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Articles

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How to Turn a Tyrannosaur Into a Iguanodont

The Mazel Tov Cocktail is tinted blue by Blue Curaçao.

Eight Cocktails of Hanukkah

Look up “holiday cocktails” and most of what you will find, understandably enough, is geared toward Christmas

Wanted: new tools for learning science.

Up with Science

The "Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef" exhibit is now on view in Natural History's Sant Ocean Hall.

How to Crochet a Coral Reef

A ball of yarn—and the work of more than 800 people—could go a long way toward saving endangered sea life

Tim Gunn, co-host of the hit TV show "Project Runway," sits down to discuss fashion, the meaning of "Make it work" and more.

Q and A: Tim Gunn

The co-host of Lifetime TV’s Project Runway talks about what makes good design and more

This Chinese ceremonial ax and other rare bronze works are back on permanent display at the Freer Gallery.

What’s Up

"If you try to tell your kid to mow the lawn, he will cite a study published in Geophysical Research Letters..."

Daughter Knows Best

Kids have discovered a diabolical new use for science: rebutting their parents

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Letters

Many works by Alexis Rockman are "a portent of events to come," says curator Joanna Marsh. The artist's 2006 Hurricane and Sun suggests menacing weather.

Painter Alexis Rockman Pictures Tomorrow

There’s trouble ahead in the artist’s eerie yet riveting paintings, now the subject of a major exhibition

In 2008, Ted Gup was handed a battered suitcase by his mother; it contained conceled checks and old letters addressed to "B. Virdot". Thus began a search for the stories behind the letters.

A Yuletide Gift of Kindness

Ted Gup learns the astonishing secret about his grandfather’s generosity during the Great Depression

Cave bears loomed large in the Cro-Magnon mind as shown in this Chauvet cave painting.

Fate of the Cave Bear

The lumbering beasts coexisted with the first humans for tens of thousands of years and then died off. Why?

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Editor’s Note: Glorious Quests

Impossible dreams and heavenly causes

"I'm on your side, " Elvis told Nixon. Then the singer asked if he could have a badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

When Elvis Met Nixon

An Oval Office photograph captured the bizarre encounter between the king of rock and roll and the president

The Egyptian queen, shown here in a 19th-century engraving, sneaked back from exile and surprised Julius Caesar.

Rehabilitating Cleopatra

Egypt’s ruler was more than the sum of the seductions that loom so large in history—and in Hollywood

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This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

The bridge, which is awaiting decking and with temporary pylons in September 2009, was built to bypass the part of U.S. Route 93 that crosses the Hoover Dam.

A Breathtaking New Bridge

The construction of the bridge that bypasses the Hoover Dam was an Erector Set dream come true for this photographer

A cliff-face cavity is all that remains of one of two sixth-century Buddha sculptures, sublime expressions of Bamiyan's ancient kingdom.

Searching for Buddha in Afghanistan

An archaeologist insists a third giant statue lies near the cliffs where the Bamiyan Buddhas, destroyed in 2001, once stood

Renowned as an art colony, San Miguel also mounts festivals showcasing indigenous cultures.

Under the Spell of San Miguel de Allende

Ever since American Stirling Dickinson arrived there in 1937, the Mexican town has been a magnet for artists and U.S. expatriates

Discoverer of more dinosaur species than any other living scientist, Xu Xing says some dinosaurs have birdlike traits, including feathers.

Dinosaurs’ Living Descendants

China’s spectacular feathered fossils have finally answered the century-old question about the ancestors of today’s birds

The only great ape unique to Asia, orangutans are increasingly rare, with fewer than 50,000 in Borneo. Here, a male named Doyok moves through a reserve.

A Quest to Save the Orangutan

Birute Mary Galdikas has devoted her life to saving the great ape. But the orangutan faces its greatest threat yet

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