“I would never have imagined spending my career with a convent full of aging nuns,” cracks scientist David Snowdon. Yet there he is, striving to fathom the mysteries of aging. Washington Post reporter Rick Weiss follows Snowdon and other researchers as they explore how we age—and how we cope. Karen Kasmauski captures the grace and challenge of growing old.

In an online essay, author Rick Weiss asks, “What Does It Mean to Grow Old?” Read, reflect, and reply.

“Our cataraft bucked like a mustang heading into the run,” reports Michael McRae. Join the author, and photographer Dugald Bremner, aboard makeshift rafts of birch, canvas, and rubber as they successfully ride the frigid, turbulent waters of the Oygaing River in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan. Dugald died several months later while kayaking in the U.S.

Stay or split? That’s the fiercely debated choice facing Canada’s largest province. In 1995 Quebecers voted—just barely—to remain a part of Canada. But Quebec’s premier has vowed to hold a new referendum before the end of the century. In the meantime uncertainty has aggravated economic problems, especially in Montreal. Ian Darragh, former editor of Canadian Geographic, and photographer Maggie Steber chart the passions surging throughout Quebec.

Scattered in villages throughout the Carpathian Mountains of southern Ukraine and northern Romania are the resilient Hutsul people. Haunting black-and-white images by Lida and Miso Suchy document the culture of these independent souls. Fierce adherence to tradition has sustained the Hutsuls—and their agrarian culture—through centuries of foreign domination.

Bald eagles perching in trees, ice crystals crusting over a stream, gray wolves chasing after ravens–photographer Jim Brandenburg snared these vivid scenes and dozens more during a self-imposed photographic challenge. As autumn burnished northern Minnesota, Brandenburg snapped a single image a day. No second chances. The result: 90 stunning looks at an American wilderness.

We expect antlers on elk and deer. But on insects? Photographer Mark W. Moffett gets in the face of “flies worthy of Dr. Suess.” These extraordinary insects, he reports, are “astonishing in their similarities to their antlered mammal counterparts.” Venture into the rain forest of New Guinea as flies wield their antlers to win mates and breeding ground.

Wedged in the Himalaya and isolated for decades, the Mustang region of northern Nepal is now opening its doors to tourists. Author-photographer Robert Caputo journeys to this land steeped in Buddhist heritage and witnesses the spring festival of Tiji, annual blend of dance, music, and prayer. For now, tradition endures. But its custodians fear that the end of isolation could also mean the end of cherished ways.

Making Room for Wild Tigers; Sita: Life of a Wild Tigress; Australia by Bike; The Royal Crypts of Copán; The Age of Comets; Scaling the Dragon’s Spires; Uncovering Patagonia’s Lost World