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Arts & Culture

A Feast for the Eyes, if not the Stomach

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Watch a Top Chef Cook Geoduck

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Lessons in School Lunch

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Where Our Food Comes From

Geoduck can be blanched, stir-fried or cooked up in chowder.

How to Cook a Geoduck

It not only doesn’t taste like chicken, it’s not even poultry. Learn how to cook a geoduck, a large clam

"Sleepover with the Sharks" is one of two overnights the museum offers.

Nights at the Museums

You don’t have to be Ben Stiller to spend the night behind the scenes at a museum

The New York Public Library maintains the world's largest collection of tobacciana, materials related in some way to tobacco's history, use, and mystique.

Libraries’ Surprising Special Collections

Tucked away in libraries across the country are unexpected archives and world-class treasures

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Dr. John’s Prognosis

The blues and rock musician shares stories of his wild past and his concerns for the future.

"The Devil may wear Prada, but as Mao once observed, if there is "great disorder under Heaven, the situation is excellent."

Mao Zedong: King of Kitsch

With Mao-abilia everywhere, the “Great Helmsman” may have done more for the Chinese people in death than in life

All in the family (Bob Baldwin (left: c. 1965) and Jim Alexander (right: c. 1960) led different lives-with very different endings.

The Surprising Satisfactions of a Home Funeral

When his father and father-in-law died within days of each other, author Max Alexander learned much about the funeral industry

The Feast of Esther, painted by Lievens c. 1625, was identified for years in 20th-century art texts as an early Rembrandt. Like Rembrandt, Lievens used contrasts of light and shadow to add drama.

Jan Lievens: Out of Rembrandt’s Shadow

A new exhibition re-establishes Lievens’ reputation as an old master, after centuries of being eclipsed by his friend and rival

Charles and Henry Greene furniture now on display at the Renwick Gallery.

What’s Up

Exhibits from the National Museum of Natural History, National Portrait Gallery, National Postal Museum, Freer Gallery of Art and the Renwick Gallery

After discovering a new species of bird, research ornithologist Brian Schmidt made sure to give it a proper name: "stout bird that bears a flam-colored throat."

Naming a New Species

Smithsonian naturalist Brian Schmidt gave a new species of African bird an interesting scientific name

Artist Ori Gersht created traditional still-life arrangements only to blow them up, literally.

Still Life Explosions

Artist Ori Gersht details the beauty and violence behind his works

The miniature remote-controlled scout plane "helps alleviate the danger of what's over the hill," says aviation expert Ben Kristy.

Under the Radar with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

The five-pound RQ-14A takes high-tech reconnaissance to new heights

Irish Pirate Ballads and other Songs of the Sea from Smithsonian Folkways.

Sing Like A Pirate

The boy's skeleton was crammed into a cellar pit with a broken ceramic milk pan lying across his rib cage.

Solving a 17th-Century Crime

Forensic anthropologists at the National Museum of Natural History find answers to a colonial cold case

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Science, Yes!

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Letters

Readers Respond to the January Issue

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Cooking the Tree of Life

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