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Articles

“Do You Swear That You Will Well and Truly Try…?”

Trial by jury has had some ups and downs, but it beats what led up to it—trial by combat, and ordeal by fire, water or poison

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Human Moms Teach Chimps It’s All in the Family

A nursery school at the Yerkes Primate Center gives lessons to the offspring of lab chimps on how to live like their wild-born relatives

Desert Bloom in Namaqualand, South Africa

Fickle Desert Blooms: Opulent One Year, No-shows the Next

Arid lands mean life on the edge. Adaptations serve flowers well, but deserts are always mosaics of abundance and seeming sterility

Private Roy W. Humphrey is being given blood plasma after he was wounded by shrapnel in Sicily in August 1943.

Again and Again in World War II, Blood Made The Difference

In 1940 the hard-driving Harvard biochemist Edwin Cohn broke plasma down into its different proteins and saved millions of soldiers’ lives

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Smithsonian Perspectives

Our historic concern for conservation now leads us into many areas related to endangered species and biodiversity

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass Always Knew He Was Meant to Be Free

Taking to the podium throughout his life,the former slave fought with tireless eloquenceto “secure the Blessings of Liberty” for all

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Smithsonian Perspectives

The electronic transformation that is under way at the Smithsonian will fulfill a central promise of democracy

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Around the Mall & Beyond

At the site of a new Smithsonian museum, a team of archaeologists dug up traces of a 19th-century neighborhood

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It’s a New Battle Every Day In The War on Whiskers

Razors have come a long way in 7,000 years, but preparation and a steady hand remain the survival skills each time steel meets skin

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Ruth? He Is Still In The Spotlight, Still Going Strong

A century after his birth, four decades after his death, the amazing Babe maintains a powerful grip on America’s imagination

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One Man’s Private Cache Pays Off For The Rest of Us

From the muddy yard of a private collector to the dresser drawers of a dealer, Mitchell Wolfson ransacks the world for his finds

Howard Hughes stands with his first plane, the H-1.

Howard Hughes’ H-1 Carried Him “All the Way”

A silver speedster from the 1930s evokes the golden age of flight, a pair of world-class speed records and the early triumphs of Howard Hughes’ life

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However It Began on Earth, Life May Have Been Inevitable

In a universe filled with prebiotic compounds,it may be only a small step for some of them to hook up in ways that lead directly to life

Aging Process, Charles Csuri

Charles Csuri is an ‘Old Master’ in a New Medium

When a big mainframe first showed up at Ohio State University, this member of the artfaculty began moonlighting across the quad

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The Biggest Fish That Ever Was

Gentle whale sharks roam the world’s warm seas but were rarely seen until an Australian gathering place was found

Stephen Crane

A Writer Who Lived the Adventures He Portrayed

Stephen Crane was fascinated by the seamy side of life, but his works elevated fiction to new heights

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Review of ‘Doctors on Horseback’

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Review of “As Long As Life”

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In The Pursuit of Perfect Craft: An Artisan’s Lifework

Over decades of inspired workmanship, Hiroshima Kazuo has fashioned baskets that bespeak the everyday life of an isolated rural Japan

Photo of Robert Ripley, the creator of Believe It or Not

Believe It or Not, Rip Was Almost as Odd as His Items

Incredible! Incomparable! Robert L. Ripley, who won fame and fortune by celebrating the outlandish, was himself a prime example

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