National Geographic December 2006

Images of Early Earth { Early Earth; Earth in the Beginning}
Modern landscapes offer glimpses of the way our planet may have looked billions of years ago. BY TIM APPENZELLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY FRANS LANTING
Underworld: South Sandwich Islands
Fire meets ice on the South Sandwich Islands, a no- man’s- land of volcanic steam, blue icebergs, and penguins by the millions. BY JENNIFER S. HOLLAND PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARIA STENZEL
Saturn As You’ ve Never Seen It { Voyage to Saturn; Saturn; Beautiful Stranger: Saturn’s Mysteries Come to Light}
As the Cassini probe reveals the secrets of the ringed giant, it is finding clues to the very beginnings of the solar system. BY BILL DOUTHITT MAP SUPPLEMENT: THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Military Medicine { Iraq: Front Lines; The Heroes, The Healing}
Frontline medicine is always brutal, but for some U. S. troops injured in Iraq, the real fight begins when they come home. BY NEIL SHEA PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMES NACHTWEY
The Ivory- billed Woodpecker { The Ghost Bird: Ivory- Billed Woodpecker}
An ivory- billed woodpecker hasn’t been seen for certain since 1944. Does a holdout survive today in Arkansas’s Big Woods? BY MEL WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOEL SARTORE
Bulgaria Gold Rush { Bulgaria’s Gold Rush}
The race is on to uncover the golden splendors of Bulgaria’s Thracian past before sites are looted and developers move in. BY A. R. WILLIAMS PHOTOGRAPHS BY KENNETH GARRETT

Supplement:

THE SOLAR SYSTEM 12/ 2006: 8 PLANETS: THE NEW COSMIC ORDER(20 x 31 in.)
Contents: Art showing the solar system’ s eight planets and the dwarf planets Ceres, Pluto, and Eris; planet sizes are to scale. ; Included: Notes about Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Eris, including each
19 TRILLION MILES TO EXPLORE(31 x 20 in.)
Contents: Art showing the solar system in three scales, a snapshot of where everything in orbit stood on December 1, 2006. ; Included: Photos of a crater on Mars; an image from the Cassini mission to Saturn; a debris disk encircling the star HD 107146; t