35 Who Made a Difference: Richard Leakey

The leader of the Hominid Gang asks what he can do for his continent

35 Who Made a Difference: Jane Mt. Pleasant

Iroquois tradition plus Western science equals a more sustainable future

On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as a mission specialist on STS-7.

35 Who Made a Difference: Sally Ride

A generation later, the first female astronaut is still on a mission

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35 Who Made a Difference: Clyde Roper

He’s spent his life chasing a sea monster that’s never been taken alive

35 Who Made a Difference: Daphne Sheldrick

When feelings of kinship transcend the species boundary

35 Who Made a Difference: Edward O. Wilson

Vindicated for his controversial sociobiology? Yes. Satisfied? Not yet

Raymond Tritt, 52, dresses a fallen bull on the spring caribou hunt. Like virtually every Gwich'in man, he still remembers every detail of his first successful hunt, four decades later. The 100,000-plus caribou of the Porcupine River herd are a focal point for the Gwich'in people: they are a main source of sustenance as well as the key element in the group's rituals, dances and stories. "If we lose the caribou," says a tribal elder, "we lose our way of life."

ANWR: The Great Divide

The renewed debate over drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge hits home for the two Native groups nearest the nature preserve

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The Dying of the Dead Sea

The ancient salt sea is the site of a looming environmental catastrophe

A giraffe in South Africa.

Hiding in Plain Sight

A veteran photographer shows the extraordinary knack that some animals have for…disappearing

Building A Better Banana

It is the world’s No. 1 fruit, now diseases threaten many varieties, prompting a search for new hybrids of the “smile of nature”

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Oh Deer!

Contraception shows promise, but other measures may be needed to lessen the toll that the deer boom is having on forests and suburbs

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Fuel for Thought

Cars that run on vegetable oil? Do-it-yourselfers and entrepreneurs alike fill ‘er up with the nation’s fastest-growing propellant

Riceville, Iowa, was the unlikely setting for a controversial classroom exercise created by Jane Elliott. She insists it strengthened their character. Critics say it abused their trust.

Lesson of a Lifetime

Her bold experiment to teach Iowa third graders about racial prejudice divided townspeople and thrust her onto the national stage

Green turtle swimming over coral reefs in Kona

Back from the Brink

Not every endangered species is doomed. Thanks to tough laws, dedicated researchers, and plenty of money and effort, success stories abound

Some mostly solitary species (such as these whitetip reef sharks near Costa Rica) gather to feed or mate.

Shark

Recent attacks on people off the Florida coast are a reminder of the animal’s fierce nature. Yet scientists say the predator is itself in grave danger

A growing number of U.S. firms dismantle used computers and send valuable parts (Circuit Boards #2, New Orleans, 2005) to companies that glean the semiprecious metals.

E-Gad!

Americans discard more than 100 million electronic devices each year. As “e-waste” piles up, so does concern about this growing threat to the environment

After the first atomic bomb explosion (seen here from 10,000 yards away, in a time series from .006 seconds to .081 seconds after detonation), Oppenheimer recalled, "a few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent."

Building the Bomb

A book about atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer charts the debate over deployment of the first A-bomb and the anxiety that suffused its first live test

Dubbed the "human satellite," McCandless (bottom center, with the 1984 Challenger crew, including pilot-photographer Gibson, upper left) now works on space robots.

Footloose

The image of Bruce McCandless’ spacewalk two decades ago still amazes. It was the first untethered walk ever—and was among the last

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Ghost of a Chance

How did the ivory-billed woodpecker, which was feared extinct, hang on all these years?

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Give Weeds a Chance

How a cultivated dislike of gardening can lead to more time on the porch

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