National Geographic

INTRa DUCTIDN Sam Abell's 1986 photograph of Leo Tolstoy's favorite path near the Russian literary genius's estate at Yasnaya Polyana suggests many things: hiking, sitting, observing, contemplating, and depicting. In this simple scene, two women stroll out of a black-hole vanishing point toward...

INTRODUCTION When we turn on the radio or TV; when we receive a vaccination to prevent disease; when we recognize that although the sun seems to rise and set, it's actually the Earth and not the sun that is moving—in aU these moments, we are reaping the benefits of thousands of years of human...