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Articles

The African American DNA Roots Project is a molecular anthropology study designed to match African American lineages with those in West Africa, a region from which many slaves were taken.

Family Ties

African Americans use scientific advances to trace their roots

A researcher tests a polygraph machine.

Detecting Lies

From chewing rice to scanning brains, the perfect lie detector remains elusive

Ancient meditation might have strengthened the mind's ability to connect symbols and meanings, eventually causing gene mutations that favored modern memory.

Meditate on It

Could ancient campfire rituals have separated us from Neanderthals?

An image of Augustine erupting on January 13, 2006, from about 50 miles away from the volcano.

Volcanic Lightning

As sparks flew during the eruption of Mount St. Augustine in Alaska, scientists made some new discoveries

"There were kids everywhere, in densities now unimaginable," says Bryson (at age 7).

Boys’ Life

In 1950s Des Moines, childhood was “unsupervised, unregulated and robustly physical”

A Hindu monk offers a morning prayer along the Ganges River.

India’s Holiest City

At Varanasi, Hindu pilgrims come to pray—and to die—along the sacred Ganges River

Black and white-furred gray wolves

In Danger of Endangerment

Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico with its 300 m (980 ft) dish, one of the world's largest filled-aperture (i.e. full dish) radio telescope, conducts some SETI searches.

Earth to Space

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Top 10 Polluted Cities

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Science’s 300-Year-Old Grand Unification Theory

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The Art of the Audition

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Warm Temperatures Get Zoo Animals Steamy

One of the 10,000 mugs collected by Mark Michaelson is that of a thief, described in a 1950s police record as a "psycho" who'd escaped a correctional facility, "but they don't want him."

Arresting Faces

A new book argues the case for the mugshot as art

Pretty? Yes. But it isn't Bulbophyllum echinolabium's bright colors that attract pollinating flies—it's the putrid stench. Sniff out a few hundred live orchids at the Museum of Natural History starting January 27.

What’s Up

Live Orchids, Japanese art and African masks

The Bar-B-Q Inn in 1971.

Time After Time

William Christenberry embraces the impermanent

"It is a very simple truth," novelist Henry James wrote in 1887, "that when today we look for 'American art' we find it mainly in Paris." John Singer Sargent captured the pearly light of dusk in Paris in his 1879 work In the Luxembourg Gardens.

Americans in Paris

In the late 19th century, the City of Light beckoned Whistler, Sargent, Cassatt and other young artists. What they experienced would transform American art

Author of "Bernini's Genius," Arthur Lubow.

Admiring the Masters

In this Q & A, Arthur Lubow, author of “Americans in Paris,” compares the Paris of today with the one that inspired Manet, Monet and Renoir

At an altitude of 12,300 feet, the Shandur Pass is usually populated by grazing yaks. But once a year it turns into the world's highest polo ground. When teams from Chitral and Gilgit face off—as they have since 1933—tribesmen gather for the mayhem.

Extreme Polo

There are no holds barred at the annual grudge match in northwest Pakistan’s “land of mirth and murder”

Damon Conklin uses the body, from head to feet, as his canvas.

Today’s Tattoos

Making your mark

John Coyne's New Global Theatre creates a virtual performance where the production occurs on several different stages and is broadcast via monitors to the actors and the audience.

Recasting Shakespeare’s Stage

Designing a Globe Theatre for the 21st century

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