Madidi National Park
By Steve Kemper
Photographs by Joel Sartore

Champions of Bolivia’s new national park hope ecotourism will preserve this extraordinarily diverse corner of the Amazon, but a hydroelectric dam could jeopardize its future.

* See online-only shots from this assignment—with commentary from photographer Joel Sartore—in our Madidi photo gallery.

• Learn more about the organization that is trying to balance ecotourism with indigenous needs.

Bugging Out
Journal and photographs by Joel Sartore

A photographer’s dream can also be his worst nightmare. Join Joel Sartore in Madidi as he waits for killer pigs, digs burrowing maggots from his flesh, and sleeps with bats and sweat bees.

Arctic Submarine
By Glenn Hodges
Photographs by Jay Dickman

Beneath the icy surface of the Arctic Ocean, scientists aboard a U.S. Navy submarine map unchartered waters and gather clues about Earth’s changing climate.

Ancient Greece III
By Caroline Alexander
Photographs by James L. Stanfield

After Alexander the Great’s 12-year campaign of slaughter and conquest his Greek language and culture linked kingdoms from Egypt to the Indus Valley for three centuries.

Hard Rock Legacy
By T. H. Watkins
Photographs by Peter Essick

Gold, silver, and other hardrock mining contributed a colorful page to the history of the American West. Tainted by past blunders, the modern-day industry struggles to reconcile high stakes economics with sound environmental practices.

Stone Cold Ascent
By Gregory Crouch
Photographs by Thomas Ulrich

In the wicked Patagonian winter four men scale the sheer west face of Cerro Torre, a rare and dangerous first in the world of rock climbing.

• Related Web site: Conquer an unclimbed Antarctic spire with Into Thin Air author Jon Krakauer and others in Scaling the Razor.

Beijing
By Todd Carrel
Photographs by Stuart Franklin

Bolstered by foreign investment, Beijing’s booming economy is transforming the cityscape of China’s ancient capital as well as the lifestyle and expectations of its inhabitants.

* Read excerpts of the article online, along with a new essay by article author Todd Carrel. Then join our forum, and tell us where you think China is headed.

Great White Sharks; Yemen; Chiquibul Cave; Update From the Field; San Pedro River; Nature’s Rx; Duck-billed Platypus