Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Articles

Tao, 32, does mathematic both pure and practical—from proving that prime number patterns come in every conceivable shape to deriving solutions needed for the next generation of digital camera and MRI scanners.

Primed for Success

Terence Tao is regarded as first among equals among young mathematicians, but who’s counting

“I wanted to build something that grows from large to huge,” Schachter (at Yahoo!’s Palo Alto office) told the Guardian. “I don’t know if I have another innovation in me, but it would be nice to try.”

Site Seer

Faced with the Internet’s overwhelming clutter, Joshua Schachter invented a deceptively simple tool that helps us all cut to the chase

There’s a misperception about prejudice, says Richeson, that “people do bad things because they’re bad people, and there are only a few of these bad apples around.” All of us have prejudices, she adds, but we also have the capacity to change.

The Bias Detective

How does prejudice affect people? Psychologist Jennifer Richeson is on the case

None

High Scorer

Composer Nico Muhly wowed them at Carnegie Hall and the New York Public Library

None

Keeper of the Keys

Pianist Jason Moran laces his strikingly original music with the soulful sounds of jazz greats

None

Civil Wrongs

In a painstaking study of 1960s Atlanta, Kevin Kruse takes suburban whites to task

None

Net Worker

Where are your friends in cyberspace? Closer than you might think, says Internet researcher Jon Kleinberg

None

Signs of Life

Astrophysicist Lisa Kaltenegger analyzes light from distant stars for evidence we’re not alone

“The more race is not supposed to matter, the more it does,” says Packer (in her home office in Pacifica, California). “It’s one of the conundrums of living in America today.” She is currently working on a historical novel titled The Thousands, about the “forgotten masses of blacks who went West.”

Comedienne of Manners

Novelist ZZ Packer uses humor to point up some disconcerting signposts along America’s racial divide

“It’s not unfair to say that we have been completely misled” by studying mostly museum-quality specimens, says O’Dea (gathering fossils in Bocas del Toro along Panama’s Caribbean coast).

Shell Fame

Paleobiologist Aaron O’Dea has made his name by sweating the small stuff

Playwright, actress and spoken-word poet Sarah Jones depicts 14 characters in her Tony award-winning show, Bridge & Tunnel, which enjoyed a successful run on Broadway in 2006 and opened last month in Los Angeles. One critic called the play, “the most satisfying solo show since Mike Nichols unveiled Whoopi Goldberg and Lily Tomlin searched for signs of intelligent life in the universe 20 years ago.”

Chameleon

Playwright and performer Sarah Jones displays a genius for climbing into other people’s skin

None

Dogged

Primatologist Brian Hare investigates the social behavior of chimpanzees and bonobos in Africa. But dogs and foxes showed him the way

None

Mounds vs. Vegans

In drawings and paintings, Trenton Doyle Hancock pits archetypes against each other

None

Show Stopper

The classically trained dance star Alicia Graf showed true grit overcoming a career-threatening ailment

None

Roving Eye

Documentary filmmaker Rachel Grady opens our eyes to the complexities of overlooked places and people

None

Hot Idea

Christina Galitsky’s energy-efficient cookstove makes life a little easier for Darfur’s refugees

“Lending to somebody,” says Flannery, “sends the message that you’re treating them as an equal. It’s a dignifiedway to interact.”

I, Lender

Software engineer Matt Flannery pioneers Internet microloans to the world’s poor

“When I was growing up,” says Mayda del Valle (in 2004, at the Nuyorican Poets Café in Manhattan), “I really didn’t see anyone like me on TV. Well, there was West Side Story … and we’re all gang members!”

Mighty Mouth

Spoken-word artist Mayda del Valle brings to life “democracy writ large in poetry”

“I like the idea of the artist going out in the world, creating a dialogue,” says De La Vega (in the East Village with one of his street paintings). “Art is interacting with people.”

Marked Man

Guerilla artist James De La Vega leverages his street smarts to a fashion career

None

Water Works

Taking up the family business, Philippe Cousteau campaigns to save our oceans and rivers

Page 1195 of 1327