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Photograph by Martin Harvey, Corbis
December 2008
South Africa—Green tree pythons coil when comfortable. Though this snake is a pet in Pretoria, the species is native to northern Australia and New Guinea. In the wild its coloration lends cover for a life spent mostly in trees.
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Photograph by Scott A. Woodward
December 2008
Bhutan—Novices at the Dechen Phodrang monastic school in Thimphu hear the dinner bell and come running. More than 400 boys attend the academy, where a typical day of study stretches from 5 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
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Photograph by Nick Cobbing
December 2008
Greenland—An iceberg reveals a glimpse of the southern Greenland town of Narsaq. A nearby glacier births a steady supply of bergs that jostle off the settlement's shores year-round.
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Photograph by Carlos Gutierrez, UPI/Digital Railroad
November 2008
Chile—The fury of Chaitén volcano seems to set the sky on fire. Highly charged particles of pumice roar upward in spreading clouds of gas and smoke, generating crackling tangles of lightning.
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Photograph by Birgitte Wilms, Minden Pictures/National Geographic Stock
November 2008
Solomon Islands—Like a pale brooch atop royal velvet, a brittle star—barely as big as a nickel—crawls across the arm of an 18-inch-wide blue sea star. The smaller creature took just seconds to traverse the larger.
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Photograph by Adrian Fisk, Digital Railroad
November 2008
India—Children of the many snake charmers in the village of Padmakesharpur are no strangers to cobras. Early encounters with defanged or devenomed snakes help the babies grow up fearless.
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Photograph by Jan Vermeer, Foto Natura
October 2008
Norway—Bright beaks and feet signal the breeding season for Atlantic puffins on Hornøya Island. The birds' colors dull for winter. Puffins in summer and winter coloration look so different they were once thought separate species.
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Photograph by Ingo Arndt, Minden Pictures/NG Image Collection
October 2008
Malaysia—Spikes at the center of the Rafflesia kerrii flower may help disperse its odor—the stench of rotting meat—throughout its jungle habitat, attracting the carrion flies that pollinate the platter-size bloom.
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Photograph by J Carrier
October 2008
Sudan—Women walk miles from their West Darfur refugee camp—and risk assault by roving militiamen—to gather wood and grass for fuel. A full sack earns some 50 cents in their camp, home to about 15,000 people.
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Photograph by Manu San Félix
September 2008
Maldives—A school of snorkelers struggle to keep pace with a whale shark—the world’s biggest fish, which can grow more than 60 feet long. These rare sharks glide along swiftly, exhausting even fit swimmers within minutes.
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Photograph by Cristina García Rodero, Magnum Photos
September 2008
Cerro de Sorte, Venezuela—Surrounded by candles symbolizing regeneration, followers of a cult centered on the local goddess María Lionza wait for cleansing during an hour-long ritual.
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Photograph by Sergei Supinsky, AFP/Getty Images
September 2008
Kiev, Ukraine—Dwarfed by the memory of her nation's past, a woman at the National Museum of History of the Great Patriotic War adjusts her outfit in front of a monument to Soviet soldiers.
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Photograph by Palani Mohan, Reportage by Getty Images
August 2008
India—Decorated in pink powder, a bull dives through a crowd of men who hope to hang on to the animal long enough to win a prize. The sport, jallikattu, is part of harvest celebrations in the Tamil Nadu town of Alanganallur.
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Photograph by Jordi Busqué
August 2008
Argentina—Moonlight sets mist aglow on the Patagonian peak of Mount Fitz Roy, known to local people as Cerro Chaltén, or "smoking mountain," because its summit is often capped in clouds.
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Photograph by Abid Katib, Getty Images
August 2008
Gaza City—Missing her claws, a few teeth, and the tip of her tail, a lion stolen as a cub from the Gaza Zoo is returned—two years later—in an SUV. Hamas police provide armed escort.
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Photograph by Yukihiro Fukuda
July 2008
Shodo Shima, Japan—Huddled for warmth, macaques press their bodies into a vast ball of fur. The monkeys' relaxed social hierarchy allows high- and low-ranking individuals to share the same tight space.
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Photograph by Franck Fife, AFP/Getty Images
July 2008
Qatar—Tour of Qatar cyclists sprint in a quick burst of color past a pipe storage yard outside Umm Said. The flat desert terrain makes for an easy ride, but headwinds can be punishing.
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Photograph by Magnus Lundgren
July 2008
Gulf of Aqaba—Surrounded by thousands of golden sweepers, photographer Magnus Lundgren spun his camera to capture this shifting school off Elat, Israel. After 200 tries he got it: a whirlpool of four-inch fish.
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Photograph by Vincent Laforet
June 2008
New York City—Secret prize on the urban game board, a miniature garden brightens a Rockefeller Center rooftop seven stories above midtown traffic. Four gardeners labor eight hours a week to keep its lawn and hedges trim.
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Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic Image Collection
June 2008
Arctic Ocean—The 22-ton stainless steel propellers on the icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent pause in their work pushing the Canadian vessel through frozen waters—allowing a diver to venture near.
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Photograph by Penny de los Santos
June 2008
Weslaco, Texas—Ruffled, tiaraed, and manicured, twins Vanessa and Veronica Del Toro wait to leave for their quinceañera reception—the 15th-birthday party that, in Latino culture, marks their coming of age.
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Photograph by George Steinmetz
May 2008
Yunnan—Blooming rapeseed plants weave around hills near Luoping. China grows more of the crop—some 14 million tons in 2006—than any other country; officials hope a biodiesel boom will increase demand even more.
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Photograph by George Steinmetz
May 2008
Yunnan—The Songzanlin Monastery overlooks the town known until 2001 as Zhongdian, but renamed—to attract more visitors—Shangri-La. Tourists, largely from within China, bring billions of dollars to Yunnan every year.
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Photograph by George Steinmetz
May 2008
Xinjiang—A column of dunes could provide geologic data for sand-sampling scientists, whose trucks scratch tracks across the wind-scoured Kumtag Desert.
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Photograph by John B. Weller
April 2008
Antarctica—Not far from its Franklin Island colony, a lone Adélie punctuates the looping scrawl of penguin tracks across plates of Ross Sea pack ice. Some 2.7 million of the birds populate the Ross Sea region.
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Photograph by Heidi and Hans-Jürgen Koch
April 2008
Germany—The see-through skin of an inch-long glass frog reveals her eggs. Native to Venezuela, the frogs lay eggs in bushes and trees overhanging streams. Tadpoles hatch, then tumble into the current to be swept away.
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Photograph by Sol Neelman
April 2008
United States—A red-clay spray showers spectators at the mud-pit belly flop, highlight of the annual Summer Redneck Games in East Dublin, Georgia. Other events include a hubcap-discus throw and bobbing for pigs' feet.
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Photograph by Christine and Michel Denis-Huot
March 2008
Kenya—Hungry lions in a Masai Mara pride leave little of a wildebeest. "The animals were so involved eating that I was able to drive very close and take a picture standing on my car's roof," says photographer Michel Denis-Huot.
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Photograph by Jeff Kroeze
March 2008
California—More than 3,000 wind turbines bristle across the hills of the Tehachapi-Mojave Wind Resource Area, generating enough electricity to serve a quarter million homes each year.
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Photograph by K. C. Alfred, San Diego Union-Tribune/Zuma Press
March 2008
California—As his mother scatters his ashes from a lifeguard boat, friends of Emery Kauanui, Jr., gather in a memorial paddle-out off La Jolla's Windansea Beach on June 9, 2007. The pro surfer, 24, died the previous month.
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Photograph by Tomas Munita, AP Images
February 2008
Afghanistan—Good luck and centripetal force help driver Mohammed Jawed keep circling the shuddering wood-plank Wall of Death during his traveling stunt show's stop in Kabul.
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Photograph by Magnus Elander
February 2008
Sweden—The facial disk of feathers circling this great gray owl's eyes channel forest-floor sounds back to its ears, helping the bird pounce on a vole and carry it away.
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Photograph by Annie Griffiths Belt, National Geographic Image Collection
February 2008
Zambia—The 355-foot (108 meter) drop of Victoria Falls just inches away, a swimmer stands at the lip of a hidden pool—an eight-foot-deep (2 meter) divot in the riverbed rock—accessible only when the Zambezi River runs low.
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Photograph by Viktor Sykora, Charles University, Prague
January 2008
Czech Republic—It takes a microscope to make a handful of carrot seeds look like a swarm of bristling space invaders. There are about 450,000 of these Daucus carota seeds in a single pound.
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Photograph by Rémi Bénali, Lightmediation
January 2008
Azerbaijan—The carcass of an abandoned amusement park ride is a diving platform for teens on a Caspian Sea beach near Baku. Despite the nation's oil and gas boom, almost half of Azerbaijanis live in poverty.
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