Magazine

2014 Ingenuity Awards

Coming to Terms With One of America’s Greatest Natural Disasters

Documentary filmmaker Bill Morrison plunges us into the Great Flood of 1927

When Dazzling Art Transforms the Cityscape

Janet Echelman’s sky-high sculptures, created from miles of fiber, cast a magical spell over urban spaces

2014 Ingenuity Awards

The Amazing Results When You Give a Prison Inmate a Liberal Arts Education

Prison reform activist Max Kenner champions the transformative power of a college degree for inmates nationwide

Is This the Future of Robotic Legs?

Hugh Herr’s bionic limbs have already revolutionized life for amputees (including himself). Now he’s envisioning new capabilities for everyone else

Why Is Colonel Pronounced With an R? And More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

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From our readers

Artist Clement Valla finds irregularities in Google Earth imagery and compiles his findings in a series, "Postcards from Google Earth." This landscape is in Italy.

This Artist Finds Strange Beauty in Google's Apocalyptic Glitches

Clement Valla makes art out of Google Earth's surrealist irregularities

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Discussion

From our readers

Why Does Rain Smell and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

"Out of Many, One" by Jorge Rodrígues-Gerada on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Want to See the New Massive Portrait on the National Mall? Go Up

The project, made of soil and sand, will cover five acres between the Lincoln Memorial and World War II Memorial

Inside the Intense Rivalry Between Eliot Ness and J. Edgar Hoover

Newly released files shed fresh light on the difficult relationship shared by the “Untouchable” Prohibition Bureau agent and the powerful FBI director

In this portrait, Webster wore what looks like a Confederate uniform, but there is no evidence he fought for the South.

Why Was Robert Webster, a Slave, Wearing What Looks Like a Confederate Uniform?

This remarkable man risked his life to undermine the Confederacy yet remained close to his former owner after the Civil War

From the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the nuclear "Football."

The Real Story of the "Football" That Follows the President Everywhere

Take a peek at the mysterious black briefcase that has accompanied every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy

Anthropocene

A Remote Cold War Radar System Has New Use in a Warming World

The stations designed to ring an alarm against nuclear attack may have new responsibilities due to climate change

The Debate Over Net Neutrality Has Its Roots in the Fight Over Radio Freedom

Today's epic battle has been fought before, when radio took to the air a century ago

Coho salmon, here in full vivid spawning colors, are one of many species of wild Pacific salmon in danger of extinction.

What Can Humans Do to Save the Pacific Northwest's Iconic Salmon?

The fish is facing an upstream struggle to survive. Can human ingenuity find a solution?

"Map with Ship" has the informality of a "napkin sketch on vellum," says map expert John Hessler, suggesting its maker was not a trained cartographer.

Did Marco Polo "Discover" America?

Maps attributed to the 13th-century traveler sketch what looks like the coast of Alaska

Inside the Brain’s Amazing Ability to Re-Map Your Body

Surgeons only have to go so far before the brain takes over and reconnects the nervous system

The vast unknown deep sea floor

Why We Must Explore the Sea

Robert Ballard, the famed explorer who discovered the wreck of the Titanic, ponders what else is on the ocean floor

Abel Buell's map was the first in the country submitted for copyright, in March of 1784.

Even in 1784 America, It Was Impossible to Make a Map Without Infuriating Someone

Abel Buell’s map was the first in the country submitted for a copyright

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