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Some of the best picture books of the year

Best of Children’s Books 2011: For Picture Book Readers (Part I)

As you begin your holiday shopping, review these selections of the best picture books of the year

Fuyu persimmons

Five Ways to Eat Persimmons

Both fuyu and hachiya persimmons are usually available in late fall and early winter. Here are a few ways to use either variety

Hawkmoths prefer columbines with long, slender spurs.

The Columbines and Their Pollinators: An Evolutionary Tale

New research provides insight into an evolutionary concept introduced by Charles Darwin

Did Kinect hackers inspire a new breakthrough in technology?

How Hackers Made Kinect a Game Changer

Machines that respond to your touch, motion or voice are making keyboards obsolete. Is your TV remote next?

On May 29, 2006, mud and steaming hot water squirted up in a rice field in Sidoarjo, East Java, marking the birth of the world's most destructive mud volcano.

The World’s Muddiest Disaster

Earth’s most violent mud volcano is wreaking havoc in Indonesia. Was drilling to blame? And when will it end?

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The Hirshhorn Goes Red for World AIDS Day

The Hirshhorn Museum is illuminated red in honor of World AIDS Day

Hirshhorn Goes Red for World AIDS Day

The distinctive building is Washington, D.C.’s first structure to be illuminated red for the annual occasion

Books on Bike Perfection and Women’s Bike-Won Freedom

Women’s clothing was a problem, and to efficiently ride a bike there was only one thing to do: Take it off

Burning fat

Cooking May Have Driven Human Evolution

Why have humans and our ancestors been cooking for all this time? A first-of-its-kind study suggests cooked food gives the body a “pick-me-up”

Gorgosaurus as envisioned by Lambe. Clockwise from the upper left - standing, sitting, in repose, and feeding.

Lambe’s Lazy, Scavenging Gorgosaurus

Back when tyrannosaurs were new to science, paleontologist Lawrence Lambe cast them as bumbling scavengers that ate rotten flesh

World War II veteran Chief Joseph Medicine Crow, a featured speaker of the "Native Americans in the Military" panel.

Weekend Events Dec. 2-4: Native Americans in the Military, Dress to Empress Soiree and All About Body Art

Join a panel of Natives who have served in the armed forces, spend the night at an exclusive Chinese-themed soiree, and explore the world of tattoos

Bottlenose dolphins are good swimmers

For Dolphins, Pregnancy Comes With a Price

A bigger body means increased drag, slower speeds and greater vulnerability to predators

The "Roo de Loo" in Paris

Julia Child in Paris

Though the American chef popularized French cuisine, she hasn’t yet received her due in the city she loved

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The Latest Destination for Human Spaceflight

The latest proposed destination for human space missions illustrates the essential hollowness of the current direction of our civil space program

A 19th-century print of New Madrid earthquake chaos.

The Great Midwest Earthquake of 1811

Two hundred years ago, a series of powerful temblors devastated what is now Missouri. Could it happen again?

Novacem plans to test its experimental cement (above: sample blocks) first in structures like doghouses and patios.

Building a Better World With Green Cement

With an eye on climate change, a British startup creates a new form of the ancient building material

Whalers pursued sperm whales for the rich oil in their oversized heads. Now biologists are on the tail of these deep-diving, long-lived, sociable and mysterious sea creatures.

The Sperm Whale’s Deadly Call

Scientists have discovered that the massive mammal uses elaborate buzzes, clicks and squeaks that spell doom for the animal’s prey

Big Southern elephant seal bulls (Mirounga leonina) fighting for females on beach during breeding season in spring.

Wild Things: Piranhas, Nazca Boobies, Glowing Millipedes

Elephant Seals, Neanderthal evolution and more news from the world of science

In Robert Walter Weir’s c. 1838 canvas of St. Nicholas (detail), perhaps influenced by a Washington Irving story, the painter envisioned both an enigmatic trickster and a dispenser of holiday cheer.

A Mischievous St. Nick from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

The 19th-century artist Robert Walter Weir took inspiration from Washington Irving to create a prototype of Santa Claus

From cinder desert to tropical forest, the 19-square-mile Haleakala Crater boasts varied landscape. In the center is a hiker at "Pele's Paint Pot," likely named for the goddess of fire and volcanoes.

Descending Into Hawaii’s Haleakala Crater

A trip to the floor of the Maui volcano still promises an encounter with the “raw beginnings of world-making”

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