Abigail Tucker

A frequent contributor to Smithsonian, Abigail Tucker is the author of The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World and Mom Genes: Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct. More information is available at her website: abigailtucker.com

New technology, with all of its conveniences, has created a new society called Elsewhere, U.S.A., according to professor Dalton Conley.

The Journey to Elsewhere, U.S.A.

A professor explains how new technology drastically altered the modern American family unit

Hysterical Men by Mark Micale.

History of the Hysterical Man

Doctors once thought that only women suffered from hysteria, but a medical historian says that men were always just as susceptible

Seen from the aircraft that Steinmetz calls his "flying lawn chair," a salt-making site at the village of Teguidda-n-Tessoumt in arid northern Niger appears to be a vast work of abstract art. The clay-lined pools hold briny water that slowly evaporates, yielding salt solids that workers truck to southern Niger and Nigeria, where the minerals are given to livestock. The bluish pools bear a salty crust that reflects the sky.

Africa on the Fly

Dangling from a paraglider with a propeller on his back, photographer George Steinmetz gets a new perspective on Africa

John White likely did this study of a male Atlantic loggerhead on a stop in the West Indies en route to "Virginia" in 1585. "Their heads, feet, and tails look very ugly, like those of a venomous serpent," wrote Thomas Harriot, the expedition's scientist, of New World tortoises. "Nevertheless they are very good to eat, as are their eggs."

Sketching the Earliest Views of the New World

The watercolors that John White produced in 1585 gave England its first startling glimpse of America

The large eyes of a red dragonfly.

Bugs, Brains and Trivia

No detail is too small for students at the Linnaean games, an annual national insect trivia competition

"I never thought anything would come of them," John Rich says of the some 1,000 personal photographs that he made as a reporter during the war.

One Man's Korean War

John Rich's color photographs, seen for the first time after more than half a century, offer a vivid glimpse of the "forgotten" conflict

A fallow deer with its impressive but unevenly formed antler looks straight into the light of the setting sun.

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Bats' barotrauma, fallow deer, Tahitian vanilla, lucky dinosaurs

Wall Street with Trinity Church in the distance.

The Financial Panic of 1907: Running from History

Robert F. Bruner discusses the panic of 1907 and the financial crisis of 2008

Teal sea glass

Sea Glass: The Search on the Shore

Part of the sea glass hunting elite, Nancy and Richard LaMotte are finding the treasures they covet harder to come by

Scrapped fishing boats in Fort Bragg (salvagers Bruce Abernathy and his son David) testify to the sharp decline of chinook salmon.

On California's Coast, Farewell to the King Salmon

For the first time there's no fishing for chinook salmon on the California coast. The search is on for why the prize catch is so scarce.

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt examines traffic science and psychology

The Truth About Traffic

Author Tom Vanderbilt Shows Why Cars and People Don’t Mix

Paul Polak, author of the book, "Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail."

Paul Polak, Social Entrepreneur, Golden, Colorado

His new book advocates helping the world's poorest people one tool at a time

Six days after Betka Tudu's birth, female relatives and neighbors in the West Bengal village of Purulia gathered to bless him and "to protect him from harm's way," says Dey. Born into the Santhal tribe, Betka "unknowingly drew his distant kin closer than ever."

Welcome to Your World

This year's photo contest winners reflect decidedly international points of view

Muskrat lunch was also available in the school cafeteria.

Muskrat Love

An annual festival on Maryland’s Eastern Shore celebrates an unlikely mascot

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