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Articles

Peeps diorama by Sarah Zielinski, Amanda Bensen and Jamie Simon

A Peep Experiment

In peep jousting, two peeps, armed with toothpicks, battle it out in a microwave

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Brain Food for Busy Bees

Columbian mammoths were larger than mastodons. Both once roamed North America.

Mammoths and Mastodons: All American Monsters

A mammoth discovery in 1705 sparked a fossil craze and gave the young United States a symbol of national might

Marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco recently spoke at the Natural History Museum on restoring the bounty of the world's oceans.

Q and A: Jane Lubchenco

The marine ecologist and administrator of NOAA discusses restoring the bounty of the world’s oceans

Far from light and plunged into months-long darkness, Antarctica's South Pole Telescope is one of the best places on Earth for observing the universe.

Dark Energy: The Biggest Mystery in the Universe

At the South Pole, astronomers try to unravel a force greater than gravity that will determine the fate of the cosmos

Silky sifakas have long eked out an existence in rugged, high-altitude forests.  Now the growing number of people nearby pose a threat to the furtive primate.

Saving the Silky Sifaka

In Madagascar, an American researcher races to protect one of the world’s rarest mammals, a white lemur known as the silky sifaka

Camargue horses running through water France

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Feathered dinosaurs, white-coated horses, giant redwoods and more…

"He'd go down there [to the docks] in the middle of the night sometimes," Bodine's daughter says.

Photographing Baltimore’s Working Class

Baltimore’s A. Aubrey Bodine cast a romantic light on the city’s dockworkers in painterly photographs

Despite ongoing problems, Indonesia boasts one of Asia's strongest economies.

Return to Indonesia

A reporter chronicles the revival of the world’s most populous Muslim nation a decade after its disintegration

On the R.A. Brown Ranch, fifth-generation ranger Donnell Brown can't help thinking about the potential he had created through decades' worth of work.

Breeding the Perfect Bull

A Texas cattleman used genetic science to breed his masterpiece – a near-perfect Red Angus bull. Then nature took its course

In the Alps, you'll share the trail with cows.

Switzerland

The “Cow Culture” of Switzerland’s Berner Oberland

Living up high among the Swiss Alps, cow farmers keep their family traditions alive, earning a living by making cheese

The National Museum of Natural History, opened in 1910, is the largest museum on the National Mall.

Two Centennials for the Smithsonian

In 2010, the Institution celebrates two seminal events – the founding of its Natural History Museum and the inauguration of its research in Panama

In a letter to the Daguerreian Journal in 1851, Levi Hill claimed to have invented color photography.

A 160-Year-Old Photographic Mystery

In 1851, Levi Hill claimed he invented color photography. Was he a genius or a fraud?

Cobalt Blue Series is among the 162 rare Viennese works selected to be on display at the Cooper-Hewitt, in New York City starting April 23.

What’s Up

Worry over the exquisite art—including an image of the protector goddess Tara—has fueled photographer Aditya Arya's efforts.

Glimpses of the Lost World of Alchi

Threatened Buddhist art at a 900-year-old monastery high in the Indian Himalayas sheds light on a fabled civilization

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Letters

Readers Respond to the February Issue

Biographers disagree over what kind of man Charles Dodgson really was.

Lewis Carroll’s Shifting Reputation

Why has popular opinion of the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland undergone such a dramatic reversal?

An American speaks to a group of French nationals and tries to purge his vocabulary of American idioms.

A Novice’s Guide to Foreign Idioms

If you think learning foreign idioms is easy, just try combing the giraffe

For two years, photographer Dona Schwartz chronicled the newly blended family members' interactions in the shared space of their kitchen.

Home is Where the Kitchen Is

Photographer Dona Schwartz viewed her family through her camera lens in the hub of their household: the kitchen

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