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Most of your neighborhood ice cream vendors peaceably sell frozen treats. Good Humor Man.

Law and Order: Ice Cream Truck Unit

Here’s the scoop on four cases of criminal behavior involving the local ice cream man

One of the Copper Ridge theropod tracks. The front of the foot - indicated by the three toe impressions - is towards the top of the picture.

Dinosaur Diamond: Following an Injured Allosaurus

A fresh coating of dried mud gave the 150-million-year-old tracks a more recent look, as if dinosaurs had walked by just last week

No recordings of Abraham Lincoln's voice exist since he died 12 years before Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, the first device to record and play back sound. Shown here is Lincoln delivering his famous Gettysburg Address in 1863.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Ask an Expert: What Did Abraham Lincoln’s Voice Sound Like?

Civil War scholar Harold Holzer helps to decode what spectators heard when the 16th president spoke

Bangkok’s floating market

Inviting Writing: Thai Spaghetti

A visit to Thailand unfortunately led to a meal of Italian food

A population of the wicker ancylid limpet (insert, not to scale) was found recently in Choccolocco Creek in Alabama.

Alabama Snail Returns From the Dead

The wicker ancylid, declared extinct in 2000, has been found alive and well in Choccolocco Creek

On Wednesday, June 8, at 6:30, meet ocean explorer Enric Sala at the Natural Museum.

Events June 6-10: Spacesuits, Quilting, Wild Ocean, Ikebana, Coffee + Art

Events for the week of June 6 include spacesuits, a quilting demonstration, ikebana and more

A hump-backed Spinosaurus, restored by R.E. Johnson and from Bailey 1997.

Was Spinosaurus a Bison-Backed Dinosaur?

Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus were fundamentally different, and they remain among the most bizarre dinosaurs yet discovered

Seven Dials, in central London, was synonymous with poverty and crime, a black hole to most Londoners. Charles Dickens stormed it with pen and paper.

How Charles Dickens Saw London

Sketches by Boz, the volume of newspaper columns that became Dickens’ first book, invokes a colorful view of 19th-century England

A sunspot is bigger than the Earth, as demonstrated in this colorized image.

The Source of the Sun’s Dark Spots

A new study provides insight into how convection creates sunspots

Adorable andean bear cubs

Bear Care: Bear Awareness Days at the National Zoo

The Bear Awareness Days event raises awareness about the animals in general and teaches about conservation issues that affect all bear species

A photographic update on Lisa's fledgling garden

Life, Death and Unnatural Acts in the Vegetable Garden

My first epiphany was that gardening has a lot more to do with encouraging death than life

The Mamenchisaurus centerpiece in the "World's Largest Dinosaurs" exhibit.

Name a Giant Dinosaur

Should Mamenchisaurus go by the nickname Neckita? Mei Mei? Tiny? Vote now

Though admired for his essays, his fiction and revisions of William Strunk's Elements of Style, it is Charlotte's Web that keeps his name before the public, generation after generation.

How E.B. White Wove Charlotte’s Web

A new book explores how the author of the beloved children’s book was inspired by his love for nature and animals

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Bluebrain’s Soundtrack for the National Mall

DC electro-pop duo Bluebrain have released a location-aware album app that serves as a soundtrack for the National Mall

Best/Worst dressed dinosaurs

Blog Carnival #32: Scientist Stereotypes, Sauropod Necks, Dinosaur Facts and More

The best of what’s being written about dinosaurs in the blogosphere

Shango’s most popular symbol, the double ax staff signifies the diety’s ability to reward the good and punish the bad.

Weekend events June 3-5: Thunder God, Craft Invitational, Jazz at American Art

Events for the weekend of June 3-4 include jazz, a Nigerian art lecture, and Family Day at the Renwick

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Watch a Trombone’s Shock Wave

Scientists have generated the first video of a shock wave from a trombone

A Daily Food Guide. This graphic illustrates the four food group system that preceded the food pyramid model.

USDA Demolishing the Food Pyramid

USDA began offering nutritional advice in 1894. We had 12 food groups in the 1930s, seven in the 1940s, four in the 1950s, then a pyramid and now a plate

This aerial photograph shows 68 whale sharks feeding (and four snorkelers swimming) at the Afuera in August 2009.

How Do You Feed A Whale Shark?

Whale sharks gather off of the Yucatán Peninsula every summer for one big feeding frenzy

Tracks made by a medium-sized theropod on a slab of rock just outside of Moab, Utah.

Dinosaur Diamond: Moab’s Potash Road

The area is piled high with sedimentary rock from the heyday of the dinosaurs. At a few spots, it’s easy to see the animals’ tracks

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