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With the Beartooth Mountains looming to the west in the morning light, team members set up the coring rig on Polecat Bench.

Wyoming Paleontology Dispatch #8: Polecat Bench Badlands

Can the team drill past an ancient river channel?

The contiguous bedrock on the east coast allows energy to pass more efficiently and travel farther. That is why the earthquake on Tuesday was felt over such a broad geographic range.

Q&A: Smithsonian’s Elizabeth Cottrell on the Virginia Earthquake

A Smithsonian geologist offers her expertise on the seismic event that shook much of the mid-Atlantic this week

Earthquake hazard map for the United States

Earthquake in Washington, D.C.

Today’s shaking may have been unexpected, but Washington isn’t the only unlikely location for an earthquake in the United States

All museums are closed today, after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake.

Smithsonian Museums Close for the Afternoon After 5.9 Earthquake Hits Washington, D.C.

The Smithsonian museums, including the Zoo, are closed for the remainder of the day

Sand sculpture dinosaurs, as seen in Albufeira, Portugal

Dinosaur Sighting: Portugal’s Sandy Dinosaurs

The sculpture shows a group of carnivorous dinosaurs chowing down on a sauropod, much like the dinosaurs of the country’s Lourinhã Formation must have done

Mrs. Grace Humiston, a.k.a. "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes"

“Mrs. Sherlock Holmes” Takes on the NYPD

When an 18-year-old girl went missing, the police let the case grow cold. But Grace Humiston, a soft-spoken private investigator, wouldn’t let it lie

Waiting

Law and Order: More Culinary Crimes

Those who live outside the law sometimes meet their downfall through their relationship with food

BK Adams's likeness appears locally

“Exercise Your Mynd—BK Adams I Am Art” Brightens Up the Anacostia Museum

The boldly-colored paintings and sculptures of Washington D.C.’s own BK Adams enliven the museum’s main gallery

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The Great Penguin Rescue

After an oil spill, should people put in the time and effort to clean up wildlife, or would it be better to just let the animals die?

Bob Rosenfield holds a pair of Cooper’s hawks in a city park in Victoria, Canada. The female, in the foreground, is a third again as large as her mate.

The Hawks in Your Backyard

Biologists scale city trees to bag a surprisingly urban species, the Cooper’s Hawk

What can our schools do to better prepare students for the workplace?

A Cheat Sheet to Help Schools Foster Creativity

Corporate execs say they’re looking for independent thinkers, but schools are stilled geared to assembly lines. Here are ideas to spur imaginative learning

A wild capybara by a lake in Brazil

What In The World Is A Capybara?

And why is one running loose in California?

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Weekend Events September 2-5: Tarantula Feedings, Book Signings, Harry Potter, and Labor Day

This weekend, check out a giant spider at mealtime, get a book autographed, and take advantage of your last chance to see Harry Potter in 3D

The daunting school cafeteria

Inviting Writing: Mastering the School Cafeteria

Over the course of 12 years of eating with fellow classmates, any student can learn a set of new life skills

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Events August 22-25: Addy’s World, Draw & Discover, Child of the Civil Rights Movement and More

Take a tour through American history, create your own art, listen to an author speak about civil rights, and enjoy a tour of an exhibition soon to close

Do Kids Have Too Much Homework?

Across the United States, parents, teachers and administrators alike are rethinking their approach to after-school assignments

Men of Progress

Meet Amy Henderson, Historian at the National Portrait Gallery

Our guest blogger ponders the “spirits” of America’s heroes and their legacies as she walks the museum’s hallways

It's tempting to find hints of Hitchcock's future style in the set design and lighting for The White Shadow.

Behind the Lost Hitchcock Film

Found in a New Zealand archive, the White Shadow offers a glimpse into early film history that extends beyond the famous director

Author Daniel Eagan

Your Ticket to Reel Culture

The blog where nothing’s off limits, and nothing’s sacred either. Today’s classic may have been yesterday’s bomb

Kandula, the zoo's resident genius, plays with enrichment items

Kandula Goes Where No Elephants Have Gone Before

The National Zoo’s Kandula demonstrates the skill of insight, using innovative problem-solving techniques in figuring out how to reach suspended fruit

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