Smithsonian Magazine: March 2010
Features
Wrecking History
A 1,000-year-old city in northwest China, Kashgar was a vital stop on the ancient Silk Road. Why is the government now demolishing its oldest neighborhoods, home to the fiercely, independent Uighur people?
By Joshua Hammer
Our Earliest Ancestors
How did ape-like creatures evolve into members of the human family? Research on fossil remains including 4.4-million-year-old "Ardi," is leading to new insights into our origins
By Ann Gibbons
Ultimate Pho
With more and more Americans sampling Vietnam's savory soup, a noted food critic and an esteemed maestro track down Hanoi's best
By Mimi Sheraton
Dolley Madison Saves the Day
In August 1814, with invading British soldiers only a few hours away, the first lady took command of the White House to save the young nation's treasures
By Thomas Fleming
Witness to History
The first memoir by a White House slave recreates the events of August 23, 1814
By Kathleen Burke
Welcome to Barrow, Alaska, Ground Zero for Climate Change
Scientists converge on the northernmost city in the United States to study global warming's dramatic consequences
By Bob Reiss
The Mustang Mystique
Descended from animals that escaped the Spanish conquistadors almost 500 years ago, wild horses roam the West. But are they running out of room?
By Abigail Tucker
Going Home Again
The celebrated novelist returns to the upstate New York town where so much of her was formed
By Joyce Carol Oates
Departments
Wild Things
Wild Things:
Life as We Know It
Pollinating crickets, the longest migration, puffed up toads and more...
By T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino, Abigail Tucker and Sarah Zielinski
Indelible Images
The Vigil
Shelby Lee Adams' 1990 photograph of Appalachian life captured a poignant tradition
By Abigail Tucker
Around the Mall
Sculpting Evolution
A series of statues brings us face to face with our early ancestors
By Abigail Tucker
The Object at Hand
Beyond Bones
A rare cache of hominid fossils offers a window on Neanderthal culture
By Owen Edwards
Q&A
Q and A: Rick Potts
The Smithsonian anthropologist turned heads in scientific circles when he proposed that climate change was the driving force in human evolution
By Beth Py-Lieberman
The Last Page
Leagues of Their Own
From underwater hockey to chess boxing, some hybrid sports aren't yet ready for prime time
By Megan Gambino
