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The Mother Ship Model, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” is on display in the Rockets and Missiles exhibition station at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.

Insider Tips for the Tourists in Town

Think you know all of the cool sights on the Mall? We bet you’ll find these insider tips from the Institution helpful this tourist season

The system detects patients’ thoughts via an fMRI machine and translates these into specific letters.

New Mind-Reading Device Lets Paralyzed People Type

Using an fMRI machine and innovative software, researchers have figured out how to enable typing without moving a muscle

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Quite Likely the Worst Job Ever

A British journalist provides us with a window into the lives of the men who made their living from combing for treasures in London’s sewers

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Will We Ever Find Dinosaurs Caught in the Act?

Is there any chance that paleontologists will one day find mating dinosaurs?

Most corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modified.

Food, Modified Food

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What If the Founding Fathers Had Known About Voltron?

Olly Moss, a UK-based graphic designer, riffs on Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 political cartoon, “Join, or Die.”

Hemingway’s Old Man Inspires Shark Oil for HIV Vaccine

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At the Portrait Gallery: “One Life: Amelia Earhart” Opens 75 Years After Her Disappearance

Eddi Tornberg’s self-powering desk

Body Heat From Your Seat Can Juice Your Laptop

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World’s Oldest Purse Adorned with Dog Teeth

The world’s oldest purse features a decoration that doesn’t look so different from modern beading. It’s just way more gruesome

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A Midsummer Night’s Surströmming

The Baltic herring ferment inside a can thanks to salt-loving, anaerobic bacteria that produce distinctive organic acids found in sweat and rotting butter

An artist works on a mural installation in the “Citified” program.

June 29: Today’s Events at the Folklife Festival

Today at the Folklife Festival: cooking with goat meat, seeing HIV/AIDS through photography, and an evening concert by Quetzal and La Sardina de Naiguatá

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The Atlantic Revisits Sending Babies Through the Mail

A photograph from the early 20th century has striking similarities to the magazine’s latest cover story

In a recent experiment, researchers used directed evolution to create enzymes that make silicon dioxide, used in semiconductors and computer chips.

Can Evolution Make the Next Generation of Computer Chips?

In a recent experiment, genetic mutation and artificial selection were harnessed to make semiconductors

This Sunday, local artist Kristina Bilonick will hold a workshop on screen printing and t-shirt design in pop culture.

Events June 29-July 1: Remembering Amelia Earhart, the War of 1812, and Hands-On Screen Printing

This weekend, commemorate Amelia Earhart, observe the bicentennial of the War of 1812 and make your own graphic tee

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Presidents vs. Monsters and Legends

A reconstructed Acrocanthosaurus at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

In the Steps of a Hungry Acrocanthosaurus

A special set of footprints may record a dinosaur attack in progress

Cork oaks recently harvested of their bark are a common sight in the southern Iberian Peninsula. These middle-aged trees are growing in the Spanish province of Extremadura.

Cork Trees: Soft-Skinned Monarchs of the Mediterranean

A cork tree stripped of its bark will be harvested again in nine years—if people are still using cork by then

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Mining an Oyster Midden

The Damariscotta River was an epicenter of oyster shucking between 2,200 and 1,000 years ago

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A Little Perspective: Congress First Mandated Health Care in 1798

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