Smithsonian Magazine: June 2012
Features
How the Chicken Conquered the World
The epic begins 10,000 years ago in an Asian jungle and ends today in kitchens all over the world—the mighty little bird that powers modern civilization
By Jerry Adler and Andrew Lawler
The Unified Theory of Gumbo
If Mrs. Elie’s Creole gumbo was on the table, God was in His heaven and all was right with the universe. Then, the universe cracked
By Lolis Eric Elie
Salts of the Earth
The most ancient and common seasoning in the world, the only rock we eat, has suddenly become the latest gourmet obsession
By Mimi Sheraton
Sur La Table
Julia Child changed the way Americans eat with her version of classic French cuisine. But she had a very modern recipe for marriage
By Ruth Reichl
Those (Waxed Fruit) Times
The artist pays tribute to a family centerpiece that was both inedible and indelible
By Maira Kalman
Heaven on the Half Shell
America's greatest storyteller was also a famous gourmand. And when Mark Twain lived in San Francisco, nothing struck his fancy like a heaping plate of Olympia oysters. Here’s the raw truth about the fall and rise of Twain's beloved bivalve
By Andrew Beahrs
A Wine and a Prayer
The San Antonio Winery survived Prohibition because of an exemption for sacramental wine, but it has prospered by blending the sacred with the secular
By Amy Scattergood
Can Technology Save Breakfast?
Giant food companies have been vilified for decades for starting our day with heaping bowls of sugar. But now they are using science to "re-nature" food and make it less processed. Are they creating the champion of breakfast?
By Corby Kummer
Departments
From the Castle
Panama Exposed
The ongoing expansion of the waterway has given Smithsonian researchers a chance to find new fossils
By G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Phenomena
Shelter
America is the world's shelter, says the renowned author of the celebrated memoir Infidel, who found refuge here from persecution
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Going Underground
The cold war is over but the bomb shelter market is heating up, offering accommodations that will help you survive Armageddon in style
By Abigail Tucker
A Roof of One's Own
The shocking truth about an ambitious plan to get 100,000 homeless Americans off the streets? It might succeed
By Abigail Tucker
Seeds of the Future
Scientists at a British laboratory are racing to preserve thousands of the world’s threatened plants, one seed at a time
By Rob Sharp
Profile
The Multiverse of Love
Rosanne Cash sings about love, science and the deep space between men and women
By Ron Rosenbaum
History
Remember the Raisin!
The battle cry of the War of 1812, along with almost everything else about it, has been forgotten for far too long. On the war's 200th anniversary, it's all coming back to us
By Tony Horwitz
Science
When the Earth Moved
One hundred years ago, a German scientist advanced the shocking idea that the continents were adrift, and the giants of geology ridiculed him. But nobody’s laughing now
By Richard Conniff
Around the Mall
Save the Whalebones
New technology preserves fossil data that's fast disappearing
By Abigail Tucker
Books
Saving Grace
A pioneering elephant rescuer looks back on the loves of her life
By Chloë Schama
