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Converting the Magazine Mine, above (Bat Conservation International's Sheryl Ducummon, the Forest Service's Ray Smith and UNIMIN's Siebert Crowley in 1996), cost $130,000.

A Mine of Its Own

Where miners used to dig, an endangered bat now flourishes, highlighting a new use for abandoned mineral sites

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The (Scientific) Pursuit of Happiness

What does the Dalai Lama have to teach psychologists about joy and contentment?

Tide pools with sea stars and sea anemone

Discoveries

Finding pharmaceuticals in the sea, unsettling images and nuggets of Americana

As Told at The Explorers Club

As Told at The Explorers Club

More Than Fifty Gripping Tales of Adventure

Northworth and Von Tilzer's song was recorded some 100 times by artists such as Frank Sinatra and today's Dr. John.

Baseball’s Anthem for All Ages

In 1908, an improbable pair of music men hit a tuneful home run without ever having seen a game

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Saving the Music Tree

Artists and instrument makers have banded together to rescue Brazil’s imperiled pernambuco, the source of bows for violins, violas and cellos

Monty Python’s Flying Circus

And Now For Something Completely Different

“Monty Python’s Flying Circus” went on to conquer America

Art photographer Terry Evans' 2001 colorful homage to museum collections, titled Fields Museum, Drawer of Cardinals, Various Dates.

Photos for All Time

A new book, At First Sight, draws on all the Smithsonian’s vast archives to chart photograph’s profound place in history

"These places contain the residue of the many souls that have passed through over the years," says Solis of such locales as Rochester's abandoned Court Street subway station.

Tunnel Visionary

Intrepid explorer Julia Solis finds beauty in the ruins of derelict urban structures

Alfred Hitchcock

Colossal Ode

Without Emma Lazarus’ timeless poem, Lady Liberty would be just another statue

The Secretary with a few "collaborators."

A Task for Every Talent

Since the Smithsonian’s earliest days, the help of volunteers has been essential

Today, visitors to downtown San Antonio find a weathered limestone church—63 feet wide and 33 feet tall at its hallowed hump. Says historian Stephen L. Hardin, "The first impression of so many who come here is, 'This is it?'"

Remembering the Alamo

John Lee Hancock’s epic re-creation of the 1836 battle between Mexican forces and Texas insurgents casts the massacre in a more historically accurate light

By 2005, the second of two U.S.-backed pipelines spanning Georgia, a cash-strapped nation of 5 million about the size of South Carolina, will have opened world energy markets to Caspian Sea oil, said to be the world's largest untapped fossil fuel resource.

Georgia at a Crossroads

From our archives: How the republic’s troubled history set the stage for future discord and a possible new Cold War

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Flower Child

A Vietnam War protester recalls a seminal ‘60s image, part of a new book celebrating French photographer Marc Riboud’s 50-year career

A life vest from the Titanic.

Titanic Sank This Morning

An artifact from the doomed ocean liner evokes that catastrophic night in April 1912

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Towering Mysteries

Who built them and why? An amateur archaeologist tries to get to the bottom of some astonishing structures in Tibet and Sichuan Province, China

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Harriet Tubman

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Rescue Missions

Quests to Save a Tree… and a Country

Situated on the Atlantic migratory route, New Jersey ranks among the nation's top birding states. More than 450 species have been documented there, including, the marsh wren (above).

Birds of a Feather

Scores of teams battle for fame and glory in the no-holds-barred World Series of Birding

Vancouver has the fastest-growing residential population of any downtown in North America.

Vaunted Vancouver

Set between the Pacific Ocean and a coastal mountain range, the British Columbia city may be the ultimate urban playground

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