Spanning 9 million square kilometres and covering almost a third of Africa, the Sahara is the largest warm desert in the world. Only the most adaptable animals can survive in the hostile conditions. And they do. The Sahara is just one of Africa's many landscapes that are the subject of a new series. National Geographic’s "Africa: Earth’s Wild Home" offers to take viewers closer to the continent’s animals and environs—from its magnificent plains to jungles to islands, the series explores the continent's wildlife spectacles, showing how animals turn extreme conditions to their advantage, and how life finds its way even in isolated habitats. The seven-part series premiers on National Geographic on October 3, with episodes streaming the next day on Disney Plus and Hulu.
Books
The world is in the midst of a digital transformation. Beautiful Particulars offers a humorous take on how the idea of AI is fundamentally altering how we think about ourselves and the world. The book argues that the technology’s attention to the smallest of differences and "its focus on specifics" is reshaping the biggest ideas. It offers new perspectives on the workings of machine learning and how that has affected humanity's understanding of morality, free will, creativity, causality knowledge and even reality itself.
Ever heard of the Arabian king who forced America's hand? In October 1973, when King Faisal of Saudi Arabia stopped oil supply to the US, it triggered a chain of events that included not just chaotic diplomacy and secret negotiations but even war, murder and kidnapping. It made US President Richard Nixon and his secretary of state Henry Kissinger scramble to get oil supply restarted to avert an economic disaster. Embargo is the inside story of the 1973-74 oil crisis that made the world realise how dependent its peace and prosperity is on west Asia.
This was first published in the October 1-15, 2026 Print edition of Down To Earth