Smithsonian Magazine: April 2009
Features
Iran's Hidden Jewel
Isfahan's artisans are striving to restore ancient Persia's capital city to its former luster
By Andrew Lawler
The Dino Wars
Across the Great Plans and West, prospectors—and poachers—are excavating fossils in a cash-fueled free-for-all that often pits them against scientists and law
By Donovan Webster
Cook vs. Peary
A century ago, Frederick Cook and Robert Peary each said they discovered the North Pole. Now the question is: How did Peary's claim trump Cook's?
By Bruce Henderson
Celestial Sleuth
What inspired Munch, van Gogh and Chaucer? What went wrong one terrible night in World War II? Astrophysicist Donald Olson probes historical mysteries with "forensic astronomy"
By Jennifer Drapkin and Sarah Zielinski
What's So Hot About Chili Peppers?
A Gonzo botanist braves the back roads of wild Bolivia to find the roots of the world's most piquant spice
By Brendan Borrell
The Writer's Eye
The photographs of Eudora Welty, born 100 years ago this month, hint at the sensibility that would mark her as a storyteller
By T.A. Frail
Departments
My Kind of Town
Staying Power
Big skies and colorful characters bind the versatile writer to his adopted home
By Anthony Doerr
Presence of Mind
Buckle Up. And Behave
The three-point seat belt turns 50—and still has much to teach us about risk and recklessness
By William Ecenbarger
Wild Things
Wild Things:
Life as We Know It
Wolves, hibernating animals, spitting cobras and more
By Joseph Caputo, T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino, Abigail Tucker and Sarah Zielinski
Around the Mall
Forest Hires
Bankers trade in their suits and ties to study the environment
By Kenneth R. Fletcher
The Object at Hand
A Good Reed
Late in his career, Benny Goodman favored a Parisian "licorice stick"
By Owen Edwards
Around the Mall
A Fish Tale
A curator discovers that whalefishes, bignose fishes and tapetails are all really the same kind of fish at different life stages
By Joseph Caputo
