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Yamashita was the model for Chair, but this is not a self-portrait. "It could have been anyone," she says. "For me, poetry doesn’t exist in specificity."

Future of Art

Artist Kumi Yamashita Creates an Amazing Human Figure Out of Shadow

Coming soon to the National Portrait Gallery, an old art form gets reinvented

Discussion of our April Issue

Feedback from our readers

A massive task force—150 full-time personnel from the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service—hunted the Unabomber.

When the Unabomber Was Arrested, One of the Longest Manhunts in FBI History Was Finally Over

Twenty years ago, the courts gave Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences, thereby ending more than a decade of terror.

Potter envisioned Hill Top as a living testament to rural tradition. Its artifacts, from crockery to rustic furniture, are reproduced in her drawings.

Britain’s Lake District Was Immortalized by Beatrix Potter, But Is Its Future in Peril?

Shepherds and ecologists are butting heads over what’s next for the beloved landscape

Liu Cun Yu, the director of the Beipiao Pterosaur Museum, poses in front of a full-scale model of a Moganopterus zhuiana, a species named after his wife.

The Great Chinese Dinosaur Boom

A gold rush of fossil-finding is turning China into the new epicenter of paleontology

Formerly an arcade and office building, dating to 1917, the structure underwent a city-led restoration and reopened last year as the Hotel Manzana Kempinski.

Tony Perrottet's Cuba

The Man Who Saved Havana

As its greatest old buildings were falling down, a fearless historian named Eusebio Leal remade the city into a stunning world destination

A U-Boat Class II submarine (this one depicted, UB-35, was the same class as UB-29) prowls the open seas.

The Hunt for the Notorious U-Boat UB-29

A wreck-diving archaeologist and his quest to discover a missing submarine

What’s the Difference Between Moths and Butterflies and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

The Carolina parakeet, so named for the region where it was discovered, was known for its “disagreeable screams” and great beauty.

Why Did the Carolina Parakeet Go Extinct?

It hasn’t been seen for a century. But will the bird species ever fly again?

Albert and Elsa Einstein in Japan

When Albert Einstein Visited Japan

As he traveled through Asia, including a trip to Palestine, the brilliant scientist discovered much he didn’t understand

Civil rights leader Rev. Ralph Abernathy, in short sleeves, leads the Poor People's March to the edge of the grounds of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, June 24, 1968. Abernathy and his followers from Resurrection City marched to the Agriculture Department and then to the Capitol.

Remembering Resurrection City and the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968

Lenneal Henderson and thousands of other protesters occupied the National Mall for 42 days during the landmark civil rights protest

Nizina Glacier became more accessible to paddlers around 2000, when melting ice formed a lake on which float-planes could land.

A Daring Journey Into the Big Unknown of America’s Largest National Park

If dangling from a rope inside a melting glacier is your idea of a vacation, then come with us to Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias

A Brief History of the Stoplight

How a bright idea shaped our cities and gave the go-ahead to our love affair with the car

An illustration depicting the life cycle of a cancer cell

This DNA-Based Attack Against Cancer May Just Work

A newly approved treatment is a milestone in gene therapy for cancer

Macrophages begin to fuse with, and inject its toxins into, the cancer cell. The cell starts rounding up and loses its spikes.

Where We Are in the Hunt for a Cancer Vaccine

Two new studies have promising results

Vanessa Brandon worried that her cancer was a burden on her family: “I don’t want my sickness to become their sickness.”

Could Immunotherapy Lead the Way to Fighting Cancer?

A new treatment that uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer is offering hope to patients with advanced disease

The House Intelligence Committee looked into illegal wiretapping in 1975 as part of its investigation of risks of U.S. intelligence operations.

A Brief History of Surveillance in America

With wiretapping in the headlines and smart speakers in millions of homes, historian Brian Hochman takes us back to the early days of eavesdropping

Discussion of our March Issue

Feedback from our readers

Top to bottom from upper left: Jim Clark, Brenda Laurel, Tony Fadell; Carol Bartz, Steve Wozniak; Kevin Kelly, Nolan Bushnell, Marissa Mayer; Larry Page, Jaron Lanier, Tiffany Shlain

What Will Be the Next Big Thing to Come Out of Silicon Valley?

The titans of technology tell us what they think is coming soon to a planet near you

“Cheaper electricity is better. Clean energy is better,” says Georgetown Mayor Dale Ross.

Future of Energy

Is a Texas Town the Future of Renewable Energy?

A high-wattage Republican Mayor of Georgetown, Texas, has become the unlikeliest hero of the green revolution

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