The Gulf of Mexico is awash in oil, resulting from the April 11, 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, owned and run by BP. The Society has published content that relates to oil spills and the oil industry. Find answers to questions such as how the Exxon Valdez oil spill was viewed immediately after the accident and in retrospect, or why there's a large Vietnamese community along the Gulf Coast. In a trip back to San Francisco just after the Summer of Love, see how important community involvement was in cleaning up a 1971 oil spill in San Francisco Bay. Then take a trip around the world and survey the global oil scene in places as diverse as Siberia, the Niger Delta, and the North Slope of Alaska.

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Wes Skiles took this photo of veteran diver Kenny Broad as they began their descent into the hydrogen sulfide zone of a Bahamas blue hole. 

Photographer Wes Skiles descends through 30 feet of fresh water and encounters a pink, murky haze. The color indicates the presence of hydrogen sulfide gas—produced by decaying organic material in environments where oxygen is scarce—and it’s dangerous. Skiles has little time to traverse this 20-foot-thick, toxic layer. The longer he lingers in this sulfurous hell, the more the risk. His head will begin to throb. He’ll get a tingling sensation in his lips. He’ll feel nauseous from oxygen deprivation. He must reach the saltwater layer below before he collapses. Skiles, writer Andrew Todhunter, and a team led by Kenny Broad, an anthropologist and veteran cave diver, are on a National Geographic–funded expedition to explore the flooded limestone caves of the Bahamas. These blue holes, the subject of this month’s cover story, are an environment like no other. Their dangers are also like no other. Many caves produce violent whirlpools that can rip off a face mask and suddenly suck a diver down hundreds of feet. The risk is worth it. 

To study blue holes is to deepen our understanding of the Earth’s biology, chemistry, and geology. Some of the caves, Todhunter writes, are the scientific equivalent of Tut’s tomb. “It’s true exploration,” Skiles says. Explorers, like Broad’s team of scientists and divers, open doors. They lift the curtain on hidden, sometimes dangerous, worlds. That’s their nature, and our world is richer for it.

Recent suicide bombings in Uganda are suspected to have been carried out by Somali-based terrorists al Shabaab; in Iran a possible death sentence by stoning may be carried out on a woman accused of adultery. Find out why terrorists such as al Shabaab thrive in Somalia, and which countries worldwide still use the death penalty.

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• NGM -- 2009 September. Shattered Somalia. 70-99. Can the world's number one failed state reverse its course? Robert Draper investigates why terrorists and pirates thrive in Somalia, with striking photos by Pascal Maitre, including a street vendor who just joined the terrorist group al Shabaab (pages 72-73), and images of citizens desperately trying to maintain some sense of normalcy. A map on page 79 includes recent Islamic insurgency attacks and land bases for pirate activity.

July 2010—Violence is on the rise again as Kurds clash with the Turkish Army. Read about the long history of the Kurdish people in Turkey, Iraq, and the surrounding regions. 

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• NGM—2006 January. The Kurds in Control. 2-27. While Sunnis and Shiites fight for power in Baghdad, the fiercely independent Kurds in the north are the real key to a united Iraq. But who says that's what they want? Frank Viviano reports, with photos by Ed Kashi showing the daily lives of the Kurds. 
• NGM—1994 May. Turkey Struggles for Balance. 2-35. At the Crossroads of Asia and Europe, this progressive Muslim nation strives to carve out a major role in a diverse region beset by post-Cold War turmoil. Discussion of the Kurds starts on page 26. By Thomas B. Allen, with amazing photos by Reza. 
• NGM—1992 August. Struggle of the Kurds. 32-61. Saddam Hussein's atrocities in northern Iraq have focused world attention on an ancient people seeking autonomy in their long-divided homeland. By Christopher Hitchens, and photos by Ed Kashi (who also photographed the 2006 article above). 

—Anne Marie Houppert

Perhaps M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender was always doomed to fail. Not only was the famously ambitious director trying to re-create the mythos of a popular animated series. He was also hoping that “this movie … will be the most culturally diverse tent-pole movie ever released,’’ as he told the Los Angeles Times last summer.

That’s a pretty tall order. And Shyamalan wound up pretty far off the mark.

In fact, the Indian American auteur’s decision to cast Caucasian actors as Asian- and Inuit-inspired heroes launched a protest movement. Fans of the cartoon started Racebending.com, after seeing Paramount’s preference-heavy casting call for actors of “Caucasian or any other ethnicity.” And groups including the Media Action Network for Asian Americans boycotted the film, accusing Hollywood of “whitewashing” Asian projects for the sake of broader audience appeal.

A great hammerhead shark prowls the waters of the northern Bahamas. Photo by: Brian Skerry, National Geographic Stock.

A Shark’s-eye View Why are hammerhead sharks’ eyes so widely separated on their bizarrely shaped heads? Whatever the evolutionary reason for the placement, scientists have debated whether it was to provide good vision. Florida Atlantic University marine biologist Michelle McComb has settled that vision question by studying three of the eight types of hammerheads. She found that hammerheads see not only directly ahead with binocular vision similar to that of humans; they also see up, down, and behind themselves simultaneously. “Their eyes are canted forward, and that is the key,” McComb says. Their eye separation gives hammerheads great binocular vision and depth perception—a bonus when pursuing fast-moving prey.

Although hammerheads do have a particularly big blind spot in front of their widely spaced eyes, other senses compensate for this hole in their visual field. Sensors on the sharks’ heads help them detect electrical fields emitted by fish, and the placement of nostrils near their eyes could mean they use what McComb calls “enhanced stereo smell” to monitor the blind spot. —Jim Dawson

The Nabataeans hewed this partially completed tomb from a rock outcrop in the Arabian desert. Photo: Huber Raguet, Look at Sciences. 

Lots of people know of Petra, capital of the long-lost Nabataeans. It’s the red sandstone city, carved into Jordan’s cliffs, where Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail.

But Hegra, another large city of this ancient civilization of caravan traders, is far less known. Called Al Hijr in Arabic, it is in northwestern present-day Saudi Arabia. Twenty-nine of its 111 monumental tombs have dated inscriptions; most of Petra’s are curiously bare. The Hegra carvings allowed archaeologists to date both cities to about 2,000 years ago. Later the Nabataeans vanished into the Roman Empire, and Hegra lapsed into ruin. Locals, believing the pre-Islamic city cursed, long discouraged visitors, as did the restrictive Saudi government. But the Saudis relented, and in 2008 Al Hijr became Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage site. Archaeologists are now welcome, and tourists are too. —Chris Carroll

E. chlorotica’s leafy, two-inch-long body lets it efficiently capture sunlight for photosynthesis. The chlorophyll in its cells makes the slug green. Photo by: Nicholas Curtis and Raymond Martinez

Sun-Loving Slugs Plants, you aren’t so special. That’s the message from the marine mollusk Elysia chlorotica (above), which not only looks like a leaf but acts like one too. The slug can live on sunlight its entire life, up to a year; all it needs is a little yellow-green algae.

Capturing energy from the sun by photosynthesis is best known as a plant thing. But decades ago marine biologists realized that sea slugs steal cellular bits called chloroplasts from the algae they eat and use them to turn CO2 into sugar. In 2007 the slugs were shown to incorporate algal genes into their own DNA. This lets them make the plant proteins needed to keep chloroplasts in their cells long-term.

Now University of South Florida biologist Sidney Pierce and colleagues report that the Atlantic-dwelling E. chlorotica filches enough plant genetics that it can churn out its own chlorophyll, the pigment that chloroplasts exhaust during photosynthesis. That means the green slug can use the sun to refuel without ever eating again.

Pierce says it’s an intriguing evolutionary shortcut: “Movement of genes between species can make big and rapid changes. Evolution doesn’t always need to wait for a mutation.” —Jennifer S. Holland

Learn more about wildlife on the new TV network Nat Geo WILD.

You're eating a Fourth of July hot dog and—BOOM!—a firework causes you to drop it. No worries. A quick pick-up and you're safe to start eating again, right? Wrong.

According to food-science research at Clemson University, there is no five-second rule. It's the zero-second rule. Writes Catherine Barker in our July issue, "salmonella and other bacteria can survive up to four weeks on dry surfaces and transfer to food immediately upon contact."

Scottish Highland cattle, such as this bull in the Netherlands, will be used in early efforts to bring back aurochs. Photo: Ardi Hoogendijk, Foto Natura/Minden Pictures.

For centuries they roamed Europe’s forests—massive bovines called aurochs that were depicted on cave walls by Paleolithic artists (inset) and prized as hunting trophies. They died out nearly 400 years ago. Now genetics may bring them back to life.

Sound like a Jurassic Park sequel? It’s actually the real-life plan of Project Tauros, a consortium of European scientists using DNA sequenced from aurochs teeth to steer a novel breeding program. Project researchers are currently identifying living cattle—including Spanish Limiana and Italian Maremmana—that still carry aurochs genes. Then breeders will cross those cattle to retain the pertinent DNA, jettison the rest, and make bovines that, in about a decade, are expected to look and act just like their extinct ancestors.

Photo (Composed of 55 Calibrated Images): Miloslav Druckmuller, Peter Aniol, Vojtech Rusin.

Total solar eclipses occur every 18 months or so and are visible for just a few minutes from any one spot. As knowledge about them has trumped superstition, legions of fans have been flocking to the narrow strips on Earth where the moon can best be seen obscuring the sun.  The reward for these so-called umbraphiles, says Williams College astronomy professor Jay Pasachoff, is “the most dramatic natural phenomenon ever visible. It’s spectacularand fills you with awe. A primal feeling comes over you.”

This year Melita Thorpe, owner of an astronomy-themed travel agency, saw a hundred slots fill up by spring for a $6,000 July freighter trip to the South Pacific; dozens more devotees signed up for a sunset viewing of the same eclipse in Patagonia. Her biggest crowd in the agency’s 26 years: the 700 people she ferried to view a 1991 eclipse off the coast of Mazatlán, Mexico.

The spotlight on pomegranates may shift from seeds to rind. Photo: Rebecca Hale, NGM Staff 

Pomegranates are famous for their jewel-like seeds, whose rich antioxidant stores may help prevent heart disease and certain types of cancer. But some of their most promising health benefits could dwell within their inedible rinds. 

A group of Kingston University researchers in London found that a mixture of pomegranate-rind extract, copper salts, and vitamin C can significantly reduce the growth of some common hospital bacteria. Declan Naughton, head of the study, says the fruit could be a new weapon in the battle against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which can cause serious skin, blood, and soft-tissue infections. Ironically, the antibiotics used to banish MRSA have spawned even heartier strains—and more people outside of hospitals are catching it. 

The high levels of antimicrobials in pomegranate rind that protect the fruit’s flesh from harmful bacteria might do the same for humans, says Naughton. An ideal application, with further research, could be an ointment for cuts, abrasions, or surgical wounds. “Once something gets inside your bloodstream, it’s difficult to treat,” he notes. Another potential benefit: “We don’t think it would have major side effects, because we’ve looked to nature to show the way.” —Cara Birnbaum

Government-guaranteed maternity and paternity leave varies widely around the world. Mothers have significantly more access to paid leave than new fathers. (Maps include parental leave as well). Click to expand.

Credit: Map: Heymann, S.J., and Earle A. Raising the Global Floor: Dismantling The Myth That We Can’t Afford Good Working Conditions For Everyone. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010.

The importance of mothers and fathers bonding with their babies early in life is well known. But many parents, particularly dads, can’t afford to take a chunk of time off work once the baby’s born. In countries around the world, the contrast between paid maternity and paternity leave is striking. The maps above illustrate the availability of government-guaranteed paid leave for new mothers and fathers.

Out of 192 countries, 177 provide some form of paid maternal leave. Yet only 54 countries grant paid paternity or parental leave. Unlike most affluent countries, neither the U.S. nor Australia provide any government-paid maternity or paternity leave. (U.S. employer-based paid parental leave covers less than 10 percent of new dads.) Australia is due to start providing paid parental leave in 2011.

“Globally, men's chances of taking paid leave to care for an infant lag far behind women's,” says Dr. Jody Heymann, co-author of Raising the Global Floor: Dismantling the Myth That We Can’t Afford Good Working Conditions for Everyone.

What if you knew exactly which appliances in your home are the worst energy hogs—that the hot tub pump kicks in overnight when it shouldn't, or that the flat-screen TV is sucking energy even when it isn't "on"? Would that change the way you use—and save—electricity?

Residents of Boulder, Colorado, are finding the answers to such questions, thanks to a new "SmartGridCity” program that allows them to track electricity usage in near-real time. Instead of conventional electricity meters that require a reader to come and take a monthly reading, customers of utility Xcel Energy are outfitted with newfangled digital sensors that send real-time usage information back to Xcel’s computers. That data helps the company better avoid power outages—and also lets customers log on to their utility accounts online, where they can track when their usage spikes, then make adjustments.

Although still in its early stages, Boulder’s SmartGridCity program has already yielded a bevy of ways for residents to cut their bills:

1. Kill Your "Vampire" Loads. Those ‘stand-by’ modes that keep your flat-screen TVs, gaming systems, cordless drills, and the rest at the ready are mighty convenient. But they suck up so much electricity that they can add 10 percent to your monthly bill. To save electricity, Boulder, Colorado, resident Tim Hillman did the same thing with the power strips he plugs his electronic gadgets into that some folks do with their living-room table lamps: He attached the strips to automatic timers that switch off overnight. The resulting tangle of timers, strips and cords might look like deranged cootie toys, but they’ll slice your electricity bill.

2. Swamp Your Air Conditioner. Anyone who's hung out by a cold river on a hot day knows that the cold water creates its own microclimate, cooling the air that surrounds it. Evaporative coolers, commonly called "swamp coolers," operate on the same principle. A cold water line is attached to the cooler's reservoir. A filter then sucks up the cold water while a fan blows air through it. The result: a cool, nicely humidified house along with an air-conditioning bill that's as much as 90 percent lower than what it would cost to use conventional air conditioning— the biggest energy hog in the average home. Even better, most swamp coolers (available at appliance stores) can be had for $100 and up—about two-thirds the cost of equivalent A/C units. One caveat: swamp coolers are great for low-humidity climates like Arizona but are far less useful in muggy places like Washington, D.C.