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WHY WE SHOULD KEEP
OUR EYE ON DISCOVERY

Friday, January 1, 2021

PHOTOGRAPH BY SPENCER LOWELL, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

By Whitney Johnson, Director of Visual and Immersive Experiences

After a year in which science seemed under threat, our head science photo editor, Kurt Mutchler, spent time showcasing images that show hope, discovery, and progress.

The firm yet delicate grip of a robot hand in Berlin on a flower (above). The search for the source of the COVID-19 pandemic. The revelation of microbes the colors of Lucky Charms on a woman’s lips. The heat from the Earth that powers a new way of farming.

Not everything is pretty, of course, in the images of the year that Kurt has selected. Life isn’t that way. And neither is science. But we’re richer for keeping our eye on science’s fascinating developments. As Kurt says, “it permeates through every single thing in our lives.”

PHOTOGRAPH BY PAOLO VERZONE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Dinosaur clues: For more than two decades, Ohio University paleontologist Lawrence Witmer has run frozen animal carcasses—here, a Siamese crocodile—through the CT scanners of Ohio’s O’Bleness Hospital. These new data have helped spark a revolution in scientists’ understanding of extinct dinosaurs.

IMAGE BY JOEL KOWSKY, NASA

Working together for two decades: A march of black dots against a glowing disk, the International Space Station transits the sun in this composite image taken from Virginia. On November 2, the ISS celebrated 20 continuous years of human habitation, a milestone of human space exploration.

PHOTOGRAPH BY STUART PALLEY, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Trying to stop the pain: Unable to find a usable vein in his arm, Fernando Irizarry asked an acquaintance to inject a slurry of discarded drugs into his neck. Like thousands of people, Irizarry’s opioid addiction began with pain medications he took after an accident. He invited photographer David Guttenfelder to observe his life in Philadelphia as part of our magazine cover story on pain last January.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CRAIG CUTLER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Tracking the coronavirus: Scientists are still trying to determine the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and the greater horseshoe bat, pictured here, has been mentioned as a possible host. This preserved sample of Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, in the collection of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, was collected in Uzbekistan in 1921.

COLORED SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE IMAGE BY MARTIN OEGGERLI, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

On the lips: One Nat Geo exploration last year involved the trillions of microbes living in and on us—and how they shape our very nature. This richly-textured image shows a blooming microbial colony cultivated from a woman's lips. People who often kiss each other will develop similarities in their oral microbiomes.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LUCA LOCATELLI, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Barley amid the lava: Nestled in a lava field on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, this carbon-negative greenhouse holds up to 130,000 barley plants growing in inert volcanic pumice. Orf Genetics raises the engineered grain to make human growth factors used in such applications as cosmetics to rejuvenate skin. Geothermal energy and heat are supplied by the neighboring Svartsengi Power Station.

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YOUR INSTAGRAM OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY ELLIOT ROSS, @ELLIOTSTUDIO

Trees, please: The affluent Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz (above) has a leafy tree canopy that covers about 15 percent of the land, and is on average nearly 4 degrees cooler than the city’s average. Researchers find a correlation between redlining and a significant increase in surface temperatures. Tree cover and the essential shade it provides is one critical factor that results in this heat disparity. With extreme temperatures set to take off in the coming decades, it’s important to recognize that heat related fatalities will disproportionately impact minority and lower income neighborhoods across the United States.

Related: Racist housing policies have created some oppressively hot neighborhoods

PHOTO TIPS FOR 2021

Travel cameras: What are the best compact cameras for journeys that are faraway—or in your own backyard? Our photo engineer, Tom O’Brien, finds a series of models that feature pocket-ability, easy one-handed operation, and a snappy touch screen. Tom, who does this consumer guide for us every year, is the kind of photographer who is stoked by innovations like “20 frames per second with real-time autofocus/auto exposure.” Check out his recommendations here.

PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Lighting tips: Have you thought about using your smartphone or tablet as a light source? Our studio photographer Rebecca Hale has been experimenting at home during the pandemic and has these suggestions if you want to play with an unconventional light source. “Tablet and smartphone screens will never be brighter than daylight, so consider where and when you’re photographing,” she says. “For my testing, I was able to control the ambient light or shoot at a time of day when I could maximize the impact of the screen lighting.” See the images she made here.

OVERHEARD AT NAT GEO

PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALE

Discovering a new blue: Pigments color the world all around us, but where do those colors come from? Historically, they’ve come from crushed sea snails, beetles, and even ground-up mummies. But new pigments are still being discovered in unexpected places. On our podcast, Overheard, researcher Mas Subramanian tells us a new color came, well, out of the blue. It was the first blue pigment of its kind discovered since Thomas Jefferson was president. (Pictured above, both chemistry and ingenuity went into the creation of the new pigments with exceptional intensity, including a black that absorbs like almost like a black hole does in space.)

DID A FRIEND FORWARD THIS TO YOU?

On Mondays, Debra Adams Simmons covers the latest in history. If you’re not a subscriber, sign up here to also get Victoria Jaggard on science, George Stone on travel, and Rachael Bale on animal and wildlife news.

THE LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY MELISSA FARLOW, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

A snow blanket: Back in 2006, photographer Melissa Farlow captured a method to try to slow down the summertime melt in the Alps. These synthetic blankets protected Austria's Pitztal Glacier, reflecting solar radiation. The method, one way in which the region is trying to preserve tourism and its ecosystem amid climate change, has since spread to the Swiss Alps. The image is among the photo collections from our archives.

This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, and Jen Tse selected the photographs. Kimberly Pecoraro and Gretchen Ortega helped produce this, and Amanda Williams-Bryant, Rita Spinks, Alec Egamov, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Have an idea or a link? We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading, and have a good weekend!

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