDUCED INDUCED
LIFT LIFT

Ballooning ghost
spider, actual size

nt
ce
Mutual ELECTROSTATIC VERTICAL

as
repulsion FORCE WIND UPDRAFT s)

at
ft

nd
i

6
-1

w
k
10 ea
is
lk (

w
Si ht
lf ig
in
ft
3
-3
26

A Electric drivers B Wind updraft

Charged silk fibers splay out Slower winds that are closer Silk for ballooning is so fine
instead of tangling due to to the Earth’s surface react to that even the lightest breeze
repulsion, another sign that higher, faster winds, creating can easily keep it aloft.
upward lift could be aided vortices in the air that spiders
by the Earth’s electric field. can ride to gain altitude.

Robinson Crusoe
Island, Chile

The spider releases its anchor

line and stretches its legs to
either balance or control speed.

RE
SHO
OFF

2 3
ES
MIL
415

Setting sail Risky journey

With force gained from the electric field A Spiders can fly up to 2.8 miles high
and the updraft of gentle wind B , and for thousands of miles without
the spider rises into the air and “balloons,” food or water, but many don’t survive
breaking its anchor line and creating their treacherous journeys. Most
a fanlike parachute of silk fibers. flights, however, are short.

CLARE TRAINOR, NGM STAFF (MAP); MESA SCHUMACHER. SOURCES: MOONSUNG CHO, TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN; ERICA L. MORLEY, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL;
GUSTAVO HORMIGA, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY; ROBERT B. SUTER, VASSAR COLLEGE, MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION 107 (2017)
E X P L O R E | TOOL KIT

A FITTING PROFESSION
30 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 6
1. Hoof capsule
A technical term for the
hoof. The hoof capsule
10
shown here (with shoe
attached) belongs to
a horse named Tonto.
2. Farrier box
This holds all the tools
needed to fit and remove
horseshoes, as well as
to “balance,” or trim,
the hoof so the animal’s
foot is level.
3. Hoof pull-off
“Farriers are not noted
9
7 for using fancy names,”
says Reynolds. But they
8 use this steel tool to pull
a horseshoe off a hoof.
4. Metal hoof rasp
Similar to a nail file, a
hoof rasp scrapes material
from the hoof and can
be coarse or fine.
5. Leather chaps
Chaps protect a farri-
er’s legs from puncture
wounds and other injuries.
6. Forging hammer
Essential to a farrier’s
toolbox, this hammer is
used for fashioning shoes.
7. Pinch vise
A vise can be helpful
for holding tools in
place while they’re
being sharpened.
8. Hoof tester
To isolate the source of
an injured animal’s pain
so it can be treated, a
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK THIESSEN farrier checks the foot
for tenderness.
9. Cross peen hammer
W H E N I T C O M E S TO H O R S E S H O E S , one size—or shape—hardly fits The bladelike shape helps
all. There are thousands of styles worldwide, and Arvin Reynolds is a farrier make the “clip,”
familiar with many of them. Reynolds is a farrier, or “horseshoe-er,” a stabilizing feature on
as he sometimes puts it. Based in Washington, D.C., he cares for hun- some horseshoes.
dreds of equine feet, including those belonging to the horses of the 10. Anvil
Farriers and blacksmiths
United States Park Police. Checkups are typically every six weeks,
shape metal on anvils.
says Reynolds, and not because the animals get sick frequently or Reynolds brings his,
need new shoes. Rather, hooves, like human toenails, grow con- which weighs 101 pounds,
tinually and require regular trimming. — C AT H E R I N E Z U C K E R M A N on all his rounds.

U.S. PARK POLICE, HORSE MOUNTED UNIT TRAINING BARN, WASHINGTON, D.C. M AY 2 0 1 9 31
“The more we understand epilepsy the closer we get to wiping it out.”

Loretta / Epilepsy Patient Henrik / Epilepsy Researcher

How far have we come with epilepsy research? Scientists are uncovering more about
the nervous system at the molecular and genetic levels, driving innovative treatments
for several neurological disorders. And with every new treatment we discover,
we’re that much closer to the cure. This is the future of medicine. For all of us.
Innovation.org
 PARTNER CONTENT FOR PhRMA

PERSONALIZING
EPILEPSY
TREATMENT
Biopharmaceutical researchers
are working to create a future
where patients get the right
medicines the first time.

E pilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological

conditions in the United States, affecting some 3.4 million
people. Treating epilepsy, however, requires an innovative
approach since the types, severity, and frequency of
epilepsy’s characteristic seizures vary from person to
person. In some studies, fewer than half of newly diagnosed
epilepsy patients responded well to the first medicine they
were prescribed, and many patients spend years cycling
through therapeutic options before arriving at what
works. In still other patients, multiple treatments fail
because the epilepsy is drug resistant.

Georgia-based biopharmaceutical researcher Edward

Han-Burgess and his team are working to take the mystery out
of managing epilepsy by developing targeted treatments.
Known as personalized, or sometimes precision, medicine,
this emerging scientific field looks at how a person’s genetic
code and health history affect disease pathology, and uses
mathematical computer modeling to identify patterns in
massive amounts of epilepsy data. Combining the two “She had her first
techniques promises to allow researchers to one day predict seizure in a grocery
the most appropriate treatment for each individual store with her daughter,”
epilepsy patient—the first time. Han-Burgess explains.
“It took her two and
The science is leading edge, but to Han-Burgess and his
a half years to find
fellow biopharmaceutical researchers, the mission is
personal. Prominently featured in the team’s lab is a poster an epileptologist, and
of a local woman with epilepsy whose own struggle to then another two and
control her seizures serves as a constant source of inspiration. a half years to find the
“She had her first seizure in a grocery store with her daughter,” right treatment that
Han-Burgess explains. “It took her two and a half years to worked for her.”
find an epileptologist, and then another two and a half
years to find the right treatment that worked for her.”

For more information please visit Innovation.org

E X P L O R E | AT L A S

boasts the largest collection of

WA S H I N G T O N ’ S M O U N T R A I N I E R

MOUNT RAINIER glaciers on a single peak in the contiguous United States. But those
glaciers have lost approximately 18 percent of their volume since
1970. The most substantial thinning is occurring on south-facing

IS SHEDDING glaciers and at elevations below 6,562 feet (2,000 meters). During
extreme weather this could set the stage for massive floods and
debris flows in the park and surrounding areas.

ITS GLACIERS B Y I R E N E B E R M A N - VA P O R I S A N D E R I C K N I G H T

Thinning Ice
Ca
rb By examining changes in elevation
Range

on
over time, scientists can determine
ice loss or gains. Heavy snowfall
WA S H I N G T O N
Mount on Rainier continues to feed the
e

Rainier
Cascad

glaciers, but across the mountain,

glaciers are declining.
-351 feet +277 feet
Glacier surface elevation
change, 1970–2016

1970 glacier extent

1924 glacier extent

ft
, 5 62 m
6 00
2, 0
Carb
Ru

hite
sse

r
on

Glacie

W
ll G
l.

Gla

So
cie

North
rop

ut Mowich Glac l.
r

h ier
nth

M G
ow
r
Inte
Wi

ic
Cr.
h

gpan
yin
Edm
un d Fr
s Gl. er
ci
la
G
Sout
hM s
ow Mount Rainier on
i ch 14,410 ft m
Gl . 4,392 m Em Fryingpan Glacier
cier
Gla
p
allu
Puy Ingr Wh
ah itm
cier am
Gla
an

G
ma Co la
Gl

ho wl ci
Ta it
.
er
Nisquall

l.
z

G l.
r
sG

acie
a

G
m

la
ces
ho

cie
Wilso
Gl

r
y
Suc
Ta

tz
h
ut

n Gl .
u
Ka
So

Glacier

6,56
2 ft
2,00
0m

Climate Change Shrinking Cascades

Sensitive to tempera- Glaciers across the
ture and precipitation, Paradise Cascade Range are
mountain glaciers retreating rapidly. One
conspicuously reflect of the snowiest places
the effects of climate on Earth, Rainier has
change. Their retreat lly lost less ice than other
q ua
i s
is a sign that the Earth’s N 0 mi 1 mountains because
climate is warming. N 0 km 1 of its high elevation.

SOURCES: DAVID SHEAN, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON; SCOTT BEASON,

PAUL KENNARD, AND JON RIEDEL, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE; USGS
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 E M B A R K | BASIC INSTINCTS

TOADS’ SEX
LIFE HINGES ON
FINDING THE
PERFECT POOL
(Anaxyrus
T H E M A L E YO S E M I T E TOA D
canorus) can mate like mad every year—
for about two weeks. Only in late spring.
And only in wet meadows, at elevations
above 4,800 feet, in California’s Sierra
Nevada. The male will wait in a pool,
trilling. A female drawn by his mat-
ing call (canorus means “melodious”)
will enter the water and submit to his
advances—if the pool suits. Toads have
precise specifications for where they’ll
breed and leave their eggs, says U.S.
Forest Service ecologist Christina Liang.
For six years Liang and colleagues
observed 143 pools across 19 mead-
ows in the toads’ range. Toads seek
pools that will support life from the

You might
be able to
ignore this ad
for oatmilk
but there's
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springtime when eggs are laid through
late summer when toadlets emerge. By
tracking which pools were and were
not occupied, researchers found differ-
ences in conditions were at times quite
small. Toads chose wider pools with
more surface area; pools with warmer
water (a mean temperature of 76.7°F
versus 71.2°F); and pools that were
deeper—by only about the diameter
of a standard pencil.
To mate, Liang says, the male
“clamps onto” the female’s back—but
“she has the final say” on where to
release eggs and may move around
with him attached until she chooses
a spot. Once she releases her eggs and
he fertilizes them, she’ll leave; he’ll
resume calling.
The Yosemite toad is considered
endangered, and its numbers are
falling. Scientists say the amphib-
ian chytrid fungus is one reason, but
climate change also may contribute
to some pools drying up before tad-
poles mature. The species “is on that
knife’s edge,” Liang says, “where these
really small changes in environmental
conditions can have potentially large
effects.” — PAT R I C I A E D M O N D S

You might
be able to
ignore this ad
for oatmilk
but there's
another one
THIS TOAD WAS PHOTOGRAPHED AT UC BERKELEY’S
MUSEUM OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY. PHOTO: JOEL SARTORE
over there.
E X P L O R E | THROUGH THE LENS

Finding Dignity
in a Dirty Job

T
BY ANDREA BRUCE

He is a bayakou, the Haitian

T H I S I S E X I L I E N C E N AT.
term for laborers who empty latrines. I took his
photo while he was cleaning out a pit toilet that
served several families in Port-au-Prince. Despite
the unpleasantness of his job, Exilien represents
a solution—a crude one—to the deadly problem
of poor sanitation.
I’d been assigned to photograph a National
Geographic story on open defecation, a subject that
didn’t disturb me too much. I’ve covered wars and
conflicts in places where sanitation is not a priority.
The difficulty, I thought, would lie in making visually
interesting images out of such a banal subject—
something so universal that everybody does it.
But following people to the bathroom, or wherever
they go, is surprisingly tough. People can’t even talk
about this most basic of human actions, let alone
discuss it in a way that brings positive change to
their communities. Yet without proper sanitation,
you can’t have clean water.
Haiti’s bayakou perfectly distill many of our issues
about defecation. People throw stones at them,
almost as if embarrassed that they need someone
like the bayakou to clean up their waste. Therefore,
many bayakou operate at night and hide what they
T H E B AYA K O U O F do—even from their families. Even so, the bayakou
P O R T -A U - P R I N C E , H A I T I , are well paid and in high demand. Port-au-Prince’s
precarious sewage system rests on their shoulders.
P E R F O R M A S E RV I C E T H AT
Finding a bayakou who would agree to be photo-
IS ESSENTIAL TO THE
graphed proved to be the most difficult part of this
H E A LT H O F T H E C I T Y. project. But after five months of trying, I connected
AND YET THEY MUST KEEP with Exilien. He was eager for me to document his
T H E I R W O R K A S E C R E T. work because he rejects the idea that his profession
is shameful. He is proud of what he does and wants
to be respected.

36 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
M AY 2 0 1 9 37
E X P L O R E | THROUGH THE LENS

Once the contents of the hole were beyond his

EXILIEN SAID HE GETS SICK reach, Exilien climbed down into it. He told me
OF TEN. BY THE END OF that he’d come across snakes and human remains
T H E N I G H T, H I S E Y E S W E R E in toilets. Snakes were his enemies, he said. Other
N E A R LY S WO L L E N S H U T. bayakou told me about encountering live wires and
suffering electric shocks.
Those are the dangers they can see. Hidden from
sight are the diseases. Cholera still kills in Haiti,
I arranged to meet Exilien and his two colleagues although treatment centers make it less deadly in the
late at night in a courtyard between several houses. city. Exilien said he gets sick often. By the end of the
My photo editor had been concerned about the night, his eyes were nearly swollen shut.
conditions so I’d packed protective gear: face masks Bayakou wash themselves very carefully after
and scarves (to block the smell) as well as rain gear a night’s work (as did I—and I threw away what I
(to protect my clothes). But when it came time to was wearing). Most work naked to avoid ruining
put it all on, I found I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want clothes. Exilien kept his on for most of that night,
to make him feel like his job was disgusting. It’s his I think because I was there. But in the end, after
profession, something only a few people know how he’d cleaned himself and changed, he had to strip
to do, and he does it well. down completely.
Most of the lights in the courtyard were out, and The owner of the toilet expressed dissatisfaction
the families were asleep. The toilet in the outhouse with how it had been cleaned. So Exilien, after remov-
hadn’t been emptied in more than a year. Exilien ing his fresh clothes, went back to do more.
began his work by reaching into the hole to scoop out Afterward, the three men loaded the sacks of sew-
the freshest layer. The stench permeated the air. His age into a cart and rolled them down to the river,
two colleagues deftly dumped the sewage into what where they dumped the bags in the water. There’s
looked like old seed sacks, tying them up perfectly a government facility that treats sewage, but you
without any leaks. They had more experience than need a truck to get there, and they don’t have one.
Exilien and had graduated from cleaning the hole. Exilien wanted people to see what he does. No one
In order to endure the smell and discomfort, the wants to be invisible. That’s what I find so powerful
three men drank and smoked throughout the night. about photography. When you take someone’s pic-
One guy would hold a cigarette so Exilien could take ture, you are telling them: Your life is important. j
a few puffs without touching the cigarette with his Andrea Bruce focuses on people living in the aftermath of
soiled hands. war. Her story on sanitation ran in the August 2017 issue.

Exilien Cenat removes human waste from a multifamily pit toilet by hand. The job pays well but it is not respected.
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Corporation, Comcast Holdings Corporation, Comcast Cable
Communications, LLC, and Comcast Cable Communications
Holdings, Inc. (collectively “Comcast”) about alleged antitrust
violations and unfair trade practices related to the rental of
“Set-Top Boxes” to Comcast’s Premium Cable subscribers. The
Settlement provides benefits to former and current Comcast
customers who file a valid Claim Form.
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania will hold a hearing to decide whether to give
final approval to the Settlement, so that the benefits can be
issued. Those included subscribers have legal rights and
options, such as submitting a claim for benefits or excluding
themselves from or objecting to the Settlement. More
information is in the Detailed Notice, which is available at
www.SetTopBoxSettlement.com.
WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?
The lawsuit claims that Comcast engaged in various anti-
competitive activities and unfair trade practices related to
the rental of Set-Top Boxes to Comcast’s Premium Cable
subscribers. The claims asserted in the lawsuit can be found
in the Fourth Amended Consolidated Class Action Complaint,
available at www.SetTopBoxSettlement.com. Comcast denies

THE CHALLENGE
all of the claims and allegations in the lawsuit and says it did
nothing wrong.
WHO IS INCLUDED?
The Court decided that the Class includes all persons who:
(a) resided within the states of California, Washington, or West
Virginia during the Class Period or have opted out of Comcast’s
IS CLEAR
arbitration clause as recorded within the arbitration clause
opt-out list kept at Comcast’s offices; and (b) paid Comcast a
rental fee for a Set-Top Box at any time during the Class Period. More than nine million tons of
The Class Period is from January 1, 2005 to September 5, 2018.
If you are unsure whether you opted out of Comcast’s plastic waste end up in our ocean
arbitration clause, then you may call 1-888-748-8055 or email
[email protected] to determine whether you are each year and without interventions,
recorded as an arbitration clause opt-out within the arbitration
clause opt-out list kept at Comcast’s offices.
this number is expected to almost
WHAT DOES THE SETTLEMENT PROVIDE?
Subscribers who are Settlement Class Members and submit
a valid Claim Form can receive between $10.00 and $15.00
double by 2025.
payable by check. In lieu of that cash payment, Current
Subscribers who are Settlement Class Members and submit a
Claim Form have the option of receiving credits redeemable
for a variety of Comcast services. Benefit options may vary
The Ocean Plastic Innovation
depending on the period of time you rented a Set-Top Box
and how many Set-Top Boxes you rented. If more than $15.5 Challenge asks problem solvers
million worth of claims are submitted by eligible claimants,
the benefits will be distributed on a pro rata basis. If less around the globe to develop novel
than $15.5 million worth of claims are submitted by eligible
claimants, Comcast is entitled to retain the balance. Details
on all of the Settlement benefits are included in the Detailed solutions to tackle the world’s
Notice and the Settlement Agreement, which are available at
www.SetTopBoxSettlement.com. plastic waste crisis.
HOW DO YOU ASK FOR BENEFITS?
To get a payment you must submit a Claim Form. You
can quickly and easily submit your claim online at
www.SetTopBoxSettlement.com. You can also request a paper
Claim Form be sent to you by calling 1-888-748-8055. The claim P H OTO : J U S T I N H O F M A N
deadline is August 31, 2019.
YOUR OTHER OPTIONS.
If you do not want to be legally bound by the Settlement,
you must exclude yourself by July 9, 2019. If you stay in the
Settlement, you may object to it by July 9, 2019. The Detailed
Notice explains how to exclude yourself or object. The Court
Submit your solution by
will hold a hearing in the case on September 10, 2019, to
consider whether to approve the Settlement, and a request
by Settlement Class Counsel for attorneys’ fees, costs, and
June 11, 2019 at
expenses of up to $1.1 million and incentive awards, which will
not exceed $1,000, to the four named Plaintiffs for their services
on behalf of the Settlement Class. Members of the Settlement
oceanplastic-challenge.org
Class will not be responsible for the fees and expenses of Class
Counsel, and the payment of attorneys’ fees and expenses will
not reduce the benefits to the Settlement Class. You or your
own lawyer, if you have one, may ask to appear and speak at
the hearing at your own cost, but you do not have to. For more
information, call or go to the website shown below.

www.SetTopBoxSettlement.com
1-888-748-8055
 IF YOU RECEIVED A CASH DISTRIBUTION
IN CONNECTION WITH CERTAIN
AMERICAN DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS
ΈZ^Ή&KZt,/,/d/E<E
SERVED AS DEPOSITARY OR IF YOU
CURRENTLY OWN SUCH ADRS, YOUR
Z/',d^Dz&&d
Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 and Court
Order, Merryman et al. v. Citigroup, Inc. et al., No. 1:15-cv-
09185-CM-KNF (S.D.N.Y.) has been provisionally certified
as a class action for settlement purposes and a settlement for
$14,750,000 in cash and certain additional non-monetary
relief has been proposed, which, if approved, will resolve
all claims in the litigation. This notice provides basic
information. It is important that you review the detailed
notice (“Notice”) found at the website below.
What is this lawsuit about: Plaintiffs allege that, during
the relevant time period, Citibank N.A. (the “Depositary”)
systematically deducted impermissible fees for conducting
foreign exchange from dividends and/or cash distributions
issued by foreign companies, and owed to ADR holders.
The Depositary has denied, and continues to deny, any
wrongdoing or liability whatsoever.
Who is a Class Member: Persons or entities (1) who
received cash distributions from the ADRs listed in
Appendix 1 to the Notice from January 1, 2006 to
September 4, 2018, inclusive, and were damaged thereby
(the “Damages Class”); and/or (2) who currently own the
ADRs listed in Appendix 1 to the Notice (the “Current
Holder Class” and, together with the Damages Class,
the “Class”).
tŚĂƚĂƌĞƚŚĞďĞŶĞĮƚƐ If the Court approves the settlement,
the proceeds, after deduction of Court-approved notice and
administration costs, attorneys’ fees and expenses, will be
distributed pursuant to the Plan of Allocation in the Notice,
or other plan approved by the Court.
If you are a Current Holder Class Member, the Settlement
also provides additional non-monetary relief related to the
conversion of foreign currency of cash distributions paid by
eligible ADR issuers pursuant to a deposit agreement.
What are my rights: If you are a Damages Class Member
and you hold (or held) your ADRs directly and are listed on
the Depositary’s transfer agent records, you are a Registered
Holder Damages Class Member and do not have to take any
action to be eligible for a settlement payment. However, if
you hold (or held) your ADRs through a bank, broker or
nominee and are not listed on the Depositary’s transfer agent
records, you are a Non-Registered Holder Damages Class
Member and you must submit a Claim Form, postmarked
by August 12, 2019, to be eligible for a settlement payment.
Non-Registered Holder Damages Class Members who do
nothing will not receive a payment, and will be bound by
all Court decisions.
If you are a Class Member and do not want to remain in
the Class, you may exclude yourself by request, received by
June 7, 2019, in accordance with the Notice. If you exclude
yourself, you will not be bound by any Court decisions
in this litigation and you will not receive a payment, but
you will retain any right you may have to pursue your
own litigation at your own expense concerning the settled
claims. Objections to the settlement, Plan of Allocation, or
request for attorneys’ fees and expenses must be received by
June 7, 2019, in accordance with the Notice.
A hearing will be held on July 12, 2019 at 10:00 a.m.,
before the Honorable Colleen McMahon, at the Daniel
Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl
Street, New York, NY 10007, to determine if the settlement,
Plan of Allocation, and/or request for fees and expenses
should be approved. Supporting papers will be posted on
the website once filed.

&ŽƌŵŽƌĞŝŶĨŽƌŵĂƟŽŶǀŝƐŝƚ
ǁǁǁŝƟďĂŶŬZ^ĞƩůĞŵĞŶƚĐŽŵ!
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ŽƌĐĂůůϭဒϲϲϲဒϬϲϭϯဒ
N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C M AY 2 0 1 9

Ocean Trash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 42
Leonardo’s Legacy . . . . . . P. 56
Reviving Gorongosa. . . . P. 94
Smokejumpers . . . . . . . . . . . P. 120

F EAT U R E S

A female crocodile guards her nest of eggs beside the Mussicadzi River in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park.

‘ I N T H E R E A L M O F C O N S E RVA T I O N ,

94 WHERE TOO MANY INDICATORS

HERALD GLOOM AND DESPAIR,
SUCCESS ON SUCH A LARGE
S C A L E I S R A R E .’

PHOTO: CHARLIE HAMILTON JAMES

 Newborn fish are eating

tiny bits of plastic trash

instead of food.

If the baby fish die,

there will be fewer big fish

—and that could rattle the food chain.

43
Fish nurseries off
Hawaii are now
a microplastic mess.

The naturally oily surface slicks

in which many ocean fish come
of age are rich in plankton
and other fish food—and now
also in plastics, according
to researchers at the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration in Honolulu.
They’ve been towing fine-
mesh nets through slicks off
the Big Island and analyzing
each haul. Here, a scribbled
filefish, about 50 days old and
two inches long, navigates
a soup of plastic.

PREVIOUS PHOTO

The blue glove hasn’t been

in the water long enough
to suffer the fate of most
ocean plastic, which is to be
shredded into small bits, or
microplastics, by waves and
sunlight. The larval fish below
the thumb is a driftfish; the
striped one at the base of the
index finger is a mahi-mahi.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS MADE AT A TEMPORARY
FIELD LAB, NOAA PACIFIC ISLANDS FISHERIES
SCIENCE CENTER, KAILUA KONA, HAWAII,
EXCEPT WHERE NOTED.
On the left, fish food.
On the right, plastic.

A dollop of surface water

from the English Channel con-
tains a shrimplike krill, about a
third of an inch long; a smaller
decapod crustacean; and an
orange sea star just emerging
from its filmy floating larval
stage. The white chip and the
fraying red fiber on the right
are polyethylene—but to a
young fish they too may look
like food. Three percent of the
larval fish caught for a 2017
study by researchers at Plym-
outh Marine Laboratory and
the University of Plymouth
had eaten microplastic fibers.
PHOTOGRAPHED AT MARINE BIOLOGICAL
ASSOCIATION, PLYMOUTH, U.K.; PLASTIC
IDENTIFICATION PROVIDED BY UNIVERSITY
OF PLYMOUTH
 P L A N E T O R P L A ST I C ?

Not long ago I went snorkeling in the Pacific Ocean, a half mile off the
southwest coast of Oahu. The flanks of the Hawaiian island are steep there,
and the bottom quickly disappeared beneath us as we motored out to the
site. Looking back, I could see the green slopes of the Waianae Range rising
to 4,000 feet behind the beach. Normally the mountains shield the water
here from the trade winds. But on that day a breeze created a light chop that
nearly obscured what I had come to see: a thin, oily slick of surface water,
rich in organic particles, in which newborn fish were feeding and struggling
to survive their first precarious weeks.
 Plunging my face into the sheen, the slick, they’re feeding and grow-
I found myself looking inside a fish ing. This is one-tenth of one per-
nursery: The water was dotted with cent that made it this far; they’re
life you would ordinarily never the lucky ones. And now plastics
notice. Fish eggs drifted like tiny are coming in.”
lanterns, their yolk sacs glowing in “The most critical moment is
the sunlight. Fish larvae small as that first feeding,” Whitney says.
ladybugs darted about. A sergeant “If they get a piece of plastic, that
major damselfish the size of a dime could be it. A single thread in the
appeared huge by comparison as it stomach of a larval fish is poten-
fluttered past. Below us, a school of tially a killer.”
12-inch, bigeye scad—like mackerel
but with enormous eyes—fed on Plastic waste, mostly from rivers or
everything that had the misfortune careless dumping on land, washes
of being small. into the oceans at an average rate
My guides that day, oceanog- of about nine million tons a year,
rapher Jamison Gove and fish according to a 2015 study by Jenna
biologist Jonathan Whitney of the Jambeck of the University of Geor-
National Oceanic and Atmospheric gia. The visible trash, along with
Administration in Honolulu, are heartbreaking images of its impact
nearly three years into a research on everything from turtles to birds
project that aims to make sense to whales, has generated a public
of this chaotic scene. The larval outcry. But sunlight, wind, and
stage is the “black box” of fisheries waves eventually break down ocean
science: Fertilized eggs go in, and plastic to bits that are barely visible.
young fish come out—but what One of the biggest unknowns—and
happens inside remains sketchy. concerns—is the effect that these
The larval fish are so small and frag- microplastics, smaller than a fifth
ile they’re exceedingly difficult to of an inch, might be having on fish.
study. The overwhelming majority Fish provide critical protein to
will never become adults. Yet fish nearly three billion people and
populations around the world, and countless seabirds and other marine
the animals that eat them, depend animals. But fish stocks worldwide
on just how many larval fish make have fallen by half since 1970,
it, and in what condition. surveys show. Populations of the
What Gove and Whitney have largest predatory fish, such as tuna,
found lately—and what David have fallen even more. The decline
Liittschwager’s photographs of is largely because of overfishing,
their water samples document—is but pollution and waters warmed
that fish and wholesome fish food and acidified by climate change are
are not the only things collecting A grid painted on a having a growing impact.
petri dish helps a NOAA
in the slicks off Hawaii. Microplas- technician sort through As long ago as the early 1970s,
tics, tiny shreds of human trash, a sample and identify scientists were finding plastic pel-
are there as well, and in such abun- tiny organisms, such lets—the material used to manufac-
as the larval sergeant
dance that larval fish are eating major damselfish on ture plastic goods—in the stomachs
them in their first days of life. the left, just outside of fish caught off New England and
For newborn fish, to eat is to live the middle row. The Great Britain. More recent studies
squares are one centi-
another day; if their first meal is meter (.39 inch) across. have documented the presence
plastic, they’re not consuming the of even smaller microplastic par-
calories they need to sustain them The nonprofit ticles in a growing array of adult
until the second. “They’ve beaten National Geographic fish. Larval fish have been studied
Society, working to con-
a lot of odds to get this far,” Gove serve Earth’s resources, much less but are likely to be more
says. “They hatched, they found helped fund this article. vulnerable to microplastics, as they

LITTLE PIECES, BIG PROBLEMS 49

Off Hawaii, a single eight-minute tow of the NOAA team’s net
yields a plethora of living organisms (left) and plastic (right).

Pushed into a surface slick by converging currents, they’re separated

in the lab by a technician with tweezers. A computer program
counts the plastic pieces and measures each one; the technician
uses a microscope to identify the creatures.

15
14 2
1 1 15 18

15
3
3
2
16

2 5
16
16 19
1
17 5
3 24 5
4

8 9 11 3

3 5 10
18
17 26
11
21 5
20
23

22 8 19
26
22 2
20 5 2
14
5

7
25
2 22
17
22
5 12
23
6 5

3 6
19
5
13 15

LIVING ORGANISMS 3. Amberjack 12. Flat needlefish 18. Pelagic snail

4. Chub 13. Large-scaled 19. Blue copepod
Most of the organisms 5. Triggerfish lanternfish 20. Medusa ( jellyfish)
the NOAA researchers 6. Sailfin flying fish 14. Decapod shrimp 21. Polychaete worm
collect are larvae. 7. Flying fish larvae 22. Blue button hydroid
8. Man-of-war fish 15. Purple pelagic snail 23. Pelagic sea slug
1. Hound needlefish 9. Bigwing halfbeak 16. Blue shrimp 24. Flatworm
2. Sergeant major 10. Mahi-mahi 17. Crab larvae, 25. Comb jelly
damselfish 11. Tropical halfbeak megalops stage 26. Peanut worm

50 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C SHOWN AT ACTUAL SIZE

 If a newborn fish eats microplastic, it’s not consuming
the calories it needs to survive. It may not get another shot:
The odds against young fish are long enough already.

1 1
1 2 1
1 1

11

10
8
10
6

3 10

10

3
3

6 3

10

2 2

PLASTIC TRASH 1. Polypropylene or fishing line, nylon 10. Expanded

polyethylene fragment 6. Tube for spacing polystyrene, probably
Most of the plastic 2. Preproduction oysters on oyster farm from a take-out
waste collected in pellet, polypropylene 7. Flexible low-density container
the researchers’ nets or polyethylene polyethylene 11. Soda bottle
is in tiny, degraded 3. Braided line from 8. Possible latex balloon cap, high-density
fragments that can be fishing or cargo net 9. Packaging sheet, polyethylene
harder to identify than 4. Marker-pen cap probably polyethylene
the living organisms. 5. Monofilament food wrapper

LITTLE PIECES, BIG PROBLEMS 51

are to everything else. “Any stressor hatched. Predators converge on
will likely have more of an impact slicks too. If a baby fish manages
on early life stages than later life to avoid being eaten and to find
stages,” says Susanne Brander, a enough food, it will be about two
toxicologist at Oregon State Uni- inches long when it heads back to
versity who is studying how plastics its permanent habitat—a reef, say.
might affect the growth of fish. The right current will transport it
Most ocean fish are terrible par- there, the wrong one out to sea.
ents. A few species guard their eggs “If you miss an island, good luck
on the seafloor; others protect them
inside their mouths. But most fish
Most with that. If there’s no reef, you
cannot complete your life cycle,”
release thousands or even millions
of eggs and sperm into the wide
ocean fish Sponaugle says. Life for larval fish
was a crapshoot even before they
ocean and never see their offspring. are terrible met our plastic trash.
When eggs hatch a day or two later,
they’re on their own. parents: Whitney and Gove came to ocean
Newly hatched fish look mis-
shapen, heads oversize, tails barely
They never science and Hawaii by happen-
stance. Whitney, 37, grew up in New
formed. They have to eat like crazy
to grow into their body. Whereas
see their Jersey with a kid’s plan to become a
veterinarian. He arrived in Honolulu
human babies develop in the offspring. in 2006 as a volunteer for a census
shelter of the uterus, fish mainly of humpback whales. In graduate
develop after they emerge into an school he worked his way down to
unforgiving world. the tiniest organisms of the sea.
“They hatch super early,” Whit- Gove, 40, grew up in San Diego
ney says. “They have small brains; and learned to surf before he could
some fins aren’t even formed. Their read. A summer job with NOAA
liver isn’t fully developed. Or their convinced him the ocean was more
hearing or seeing. They are only than a playground. After helping to
partially developed, but they are cut 70 tons of abandoned fishing
actively swimming, eating, fending gear from Hawaiian coral reefs,
for themselves.” Gove enrolled in graduate school
Predators or starvation will get to become an oceanographer. He
most of them. “That’s why fish specialized in how winds, tides, and
spawn so many eggs,” says Su waves affect ocean ecosystems and
Sponaugle, an Oregon State Univer- surface slicks in particular.
sity marine ecologist who special- Slicks are transient—they break
izes in the early life stages of fish. up in rough weather—which makes
“They have to hedge their bets.” studying them a challenge. Gove
The larval phase is treacherous and Whitney took me to see a slick
every step of the way—starting off Oahu because it was close to
with the need for the larvae to find their lab, but their main research
food, which they do in a surface site is on the west side of Hawaii,
slick. Surface slicks form mostly in the Big Island, where two large
coastal regions around the world, volcanoes provide an even better
wherever currents, tides, or subsur- wind shadow than Oahu’s Waianae
face waves cause water to converge Range. The steep drop-off of the
and concentrate the organic gunk seafloor has proved to be a surprise
that floats in it. Slicks can be seen bonus: The slicks attract an oceanic
by satellite as long, squiggly ribbons convention of not only reef fish
that run parallel to coasts. but also fish from greater depths,
Some larval fish swim to slicks, including commercially important
some drift, as do eggs not yet mahi-mahi, swordfish, and marlin.

52 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 8,328
Plastic profusion
From its surface slicks that
foster baby fish to its most
remote depths, the ocean is
full of plastic. It’s prevalent off
coastal cities, say researchers,
but currents also gather it
in the middle of the oceans.
Much of it breaks down into
microplastics, which, over time,
accumulate on the seafloor.
But it’s the plastic in surface
waters that likely causes the

302.83
most harm to wildlife.
Highest number of microplastic
2,650

pieces found at selected sites, per

gallon of seawater or sediment*
3,028

151.42
34.75
51.14
0.58
0.40

3.75
0.18
North Pacific

North Atlantic

Slicks off Hawaii

Hangzhou Bay

Hope Island

Mariana Trench

Polar Front

Indian Ocean

Mediterranean

Bay of Biscay

Mariana Trench

Fram Strait

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

SEAWATER SEDIMENT

12
5
10
1 2 4
9
3
Off Hawaii, 11
currents that PACIFIC
sweep fish 6
OCEAN
eggs and larvae
ATLANTIC INDIAN
into slicks also
OCEAN OCEAN
collect plastic, 8
dramatically
7
increasing its
13,109

concentration.

*COLLECTION METHODS VARY. ALBERTO LUCAS LÓPEZ, RYAN T. WILLIAMS, AND CLARE TRAINOR, NGM STAFF. FOR SOURCE DETAILS, GO TO NGM.COM/MAY2019.
 “One of the coolest things we between one-third of an inch to half
found was the diversity,” Whitney an inch in length. They found plas-
says. “We’ve got deep-sea fish, tic in 8.6 percent of the ones caught
mid-ocean fish, and reef fish, all in slicks. That doesn’t sound like
interacting at the surface for the much, and outside slicks the per-
first few weeks of their lives. It was centage was less than half that—but
incredibly unique. I can’t think of scientists know that small changes
any other place on Earth where in the survival of larval fish can
babies from different areas share translate into large changes in fish
nursery grounds.”
He and Gove expected to find
They didn’t populations, with cascading effects
up the food chain.
plastics in their slicks; the Hawai-
ian chain is in the drift pattern of
expect so The NOAA researchers found tiny
blue strands of polyethylene and
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. much plastic. polypropylene, commonly used to
But they never intended to join the make fishing gear, in the stomachs
growing hunt for microplastics that One of the of larval swordfish, marlins, and five
has overtaken the work of so many
marine scientists. Their focus was
first baby fish other species. The strands look a lot
like the food that larval fish crave:
basic research on larval fish. Their
samples contained such loads of
they dissected tiny copepods, bluish crustaceans
with long, skinny antennae.
plastic, however, that they had to had plastic In larval mahi-mahis, Whitney
revise their project. and Gove found no plastic. They’re
The preliminary results indicate in its gut. not sure why. Was it because eyesight
that slicks concentrate plastics develops earlier in mahi- mahis,
even more than they do larval fish. making them better than other
In the water outside slicks, Whit- species at distinguishing plastic
ney and Gove found nearly three from prey? Or was it because the
times more larval fish than micro- mahi-mahis that ate plastic had
plastics. Inside slicks, the situation died and escaped detection?
was reversed: Microplastics out- Flying fish appear to eat plastic
numbered larval fish by more than especially frequently. Besides serv-
seven to one. On average there was ing as prey for larger fish, including
almost 130 times as much plastic sharks, flying fish are primary prey
inside slicks as outside. for 95 percent of Hawaiian sea-
“We didn’t have any idea we birds. Are birds ingesting plastic
would find such concentrations,” with their flying fish, and is that
Gove says. One of the first fish they affecting them? For every question
dissected had plastic in its gut. the researchers answer, Gove says,
10 new ones come up.
What harm such plastic is causing The smallest fish he and Whitney
is still unsettled science. But in lab In this sample, a blue found with plastic in its stomach
tests, some clues have emerged. plastic bag has begun was just a quarter inch long, about
to disintegrate. Two
Plastic reduces the appetites and gnarled rope ends from six millimeters. But the plastic
growth rates of fish that consume a fishing net are col- fibers the fish are eating are smaller.
it. That could affect reproduction lecting algae and other “They are less than one millime-
organisms. A striped
and ultimately population size. mahi-mahi larva (center ter, things you can barely see with
“The larger a female fish is, the right), just under two the naked eye,” Whitney says. That
more eggs she can carry and the inches long, turns away is “the shocking part: The pieces we
from the rope; an inch-
higher number of offspring she can long triggerfish (upper can’t even see are the problem.” j
produce,” Brander says. left), about 10 weeks old
In their lab, Whitney and Gove and almost of an age to In 2018 David Liittschwager photo-
head back to the reef, graphed jellyfish for the October
oversaw the dissection of more noses up to a triangular issue; staff writer Laura Parker wrote
than 650 larval fish, most of them shard of white plastic. the June cover story on plastic trash.

54 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
LEONARDO’S
 By CLAUDIA KALB

Photographs by
PAO L O WO O D S A N D
GABRIELE GALIMBERTI

ENDURING BRILLIANCE

500 years after his death,

Leonardo da Vinci’s
stunning creativity and
foresight in science,
the arts, and engineering
continue to amaze us.

57
The engineering for
this gilded copper
ball, completed during
his apprenticeship with
artist Andrea del Ver-
rocchio in Florence,
made a lasting impact
on Leonardo da Vinci.
Checking for light-
ning damage, Sandro
Schievenin emerges
from the sphere atop
the Cathedral of Santa
Maria del Fiore.

PREVIOUS PHOTO

Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa”

is believed to depict
Lisa Gherardini, the
wife of Francesco del
Giocondo, a Florentine
silk merchant. Every
year, millions of visitors
jostle for a view at the
Louvre Museum in
Paris. The painting, pro-
tected by a thick layer
of glass that must be
cleaned regularly, has
never been restored.
 In an instant,
centuries collide—
a moment unlike
anything I have
ever experienced.
I have come to
Windsor Castle to
see the queen’s
collection of
Leonardo da Vinci
drawings.
Outside the towering stone walls, tourists snap selfies and rummage
through souvenir tea towels. Inside, past an arched gateway bedecked by
gargoyles, Leonardo ushers me back to the Renaissance.
I can almost hear whispers of the artist as I gaze at a leather album
bound in the late 1500s in the castle’s stately print room. Gold embellish-
ments adorn the volume’s two-and-a-half-inch spine. The cover, stained
and worn by the imperceptible fingerprints of generations past, reads:
In Florence, Leonardo Disegni di Leonardo da Vinci Restaurati da Pompeo Leoni (drawings by
became known for
his prodigious talent Leonardo da Vinci conserved by Pompeo Leoni).
and received his first No one knows precisely how this album made its way to England, but
commissions. He was its provenance is unambiguous: Leoni, an Italian sculptor, acquired Leo-
“an ornament, a symbol
of power,” says scholar nardo’s drawings from the son of the artist’s devoted pupil Francesco
Paolo Galluzzi. Here, Melzi and mounted them into at least two volumes. By 1690, the Leoni
Valter Conti, an Italian binding, as it’s known, had landed in the Royal Collection, teeming with
street artist, personifies
Leonardo’s celebrity 234 folio sheets and the peregrinations of Leonardo’s inquisitive mind.
status as he strolls As Martin Clayton, head of prints and drawings for the Royal Collection
toward the Uffizi Trust, lays out a selection of the pages—now separated into 60 boxes—
Gallery to pose
for photographs the scope of Leonardo’s subject matter soars into view: botany, geology,
with tourists. hydraulics, architecture, military engineering, costume design, geometry,

LEONARDO’S ENDURING BRILLIANCE 61

After a five-year res-
toration, Leonardo’s
“Adoration of the
Magi” divulges brush-
strokes, colors, and
images long hidden
under dirt and dark-
ened varnish. The
unfinished painting,
commissioned in 1481,
also shows evidence
of the artist’s thought
process, including
modifications he made
as he worked. The
painting is exhibited
in a room at the Uffizi
dedicated to Leonardo.
cartography, optics, anatomy. He sketched to make sense of unknowns,
L E O N A R D O ’S D R AW I N G S
probing the enigmas of the universe with ink, chalk, and silverpoint.
Thousands of sketches,
The drawings are breathtaking in their lucidity. The most diminutive, observations, and queries
a fragment smaller than a thumb, shows a female torso evoked in just a (written in a distinctive back-
few muted strokes. The most iconic, rendered tenderly in red chalk and ward script) showcase Leo-
nardo’s unceasing quest for
curved hatch marks, depicts a fetus curled up in the womb. knowledge. A vast number of
Everything is put to the test with visual precision: a study of drapery for the original pages have been
the Madonna; mortars bombarding a fortress; the umbra and penumbra lost. Those that remain, many
compiled in notebooks, reveal
of shadow; a skull, a heart, a foot, and the sweep of the human face—from a fluid interplay between his
the radiance of Leda to the misshapen features of an elderly man. meticulous scientific studies
“What you get most out of Leonardo’s drawings in some of his sheets and his monumental art.
is this completely unfettered way of leaping between subject matter,”
Clayton says. “There’s something tremendously exciting about seeing a
mind working in this incredibly broad way.”
An inherently curious note-taker and truth-seeker, Leonardo pursued
knowledge voraciously. His to-do lists included jottings to “construct
glasses to see the moon larger” and “describe the cause of laughter” as
he sought answers to a cascade of questions: What’s the distance from
the eyebrow to the junction of the lip and the chin? Why are stars visible
by night and not by day? How do the branches of a tree compare with the
thickness of its trunk? What separates water from air? Where is the soul?
What are sneezing, yawning, hunger, thirst, and lust?
Although his paintings are far better known, Leonardo’s wealth of
manuscripts and drawings lay bare the inner workings of his genius. His
fertile mind—the range of hypotheses he tested, the intellectual, scien-
tific, and philosophical journeys he launched—is evoked on every one
of the 7,000 sheets preserved at Windsor, in libraries in Paris, London,
Madrid, Turin, and Milan, and in the private collection of Bill Gates.
As the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death is commemorated this year,
the artist’s notebooks are experiencing a renaissance of their own. Muse-
ums are mounting exhibitions of his sketches, and scholars are publishing
new analyses, delving ever deeper into the full spectrum of his creations.
LEONARDO
Most remarkably, pages from Leonardo’s notebooks are finding their
way into the hands of experts in the very fields Leonardo studied, from
medicine and mechanical engineering to music. Reaching back centuries,
they’re reaping fresh insights, probing Leonardo’s work to inform their
The
own. Even as science, medicine, and technology have pushed past the
boundaries of what we can do and how we can do it, Leonardo’s notebooks
reveal how much we still have to learn.
Anatomist
Determined to under-
In the words of art historian and Leonardo scholar Martin Kemp: “Not stand every fiber in
the body, Leonardo
one of his predecessors or contemporaries produced anything compara- dissected animal and
ble in range, speculative brilliance, and visual intensity. And we know of human cadavers. On
nothing really comparable over succeeding centuries.” this sheet, he rendered
the bones and muscles
of the arm, shoulder,
LEONARDO WAS BORN to unwed parents on April 15, 1452, near and foot. Leonardo
Vinci, a hill town in the rural Tuscan landscape between Florence and Pisa. intended to publish an
anatomical treatise
Many believe his mother was Caterina di Meo Lippi, a local peasant. His but never did. Had he
father, Ser Piero da Vinci, held elevated status as a notary—a professional succeeded, he might
path that Leonardo would have been expected to follow had he not been have been recognized
as the founder of mod-
born out of wedlock. ern anatomy, a dis-
The town of Vinci proffered an inspiring backdrop for a boy with a tinction later given to
capacious vision. From a terrace atop the village’s 12th-century castle, Andreas Vesalius.
ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST/© HER
the Tuscan landscape reveals itself today as it would have in Leonardo’s MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2018

64 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
T H E A N AT O M I S T
T O D AY
Michael Grimaldi (cen-
ter), director of draw-
ing at the New York
Academy of Art, has
revered Leonardo since
childhood. In a unique
collaboration with the
Drexel University Col-
lege of Medicine in
Philadelphia, Grimaldi’s
art students (in bor-
rowed white lab coats)
converge with Drexel’s
medical students (col-
ored scrubs) to examine
and sketch the human
body. Dissections have
far more impact than
lectures, says Grimaldi.
Blurring
the Lines
Leonardo didn’t sign his paintings; ca 1473
Tobias and
ca 1473-74
Annunciation 
collaboration was a common the Angel
practice in his time, one that makes
attribution a challenge today. But
the 24 works at right are associ-
ated, some at least in part, with the
master. Two of them, the Mona Lisa
and The Last Supper, are among
the world’s most famous.

TOTAL PAINTINGS 24 ca 1479-1481 ca 1483-1490 ca 1485

In a few cases, legal disputes and popular Adoration of the Magi  Virgin of Portrait of
demand may have led Leonardo to create the Rocks a Musician
multiple versions of the same work.

5 With 4 Unfinished
assistance

2 Contribution 6 Extent of
to work by Leonardo's
Andrea del contributions
Verrocchio disputed

2 Lost

ca 1501-07 ca 1503-1516 ca 1504-07

Madonna of Mona Lisa Salvator Mundi
the Yarnwinder 
(Buccleuch
Madonna)

Artistic advancements

Expert sfumato Detail of A sense of space

His knowledge of eye anatomy brilliantly A Birth of A keen observer of nature, Leonardo
informed a shading technique, not uti- Venus, successfully replicated the effect of atmo-
lized by contemporaries like Botticelli, Botticelli, sphere on distant objects. Hazy outlines
called sfumato. Blending softens outlines B 1484–86 of the landscape give the impression of
to create a three-dimensional effect. (below) distance on a two-dimensional canvas.

(A) Sandro Botticelli Leonardo da Vinci (B) Sandro Botticelli Leonardo da Vinci

FERNANDO G. BAPTISTA, MONICA SERRANO, AND EVE CONANT, NGM STAFF; LAWSON PARKER. SOURCES: MARTIN KEMP, MATTHEW LANDRUS, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD;
MARTIN CLAYTON, ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST; PAOLO GALLUZZI, MUSEO GALILEO. CREDIT INFORMATION FOR THE PAINTINGS SHOWN HERE IS AT NGM.COM/MAY 2019.
 ca 1475-76 ca 1476 ca 1476-78 ca 1479-1480 ca 1480-82
Madonna and Child The Baptism Ginevra de' Benci  Madonna and Saint Jerome in
With a Carnation  of Christ  Child (Benois the Wilderness
Madonna)

ca 1490 ca 1495-98 ca 1495-1508 ca 1496-97 ca 1498-99 ca 1501-07

Portrait of Cecilia The Last Supper Virgin of Portrait of a Sala delle Madonna of
Gallerani (Lady the Rocks Lady From the Asse* the Yarnwinder
With an Ermine) Court of Milan (Lansdowne
Madonna) 

ca 1506 ca 1506-08 ca 1508-1516 ca 1508-1517 ca 1513-16

The Battle of Anghiari Leda and the Swan Saint John Virgin and Child Saint John the
(copy by Peter Paul Rubens) (copy by Cesare the Baptist With Saint Anne Baptist**
da Sesto)

Fooling the eye

Leonardo started from an ideal vantage
point, then used optical illusions to make
other viewpoints seem equally ideal.
The result was a mural that looked as if
it were a natural part of the room. A

B
Ideal
15 ft vantage
point
7.2 ft 14.5 ft

(A) Leonardo crafted the perspective (B) By playing with the

to draw the eyes to a single vanishing vantage point, Leonardo
point, in this case directly on Jesus, made it possible for a
to highlight the most important ele- viewer on the ground to
ment in the composition. see the table from above.

*THE IMAGE SHOWS A SMALL SELECTION OF THE MURALS PAINTED BY LEONARDO AND ASSISTANTS IN A SUITE OF ROOMS IN SFORZESCO CASTLE.
**THE ATTRIBUTES OF BACCHUS (AN IVY WREATH AND A STAFF, OR THYRSUS) WERE ADDED DURING THE 17TH CENTURY BY AN UNKNOWN ARTIST.
 youth: olive groves, dusky hills, and a mountain range off Italy’s west coast.
In Vinci, this vista is known as orizzonti geniali, or “genius horizons,”
says Stefania Marvogli of the Museo Leonardiano—an allusion to Leo-
nardo and the geography that saturated his childhood. A patchwork of
divergent terrains coming together to form a coherent whole, it reflects the
connections Leonardo sought in nature: patterns that unify the cosmos.
Little is known about Leonardo’s childhood. Records suggest that he
lived with his grandparents in Vinci, where he received a rudimentary
education. Sometime during Leonardo’s adolescence, his father likely rec-
ognized his artistic abilities and showed his drawings to a client, the artist
Andrea del Verrocchio, who agreed to take Leonardo on as an apprentice
in his Florence workshop.
From the beginning, Leonardo upstaged his peers and soon his mentor,
with whom he collaborated on religious paintings and on the copper ball
that sits atop Brunelleschi’s dome. Leonardo’s earliest known independent
work, a pen-and-ink landscape of the Arno Valley, dates to 1473, when
he was 21. Within several years, he’d received his first commissions: an
altarpiece for a chapel in the Palazzo della Signoria and the painting “The
Adoration of the Magi” for a group of Augustinian monks.
Leonardo left few personal reminiscences of his own, but we have glim-
mers of the man. He was almost certainly gay—his lifelong companions
were male, and he was twice accused of sodomy, though charges were

T O D AY
Leonardo lacked tools
to demonstrate his
idea that air and water
share properties. Here,
Gary Settles of Penn
State University uses
schlieren, an imaging
LEONARDO
technique, to visualize
the indiscernible: tur-

The bulence in the air.

Scientist
Leonardo not only
observed and docu-
mented the natural
world in his notebooks;
he also launched
experiments to under-
stand the mechanics of
how it worked. He was
especially captivated
by the properties of
water. On this sheet
he depicted the
movement of water
when disturbed by a
barrier (top) and when
falling from a sluice
into a pool (bottom),
forming vortices.
ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST/© HER
MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2018
dropped in both cases. An animal lover, he bought caged birds at market
and set them free. Left-handed and handsome, he wore rose-colored
tunics and was admired for his singing voice, generosity of spirit, and
social finesse. He would have been a very entertaining dinner guest, says
Gary Radke, emeritus professor of art history at Syracuse University. “He
wasn’t one of these inscrutable, pondering, grousing geniuses.”
Throughout his 46-year career, spent largely in Florence and Milan,
Leonardo willed himself to knowledge, touched by an ever wandering eye
and the determination to follow it. He studied Latin, collected poetry, and
read Euclid and Archimedes. Where others embraced the perceptible, he
scrutinized minutiae—geometric angles, the dilation of the pupil—bound-
ing from one discipline to the next while seeking links between them. He
sketched flowers and flying machines, designed war machines for his patron
Duke Ludovico Sforza, crafted theatrical ornaments out of peacock feath-
ers, and engineered a plan to divert the Arno between Florence and Pisa.
Leonardo documented everything in magnificent detail on the backs
and corners of paper with tidy notes written in mirror script, from right
to left. Some of these pages exist as loose sheets today; others have been
bound into the volumes now known as notebooks or codices. There’s no
clear order, even on a single page, and similar themes often appear on
different sheets completed years apart. All of this makes it hard even for
scholars to keep up with the brisk tempo of his mind, Paolo Galluzzi tells
me as he thumbs through reproductions of Leonardo’s notebooks with a
sense of wonder. Every time he made an observation, a question arose in his
mind, which invariably led to another, says Galluzzi, director of Florence’s
Museo Galileo. “He went sideways.”
It’s difficult to grasp Leonardo’s unparalleled ability to push past the
work of his forebears. He did this by cross-examining his subjects and over-
turning his own verdicts. In the Codex Leicester, Leonardo investigates
how water makes its way to mountaintops, ultimately rejecting his initial
conviction that heat draws it upward. Instead, he realizes, water circulates
through evaporation, clouds, and rain. “More important than discovering
how mountain streams work was discovering how you would discover it,”
says biographer Walter Isaacson. “He helps invent the scientific method.”
LEONARDO
For Leonardo, the precepts of science—observation, hypothesis, and
experiment—were critical to art. He moved fluidly between the two realms,
grasping lessons from one to inform the other, says Francesca Fiorani,
associate dean for the arts and humanities at the University of Virginia.
The
His greatest gift was his ability to make knowledge visible, she says. “That’s
where his power is.”
Nowhere is this more vivid than in Leonardo’s study of anatomy. He
Engineer
Fascinated by the
dissected human cadavers, teasing out underlying musculature in three principles of engineer-
dimensions to see for himself how a leg bends or an arm cradles. Leonar- ing, Leonardo devised
plans for bridges,
do’s contemporaries, including rival Michelangelo, studied muscles and buildings, and military
bones to improve their artistic representation of the human body. “But equipment. Above all,
Leonardo went beyond this,” says science historian Domenico Laurenza, he yearned to outline
a flying machine for
based in Rome. “His approach to anatomy was that of a real anatomist.” humans, and thus spent
The scientific data Leonardo collected in his notebooks underlie every more than two decades
stroke of his paintbrush. His anatomical studies drilled down on the studying animal flight.
On a page from the
biology of facial expressions. Which nerve causes “frowning the brows” Codex Atlanticus, he
or “pouting with the lips, of smiling, of astonishment”? he queried in his sketched a design
notes. His analysis of light and shadow allowed him to illuminate con- for a mechanical wing.
VENERANDA BIBLIOTECA
tours with unmatched subtlety. He did away with traditional outlining, AMBROSIANA/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

72 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
T H E E N G I N E E R T O D AY

Doctoral students in
David Lentink’s Stanford
lab study the impact of
airspeed and turbulence
on their robotic bird,
PigeonBot, inside a spe-
cially designed wind tun-
nel. The data collected
will help them under-
stand the mechanics of
bird flight.
Flights of Flapping
Leonardo’s early flying machines
were mostly designed with wings,

Imagination
to be controlled by a pilot. But he
found that humans can’t flap hard
enough to sustain flight. These
machines wouldn’t have worked.

Leonardo often found

inspiration in nature.
His observations of birds
and bats helped refine
his attempts, some more
successful than others, to
engineer flying machines.
His quest to achieve
manned flight occupied
him for over two decades.

Horizontal pilot, ca 1488

Almost all body parts had
a job. Hands and feet oper-
ated the wings; the pilot’s
rigged-up headband
controlled the tail.

His original sketch Manuscript B,

doesn’t specify what f 75r
the arms should do.

He noted that membra-

nous, bony bat wings
required less energy
than feathered wings.
2 or 4 wings

Vertical pilot, ca 1495

In this design he experimented Leonardo's This design leverages
with standing positions: “Man drawing powerful leg muscles
is also possessed of a greater to flap the wings via a
amount of strength in his legs system of pulleys oper-
Codex Atlanticus, Manuscript B,
than is required by his weight.” f 749r ated by foot brackets. f 79r

A E R I A L A D VA N C E M E N T S
Glass
hood
Parachute, ca 1485 Inclinometer, ca 1485 Aerial screw, ca 1489
A British skydiver successfully When the ball is in the He knew that when air is com-
tested Leonardo’s parachute in 23 ft middle, the pilot knows pressed it grows more dense.
2000 but cut free before land- he’s horizontal to the He designed this for festival
ing to avoid being crushed by ground. The bell jar blocks entertainment; the concept
the 187-pound design. wind from moving the ball. was later used in helicopters.
 Gliding
Suspecting that humans lacked
the power-to-weight ratio of birds,
he shifted his studies to gliding,
instead of flapping. These two
designs, tested in modern times,
worked with modifications.

Headband Center of gravity

Madrid
Manuscript I,
f 64r
Glider, ca 1495
He correctly identified the
Rudder
relationship between the cen-
ter of gravity and the center
of pressure in a glider, but his
design needed a tail to work.

e
Mobil

Rigid

e
Mobil

When one leg is extended, it

lowers one pair of wings; the
hand crank raises the other. Codex Atlanticus,
f 846v

Horizontal flier, ca 1487-1490 Flying vessel, ca 1488-89 Glider, ca 1495-96

The pilot’s position is a close Many of his designs weren’t The central section of the wings,
imitation of birds in flight. at first drawn to scale. He close to the pilot, was rigid.
Many of Leonardo’s designs sketched this bowl-shaped Flexible outer parts of the wings,
were focused on a central vessel, later providing dimen- controlled with cables, aided in
Manuscript B,
element for wing movement. f 80r
sions for a larger version. pitch, navigation, and banking.

Landing system Flaps, ca 1489

Leonardo devised a system for To minimize resistance
the takeoff and landing of this and maximize thrust, “skin”
flying bowl-shaped vessel that flaps allowed air through the Stroke
included retractable ladders wings on the upstroke but
and shock-absorbing feet. closed on the downstroke.
The Art Armored carriage, ca 1487-1490
A fresh take on a concept from
the Middle Ages, Leonardo’s tank
had new movement systems

of War
and a ring of cannons for a
360-degree attack.

Wheels

Leonardo, a pacifist
and likely a vegetarian,
called war a “beastly
Manuscript B, f 98r
madness.” Yet the artis-
tic genius was drawn
into weapon design
by his patrons and the
creative challenge
Cranks
of imagining tools
that amplified human Sail shredder, ca 1484-86 Eight men
would turn the
strength. Most of his A scythe on a wooden pole
rotates 360 degrees and—when cranks to move
weapons were very the wheels. A
activated by rowers—can tear
ambitious—and were through the sails and masts of turret helped
never built. enemy ships. them aim.

Giant crossbow, ca 1485-1490

More than 30 preparatory draw- 1 The bow is aimed 2 Capstans rotate a 3 Men load the bow
ings illustrate Leonardo’s ambi- left and right by gear connected to with a 100-pound
tions for this bow that would lifting the back a screw that pulls stone, and activate
shoot cannonballs. It was built, and pivoting the back the ropes the trigger by a lever
but not in his lifetime. front wheels. and trigger. or a hammer blow.

Capstans Screw Trigger Stone Width: 82 ft

2
3

Mechanical advancements

Oval projectiles, ca 1500-1505 Automatic striker, ca 1497-1500 CREDIT INFORMATION FOR SKETCHES BY
LEONARDO IS AT NGM.COM/MAY2019.
Leonardo knew that a cannonball’s The wheel lock ignites gunpowder
FERNANDO G. BAPTISTA, MONICA SERRANO,
trajectory is influenced by the air on varying weapons. A trigger spins EVE CONANT, NGM STAFF; LAWSON PARKER
around it. To improve targeting, a wheel via a spring; the spinning
SOURCES: MARTIN KEMP, MATTHEW LANDRUS, UNIVERSITY
his cannonballs were pointed, as wheel scrapes against stone, spark- OF OXFORD; PAOLO GALLUZZI, DOMENICO LAURENZA, MUSEO
modern bullets are. ing heat to light the powder. GALILEO; LEONARDO3; MUSEO NAZIONALE SCIENZA E TECNOLOGIA
 Master
British Museum

in Motion
Leonardo’s innovations
Codex Atlanticus,
f 24r
were often conceptual
experiments, devel-
oped for patrons or for
his own amusement.
His engineering genius,
however, could be
found in countless
sketches that sought
Art includes a flaw: to improve upon File carver, ca 1480
In Leonardo’s con- such elemental, every- Once wound, the machine func-
cept sketch, wheels The hammer, with tions automatically. A hammer is
day fixtures as the
would turn in sharp and change- lifted by a wheel, then dropped
opposite directions, screw, the wheel, able heads, leaves onto a file-shaped piece of metal
preventing motion. and the spring. cross-mark incisions. as it’s pushed forward by a screw.

Swing bridge, ca 1487-89

A movable wooden bridge
Stones counterbal- could be rotated 90 degrees
ance the bridge’s around a stationary pole
weight until it comes to allow boats to pass and
to rest onshore. to block enemy forces.

Codex Atlanticus,
Codex Atlanticus, f 855r
f 149 Br

He specified that
the armature should
be composed of
strips of wooden
beams, joined for
better flexibility.
Range of designs
He invented or reimag-
ined a seemingly end- Crane Self-propelling Walk-on-water Theater Vertical Hydraulic
less array of machines. cart shoes stage set drill saw

Roller bearing, ca 1497 Spiral gear, ca 1499 Spring

He grasped that friction lim- Leonardo conceived of a spiral
its the transfer of motion. gear that would keep a spring
His roller bearings were an powerful throughout its
ingenious method to reduce unwinding, an issue that had
friction between surfaces. been problematic in clocks.
instead softening the edges of figures and objects in a technique known
as sfumato. Optics and geometry led to a sophisticated sense of perspec-
tive, exemplified in “The Last Supper.” Acute observations allowed him
to depict emotional depth in the people he painted, who appear sentient
rather than stiff.
Leonardo’s inventiveness, however, came at a price. He irked his patrons
with incessant delays, and many of his works went unfinished, including
“The Adoration of the Magi” and “The Virgin and Child With Saint Anne.”
Scholars have attributed this to his exuberance for new subjects and his
perfectionism. It was also because the challenge of doing outweighed the
expectation of getting it done. For Leonardo, it’s all about process, says
Carmen Bambach, curator of drawings and prints at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York. “It’s not really about the endgame.”
Indeed the more knowledge Leonardo acquired through the studies in
his notebooks, the more difficult it became to see a finish line in his art.
“As he kept painting,” Bambach explains, “he understood that you could
create such infinitesimal gradations of tone and transition from the highest,
most intense highlight to the deepest shadow.” X-ray analyses of Leonardo’s
work reveal copious revisions, known as pentimenti. Infinity became a very
real concept that took on practical implications: There was always more to
learn. “In many ways, intellectually, this is an unending process,” she says.
This may help explain why Leonardo never published his notebooks. He
intended to complete treatises on many subjects, including geology and
anatomy. Instead his sketches and manuscripts were left to his faithful
companion Melzi to sort through. In the decades after Leonardo’s death,
two-thirds to three-quarters of his original pages were likely pilfered or
lost. It was not until the late 18th century that most of the surviving pages
began to be published—more than 200 years after he died. As a result,
Laurenza says, “we know very little about Leonardo’s legacy as a scientist.”
Leonardo’s inquiries, postulations, and discoveries were entrusted to
those who followed. Centuries later we’re still catching up with him.

THE LEGACY of Leonardo’s notebooks is palpable today. J. Calvin LEONARDO

Coffey, foundation chair of surgery at the University of Limerick’s Graduate
Entry Medical School in Ireland, was conducting research a number of years
ago when he made an astounding discovery: An observation by Leonardo, The
circa 1508, confirmed a theory he was trying to validate. Coffey studies
the mesentery, a fan-shaped structure that connects the small and large
intestines to the back wall of the abdomen. Since the publication of Gray’s
Anatomy in 1858 (then called Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical), students
Inventor
Leonardo filled his
notebooks with inven-
have been taught that the mesentery is composed of several separate struc- tions that were never
tures. But while performing an increasing number of colorectal surgeries, built, including this
Coffey had begun to suspect that the mesentery was one continuous organ. apparatus designed to
allow divers to breathe
As he and his colleagues homed in on the structure’s anatomy to prove underwater. A pacifist,
this hypothesis, Coffey found a drawing by Leonardo depicting the mes- Leonardo stated that
entery as an uninterrupted structure. Coffey remembers the moment he wouldn’t divulge
how to make his under-
distinctly. Initially, he glanced at it and turned away. Then he looked again. water devices “by rea-
“I was absolutely astonished at what I saw,” he says. “It correlated exactly son of the evil nature
with what we were seeing. It’s just an absolute masterpiece.” of men.” He feared
that such contrap-
In one overview of his team’s findings, published in 2015, Coffey included tions might be used to
Leonardo’s drawing and credited him in the text: “We now know that da destroy ships and kill
Vinci’s interpretation was correct.” Coffey shows a slide of Leonardo’s sketch the people aboard.
BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD/
in his scientific presentations, marveling at his ability to dissect the organ in BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

82 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
T H E I N V E N T O R T O D AY

Though rudimentary,
Leonardo’s underwater
designs foreshadowed
equipment used by the
military today. In the
port city of Messina
a member of the Italian
Navy’s special forces
trains in a pressurized
diving suit that can
reach depths of almost
a thousand feet.
 its entirety, a feat complicated by the complex layering of the structure. “He
was so honest in his interpretation of nature and biology,” Coffey says. “Even
today, you will have surgeons who will not be able to replicate what he did.”
Leonardo’s visual acuity was driven by his abiding faith in nature’s
design, whether a tree root or a hippopotamus. Human ingenuity, he
wrote, “will never devise any inventions more beautiful, nor more simple,
nor more to the purpose than Nature does; because in her inventions
nothing is wanting, and nothing is superfluous.” Every artery, every tissue,
every organ existed for a purpose—a revelation that changed the course
of Francis Charles Wells’s career.
Wells, senior cardiac surgeon at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge,
England, happened upon an exhibition of Leonardo’s anatomical drawings
at the Royal Academy of Arts in the Piccadilly neighborhood of London
in 1977. The entry fee was one British pound; the payoff, immeasurable.
“It just blew me away,” he says.
Wells was stunned by the scope of the artist’s investigations. After
dissecting the body of a 100-year-old man, Leonardo presented the first
description of atherosclerosis in medical history. “This coat on the vessels
acts in man as it does in oranges,” he wrote, “in which as the peel thickens
so the pulp diminishes the older they become.”
His research on heart valves, Wells’s specialty, was just as prescient. To
understand how they work, Leonardo designed a glass model of the aortic

T O D AY
At home in Kraków,
Poland, Zubrzycki plays
the viola organista he
crafted, inspired by
LEONARDO
Leonardo. A pedal acti-
vates four circular bows

The covered in horsehair,

which rub against
the strings to create
a melodious sound.

Musician
A gifted musician,
Leonardo researched
acoustics, sang, and
improvised melodies
on his lira da braccio
(a bowed Renaissance
stringed instrument).
He also designed
a range of musical
instruments, includ-
ing drums, bells, and
woodwinds. Here, he
brainstormed ideas
for a keyboard-string
combination known
as a viola organista.
Sławomir Zubrzycki,
who later built a viola
organista, says Leo-
nardo “designed a per-
fect instrument.”
VENERANDA BIBLIOTECA
AMBROSIANA/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
LEONARDO

The
Cartographer
Leonardo was com-
missioned to design
maps for civil and
military purposes. This
depiction of a region in
Tuscany demonstrates
his ability to communi-
cate geographic infor-
mation through artistry.
Centuries before aerial
photography and high-
tech programming
revolutionized cartog-
raphy, Leonardo cre-
ated bird’s-eye views of
cities and landscapes.
ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST/© HER
MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2018
valve filled with water and grass seeds, allowing him to conceptualize
patterns of blood flow and how the valves open and close, details of which
were finally confirmed in the 1960s.
More than anything, Leonardo’s sketches opened Wells’s eyes to the
exquisite logic of the heart’s structure and mechanics—not just what
the organ looks like but also why it evolved the way it has. One autumn
morning Wells stands over a patient’s open chest in his Papworth operating
theater and motions me closer.
“See it? It’s astonishing,” he says, pointing to the mitral valve. “Think of
the complexity that the body has to go through to make this valve.” Wells’s
surgical approach is guided by the maxim he learned from Leonardo: Each
part of the valve’s complex makeup—its leaflets, cords, and papillary mus-
cles—is meant to be there, designed to sustain the forces thrust upon it.
This has fundamentally shaped the way Wells fixes ailing valves. “You see
that little thing in my forceps? That’s the ruptured cord,” he says. “That’s
the source of the problem.” Wells could opt to remove the entire valve and
replace it with an artificial model, an approach favored by many surgeons.
Instead I watch as he painstakingly replaces every cord with Gore-Tex
sutures, preserving as much of the original structure as he can. Leonardo
could not predict a surgical approach, but he taught Wells to look carefully,
to stop and think, and to fully embrace the valve’s inherent and master-
ful ability to do its job, a capability Wells seeks to retain in every cardiac
operation he performs. “That was the paradigm shift,” says Wells, who
collected his insights in a 256-page book, The Heart of Leonardo.
A continent away, Leonardo’s Codex on the Flight of Birds has perme-
ated the Stanford University Bio-Inspired Research and Design (BIRD)
lab of David Lentink, a biologist and mechanical engineer. When I visit,
Lentink hands me a piece of paper with queries explored by Leonardo
that he and his 10 graduate students are still trying to answer: How does
wing motion in air result in thrust? How do birds’ muscles control the

T H E C A RT O G R A P H E R
T O D AY
The Virginia-based
National Geospatial-
Intelligence Agency
uses sophisticated
technology to collect
data about physical
features. NGA maps
provide critical infor-
mation during disas-
ters. Here, screens
show high-resolution
images of Antarctica.
flapping of their wings? How do birds glide? “All his questions are still
relevant,” Lentink says.
Lentink and his team have access to high-tech tools that even Leonardo
couldn’t have dreamed up. Sensors and high-speed photography allow
them to measure the amount of lift that birds generate in flight. A nearly
six-foot-long test section of a wind tunnel, which Lentink custom designed,
simulates smooth air as well as turbulence, providing clues about how
birds’ wings change shape during vastly different wind conditions.
One of the lab’s standout projects is a mechanical bird called PigeonBot,
which has feathered wings crafted by Laura Matloff and a radio control
system run by fellow grad student Eric Chang. Matloff used an x-ray micro-
scope, capable of measuring one-millionth of a meter, to determine the
characteristics of the feather surfaces and interactions between adjacent
feathers. The skeleton and pin joints, which attach the feathers, were
made on a 3D printer. PigeonBot is equipped with an accelerometer, a
gyroscope, a barometer, an airspeed sensor, a GPS, compasses, and radio
transceivers that transmit flight information to a laptop.
I meet the pair one cloudy morning in the hilly brush near Stanford for a
test flight. As Chang says, “Ready!” Matloff thrusts the robot into the air; we
watch it fly at about 10 meters a second until Chang brings it in for a landing.
PigeonBot isn’t just for show. Reverse engineering a bird allows scientists
to study flight mechanics in a step-by-step process and better understand
the function of each body part—something Leonardo couldn’t do. Modern
engineering may one day reward Leonardo’s ardent curiosity with answers
to the mysteries he pursued. “I think we’ll get there,” says Lentink.

JUST AS LEONARDO’S notebooks brim with bursts of clarity, they

also include more tentative musings that flicker with possibility. Drawings
contained in the Codex Atlanticus and several smaller notebooks prompted
Polish pianist Sławomir Zubrzycki to investigate. He hungered to hear Leo-
nardo’s music.
Among his many pursuits, Leonardo improvised melodies on the lira da
braccio, a Renaissance-era stringed instrument, and studied the intricacies
of acoustics and musical design in his notebooks. In 2009 Zubrzycki found
himself transfixed by sketches for a viola organista, a keyboard instrument
with bowed strings. Captivated by the possibility of one instrument fusing
two musical families, Zubrzycki set out to build it.
None of Leonardo’s drawings offer a detailed blueprint. For four years
Zubrzycki spent five hours a day researching and formulating his design.
He tested wood samples, resolved that he needed 61 keys, and puzzled out
how to build four circular bows covered in horsehair that could rub against
strings to create music. As he brought the instrument to life, Zubrzycki drew
on the same vital force that drove Leonardo: his imagination.
The result is spectacular. Painted in vivid blue with a red interior,
Zubrzycki’s gracefully crafted viola organista combines the polyphonic
capacity of a keyboard—allowing it to play multiple melodies at once—
with the sensitivity and emotive range of strings. In music, as in everything
else, Leonardo was never satisfied with the norm.
“He was interested in looking for the next possibility,” Zubrzycki says.
One summer evening, dressed in a formal waistcoat and polished black
shoes, he sits down to play a concert of Renaissance music at Kalmar Cas-
tle on the southern coast of Sweden. Although his viola organista looks
like a baby grand piano, it performs like a full-bodied string ensemble.

LEONARDO’S ENDURING BRILLIANCE 91

Resounding and joyful, the rich complexity of its sound evokes the lumi-
nescence of Leonardo’s paintings—a musical sfumato with soft edges
and lingering tones.
Leonardo ranked music as second only to painting, higher even than
sculpture, describing it as “figurazione delle cose invisibili,” the shaping of
the invisible. For the hundred-plus people in Zubrzycki’s audience, such an
exalted moment occurred in a castle as the sun began to set over the Baltic
Sea, when a few scribbles in Leonardo’s notebooks morphed into music.
Ute Goedecke and Per Mattsson, Swedish Renaissance musicians, were
deeply impressed and moved by Zubrzycki’s performance. Leonardo
“would have loved to see that somebody took his idea to the next stage,”
says Goedecke, “and made something real out of it.”

L EO N A R D O ’ S F I N A L FO R AY, in the fall of 1516, took him to

Amboise, France, where King Francis I, an enthusiastic admirer, offered
him a stipend and the freedom to create whatever he wished. At 64, Leo-
In the famed Carrara
nardo moved into a modest château, now known as Clos Lucé, with his quarries in northwest
many drawings and the three paintings he never parted with—“Saint John Italy—the place Michel-
the Baptist,” “The Virgin and Child With Saint Anne,” and the “Mona Lisa.” angelo visited five
centuries ago to select
From his bedroom window, Leonardo could see the king’s castle. Outside, marble for statues—
the colors and light of the Loire Valley echoed the vistas of his childhood. stands a sculpture of
During his years at Clos Lucé, Leonardo designed hydraulics for the king- Leonardo. This figure,
made by Torart,
dom, sketched plans for a new royal residence, and staged joyful celebra- an Italian company
tions for the king. Amid it all, he enjoyed simple pleasures: He ate soup. specializing in robotic
Before he died on May 2, 1519, at the age of 67, Leonardo completed a series sculpting, is a replica of
a 19th- century statue
of deluge drawings, depicting cataclysmic billows of wind and water. Ram- that keeps watch
paging vortices, executed mostly in black chalk, they surge with urgency under the portico of
and tumult. In the end Leonardo turned his eye, as always, to nature. the Uffizi Gallery.
Artisans use computer-
Today Clos Lucé is a living monument to Leonardo, set in a sprawling generated blueprints,
park filled with sage and other plants Leonardo sketched. Children play robotic scalpels, high-
on a parabolic swing bridge and a tortoiseshell-like armored tank, derived pressure water jets, and
their own handiwork
from Leonardo’s notebooks. Walking the grounds one sunlit day, François in reproductions and
Saint Bris, Clos Lucé’s director, says he hopes the place where Leonardo original pieces.
spent his final years will inspire next generations.
It’s a goal many share. New research is providing fodder for future schol-
ars. Laurenza and Kemp have collaborated on a fresh analysis of the Codex
Leicester, which reveals that it may have influenced the birth of modern
geology. And after more than two decades of meticulous research about
Leonardo’s life and work, the Met’s Bambach is publishing a four-volume
opus, Leonardo da Vinci Rediscovered.
Leonardo’s notebooks are starting to make their way to the greater public
too. Galluzzi is spearheading an elegant searchable database of the Codex
Atlanticus, the largest notebook. Isaacson imagines a day when all of them
will be fully translated and digitized by a single international consortium.
“Then we will see Leonardo in all of his glory,” he says.
Just as Leonardo saw no end to his pursuit of knowledge, his notebooks
are poised for rediscovery and posterity.
“I keep thinking I’ve finished with Leonardo,” says Kemp, who has stud-
ied and written about him for five decades. “He keeps coming back.” j

Claudia Kalb writes about the science and culture of genius. This is her third
collaboration with photographers Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti, who
live in Florence. Their cover story on Picasso appeared in the May 2018 issue.

92 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
L AST W I L D P L AC E S

A NEW DAY IN
 B y D AV I D Q U A M M E N
Photographs by
C H A R L I E H A M I LT O N J A M E S

MOZAMBIQUE
W I L D L I F E I N G O RO N G O SA
N AT I O N A L PA R K ,
D E C I M AT E D BY Y E A R S
O F C I V I L WA R ,
IS REBOUNDING.
THE ANIMALS’ FUTURE
D E P E N D S O N P ROV I D I N G
HOPE FOR THE PEOPLE
W H O L I V E N E A R BY.

95
Cradled in the southern
end of Africa’s Great
Rift Valley, Gorongosa’s
1,500 square miles span
mountainsides, plateau
forests, escarpment
canyons, palm savan-
nas, and wetlands.
The Bunga inselbergs—
ancient nubs of volca-
nic rock left behind by
the erosion of softer
surroundings—punctu-
ate the sweep of forest.

PREVIOUS PHOTO

A male elephant grabs

an evening snack in
Mozambique’s Goron-
gosa National Park.
Most of the park’s ele-
phants were killed
for their ivory, used to
buy weapons during
the nation’s 15-year
civil war, which ended
in 1992. With poaching
controlled, the popula-
tion is recovering.
African wild dogs
were lost entirely from
Gorongosa during the
war. With some prey
populations boom-
ing, the park needs
its native predators.
A pack of 14 wild dogs
from South Africa,
released in 2018,
now helps balance
the ecosystem.
White-faced whistling
ducks take flight above
a company of pelicans
and storks wading in
Gorongosa’s Sungué
River, which feeds the
park’s Lake Urema.
Even in the dry season,
the lake and its tributary
channels harbor abun-
dant birdlife.
 L AST W I L D P L AC E S

Gorongosa National Park is

a conservation partner of the
National Geographic Society’s
Last Wild Places initiative.

O N A WA R M M O R N I N Gat the end of the dry sea-

son, early November, a red and black Bell Jet
Ranger helicopter raced eastward above the
palm savanna of Mozambique’s Gorongosa
National Park.
Mike Pingo, a veteran pilot originally from
Zimbabwe, controlled the stick; Louis van Wyk,
a wildlife-capture specialist from South Africa,
dangled halfway out the right rear side holding a
long-muzzle gun loaded with a drug-filled dart.
Seated beside Pingo was Dominique Gonçalves,
a young Mozambican ecologist who serves as
elephant manager for the park.
More than 650 elephants now inhabit Goron-
gosa—a robust increase since the days of the
country’s civil war (1977-1992), when most of
the park’s elephants were butchered for ivory Jacinta Sainet
and meat to buy guns and ammunition. With Miquirosse tends a
the population rebounding, Gonçalves wanted cook fire at her home
on Mount Gorongosa.
a GPS collar on one mature female within each For decades, commu-
matriarchal group. nities on the moun-
Gonçalves picked a target animal from a group tain have scraped out
a meager living by cut-
running amid closely spaced palms, and Pingo ting trees to grow corn,
took the helicopter in as low as the trees permit- their staple crop. Now
ted. Ten elephants—adult females, small calves Miquirosse and her
neighbors are part of a
at their sides, subadults also staying close—fled park project that adds
the throbbing din of rotors. Van Wyk, forced to coffee as a cash crop to
make a longer shot than usual, nevertheless put their farms, helping to
reforest the mountain
his dart into the chosen female’s right buttock. with shade trees in
Pingo landed, and the other two jumped out, the process.
clambering through trampled grass toward the
sedated elephant. Moments later a ground team
arrived with heavier supplies, technical helpers,
and an armed ranger. Gonçalves placed a small
stick in the end of the elephant’s trunk, propping

102 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
it open for unimpeded breath. The animal, that would be used to analyze the elephant’s
sprawled on her right side, began snoring loudly. diet. The elephant’s great flank heaved up and
One technician drew a blood sample from a vein down gently in rhythm with the trombonic
in the left ear. Another helped van Wyk scooch susurrus from her trunk.
the collar under the elephant’s neck. “Louie, can you tell if she’s pregnant?’
Gonçalves, wearing medical gloves, took a Gonçalves asked.
swab of saliva from the animal’s mouth and a “She’s due soon,” van Wyk said, noting the
rectal swab from the rear, sealing them both into watery milk leaking from the elephant’s dis-
vials. She pulled a long plastic sleeve onto her left tended breasts.
arm and reached deep up the elephant’s rectum, The growth of the elephant population is only
bringing out a handful of fibrous, ocher poop part of the encouraging news from Gorongosa.
Most of the big fauna, including lions, African
buffalo, hippos, and wildebeests, are vastly more
This article is supported by the Wyss Campaign numerous now than in 1994, shortly after the
for Nature, which is working with the National
Geographic Society and others across the globe to war. In the realm of conservation, where too
help protect 30 percent of our planet by 2030. many indicators herald gloom and despair,

A N E W D AY I N M O Z A M B I Q U E 103
success on such a large scale is rare.
Van Wyk finished fitting the collar and
Gonçalves packed up her samples. Van Wyk
injected a wake-up drug into an ear vein, and
the crew backed off to a safe distance. After a
minute, the elephant stood, gave her head a
groggy shake, and strode away to rejoin her
group. Tracking data from the collar will tell
Gonçalves and her colleagues how the elephants
move across the landscape—and alert them
when the group is crossing a park boundary
toward a farmer’s field, so the farmer can take
steps to save the crops.
This is how it’s done in the Gorongosa Resto-
ration Project, a partnership launched in 2004
between the Mozambican government and the
U.S.-based Gregory C. Carr Foundation. For ele-
phants and hippos and lions to thrive within
a park boundary, you need to ensure that the
humans who live outside the boundary thrive too.

a floodplain at the south end

S T R E TC H I N G AC RO S S
of Africa’s Great Rift Valley, encompassing savan-
nas, woodlands, wetlands, and a wide pan of
water called Lake Urema, Gorongosa was once a
hunting reserve: Portuguese colonial administra-
tors established it in 1921 for their sporting plea-
sure by removing the people who once shared the
landscape with wildlife. In 1960, when first des-
ignated a national park, it harbored about 2,200
elephants, 200 lions, and 14,000 African buffalo, lived in what planners now call the buffer zone—
as well as hippos, impalas, zebras, wildebeests, mostly families growing corn and other subsis-
eland, and other iconic African fauna. tence crops, barely able to feed themselves, their
But its remoteness became its undoing. In the children shorted on education and health care.
ruinous 15-year civil war that followed indepen- When the soil tired and the corn failed to thrive,
dence in 1975, Gorongosa served as a refuge for the farmers would cut forest, burn the slash, and
the right-wing RENAMO, or Resistência Nacio- try again on a new patch. Eventually their cutting
nal Moçambicana, rebel forces who received mil- and planting expanded from the lower slopes of
itary support from neighboring Rhodesia (now Mount Gorongosa—a granite massif that looms
Zimbabwe) and South Africa. When government 6,112 feet above the western boundary of the
troops came to challenge them, there was fight- park—to the higher, wetter zones. Once topped
ing on the ground, rocket shelling of the park by thick rainforest, the mountain is the source
headquarters, carnage across the savanna. In for the Vunduzi River, which carries water to the
addition to the elephant slaughter, thousands of park and its rich floodplain. By the start of the 21st
zebras and other big animals were killed for food century, large swaths of forest on the mountain
or trigger-happy amusement. A cease-fire halted and elsewhere throughout the 2,000-square-mile
the war in 1992, but poaching by professional buffer zone had been stripped away.
hunters continued, and people in surround- The beginning of the end to this cycle of des-
ing communities set traps for whatever edible peration and loss came in 2004, when the presi-
animals remained. By the turn of the century, dent of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, visited
Gorongosa National Park had been wrecked. Harvard University for a lecture at the invita-
Circumstances were just as grim on the lands tion of an American named Greg Carr. In 1986
surrounding the park. About 100,000 people Carr and a friend had created a company called

104 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 LEFT

Gorongosa Girls’ Clubs,

such as this one in
the farming village of
Mussinhá, meet daily
before or after school
in settlements around
the park, engaging
more than 2,000 girls.
Club activities focus
on literacy, reproduc-
tive health, and play—
and help keep girls
in school. Their songs
promote education,
children’s rights, and
ways to avoid HIV/AIDS.

BELOW
The park’s ranger
force—261 at present—
includes 11 women,
and more are being
recruited. Patrols such
as this one get orders
via text each morn-
ing and make sweeps,
scouting for snares and
deterring poachers.

A N E W D AY I N M O Z A M B I Q U E 105
Late in the dry season,
a remnant pool in the
Mussicadzi River chan-
nel attracts a mob of
hungry birds, including
storks, egrets, and ham-
merkops, along with a
couple of thirsty water-
buck. Gorongosa’s avian
richness swells further
in the wet season, when
nomads arrive to feed.
 MEASURING SUCCESS
Predators Returning Kee
5,867
SPECIES DOCUMENTED
The year 2018 saw 30 new lion cubs, the first
leopard sighting in a decade, and the reintro-
duction of a pack of African wild dogs. Some
The Go
conduc
of an a
species of prey are overabundant due to mile ar
In addition to aerial counts, the low predator numbers. But recent lion- 2018 numbe
park began to conduct annual tracking data indicate that efforts to SURVEY in from
biodiversity surveys in 2013 to AREA
restore the balance are working. parts o
catalog all of its species. Nota- FL
IG 58 waterbuck
HT
ble finds: the “Chewbacca bat” PA counted in four
TH aerial photos 13,286
and a cave-dwelling frog. Range PARK
BOUNDARY
Sungwe lion pride
Flavia is an adult lion from the

4,800
Sungwe Pride, collared in 2015.
When the park first began G O R O N G O S A
tracking lions, a cluster of 1972
VISITORS IN 2018 GPS points (showing reduced
Renewed conflict from 2014 movement) usually indicated a Buffalo
to 2016 in central Mozambique snared lion. Now, with increased Buffalo

Vu
nd parks w
halted what had been a rise law enforcement, clusters more uz
in visitor numbers. With a tenta- often reveal an encouraging sit- i to bols
tive cease-fire, tourists are uation: lionesses raising cubs. numbe
slowly returning to Gorongosa. were ke
Flavia sanctua
April 20, 2015
The lioness is collared
N A T I O N A L herd g

21,027
in 2014
at the lion house.
June 15, 2016 fences
She gives birth to three cubs. Lion house let the
(abandoned 1940s
SNARES AND TRAPS April 20, 2018
She gives birth to four cubs
SUNGWE structure)
CONFISCATED Sun
and later adopts another PRIDE gu é
Snares and steel-jaw traps 8 females
from an older lioness. 2 males Lake
remain the primary threat to September 10, 2018 8 cubs Urema
lions. Some 1,700 snares and 3,483
Flavia teaches her cubs i
P A R K
dz

traps were also voluntarily how to kill a waterbuck. 1

ica

5 3
surrendered in the collection October 29, 2018 2
u ss

effort beginning in 2015. The African wild dogs 4 Hippos

M

come near her cubs; A sepa

she chases them off. Vunduz

50
March 29, 2018 also in
Leopard sighting June 15, 2018 than 50
Ur
African wild dog
Chitengo
em
WILDLIFE pack released first tim
Camp
a
GIRLS’ CLUBS Range SANCTUARY civil wa
Serving 2,000 girls in the African wild dogs
( UNFENCED IN 2014 ) were m
buffer zone, these before- When they were pos thr
oè
and after-school programs brought to Gorongosa P ú ng
teach important life skills in April 2018, most of
that help girls stay in school the wild dogs didn’t 0 mi 4

and avoid child marriage. know each other. To 0 km 4

ensure they bonded Betty
53-year-old
together as a pack, the Waterbuck counted 2,542
female,

617
park kept them in an from aerial photos, no tusks
enclosure for two months. October 2018

October 21, 2018

Elepha
LOCALS EMPLOYED 250 50 5 1 waterbuck
100 10
Most p
ún
P

The project also supports Waterbuck go killed f

375 community health workers, The park was once dominated è during
1,200 Girls’ Club promoters by buffalo; now waterbuck are 57,016 GPS collars help the Dora 544 ele
40-year-old
and madrinhas (volunteer the most abundant herbivore, park reduce human- female
but the
“godmothers”), and 5,000 accounting for 63 percent of elephant conflict. Rangers with tusks to 650,
small farmers. the park’s animal biomass. With got a text alert when two female
few predators and improved collared females, Betty were h
water access, the large antelope 3,372
and Dora, and their herds
2,200
species is thriving along the entered farmland across the October 13, 2018
park’s lakes and rivers. 1972 C I V I L WA R 2002 2018 Púngoè and Urema Rivers.
TURNING POINTS
July 23, 1960 Last aerial Greg Carr’s first visit; Mobile Mount Gorongosa
Gorongosa National Park established survey before Gorongosa Restoration Wildlife repopulation health clinics added to the park; E.O. Wilson
WA R FO R restoration Project begins effort begins launch buffer zone established Biodiversity Lab
I NDE PEND ENC E C IV I L WA R

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2000 2002 2004 2008 2012
1972 aerial First health clinic Tourist bungalows Community
wildlife survey and school built open at Chitengo Camp Education Center built
eping Count
orongosa Restoration Project
cts biennial helicopter surveys
Individuals counted
during 2018
helicopter survey
STRIKING A BALANCE
The wildlife of Gorongosa National Park was decimated during Mozambique’s
approximately 750-square-
250
rea to track growing wildlife 1977-1992 civil war and the desperate years that followed. Now Mozambican
ers as animals are brought 100
and international conservationists are bringing the park back to life by bol-
m South Africa and other 10
of Mozambique. 1 stering the animal population and improving human lives by opening schools,
clinics, and promoting sustainable farming in nearby communities.

BUFFER
ZONE

90 1,021

2002 2018

ey
o
o from other African

ll
M OUNT a
were introduced G ORONG OSA

m
re
Va
ster Gorongosa’s (GORONGOSA N. P.) U
6,112 ft
ers. Initially they 1,863 m
ept in an enclosed Chitengo Camp Coffee Murombodzi Vunduzi
ary. Once the first waterfall
plantation PARK
rew large enough, ha BOUNDARY

N
4, the sanctuary ndugue
were opened to 210 buffalo u Bunga Inselbergs
e a
buffalo roam. released
between 2006
and 2011
at
Pl

Northern

t
Vu headquarters
du

Rif
n
zi (PROPOSED)
Vila Gorongosa
160 546

s GORONGOSA
ruè

rate flight down the 5 hippos

zi and Urema Rivers, released
in 2008
Bá

2018, counted more

00 hippos for the
NATIONAL
me since before the
ar. Back then, there
zi
more than 3,000 hip- ad Lake PARK
c

Urema
ssi

riving in the park. Community

Mu

Education Muanza
Center Camp
Mussinhá Muzimu
New Facilities Chitengo
WILDLIFE Camp
Clinic SANCTUARY
School E.O.Wilson
Park Biodiversity Lab
Well
entrance
Agriculture project
U rema

300 650

eau
Ranger post 2018
Mecombezi Púng SURVEY
nts oè
t

0 mi 8 Ponte Vinho AREA

Plat
Grea

park elephants were 6 elephants 0 km 8 Enlarged

or their ivory and meat released at left
in 2008
the war. Last October
ephants were counted, AFRICA
ma

e true figure is closer

, as six collared Za MOZAMBIQUE
ngo

es and their families

m

12 AREA
be z

iding in vegetation. ENLARGED

i

eri

Pú GORONGOSA Proposed MARROMEU The park began

ng N.P. corridor NAT. RESERVE managing Hunting
Ch

oè Muanza Reserve 12 in 2017. By

working with nearby
I N DI A N communities, plan-
Buffer O CE A N ners hope to create a
14 African wild dogs 0 mi 30 zone wildlife corridor from
b opens reintroduced
0 km 30 Hunting reserve Mount Gorongosa
to the Indian Ocean.
2016 2020 POPULATION ESTIMATES BASED ON GROUND AND AERIAL SURVEY COUNTS.
RYAN T. WILLIAMS, NGM STAFF; JAMES CHESHIRE AND OLIVER UBERTI
Long-term agreement SOURCES: PAOLA BOULEY, DOMINIQUE GONÇALVES, VASCO GALANTE,
with Carr Foundation renewed PIOTR NASKRECKI, AND MARC STALMANS, GORONGOSA NATIONAL PARK
Boston Technology, which presciently offered The Girls’ Club of Mecombezi Ponte is one
ways to connect telephone systems with com- of 50 clubs organized and sponsored by the
puters. Another successful enterprise followed, park to augment daily school sessions for some
and by 1998, not yet 40, Carr found himself on 2,000 girls throughout the buffer zone. Mon-
the receiving end of an $800 million deal. “My day, Wednesday, and Friday focus on literacy.
hobby was to read paperbacks that I could buy for Tuesday’s agenda is health and reproduction.
five bucks,” he told me during a conversation at Thursdays, as Carr and I saw, are devoted to play.
Gorongosa. “It was more money than I needed.” The women clapped and sang while the girls
He established the Carr Foundation, a philan- gleefully took turns in the twirling rope. Carr,
thropic entity, before he knew for certain what sporting a T-shirt, shorts, and a two-day growth
its purpose would be. But the works of Edward O. of beard, joined the line of girls and gamely tried
Wilson had awakened in him a keen interest in to jump rope. The girls were better.
conservation. At the same time, he was immers- Carr regards the Girls’ Clubs as a critical part
ing himself in the study of human rights and its of the Gorongosa National Park resurrection.
great prophets and advocates, including Nelson Deterring men from hunting the park’s wild-
Mandela. These two lines of study converged later life—through alternative livelihoods as well as
when Carr learned that Mandela, by then presi- ranger enforcement—is important but insuf-
dent of South Africa, was collaborating with his ficient. Women are the fulcrum. If the human
fellow president, just across the border in Mozam- population in the buffer zone continues to grow
bique, to create “peace parks”—trans-boundary unabated, by way of early marriage of girls and
national parks for the conservation of wildlife and large families, no effort within the park boundar-
the benefit of local people. ies will be sufficient to protect its landscape and
“President Chissano loved national parks,” Carr fauna. “But if girls are in school and women have
said, and during Carr’s first visit to the place, in opportunities,” Carr said, “then they will have
2004, “he invites me to restore Gorongosa.” two-child families.” It’s not an imposed solution.
Three years later, Carr signed a long-term It’s part of a phenomenon resulting from women’s
agreement with the government. He would bring empowerment. “This is where human develop-
to the challenge not just his financial resources ment and conservation merge,” he added. “Rights
and management acumen but also a shared for women and children, poverty alleviation—is
vision that Gorongosa could become a “human what Africa needs to save its national parks.”
rights park.” That meant generating tangible Before departing, we witnessed a small cere-
benefits for the local people around it—in health mony. A sixth grader named Helena Francisco
care, education, agronomy, economic develop- Tequesse stepped forward and, from a laminated
ment—as well as protecting its landscape, its card, read a declaration of 10 rights and 10 duties
waters, its biological diversity in all forms. The of children. “Children have the right to be fed
National Geographic Society also funds conser- and a duty not to waste food,” she read. “Chil-
vation and science in and around the park, as dren have the right to live in a healthy environ-
well as community development and women’s ment and a duty to care for the environment.”
education and empowerment projects. “This is really exciting,” Carr said. “When I
came here, the percentage of women in the buf-
in April, nine
O N A W E T T H U R S D AY M O R N I N G fer zone who could read—zero.” He asked the
little girls jumped rope beneath a sheltering tree girls to say what they wanted to be when they
in Mecombezi Ponte, a village about 20 miles grew up. Each stepped into the dirt circle, said
from the park. They wore dark blue T-shirts with her name, and answered with poise: a nurse, a
“Rapariga do Clube” (Club Girl) emblazoned on midwife, a teacher, another nurse, a police offi-
the back and a small round seal saying “Parque cer. By now, with the rain finished and the morn-
Nacional da Gorongosa” on the front. In a semi- ing turned sunny, the group had grown to about
circle around the girls stood 10 madrinhas, or 30 girls and madrinhas. As we left, they resumed
volunteer “godmothers,” giving their time and clapping and singing and dancing.
quiet vigilance to help protect these young girls
from the jeopardies they face: forced early mar- THOUGH IT LIES outside the park’s original
riage, frequent pregnancies, bad health, and boundary, Mount Gorongosa is an indispensable
truncated education. part of the Gorongosa ecosystem. The mountain

112 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
not only captures rainfall and delivers it to the felled by RENAMO soldiers to block the road and
park’s floodplain, it also adds a diversity of alti- thwart government vehicles, had been pulled
tude, climate, soil, vegetation, and wildlife to aside and left rotting. Slightly higher, we reached
the greater Gorongosa whole. In 1969 a South the hospitable elevation for coffee.
African ecologist named Ken Tinley proposed “This mountain has got a fantastic environ-
that the mountain, as well as the plateau and ment,” Haarhoff said. Good humidity, tempera-
coastal habitats stretching eastward from the tures are cool and don’t fluctuate greatly, and
park border, also richly various, be combined there’s no frost. “You try to do this in Zimbabwe,
into a single integrated management area. and your coffee would be dead by now.”
Tinley’s idea has taken hold as the “moun- Growing coffee beans and restoring forest in
tain to mangroves” vision of Gorongosa. In 2010 an on-again, off-again war zone is still daunting.
the highlands of Mount Gorongosa (above 700 But the local farmers embrace the enterprise—as
meters, or about 3,000 feet) became part of the evidenced by the women who came out at night
park. That mountaintop encompasses the source and watered the young coffee plants even during
of the Vunduzi as well as some remote forest the renewed fighting in 2014. Those plants sur-
(still held by rebels, despite the most recent vived and now flourish, along with many more.
cease-fire), but across the lower elevations local We parked the Jeep and proceeded by foot,
people continued cutting, burning, and farming. crossing a small river on stepping-stones and
They had little choice. inspecting a tree-shaded nursery of 260,000

T H E PA R K N OW E M P L OY S 1 8 0 P E O P L E
I N I T S C O F F E E P R O J E C T, W H I C H A I M S T O T E A C H R E S I D E N T S H O W T O

R A I S E A C A S H C RO P T H AT W I L L P ROV I D E A S TA B L E I N C O M E .

Soon afterward, the park’s forestry manager—a coffee starts, each one growing from a scoop of
Mozambican named Pedro Muagura—made a soil in a potlike plastic sleeve. Farther upslope,
suggestion at a meeting: Why not grow coffee we moved amid producing trees, bush-size
on mountainside plots that have already been and healthy, planted in cross-slope rows and
deforested? It could be shade-grown, beneath shaded by acacias and other trees. The park
replanted native trees, giving local people a bit of now employs 180 people on this work, Haarhoff
income as well as restoring the forest. Muagura explained, as a demonstration project. The plan
fought off initial skepticism and is now the war- is to show how it’s done—coffee plants, shaded
den of the park. And his coffee idea, despite a by native trees, mulched with compost, weeded
flare-up of the war in 2014-16, when government by hand, with vegetables, fruits, and legumes as
forces advanced up the mountain to attack the secondary crops between the rows—and then to
rebel holdout, is blooming nicely. supply training, tools, coffee starts, and seeds,
Quentin Haarhoff, the park’s chief coffee and to offer a good price for the harvested cof-
expert, farmed coffee in Zimbabwe—until the fee, which is bought by Produtos Naturais, a
day, he told me, when President Robert Mugabe natural-products enterprise within the park’s
made white farmers unwelcome, and he left at sustainable finance division.
the point of a Kalashnikov rifle. We were driving Produtos Naturais processes the coffee at its
up to the coffee project area on a steep two-track new factory nearby and markets the roasted
that climbs the massif’s southern slope, passing beans to Mozambican wholesalers. The cof-
fields of sorghum and corn, a few houses and fee and other premium cash crops (such as
huts, a patch of pineapples. Big hardwood trees, cashews) will give local people better livelihoods

A N E W D AY I N M O Z A M B I Q U E 113
After a few years
of acclimation and
breeding in a fenced
sanctuary, zebras load
into a trailer to travel
to a release site in the
park, where they’ll
face the freedom and
peril of the wild. The
park’s population was
almost eliminated
during the war.
One of two male lions
known as the Senators
lies tranquilized for
a change of collar,
while ranger Cubalua
Joaquim watches for
elephants and other
lions. Vet-in-training
Mercia Angela (with
antenna) and Victoria
Grant, a U.S. researcher,
have administered
vaccinations.
and wean farmers away from slash-and-burn
corn, thereby not just protecting what’s left of
the mountain forest but also reforesting areas
that have been cut. “I’m not a scientist,” said
Haarhoff, “but the birds have come back; the
bees have come back. You can just see nature
breathing a sigh of relief.”

but its sighs of relief, its

N AT U R E I S R E S I L I E N T,
trends of recovery and resurgence, require more
than reforestation of mountainsides and protec-
tions against poaching. A pack of African wild
dogs (a native predator, lost during the war)
was released into the park in 2018, after weeks
of acclimation in a large pen. A small herd of
zebras also trotted cautiously from their corral
into a trailer and then into the wild. And a soli-
tary leopard was spotted.
Black rhinos once roamed Gorongosa as well,
but that difficult reintroduction, with high risks Dominique Gonçalves,
of attracting commercial poachers, will have to a young Mozambican
ecologist and National
wait. Full recovery takes time and space. The time Geographic fellow, runs
dimension is recognized in a long-term agree- Gorongosa’s elephant
ment between Carr’s group and the government, program. The park’s
scientists and manag-
renewed in 2018 for 25 years. Of course, even 25 ers are multinational,
years is just a beginning in ecological terms. but more and more
The significance of space—bigger protected Mozambicans are
filling leadership roles.
areas generally embrace more diversity and The place is evolving
greater ecological wholeness—helps explain toward the guiding
why Carr and his colleagues, including partners vision of a “human
rights park,” serving
within the Mozambican government, favor fur- nature and people,
ther enlarging Gorongosa in line with that early overseen by Mozambi-
mountain-to-mangroves model. They envision cans, shared with
the world.
a greater Gorongosa ecosystem—all of it pro-
tected or sustainably managed, encompassing
successful farmers and other local enterprises—
connecting Mount Gorongosa in the west, the
park in the southern Rift Valley, large blocks of huge round numbers: 10,000 elephants, 1,000
hardwood forest on the Cheringoma Plateau lions. As for buffalo, maybe 50,000.
just east of the valley, and the unique coastal “Difficult but doable,” Carr added. “I like the
woodlands and swamps on the south side of the idea that it’s just on the edge of possible.”
Zambezi River Delta. The coastal piece of that “Difficult” is an understatement. The latest
puzzle already enjoys some protection as Mar- aerial count of wildlife in the park, in October
romeu National Reserve, a soggy and roadless 2018, revealed continuing increases for many
wilderness rich with African buffalo and birds. species—buffalo up, kudu up, impala way up.
On another fine morning, Carr and I lifted off In addition to the reintroduction of African wild
in the JetRanger with Marc Stalmans, director of dogs, populations of zebras, wildebeests, and
the park’s science department, and headed east eland have grown. Patrol sweeps by rangers—261
toward Marromeu, passing low over savanna, of them, including a small but growing number of
then palm forest, then the thicker forest of the women—have kept poaching to a minimum. The
plateau. Flying over this landscape in 50 years, latest counts show that Carr’s goals are a long way
Carr said, Dominique Gonçalves or someone off, but if the edge of the possible can ever be real-
else of her generation would see wildlife in ized, it will be here, in Gorongosa National Park.

118 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 Pingo lowered the helicopter onto the beach station, together anchoring the great sweep of
at Marromeu, and during a brief stop there, he variegated ecosystem: the mountain, the valley,
and Stalmans and I talked about African buf- the lake, the plateau, the coastal wetlands, the
falo while Carr wandered off. Buffalo need grass, mangroves, the beach.
water, and occasionally shade, Stalmans said, “Put it together,” Carr enthused, “and you’ve
but not much else. Before the civil war, there got something extraordinary.”
were 55,000 here in the Marromeu National We climbed back into the helicopter. Whirling
Reserve. After the war, just 2,000. And those off, we passed above a sizable herd of buffalo,
2,000 buffalo survived only because the soggy dark and sleek and each with a couple of egrets,
coastal terrain made them so hard to hunt. blazing white, perched on its back. The birds
By this time, we noticed that Carr had ditched rose up and away, spooked by our noise, like a
his shoes and waded far out into the surf, nudg- flock of guardian angels returning to base. j
ing at limits, as he often does, like a little kid.
Returning, he started to conjure a beach lodge, David Quammen’s latest book is The Tangled
Tree: A Radical New History of Life. Charlie Hamil-
right at this site, bringing tourists to enjoy the ton James specializes in wildlife and conservation
coast and the wildlife, plus a marine research issues, particularly in Africa and South America.

A N E W D AY I N M O Z A M B I Q U E 119
 INTO
THE
FIRE

120
 E AC H S U M M E R , E L I T E T E A M S K N OW N A S S M O K E J U M P E R S PA R AC H U T E
I N T O A L A S K A’ S B A C K C O U N T R Y I N A D A N G E R O U S R A C E T O F I G H T R E M O T E F I R E S .

BY MARK JENKINS
P H OTO G RA P H S BY
MARK THIESSEN
PREVIOUS PHOTO THIS PHOTO
Matt Oakleaf, camera A Fire Boss plane
mounted on his gear dumps water to aid a
bag, drops behind the ground crew fighting
rest of his team to a Fire 320 in the Brooks
landing site near smol- Range in June 2016.
dering boreal forest. The single-engine
Jumpers can put on 100 plane is fitted with
pounds of gear and get pontoons that can slurp
on a plane in minutes. up and disgorge 800
Their mission: extin- gallons every few
guish fires before they minutes—here from
rage out of control. nearby Iniakuk Lake.
Derek Patton, left,
and Spencer Robertson
pause after knocking
down Fire 323, ignited
by a lightning strike
near Bettles, Alaska.
About 10 out of more
than a hundred appli-
cants are selected for
Alaska smokejumper
training each year.
Candidates must
already have wildland
firefighting experience. 
 THE SUN IS STILL HIGH
IN THE ALASKAN
SUMMER SKY
WHEN THE CALL
COMES IN AT
9:47 P.M.
race
S I R E N S WA I L , A N D E I G H T S M O K E J U M P E R S the other leg holds energy bars and a 150-foot
to the suit-up racks. Already in logger’s boots, rope, plus a rappel device in case of a treetop
dark green pants, and bright yellow shirts, each landing. An oversize butt pouch contains a tent
man practically leaps into his Kevlar jumpsuit. and a stuff sack for the parachute.
“First load to the box!” a voice blares over Other smokejumpers quickly surround them,
the intercom. Itchy, Bloemker, O’Brien, Dib- helping the men put on their main parachutes and
ert, Swisher, Koby, Swan, Karp, and Cramer are reserve chutes. Then each man grabs his jump
the men at the top of the jump list. All evening helmet—fitted with a cage-like mask to protect
they’ve mostly been hanging around the oper- his face during a descent through branches—and
ations desk at their base at Fort Wainwright, his personal gear bag, which holds a liter of water,
cracking jokes and razzing each other, anxiously leather gloves, hard hat, flares for lighting back-
and excitedly waiting for their turn to leap out of fires, knife, compass, radio, and special aluminum
a plane to fight a backcountry forest fire. sack that serves as a last-resort fire shelter.
Now they have exactly two minutes to suit up Two minutes after the siren, they are waddling
and be on the plane. It’s a much practiced rou- onto the tarmac, each laden with nearly a hun-
tine: Their hands fly nimbly around their bodies, dred pounds of equipment and supplies. Fully
strapping on kneepads and shin guards, zipping dressed, they appear awkwardly overstuffed,
into jumpsuits, and buckling into heavy nylon but every man carries a carefully curated, time-
harnesses. The jumpsuits are prepacked with tested kit of the essential items a smokejumper
gear—a cargo pocket on one pant leg is stuffed needs to fight and survive a fire in some of the
with a solar panel and raincoat. The pocket on world’s most remote and rugged forests.

126 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
Photographed by
team member Mike
McMillan, one of the
crew aims for a land-
ing near the tail of the
fire—where it started
close to a group of
cottages. The billowing
smoke column signals
a rapidly spreading
“gobbler,” a wildfire
that’s “off to the races,”
McMillan says.
Incident commander
Ty Humphrey com-
municates with a pilot
who has dropped a
pallet of cargo near
a fire. Crew members
free the chute from
the tree where the
load landed.
Smokejumpers use
beaters—strips of hard
rubber on flexible
shafts—to pound burn-
ing moss and tussock
grass into the moss
below, damp from
melted permafrost.
Such swampy conifer-
ous forest, or taiga,
is typical of high
northern latitudes. 

The twin turbines of a Dornier 228 cargo Five minutes out, the spotter, Bill Cramer,
plane roar to life as the bulging khaki figures raises his hand, wordlessly calling for a “pin
totter single file up through the side door and check.” Each man executes a final multipoint
into the plane’s belly, which is packed with equipment check of his jump partner.
pallets of firefighting equipment that will be They are flying above the Arctic Circle on
dropped with them. The plane lifts off, and the the southern edge of the Brooks Range when
dispatcher radios the coordinates of the fire. they spot a plume of smoke rising from the dark
Time en route: one hour 28 minutes. green carpet of forest, the result of a lightning
It’s too loud for talk, so the men sit silently, strike. Cramer opens the jump door and leans
each alone with his thoughts behind his face out into the slipstream for an assessment: “Fire
mask. They don’t know where they’re going number 320, 15 acres, 70 percent active, burning
or how long they’ll be gone. They don’t know black spruce with caribou lichen understory, 11
how big the fire is or how dangerous the winds structures on north and west shores of Iniakuk
will be. They know only that they’re going into Lake, 1.5 miles west.”
battle with one of nature’s most savage and The pilot circles at 1,500 feet. Cramer identi-
unpredictable forces. fies the jump site and drops three crepe-paper

130 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 THE EIGHT MEN DESCENDING from the sky can
trace their professional lineage to a lightning
bolt that hit a tree just east of Yellowstone
National Park in August of 1937. The strike
ignited a small fire that began crawling its way
through the forest and eventually grew into the
infamous Blackwater Fire, killing 15 firefighters
and consuming 1,700 acres. A U.S. Forest Ser-
vice investigation concluded that the only way to
avoid such tragedies was for firefighters to attack
backcountry fires when they are still small.
In the 1930s, the Forest Service began testing
the viability of parachuting small teams into
remote areas, and on July 12, 1940, the first
smokejumpers were deployed onto the Marten
Creek Fire in Idaho’s Nez Perce National Forest.
Over the next several decades, the Forest Service
created seven smokejumper bases in the lower
48, and the Bureau of Land Management estab-
lished two, including the one in Alaska. Today
roughly 450 active smokejumpers are dispatched
to wildland fires from these bases.
“Those early years proved that getting men on
a fire when it was the size of your living room,
rather than thousands of acres, saved money,
forests, lives, and private property,” says Chuck
Sheley, a retired jumper and vice president of the
National Smokejumper Association. “The same
principle still applies today.”
Over time, debate has arisen over the need for
smokejumpers in the lower 48 as development
has spread into previously remote areas. Now
90 percent of fires start within a half mile of a
road, and most can be accessed by vehicles. But
in the Alaskan interior—a region roughly the
size of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana com-
bined—the vast majority of the land is accessible
streamers. Three bright stripes—yellow, blue, only by aircraft. Many remote fires are allowed to
and orange—unfurl in the sky, allowing him to burn, but when a fire threatens lives and prop-
assess wind speed and direction. erty, smokejumpers remain the frontline troops.
“Get in the door,” Cramer shouts. The first Alaska smokejumper training is among the
man on the jump list, Jeff McPhetridge, 49, most demanding in the world. Of the up to 200
known as Itchy, dangles his feet out of the plane. people who apply each year, roughly 10 are
“Get ready!” Cramer shouts, and a moment later selected for rookie training. The most competi-
slaps him on the shoulder. McPhetridge hurls tive applicants have five to 10 years of wildland
himself from the plane. Three smokejumpers firefighting experience and can do 60 sit-ups,
follow. On the second pass, the remaining four 35 push-ups, 10 pull-ups, run 1.5 miles in nine
men fall into the sky. Their red, white, and blue minutes 30 seconds or three miles in less than
chutes circle over the flaming forest like tiny 22 minutes 30 seconds, and carry a 110-pound
moths riding the drafts above a campfire, each pack for three miles in less than 55 minutes.
man deftly maneuvering his wing in the wind. Each smokejumper must pass a version of this
One by one, the smokejumpers fly toward the test annually to keep his or her job. (Currently
smoke. all 64 Alaska smokejumpers are men, though

I N TO T H E F I R E 131
Attack and protect
About five dozen Alaskan
smokejumpers divide their Utqiaġvik
workload into three tasks: (Barrow)
initial attack to contain early
fires, protection of specific
properties, and fighting
larger fires. Prudhoe Bay
Alpine
RUSSIA NO Deadhorse
RT
AR H S
r. CT LOP
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CIR BR
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CIRCLE
ALASKA Nome
PACIFIC U.S.
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ALASKA Fairbanks Fort Wainwright
Smokejumper base

K A R A N
A S G E
Sea
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Smokejumper

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deployments

U.S.
CA N A D
(2004–2018)
Anchorage
Valdez
Black spruce
range in Alaska

0 mi 100
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0 km 100 NS
PE NI Alaska
KA
ALAS Kodiak I.

ALASKAN TINDERBOX
Firefighters face unique challenges in Alaska,
which accounts for one-sixth of the entire
U.S. in land area, much of it uninhabited. Up to
40 percent of Alaska is boreal forest, populated
Forest fuel
mostly by highly flammable black spruce. Many
Most forest fires
unoccupied territories are simply allowed to burn progressively
burn; remote outposts can only be protected by upward, from grasses
smokejumpers able to parachute to the rescue. to shrubs to trees.

RYAN MORRIS AND JASON TREAT, NG STAFF;

MEG ROOSEVELT. ART: JOE WILSON
SURFACE
SOURCES: WILLIAM CRAMER, ALASKA FIRE SERVICE;
U.S. FOREST SERVICE; BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT Grasses
Fires that begin on the
ground, such as those started
by people, burn low-lying
grasses, lichen, and moss.
 Strike zone over the years there have been seven women.)
More than 90 percent of for-
est fires in Alaska between “We only choose people who can perform
1956 and 1999 were caused by under stress,” says Robert Yeager, a former
lightning. The intensity of the
strikes often results in fires rookie trainer. “People who can control their
about twice the size of those nerves, their anxiety, and their adrenaline, peo-
caused by human activity.
ple willing to accept life-or-death challenges.”
Those accepted to the five-week training
course already know how to fight fires, but they
have to learn advanced parachute skills—how
to quickly and accurately calibrate and account
for numerous variables that constantly change:
the wind, terrain, the state of the parachute, the
Black spruce landing zone. Rookies make at least 20 practice
Picea mariana
Average height: jumps, which are filmed and critiqued. Forty
30-50 feet percent of the trainees don’t make the cut.
But those who pass this crucible become
members of an elite fraternity that includes Willi
Unsoeld, one of the first Americans to summit
Mount Everest; Stuart Roosa, the Apollo 14 com-
mand module pilot; Ken Sisler, an intelligence
officer killed in Vietnam who was awarded the
Medal of Honor; and Deanne Shulman, who in
1981 became the first woman to join the ranks.

THE SMOKEJUMPERS LAND less than 50 yards

from the blaze now labeled Fire 320, tumbling
CROWN onto their hips to absorb the impact. Within min-
Trees utes they have packed up their parachutes. The
The sap-filled branches and
resinous cones of conifers pallets with firefighting equipment—chainsaws,
such as black spruce burn shovels, beaters, Pulaskis (combination ax-adze
faster than other forest fuels.
tools)—are dropping into the landing zone. The
men barely have time to break open the boxes
before the wind shifts.
“Suddenly the wind was coming out of the
south, rather than the north,” McPhetridge, the
designated incident commander, tells me later.
“We were concerned the fire might flank us.”
LADDER The men don’t have time to gather the cargo
Shrubs
In Alaska, flames often chutes. Instead they go straight to the fire.
skip this middle step Flames are shooting up spruce trees and ignit-
upward because black
spruce is so flammable. ing the brittle caribou moss. Smoke is pouring
through the forest. The men begin pounding the
edge of the fire with their beaters—poles with
thick rubber blades on the ends—but it has been
a dry summer, and the caribou moss is a six-inch
bed of prime tinder. They knock it down, but the
flames pop right back up.
“It wasn’t going to go out without water,”
McPhetridge says. The men run to a nearby
creek and fill up four five-gallon “piss bags”
using their hard hats. Evan Karp, 36, a hulk of
a jumper with a thick, untamed beard, sets up
a water pump and begins laying hose while the

133
rest of the men race back to the fire.
McPhetridge gives no commands or orders.
“Everybody knew exactly what to do,” he says
later. “That’s the beauty of the unit.”
While one jumper operates the water pump,
filling and refilling the bladders, four men attack
the left flank and three attack the right flank. The
men move along the edge of the fire, pounding
the flames, spraying water, choking on smoke.
The jumpers dig trenches, cut trees, and empty
and refill the bladders without stopping. By 3 a.m.
the next day, after several hours of backbreak-
ing work, they’ve completed the fire perimeter.
With blackened hands and faces, the men crawl
into their sleeping bags for a few hours of sleep.
They’re back on the fire line at 7 a.m. Some use
chainsaws to cut down green trees to expand the
fire line around the smoldering black edge of the
blaze, others are digging with their Pulaskis.
The initial attack is over, and McPhetridge
walks the perimeter of the fire. It’s only 33 acres,
a tiny fire compared with the huge conflagra-
tions that make headlines in the lower 48. But
left unchecked, it could’ve burned thousands
of acres, perhaps tens of thousands. He calls
the fire dispatcher with an update and is told
headquarters is pulling his team out. A crew
of firefighters drawn from local Alaska native
communities will be helicoptered in for the final
mop-up duty. They will go over every square yard
of the “black,” digging and dousing, making sure
the fire is completely out. 5
Just before 9 p.m. the day after they parachuted
in, the eight smokejumpers are helicoptered 50
miles to Bettles, a tiny village consisting of a cou-
ple lodges and a dirt airstrip deep in the Alaskan
interior. Mission accomplished.
Or so they think.

after the smokejump-

T WO B A D T H I N G S H A P P E N
ers are pulled off Fire 320. First, the equipment
for the Alaska native crew is delayed in Fair- 6
banks, so they never make it to the fire scene to
do the mop-up. Second, winds sweep down from
the north and breathe new life on the embers.
The fire starts to blow up, and the afternoon
after leaving the area, the smokejumpers heli-
copter back in. By the time they’re on the ground
midafternoon, the fire has spread across 150
acres, and they immediately call in reinforce- 8
ments. Another load of eight smokejumpers
drops in, and together the 16 men begin to cut a
line along the reborn fire’s left flank, using the

134 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 Smokejumpers
1
each carry 100
or so pounds
of time-tested
gear needed
to fight and
survive a
remote fire.
2

1. Helmet with cage

mask protects the
jumper’s face from
tree branches.
3 2. Smokejumpers often
make their own jump-
suits, heavily padded
and with plenty of
pockets to hold gear.
A reserve chute is
worn on the chest.
Kneepads fit inside
the suit. Heavy leather
gloves and boots
offer extra protection.
4 3. Radio allows commu-
nication among smoke-
jumpers and planes.
4. Personal gear bag
holds supplies, includ-
ing water, flares, com-
pass, GPS, food, rain
gear, emergency fire
shelter, headlamp,
and insect spray.
5. Parachute container
holds, in separate com-
partments, a drogue
chute that releases first
to stabilize the jumper
and a main chute that’s
deployed by pulling
the green rip cord.
6. Let-down bag con-
tains rope so a jumper
who lands in a tree can
get to the ground.
7. Large pack-out bag
carries everything here.
8. Beater is used
to pound flames
7
into moist layer of
moss beneath the
burning surface.
9. Burlap bag can
be soaked and filled
with damp moss to
smother flames.
10. Pulaski is used for
clearing smoldering
brush and small trees.

10

135
After smoldering
through the winter,
the Big Mud Fire burst
to life 55 miles south-
west of Tanana in the
hot, dry, windy condi-
tions of late spring in
2016. Smokejumpers
were sent to protect
a single cabin beside a
river on the fire’s flank.
The fire ultimately
covered 45,000 acres.
Iniakuk River to hold the right flank. But because of fighting unpredictable fires in remote wilder-
of the dry conditions and abundance of the brit- ness are too numerous to fit into a couple years
tle caribou moss, the blaze can’t be beaten into of training. Freakish wind changes, embers of old
submission. Without lots of water, it won’t go fires that survive winter only to ignite in spring,
out. The smokejumpers call in the Fire Bosses— parachute malfunctions, backup-parachute mal-
crop dusting–style planes equipped to carry 800 functions, chainsaw mishaps, colleagues who
gallons—to bomb the flames. They zoom in low never made it home from their last deployment—
and release their loads of water, then circle back these and hundreds more are gleaned over long
to Iniakuk Lake, glide over its turquoise surface careers and passed on by exhausted firefighters
at 80 miles per hour, scoop up another 800 gal- around campfires such as this one.
lons, and return to drop it on the fire. Bloemker stands up, dumps the remains of
Still, the flames persist. The fire is now burn- his tin cup into the fire and adjusts the .44-cal-
ing so hot that it reignites right after a drenching. iber Smith & Wesson on his belt. The revolver
Fanned by the winds, it gains momentum, flow- prompts another story.
ing like molten lava into green timber. Bigger “We were deep in the interior near Bear Lake,
scooper planes are called in, CL-415s, which can funny enough. We’d heard there was a habitu-
release 1,600 gallons at a time, along with a heli- ated bear in the area, breaking into cabins. When
copter with a huge water bucket hanging from a we got off the fire and back to camp, we could
long line. While multiple aircraft fly successive tell a bear had messed with our gear. The next
water-bombing missions, the men on the ground day the bear came back and tore into one of our
race to cut a defensible fire line north through tents. We started up a chainsaw and scared it
the forest—chainsawing trees, mowing down away. That evening the bear came back again,
the underbrush, pounding out flames. By 10 but this time we couldn’t scare him away. He
p.m., seven hours after jumping in for the sec- started getting aggressive, stalking some of the
ond time, they have tied the north end of the left guys through the trees. He made a false charge.
flank into the curving Iniakuk River. Then he made a second false charge. On the
Around midnight the smokejumpers with- third aggressive move I braced myself in the
draw to a campsite near the fire. Their faces are notch of a tree and shot him between the eyes.”
blackened with ash, their eyes raw, their bodies The story is a reminder that fire isn’t the only
battered. Each man wearily cooks his dinner over adversary in the backcountry. But by this time
the campfire. They eat military MREs as well as some of the grimy men are fast asleep.
cans of chili or string beans, tins of sardines, and
loads of energy bars. But the night’s specialty is on Fire 320 at
T H E S M O K E J U M P E R S A R E BAC K
Spam, slow-fried with fresh onions and peppers 7 a.m., but during the night the winds have shifted
over scarlet coals. again. The fire has exploded to 600 acres. The
The men swat mosquitoes and squint into flames are now throwing embers hundreds of
the fire. Their clothes are caked with salt from feet into the air and across the river. It is quickly
sweat, but someone is always willing to tell a decided that the far side of the river is indefensi-
story. Like the time David Bloemker dislocated ble, so the men start cutting a line south to tie up
his shoulder. The season had ended in Alaska, the left flank. They toil for hours, breathing smoke,
and he was down in Montana parachuting on a spitting ash, sweating through their filthy clothes.
fire in Kootenai National Forest. But “Big Ernie,” the smokejumpers’ name for
“Then the wind just died and there was a log the fickle god of forest fires, has a twisted sense
I hadn’t seen in a bad spot,” says Bloemker, 45, of humor. Just as they’re getting close to anchor-
who’s spent two decades as a smokejumper. “I ing the left flank to the river, winds sweep the
flared but came in too hot. My toe caught on fire south along the unprotected opposite bank,
a tussock of bear grass. Smashed my shoulder then shift to blow embers west back across the
and blew out my labrum. Had to hike to where a river, planting a new “spot fire” behind the men,
helicopter could land, maybe a couple of miles.” one that threatens to surround them.
The men nod silently; most have already heard The smokejumpers must remain hypervigilant
this tale. The stories serve as more than just to such changes, McPhetridge says. “You can’t
entertainment—they’re a way for smokejump- control the winds. You can get killed.”
ers to teach each other. The real-world lessons The spot fire rapidly spreads in all directions

138 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
THE SMOKEJUMPERS
ARE POUNDING FLAMES
ALL ALONG THE BLACK AREAS.
PLANES ROAR OVERHEAD,
DROPPING WATER.
THE MEN ARE
DRENCHED.

through dry caribou moss. Most of the men happy to see these smokejumpers!” says Poor,
shift southward in an attempt to circle the spot. who sells his pelts—wolf, marten, lynx—to Rus-
Two men with chainsaws are cutting everything sian buyers. “Always happy to have the help.”
in sight along the edge of the flames. Some of Pat Gaedeke, who with her husband built
the crew are dragging the unburned trunks into the lodge at the end of the lake in 1974, is the
the green areas to deprive the fire of additional one who initially called in the fire. She is beside
fuel. Others are pounding the flames along the herself with joy. “I can’t believe all the resources
black with beaters. The Fire Bosses roar over- they’re using to help us,” she says.
head every four minutes, dropping water. The Eventually, after dozens of sprinklers and
men step back but are still drenched. thousands of feet of hose are deployed, each
After hours of frantic work, the northern and structure is protected inside a half circle of
western edges of the new spot fire are almost plumbing that can thoroughly soak the property
under control, but the flames are now howling and prevent it from burning.
southward, borne by a northern wind. The 16 The smokejumpers are back at their camp
smokejumpers just can’t get ahead of the fire. by 10 p.m. Exhausted, they sprawl around the
Their only option is to pull out before it cuts off campfire. Cans of peaches are passed around,
their escape route. and the men pull out the slippery halves with
The next day the fire will grow to 1,500 acres their blackened fingers. A chunk of cheese is
and the smokejumpers are forced to retrench, making the rounds; each man lops off a por-
moving from offense to defense. One of the vet- tion with his knife. “Hey, you guys remember
eran jumpers laments his crew being pulled off when ...” and someone starts a story.
the fire before it was completely extinguished.
“We’d caught it at 33 acres,” he says. Smokejump- THE EIGHT SMOKEJUMPERS on the initial attack
ers ruefully call this “catch and release.” ended up spending 16 days on the Iniakuk Lake
Their only goal now is to protect the few cab- fire before being relieved. The fire burned more
ins and a lodge on Iniakuk Lake. Using Zodiac than 36,000 acres, but all the structures in the
watercraft, they shuttle fire hoses, water pumps, area were saved. “The fire burned all summer
and sprinklers to each structure on the lake. The and was still burning when we left in Septem-
pumps are set in the lake and the sprinklers set ber,” says Pat Gaedeke. “Mother Nature finally
to protect the roofs of the cabins. put it out when it began to snow.” j
Jeff Poor owns the cabin closest to the fire. A
scraggly old trapper who was once from the East Mark Jenkins wrote about Myanmar’s toughest
mountain climb for the September 2015 issue.
Coast but “went as far away as I could possibly Staff photographer Mark Thiessen has covered
get,” he built his cabin by hand in 1976. “More’n firefighting around the world for nearly 25 years.

I N TO T H E F I R E 139
 YOUR SHOT
KELLY BELL
PHOTOS FROM OUR COMMUNITY

WHO Bell and her husband wanted to introduce their young

Bell, a market research daughter to the magic of a county fair. The toddler
director in Washington, D.C. loved the games, the lights, and the food, including
her first taste of a deep-fried Snickers, at the Montgom-
WHERE

The annual Montgomery

County Agricultural Fair
ery County Agricultural Fair near Washington, D.C.
in Gaithersburg, Maryland Throughout the day, Bell returned to the same spot
WHAT to photograph the rides and signs in different light.
A Fujifilm X100F camera Before leaving the fair, she pointed her camera one
last time at the silhouettes of people on swings—and
captured this scene as one rider stretched out his arms.
Join National Geographic’s Your Shot community and share your photos at YourShot.ngm.com.

140 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
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