Dinosaurs Come Alive

Step aside, bone diggers and fossil hunters, a new generation of scientists is using computer modeling and a better understanding of living animals to bring dinosaurs back to life—virtually.

Highlight: MULTIMEDIA VIDEO Get an insider's look at how the photographer put bite into the cover shot of a model T. rex skull.

Puerto Rico's Divided Passions
As citizens they love their country; they also love their island home. Fifty years after becoming residents of a de facto U.S. colony, Puerto Ricans are rethinking the commonwealth's future.

Highlight: MAP Download a printable, high-resolution map of the island of Puerto Rico.

Highlight: FORUM Puerto Ricans continue to wrestle with their island's future. Should it remain a U.S. commonwealth, become the 51st state, or should islanders seek independence? Enter>>

Highlight: SIGHTS & SOUNDS Photographer Amy Toensing introduces Puerto Rico's passions and patriotism.

Highlight: POSTCARDS Dress up your e-greeting with an image of freshly washed party dresses.

Highlight: FINAL EDIT Rescued from the cutting room floor is this month's Final Edit, an image of crinoline and lace on a Puerto Rico clothesline.

Alaska's Giant of Ice and Stone: Wrangell-St. Elias

Solitude seems as tangible as the mountains in immense Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. This first in a series on American Landscapes surveys a wilderness of unyielding harshness and unbridled majesty.

Highlight: MAP Download a printable, high-resolution map of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.

Highlight: ONLINE EXTRA Plan an adventure to the largest national park in the U.S. with these handy travel tips.

Highlight: WALLPAPER This month everything from a high-flying bush plane to a land-loving skink will decorate your desktop.

Qatar's Revolution From the Top Down

First he overthrew his father. Now the ruler of the rich Persian Gulf nation of Qatar strives to modernize a conservative Islamic society by royal decree.

Highlight: MAP Download a printable, high-resolution map of Qatar, one of the smallest and least known countries in the Arab world.

Highlight: MULTIMEDIA VIDEO For photographer Robb Kendrick, Qatar is a contradiction of modest conservatism and capitalist excess.

Highlight: MULTIMEDIA VIDEO Our multimedia producer goes office to office in search of the right pronunciation for "Qatar."

Highlight: FORUM Among the world's wealthiest nations per capita, Qatar is also one of the most conservative and traditional societies in the Persian Gulf. What does its recent revolutionary move toward democracy mean for the Middle East? Enter>>

Hotspot: Islands of the Pacific

Take 1,400 remote specks of land, colonize them with migrant species, then wait a few millennia. That's the recipe for biodiversity in the tropical Pacific.

Highlight: MAP Download a printable, high-resolution map of the Pacific Islands.

Highlight: FORUM Non-native species, logging, and development threaten
thousands of endemic species in the Pacific Islands, but some locals are taking matters into their own hands. Are local initiatives enough to save the region's rich, yet fragile, biosphere? Will this "Hotspot" approach to conservation work? Enter>>

Highlight: POSTCARDS Serve up an e-greeting of a ritual cannibal fork, used for centuries in the Fiji Islands to feed individuals deemed too holy to touch their human food.

Highlight: FLASHBACK to 1917 when this photograph of a ritual cannibal fork made its way to the Society.

ZipUSA: 73106

You won't find steak houses in this corner of Oklahoma City. In Little Saigon, noodle shops reign.

Highlight: NOMINATE your own wonderful, weird, or wacky choices for this magazine series. Enter>>