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What’s Better at the New Orleans Jazz Fest: The Food or the Music?

From oyster patties to po’boys, crawfish to étouffée, the caterers and restaurants offer strong competition to the legends on the big stage

Paris, Frills and Button Flowers, Autumn/Winter 1971

For Perusing Pleasure, Zandra Rhodes’ New Online Fashion Archive

The honored Brit—50 years in the business—goes for the bold in her designer collections

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Predictions for Privacy in the Age of Facebook (from 1985!)

Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even a year old when a graduate student foresaw the emergence of online personal profiles

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Breast Milk Protein Could Help Fight Superbug

By delivering antibiotics alongside a protein found in breast milk, researchers could fight MRSA in mice

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Want to See How an Artist Creates a Painting? There’s an App for That

The Repentir app reveals an artist’s creative process by allowing users to peel back layers of paint with the touch of their fingertips

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Events May 3-5: American Civil Rights, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and Interactive Robot Games

This weekend, tour America’s shift towards equality, meet local Asian Pacific American writers and celebrate Children’s Day

Canyon walls tower above river rafters in the cathedralesque Grand Canyon. Traveling by raft may be the most enjoyable and easiest way to explore the Colorado River, one of the most threatened rivers.

Exploring the World’s Most Imperiled Rivers

Agriculture, pollution and hydroelectric development threaten many great rivers. See them while they still flow, via raft, kayak, canoe—or bicycle

View of Xu Bing’s Phoneix models in transit.

How Do You Build a 12-Ton Sculpture Installation? Very Slowly

Two years, two births, one Olympic Games and one global crisis–a lot can happen in one art project.

Advances in genetic technology have opened a window into the populous and powerful world of microbial life in and around the human body.

Microbes: The Trillions of Creatures Governing Your Health


Scientists are just now beginning to recognize the importance of the vast community of microbes that dwells inside us


A “laser cowboy” makes a 3-D scan of Lincoln’s life mask at the Portrait Gallery.

How the Smithsonian is Coming to You

Between smartphone apps and local exhibitions, the Institution is looking for great new ways to connect to our biggest fans

Spotlight

The latest Smithsonian exhibitions showcase Civil War photography, Buddhist figures and Time magazine cover portraits

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Egypt’s Murals Are More Than Just Art, They Are a Form of Revolution

Cairo’s artists have turned their city’s walls into a vast social network

The tin tube was more resilient than its predecessor (the pig bladder), enabling painters to leave their studios.

Never Underestimate the Power of a Paint Tube

Without this simple invention, impressionists such as Claude Monet wouldn’t have been able to create their works of genius

Many Americans think U.S. teens perform even worse on standardized science tests than they actually do, according to a new national survey.

Educating Americans for the 21st Century

How Much Do Americans Know About Science?

An exclusive poll shows Americans crave stronger mathematics, science schooling for U.S. kids

Lego’s new Mindstorms EV3 kit lets users build 17 different robots and program them directly through an “intelligent brick.”

How Lego Is Constructing the Next Generation of Engineers

With programmable robots and student competitions, Lego is making “tinkering with machines cool again”

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Behind the Scenes in the Smithsonian Regents’ Room

Explore a room in the Smithsonian Castle with a curious history that includes fire and destruction, séances for skeptics and even a skeleton in the closet

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Interactive: The Best Small Towns to Visit in America

Tour this map and see which idyllic small towns are closest to you

How many unborn brothers and sisters did this sand tiger shark devour to be here today?

Baby Sand Tiger Sharks Devour Their Siblings While Still in the Womb

This seemingly horrific reproduction strategy may be a way for females to better control which males sire her offspring

Before the blows began to rain: Walter Reuther (hand in pocket) and Richard Frankensteen (to Reuther’s left).

How the Ford Motor Company Won a Battle and Lost Ground

Corporate violence against union organizers might have gone unrecorded—if it not for an enterprising news photographer

The Solar Impulse flying over San Francisco at night.

Look Ma, No Fuel! Flying Cross Country on Sun Power

This week one of the strangest flying machines you’ve ever seen will start its journey across America—without a drop of fuel

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