Best News Pictures of 2010: World Press Winners

A portrait of 18-year-old Afghan Bibi Aisha, whose nose and ears were cut off by the Taliban husband she'd fled, is the subject of the World Press Photo organization's 2010 Photo of the Year. South African photographer Jodi Bieber's picture, made forTimemagazine, became controversial when it appeared on that publication's cover in July 2010.

"This could become one of those pictures—and we have maybe just ten in our lifetime—where if somebody says 'you know, that picture of a girl ... ,' you know exactly which one they're talking about,"said jury chair David Burnett in a statement on the winning photo.

When photographing Aisha in an Afghan women's shelter,"I really wanted to capture the inner beauty,"Bieber told World Press Photo when contacted by phone after the jury's decision, according to a press statement.

For the awards, an international team of judges selected winners in ten subject areas, including spot and general news, sports, nature, and portraits, for which Bieber's image also took first prize. In each subject area, the judges awarded first, second, and third prizes for both individual photos and photo-essays. This year a"special mention"was given to a series of 12 photos taken by the Chilean miners trapped underground for 69 days and rescued in October.

A record 108,059 pictures were submitted for this year's contest by 5,847 photographers representing 125 nationalities.

—Korena Di Roma

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Rare 1823 Wreck Found—Capt. Linked to Moby-Dick, Cannibalism

Linked toMoby-Dickandskippered by a man who (reluctantly) ate his own cousin, the whaling shipTwo Brothershas been lost on a remote Pacific reef since 1823.

Now experts say they've found hard evidence of the ship 600 miles (970 kilometers) fromHonolulu (map). If confirmed, the discovery would be the first of a wrecked whaler fromNantucket (map),Massachusetts—the birthplace of the U.S. whaling industry.

(See photographs of the wreck and its blubber pots.)

The shipwreck was found at French Frigate Shoals in the remotePapahnaumokuakea Marine National Monument, archaeologists announced Friday.

At its peak, from the 1820s to the 1840s, Nantucket was home to several dozen whaling ships. Whaling crews hunted whales species for their blubber, which was boiled down into oils that were used in everything from lamps to perfume to machine lubricants.

Whale oil"was the day's equivalent of our oil trade. ... The resource was so valuable that it drove man to hunt species to extinction,"explained Kelly Gleason, a maritime archaeologist with theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)and maritime heritage coordinator at Papahanaumokuakea.

(Related:"Whale Hunting to Continue in Antarctic Sanctuary.")

Whaling Captain a"Most Impressive Man"

Two Brotherswas captained by George Pollard, Jr. The Nantucket native had the dubious distinction of commanding two whaling ships and losing both.

Pollard's first ship, theEssex, sank in 1820 after being rammed by a sperm whale—an incident that inspired Herman Melville'sMoby-Dick.

Adrift at sea in small whaleboats for more than three months, the starving crew of theEssexresorted to cannibalism. Before being rescued by another ship, Pollard helped execute and eat his 18-year-old cousin, who had drawn a bad lot.

Despite theEssextragedy, Pollard was offered another captaincy soon after, this time of theTwo Brothers.

In the early 19th century, whaling voyages often took two years or more. TheTwo Brothersset sail from Nantucket in November 1821. By winter 1822, the ship had rounded the tip of South America. The crew was on its way to newly discovered whaling grounds near Japan when tragedy struck in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Before departing, Pollard had said he believed"lightning never strikes in the same place twice,"according to Gleason. Yet on the night of February 11, 1823, theTwo Brothershit a shallow reef and quickly broke apart in the heavy surf.

The ship's crew was rescued, but Pollard's career as a whaling captain was over.

In Nantucket, he was known as a Jonah, a man who brings misfortune on a ship. Pollard was relegated to a career as a night watchman, one of the least respected social positions on the island.

According to theNantucket Historical Association, Melville met Pollard many years later, and wrote of him:"To the islanders he was a nobody—to me, the most impressive man, tho' wholly unassuming, even humble—that I ever encountered."

(Related:"'Ghost Ship' Pictures: Gold Rush-Era Wreck Found.")

The Telltale Harpoon?

The Two Brothers remained lost until 2008, when maritime archaeologists participating in a NOAA expedition in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands discovered a large early 19th-century anchor in the shallow waters of French Frigate Shoals.

The team suspected from the beginning that the wreckage belonged to theTwo Brothers,but they lacked strong evidence until 2009, when more artifacts, including the tip of a whaling harpoon, were discovered.

"A whaling harpoon is an exciting artifact to discover at a shipwreck site,"said Gleason, who is leading theTwo Brothersarchaeological survey.

"The technology of the whaling harpoon changed a great deal over the course of the 19th century, so you can match a whaling harpoon to a specific time period and place of origin."

Also,"blacksmiths would have also etched the name of a ship on the harpoon, because if a harpooned whale got away, they wanted to make sure whoever caught it next knew that the whale was already claimed."

The artifacts are currently undergoing treatment, and it will be several more months before it's known whether theTwo Brothersinitials are indeed etched on the harpoon tip, which is heavily encrusted.

In the meantime, Gleason and her team say they're confident that the wreckage was theTwo Brothers.

"There were three whaling ships lost at French Frigate Shoals:The Two Brothers,lost in 1823; theSouth Seaman,lost in 1859; and theDaniel Wood,lost in 1867,"Gleason explained.

"TheSouth SeamanandDaniel Woodwere lost much later, and vessels of their post Civil War era would have had heavy machinery on board. The shipwreck at French Frigate Shoals is clearly a vessel out of Nantucket in the 1820s, based on the dates and provenience of dozens of artifacts."

Hard Evidence of Whaler's Floating Factory

Among the recovered artifacts are broken pieces of ceramic platesthat may have belonged to Captain Pollard himself.

"The ceramics discovered at theTwo Brotherssite reflect the type of dishware you would find at the captain's table. These are not the plates of the crew,"Gleason said.

Other artifacts include try-pots—big iron cauldrons used to boil down whale blubber into oil—iron cooking pots, and a small grinding wheel, probably for sharpening tools.

"People often think that shipwrecks are only glamorous if you find gold or silver, but in this case, it's truly a working ship,"Gleason said."All the artifacts that we're finding reflect that this was a floating factory."

(Related: Seepictures of ancient treasure from a U.K. shipwreck.)

Very little wood from the ship has been recovered, but this isn't surprising, as the region's warm waters, rough waves, and marine animals would have quickly deteriorated the wood, Gleason added.

MoreTwo BrothersArtifacts Await on Seafloor

The recovered artifacts are currently being restored and will eventually be displayed at Papahanaumokuakea'sMokupapapa Discovery Centerin Hilo,Hawaii.

In the meantime, Gleason said, the team plans to continue surveying and documenting the shipwreck site.

"Every time we return to Papahanaumokuakea, we discover something new,"she said."There are a lot of artifacts associated with this shipwreck that we haven't found yet."

Ben Simons, chief curator of the Nantucket Historical Association, said he's very excited by the discovery of theTwo Brother's remains.

"A lot of whaling history is sort of slumbering in the history books and scattered in museums,"Simons said."But this {finding} allows the history to come alive for a modern age."

(See pictures of the wreck.)

forNational Geographic News

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11 Thomas Edison Predictions That Came True—Or Didn't

A hundred years ago this month,Thomas Edison—whose 164th birthday is celebrated with aGoogle doodleFriday—laid out a long series of predictions as to how technology would transform the world.

Writing inCosmopolitan—then a general-interest magazine—the U.S. inventor was spot on about some things, such as speedy airplanes, but"absolutely wrong"on others, saidPaul Israel, director and general editor of theThomas A. Edison Papers Projectat Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Among Edison's misses: that books (pictured, Dublin's Trinity College library) would be made of nickel, which Edison thought would make a cheaper, stronger, and more flexible material than paper.

"Certainly he never foresaw what's happening in terms of e-ink—digital replacing books,"said Israel, also the author ofEdison: A Life of Invention.

After Edison semiretired in 1908, he became the"nation's inventor philosopher,"and his influence persists today, Israel said.

"While we maybe don't have quite the faith in technological progress that his generation did,"he said,"Edison as a symbol of American innovation still resonates in the culture."

(Find out about alighting breakthrough announced on the anniversary of Thomas Edison's light bulb.)

—Christine Dell'Amore

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Astronauts Could Ride Asteroids to Mars, Study Says

Future astronauts could hitchhike their way toMars—without the need for aVogon Constructor Fleet. According to a new paper, space explorers could reach the red planet by riding along insideasteroids.

Landing a ship on a space rock would solve a key issue facing Mars travelers: how to shield astronauts from galactic cosmic rays, high-energy particles traveling at near light speed that come from outside the solar system. (Related:"Black Holes Belch Universe's Most Energetic Particles.")

Cosmic rays can damage DNA, increasing the risks of cancer and cataracts for space travelers. Current research suggests that the amount of radiation that would bombard an astronaut during a thousand-day, round-trip Mars mission increases his or her risk of cancer by 1 to 19 percent.

(Related:"Why Did 400 People Volunteer for a One-Way Trip to Mars?")

Radiation shields used on Earth are often too heavy for use on spacecraft, and they don't necessarily block cosmic rays. Many spacecraft use light, thin aluminum shields, but in the long term, aluminum hit with cosmic rays can produce secondary radiation that can be worse than the original blast.

During NASA's Apollo missions, moon explorers absorbed high doses of cosmic rays, but only for a short time. Today's space station astronauts are protected from the worst of the radiation by Earth itself—our planet's body and magnetic field block two-thirds of incoming cosmic rays.

By contrast, Mars voyagers would be in deep space with no large body to shield them for up to 18 months.

Instead of focusing on building a better shield, engineers should design spaceships that can hop in and out of passing asteroids, argues study authorGregory Matloff, an adjunct professor of physics at the New York City College of Technology.

The asteroid itself could then block cosmic rays during the voyage—astronauts could pull aMillennium Falconand park their ship in a crater, or they could use on-board mining tools to tunnel into the rock. (Related:"Obama's New Plan for NASA: Why Go to an Asteroid?")

Mars-Bound Asteroids Coming Soon

According to Matloff's calculations, to be published in the March-April 2011 issue of the journalActa Astronautica,the asteroid"taxi"would need to be about 33 feet (10 meters) wide to provide enough shielding. It would also need to pass close enough to both planets—within a couple million miles—to make the trip feasible.

Already there are five known asteroids that fit the criteria and will pass from Earth to Mars before the year 2100, based on a database of 5,500 near-Earth objects (NEOs), or comets and asteroids whose orbits take them near our planet.

The asteroids 1999YR14 and 2007EE26, for example, will both pass Earth in 2086, and they'll make the journey to Mars in less than a year. The trouble would be getting home: Because of their wide orbits, it'd be five years before either asteroid would swing around Mars as it heads back toward Earth.

Matloff did find a third space rock that will travel from Mars to Earth—but it makes the journey too early, in 2037. For now it seems a space taxi to Mars would be a one-way ride.

(Related:"Seven Great Mars Pictures From Record-Breaking Probe.")

However, the number of NEOs has increased since the database was compiled, Matloff said. There are now more than 7,000 known NEOs, so more potential rock taxis could exist.

Ideally, astronauts would divert an asteroid so that it cycles permanently between Earth and Mars on a well-timed orbit. Humans could nudge an asteroid into the desired path using a solar sail or gentle propulsion. (See"Solar Sail Hybrid Launches From Japan.")

Once the asteroid is in a stable orbit, Matloff said,"you'd just jump on it. You could store provisions and spare parts on it and use it for shielding. ..."

Great Future in Plastics

Nasser Barghouty, a project scientist at NASA's Space Radiation Shielding Project, said Matloff's idea works in theory. But he thinks having so many extra launches and landings would prove too risky.

Like an airline passenger with multiple layovers,"I'd need to hop on so many legs {during the journey},"he said."That adds to the complexity of the mission, which adds more risk."

A simpler answer is to build lightweight shielding out of something other than aluminum.

TheInternational Space Station, for example, uses plastic panels to help protect its inhabitants from the effects of long-term radiation:"Plastic does the trick,"Barghouty said.

forNational Geographic News

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"Thunder Thighs" Dinosaur Thrashed Predators to Death?

A newfound dinosaur species that used its"exceptionally powerful"thighs to kick predators likely had a bad temper to boot, one expert says.

The 46-foot-long (14-meter-long)Brontomerus mcintoshihad an immense blade on its hipbones where strong muscles would have attached, according to a new study.

"These things don't happen by accident—this is something that's clearly functional,"said study co-author Mathew Wedel.

The team suspects the dinosaur—a type of sauropod, or plant-eating, four-legged lumberer—used its massive legs to either maneuver over hilly ground or deliver"good, hard"kicks to predators, said Wedel, assistant professor of anatomy atWestern University of Health Sciencesin Pomona, California.

Brontomerus—"thunder thighs"in Greek—may have even attacked like a modern-day chicken, relentlessly kicking and stomping pursuers to death, he added.

"I could only imagine how ill-tempered these sauropods would have been,"Wedel said—as are mostbirds, dinosaurs' modern-day descendants.

In both cases,"you've got a little brain, you're permanently paranoid about all these meat-eaters around, and you're trying to protect your young."

(See"New Strong-Handed Dinosaur May Shatter Assumptions.")

"Extreme"Dinosaur Roamed Prehistoric Serengeti

Thunder thighs' bones were first found in 1994, when scientists rescued two partial skeletons of the then unidentified dinosaur from a fossil quarry that had otherwise been looted in easternUtah.

When Wedel and colleagues examined the bones in 2007, they realized they'd found a new species—and an"extreme"one at that, Wedel said. For instance, the shapes of the newfound species' bones showed it had the largest leg muscles of any sauropod yet found.

w(Seemore pictures of bizarre dinosaurs inNational Geographicmagazine.)

B. mcintoshilikely needed such extreme defenses to fight off"terrifying"predators such asDeinonychus (picture)andUtahraptor (picture),raptors that lived alongside the plant-eater about 110 million years ago in the earlyCretaceous period, he said.

The prehistoric animals roamed a landscape that would have resembled Africa's Serengeti, laced with rivers and mudholes and distinguished by vast, dry upland areas, Wedel noted. Herds of cowlike plant-eaters calledTenontosauruswould have dotted the plains. (Learn more about prehistoric animals.)

"If I could shoot you back in a time machine, it would have been like going on safari, except you'd want something more robust than a Land Rover—maybe a tank,"he said.

"The sauropods were probably beautiful animals if you were a long way away with binoculars,"he added.

"But up close, {they were} probably a nightmare."

The thunder thighs dinosaur is described in the most recent issue of the journalActa Palaeontologica Polonica.

National Geographic News

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Astronauts Walk on"Mars," Start Experiments

Today, after months of anticipation, three brave astronauts set foot onMars—or rather, a darkened, sand-filled room designed to simulate Mars.

The explorers make up half the crew of theMars500 mission, a project designed to study the psychological effects of a year-and-a-half long, deep-space voyage to the red planet.

(Related:"Astronauts Could Ride Asteroids to Mars, Study Says.")

Since June 2010 six men—three Russians, two Europeans, and one Chinese—have been living in isolation in a 19,423-cubic-foot (550-cubic-meter)"spaceship"outside Moscow, doing maintenance work, conducting experiments, and trying to stave off boredom by playing Rock Band and reading the complete works of Gabriel García Márquez.

The crew is made up of volunteers, some with no real-life space experience but all with applicable skills, such as engineering and medicine.

(Related:"Why Did 400 People Volunteer for a One-Way Trip to Mars?")

Radio communications with project leaders are delayed to simulate the communications lag between Earth and Mars. Illnesses are handled by a crew member serving as the ship's doctor. The only food comes from packets of dehydrated meals.

Since the project started, scientists have been remotely studying everything that happens to the ersatz astronauts, from their internal bacteria to how they breathe at night. But now, after more than 250 days under the microscope, the astronauts are the ones performing the experiments.

The spaceship entered a mock orbit around Mars on February 1, and three of the astronauts entered a separate compartment meant to simulate a Mars lander. These crew members"landed"on Mars on Saturday.

Today the hatch opened for the first of three planned extravehicular activities, or EVAs, on the"Martian"surface.

Watch raw footage of the Mars500 crew's first simulated Mars walk.

The room that's standing in for Mars is designed to look like the surface around Gusev Crater, the landing site of NASA's Mars rover Spirit.

Over the next two weeks, the astronauts will collect soil samples, deploy magnetometers to study the simulated Mars's magnetic field, and plant national flags, said Oleg Voloshin, a press officer with Russia'sInstitute for Biomedical Problems, which is carrying out the experiment.

The astronauts who remain"in orbit"will drive a virtual robotic rover around Mars in something like an"advanced computer game,"said Christer Fuglesang, director of the European Space Agency's contribution to the Mars500 mission.

Mars500 Crew Facing Gravity Adjustments

In preparation for landing, the three Mars walkers slept heads-down, to simulate the effects of going from zero-G to an environment with gravity—albeit a third that of Earth's, Fuglesang said.

The room itself won't simulate Martian gravity or weather, but astronauts will wear spacesuits during the EVAs that are about two-thirds lighter than real spacesuits, to preserve the illusion that gravity's pull is weaker on the faux red planet.

(Related:"Astronauts' Fingernails Falling Off Due to Glove Design.")

Fuglesang, a former ESA astronaut, notes that it's not easy to adjust to being in gravity after months of free-floating.

Though the Mars500 astronauts' feet have remained solidly on the ground the entire time, the transition is important to simulate, because"when you land on Earth, there are people taking care of you. There will be nobody on Mars to help them."

The Mars explorers will finish their experiments and pack up their samples by February 22. The lander will then return to the orbiting spacecraft—all without moving an inch—and it will be time for the six astronauts to start the roughly 200-day journey home.

The men on the virtual mission have held up remarkably well so far, Fuglesang added.

"One could have expected that there would have been confrontations, but it's been very good."

The return trip, however, is expected to be more psychologically grueling for the crew, with the excitement of the Mars landing behind them.

forNational Geographic News

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Valentine's Day Facts: Gifts, History, and Love Science

Where did Valentine's Day come from? (Think naked Romans, paganism, and whips.) What does it cost? And why do we fall for it, year after year?

Valentine's Day History: Roman Roots

More than a Hallmark holiday, Valentine's Day, like Halloween, is rooted in pagan partying. (See"Halloween Facts: Costumes, History, Urban Legends, More.")

The lovers' holiday traces its roots to raucous annual Roman festivals where men stripped naked, grabbed goat- or dog-skin whips, and spanked young maidens in hopes of increasing their fertility, said classics professor Noel Lenski of theUniversity of Colorado at Boulder.

The annual pagan celebration, called Lupercalia, was held every year on February 15 and remained wildly popular well into the fifth century A.D.—at least 150 years after Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

"It is clearly a very popular thing, even in an environment where the {ancient} Christians are trying to close it down,"Lenski said."So there's reason to think that the Christians might instead have said, OK, we'll just call this a Christian festival."

The church pegged the festival to the legend of St. Valentine.

According to the story, in the third century A.D., Roman Emperor Claudius II, seeking to bolster his army, forbade young men to marry. Valentine, it is said, flouted the ban, performing marriages in secret.

For his defiance, Valentine was executed in A.D. 270—on February 14, the story goes.

While it's not known whether the legend is true, Lenski said,"it may be a convenient explanation for a Christian version of what happened at Lupercalia."

(Valentine's Day Pictures: Animal Pairs.)

Valentine's Day 2011: Lovers Feeling Flush?

Today's relatively tame Valentine's Day celebration is big business—the 2011 holiday is expected to generate $15.7 billion in retail sales in the United States. That's up from last year's $14.1 billion, according to an annual survey by the U.S.National Retail Federation(NRF).

"Having surpassed expectations during the holiday season, it seems consumers are not done spending on gifts, which bodes well for the economy,"federation president Matthew Shay said in a statement.

Among those who are celebrating in 2011, the average U.S. consumer is expected to spend $116.21 on Valentine's Day gifts, meals, and entertainment, according to the survey—about $13 more per person than in 2010.

Spouses and significant others are apparently feeling flush, and plan to invest $68.98 on Valentine's Day gifts for their significant other—up from last year's $63.34 average. Even pets are expected to see richer treats in 2011, with average planned spending on animal gifts up $1.77 to $5.04.

(More Valentine's Day pictures: romantic destinations.)

Valentine's Day Gifts Regaining Their Luster?

Which Valentine's Day gifts are in vogue? The U.S. economy's tentative recovery appears to have spurred a slight shift back to baubles, according to the survey.

Whereas practical gifts like winter clothing and accessories were way up in 2010, in 2011 Valentine's Day jewelry purchases are projected to be up in the U.S., with 17.3 percent of survey respondents saying they'll by something shiny, versus 15.5 last year.

Economy notwithstanding, one Valentine's Day spending statistic remains constant year in and year out—U.S. men spend nearly twice as much on the holiday as U.S. women. In 2011 the average man is expected to spend $158.71 on Valentine's Day gifts, while a typical woman will part with only $75.79, the survey says.

Valentine's Day Cards

Greeting cards, as usual, will be the most common Valentine's Day gifts. Fifty-two percent of U.S. consumers plan to send at least one, according to the survey.

TheGreeting Card Association, an industry trade group, says about 190 million Valentine's Day cards are sent each year. And that figure does not include the hundreds of millions of cards schoolchildren exchange.

"Giving your sweetheart or someone {else} a Valentine's Day card is a deep-seated cultural tradition in the United States,"said association spokesperson Barbara Miller."We don't see that changing."

The first Valentine's Day card was sent in 1415 from France's Duke of Orléans to his wife when he was a prisoner in the Tower of London following the Battle of Agincourt, according to the association.

Valentine's Day cards—mostly handwritten notes—gained popularity in the U.S. during the Revolutionary War. Mass production started in the early 1900s.

Hallmarkgot in the game in 1913, according to spokesperson Sarah Kolell. Since then—perhaps not coincidentally—the market for Valentine's Day cards has blossomed beyond lovers to include parents, children, siblings, and friends.

Valentine's Day Candy: Cash Cow

An estimated 47.5 percent of U.S. consumers will exchange Valentine's Day candy in 2011, according to the retail federation survey—adding up to about a sweet billion dollars in sales, theNational Confectioners Associationsays.

About 75 percent of that billion is from sales of chocolate, which has been associated with romance at least since Mexico's 15th- and 16th-century Aztec Empire, according to Susan Fussell, a spokesperson with the association.

Fifteenth-century Aztec emperor Moctezuma I believed"eating chocolate on a regular basis made him more virile and better able to serve his harem,"she said.

(Related:secrets of ancient candy.)

But there's nothing chocolaty about Valentine's Day's most iconic candy: those demanding, chalky little hearts emblazoned"BE MINE,""KISS ME,""CALL ME."

About eight billion candy hearts were made in 2009, the association says—enough to stretch fromRome, Italy, toValentine (map), Arizona, and back again 20 times.

What Is Love? Evolution and Infatuation

Valentine's Day is all about love. But what, exactly, is that?

Helen Fisheris an anthropologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey and author of several books on love, includingWhy We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love.

Fisher breaks love into three distinct brain systems that enable mating and reproduction:

• Sex drive
• Romantic love (obsession, passion, infatuation)
• Attachment (calmness and security with a long-term partner)

These are brain systems, not phases, Fisher emphasized, and all three play a role in love. They can operate independently, but people crave all three for an ideal relationship.

"I think the sex drive evolved to get you out there looking for a range of partners,"she said.

"I think romantic love evolved to enable you to focus your mating energy on just one at a time, and attachment evolved to tolerate that person at least long enough to raise a child together as a team."

Valentine's Day, Fisher added, used to encompass only two of these three brain systems: sex drive and romantic love.

But"once you start giving thedoga valentine, you are talking about a real expression of attachment as well as romantic love."

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• Ancient Kissing Wasn't Just for Valentines, Expert Says
• Why Men Are Sloppy Kissers
• Most People Kiss The Right Way, Study Finds
• Spot the Valentine's Day Star
• Valentine's Science: Why Gauging Sexiness Is Sophisticated

forNational Geographic News

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