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The Space Shuttle Era

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Based on the popular print Collector's Edition Space Shuttle 1981-2011, this digital version includes bonus interactive features, extra photographs, and multiple videos.

Editors' Picks

When Celebrity Jeopardy Comes to the National Mall

Jeopardy's annual "Power Players" show airs this week, pitting journalists, pundits and newsmakers against each other

The Monocled World War II Interrogator

Robin "Tin Eye" Stephens became known for "breaking" captured German spies without laying a hand on them

The 20 Best Small Towns in America

From the Berkshires to the Cascades, we've crunched the numbers and pulled a list some of the most interesting spots around the country

In The Magazine

  1. Tasmania's New Devil
  2. Sympathy for the Devil
  3. The 10 Best Small Towns in America
  4. A Man and His Islands
  5. There Is No Wind in Oslo

Table of Contents »

Games

WordSmith

Test your knowledge on Smithsonian.com's crossword puzzle

Daily Sudoku

Play the addictive number placement puzzle

Reel Culture Blog

For the Love of Film Blogathon III: The White Shadow and Streaming Restored Films Online

Catch Casablanca streaming live on Facebook tonight and read about the opportunity to view a recently restored version of one of Alfred Hitchcock's first films
3:56 PM ET | By Daniel Eagan

Articulations Blog

What a Physics Student Can Teach Us About How Visitors Walk Through a Museum

By sketching the movements of people at the Cleveland Art Museum, Andrew Oriani laid the groundwork for some deep insights into how art is appreciated
3:32 PM ET | By Henry Adams

Past Imperfect Blog

Sacrifice Amid the Ice: Facing Facts on the Scott Expedition

Captain Lawrence Oates wrote that if Robert Scott's team didn't win the race to the South Pole, "we shall come home with our tails between our legs." Actually, worse was in store
2:09 PM ET | By Gilbert King

Hominid Hunting Blog

The Top Four Candidates for Europe’s Oldest Work of Art

The discovery of 37,000-year-old cave art showing female genitalia adds to the list of contenders
11:14 AM ET | By Erin Wayman

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

People & Places

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Protecting Women From Militant Islam

Even in democratic nations, mothers and daughters are held back from basic freedoms
May 15, 2012 | By Kathleen Burke

putting up a tent

Travel

Deep in the Ndoki Jungle, A Few Sheets of Nylon Can Feel a Lot Like Home

The founding editor of Outside magazine explains why a tent is sometimes the difference between life and death
June 2012 Issue | By Tim Cahill

Dinosaur Tracking Blog

Dinosaur Sighting: Tyrannosaurus Golf

Dinosaurs probably wouldn't have been very good at mini-golf—imagine a Carnotaurus with a putter—but they make for excellent fairway decor
10:55 AM ET | By Brian Switek

Julia Child

History & Archaeology

Julia Child's Recipe for a Thoroughly Modern Marriage

Food writer Ruth Reichl looks at the impact of the famous chef's partnership with her husband Paul
June 2012 Issue | By Ruth Reichl

Food and Think Blog

Clarence Birdseye, the Man Behind Modern Frozen Food

I spoke with author Mark Kurlansky about the quirky inventor who changed the way we eat
10:35 AM ET | By Jesse Rhodes

Gumbo

Arts & Culture

Best. Gumbo. Ever.

He ate far and wide, but the author found only one true version of the New Orleans dish—Mom's
June 2012 Issue | By Lolis Eric Elie

Off the Road Blog

Truffle Trouble in Europe: The Invader Without Flavor

If it looks like a black truffle, and if it cost you $1,500 a pound like a black truffle---it may actually be a worthless Chinese truffle
May 15, 2012 | By Alastair Bland

Milky Way

Science & Nature

Top Ten Mysteries of the Universe

What are those burning questions about the cosmos that still baffle astronomers today?
May 08, 2012 | By Joseph Stromberg

Egyptians embalming a corpse

History & Archaeology

The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine

The question was not “Should you eat human flesh?” says one historian, but, “What sort of flesh should you eat?”
May 07, 2012 | By Maria Dolan

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AT THE SMITHSONIAN
Scenes and Sightings from the Museums

  • Around the Mall
  • Visitor's Guide

Past and Present Clash in Ai WeiWei’s “Fragments”

"Fragments," the second of three Ai WeiWei exhibitions this year, opens at the Sackler Gallery
By Aviva Shen

How a Fallout Shelter Ended up at the American History Museum

Curator Larry Bird tells of the adventure—from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Washington, D.C.
By Megan Gambino

Events May 15-17: Words, Earth and Aloha, merengue and méringue, and ZooFari

This week, watch a documentary about Hawaiian music, enjoy a performance of Dominican merengue and H...
By Aviva Shen




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