National Geographic Explorer on MSNBC

In a mere three or four decades, the seeds of a global religion spread across the Roman Empire. In an age with no Internet, no mass media, no planes, trains or fossil fuel, how did it happen? National Geographic investigates the mysterious decades following Jesus' death, and the group of 12 common men who traveled thousands of miles, risked their lives and sacrificed everything to spread Jesus' message.

The year 2011 gets off to a disturbing start. On New Year's Eve, blackbirds die in Beebe, Arkansas by the thousands. Nearby, fish and more birds perish. Then a wave of unsettling animal deaths seems to sweep the globe. Are the deaths connected? A wide-ranging story begins with an investigation of the blackbirds' death and ends by assessing how the human mind is inspired, or derailed, by seeming patterns or coincidences in nature.

Using the wealth, culture and seized bounty of Mexican drug traffickers - narco bling - as a jumping off point, correspondent Mariana van Zeller explores the strange and dangerous netherworld of the largest and most successful of the Mexican drug cartels, led by one of the world's most wanted criminals.

Leonardo da Vinci's "The Battle of Anghiari" vanished 500 years ago, with only copies rendered by other artists left behind to confirm its existence. Scientist and art enthusiast Maurizio Seracini, has dedicated 36 years to tracking down the missing mural, and seems to be on the verge of uncovering the hidden fresco behind the walls of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy.

National Geographic takes you inside the secretive underworld of the Yakuza, Japan's infamous organized crime syndicates.

Massive floods in Australia and Pakistan. Deadly mudslides in Brazil. Epic drought and wildfires in Russia. Historic snows and bitter cold across North America. 2010 was one of the most destructive years in history. Join National Geographic as we present the dramatic images and personal stories of this catastrophic weather year.

Piranhas - the stuff of nightmares and legends. They're infamous for how fast they can devour prey, and are known to attack in groups of up to 100. National Geographic joins a team of scientists heading to the Amazon to investigate a piranha mystery of immense proportions. A fossil of a giant jaw fragment has been identified as an ancient piranha, but with a terrifying twist: the tooth belonged to a fish seven times the size of existing piranha species.

The discovery of a human skull in the depths of Lake Superior begins a story that will take historian and author Brendon Baillod across two Great Lakes and a century of history. It takes him and a team of elite technical divers more than 20 miles off Milwaukee where they discover the wreck of one of Lake Michigans lost queens. It takes them to the remote waters of Lake Superior where they risk their lives to determine the identity of yet another lost ship.

A 9/11 survivor, an astronaut, and a blue hole diver all survived dramatically different traumatic events only to tell strikingly similar stories: each felt a mysterious presence that guided them to safety in their time of greatest peril. But what were these strange presences? Can they be explained? The devout call them guardian angels or divine encounters, others encounter a kind stranger. Could they have been angels? Phantoms? Or were their minds just playing tricks on them?

Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter over 480 million miles away from Earth, may be our best hope for finding alien life in our solar system. Scientists believe that on Europa there is a liquid ocean buried beneath its icy crust. To find out if this alien ocean holds life, a team needs to get there, penetrate the ice shell, and navigate in an alien sea.

For the first time, the Catholic Church is allowing scientific experts and historians to openly test the veracity of the remains of reported saints. National Geographic has exclusive access to the forensic investigation. Deep in the crypt below the Cathedral of Reggio Emilia lie a set of bones believed to be those of two ancient saints, Chrysanthus and Daria. For more than 1,500 years they've been hidden away, until now.

National Geographic joins an international team of scientists on a mission to unlock the hidden secrets of Mt. Nyiragongo, an active volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The scientists' mission: to collect a fresh sample from the deadly yet mesmerizing lava lake at the volcano's heart, a sample they will use to predict the volcano's future eruptions and potentially help the 2 million people who live in its path.

Science may be on the verge of producing a limitless supply of replacement parts by regenerating damaged or aging body parts grown from our own cells. Could it eliminate the death sentence for profound birth defects, the need for prosthetics and any shortage of transplant organs? National Geographic delves into the science of tissue engineering and tracks how scientists are beginning to harness the body's natural powers.

Cannibalism has long been considered a dark chapter in man's history. Yet we think of it only as isolated occurrences. A Neolithic burial pit in Germany, found filled with expertly butchered human remains, challenges those assumptions. Archaeologists have never seen anything like it - the deeper they dig, the more bizarre the scene becomes. National Geographic joins an international team of experts as they reopen the earth to understand violent events as they played out seven thousand years ago.

Journalist Terry Anderson was kidnapped and then held prisoner by Muslim extremists for seven years. American Hostage reveals Terry Anderson's harrowing experience from the man himself: "They beat on me. They threatened me.... They would come and sit on my chest and poke guns into my neck and say, 'We kill you, we kill you.'" Hear how the loneliness, boredom and feelings of total helplessness nearly drove Anderson over the edge.