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FROM the EDITOR
Our WORLD • BEHIND THE SCENES WITH NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
IN FOCUS
UNLOCKING NATURE’S MIRACLE • An organic material that is five times stronger than steel? It exists in the natural world but has historically been impossible for us to manufacture. Now, thanks to breakthroughs in genetic engineering, we’ve created something very close: supersilk. And it’s poised to upgrade far more than our clothing.
How a spider spins its silk • Spider silk owes its special powers to both a unique molecular structure and an arachnid’s intricate spinning process. Scientists have spent decades trying to replicate the spider’s all-natural (but not-so-easy-to-make) supermaterial.
Making spider silk, minus the spider • The production of spider silk at scale hinges on genetic engineering: Scientists have coaxed a variety of hosts into making a recombinant version that could unlock breakthroughs in everything from clothing to medicine. Here’s how this new supermaterial is being made and put to use.
Can TikTok RESURRECT SCOTS? • Inside the decidedly modern campaign to revitalize a lost language (that some say isn’t truly a language)
The GREEK CANAL That Took 2,500 YEARS TO BUILD • How the Corinth Canal went from elusive dream to engineering marvel—with an unexpected fate
LEARNI NG TO LISTEN IN JAPAN • In the warm glow of the country’s jazz cafés, a subculture of vinyl aficionados is preserving a communal form of music appreciation—and cultivating the kind of deep sensory experiences that our noisy world has forgotten.
A BRIEF GUIDE TO GREAT KISSAS
Does the NAKED MOLE RAT Hold the Secret TO A LONG LIFE? • The wrinkly rodent barely seems to age and appears almost impervious to cancer, heart disease, and mental decline. Can the animal’s astounding abilities be adapted for humans?
SEARCHING FOR GHOSTS • After decades of armed conflict in Angola, the country’s elephants were thought by many to have disappeared. But the people who revere and live among them knew different. Now, a quest to find these ‘ghost elephants’ reveals a remarkable truth about how the giants survived.
Hiding in the Hills • African savanna elephants once occupied vast tracts of Angola. But after decades of war, the remote highlands have become one of their last sanctuaries.
The KALEIDOSCOPIC BEAUTY of HIDDEN SWAMPS • Deep in the inaccessible boglands of Russia, one photographer found a way to capture a stunning moment of change.
THE VIKINGS WHO VANISHED • NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL CLUES ARE SHEDDING LIGHT ON ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST PERPLEXING MYSTERIES: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ISOLATED NORSE COLONIES OF GREENLAND THAT DISAPPEARED IN THE MIDDLE AGES?
From Colony to Collapse: the Viking Timeline
A SOUVENIR from SHANGRI-LA • ARTIFACTS FROM THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES