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Welcome to thegist

"The first Glidehouse™ ever built is actually Michelle and her husband's own residence"

House Proud

High design in a factory-made home? Michelle Kaufmann believes she holds the key

Small but cherished, the Grand Teton herd faces a growing number of man-made obstacles—including more than 100 fences (this one near Pinedale, WY) thrown up along the migration route that it has followed for millennia.

End of the Road?

Development threatens to block the migration of pronghorn antelopes. Without new protections, conservationists say, the animals are running out of time

Though sundials have been around 3,000 years, William Andrewes (indicating the lateness of the hour in his garden in Concord, Massachusetts) is perhaps the first to build one showing the time in multiple places simultaneously.

The Shadow Knows

Why a leading expert on the history of timekeeping set out to create a sundial unlike anything the world has ever seen

Beyond Time

A unique sundial marks places as well as hours

Lake Champlain's Isle La Motte is rich in marine fossils, some of which are 450 million years old.

Paleozoic Vermont

What’s the world’s oldest communal ocean reef doing in the Green Mountain State?

The South American monkey frog and some other tree frogs can endure sunlight and dry air for long periods.

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Tree frogs, conservation maps and the northern swordtail fish

The new removable inks are made from safe pigments and trapped in nano-sized, harmless polymer shells.

The Tattoo Eraser

A new type of body art ink promises freedom from forever

Jeweler Harry Winston donated the famous Hope Diamond—the largest-known deep blue diamond in the world—to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. It arrived in a plain brown package by registered mail, insured for one million dollars. Surrounded by 16 white pear-shaped and cushion-cut diamonds and hanging from a chain with 45 diamonds, the rare gem attracts 6 million visitors a year to the Natural History Museum.

Diamonds Unearthed

Smithsonian diamond expert Jeffrey Post discusses conflict diamonds, colored diamonds and synthetic gems grown in the lab

Prague's astronomical clock has marked time since the 15th century. Legend holds that local officials ordered the maker of this famous timepiece blinded to prevent him from duplicating his great achievement elsewhere.

Time for a Change

One professor’s mission to revise the calendar

Jeweler Harry Winston donated the famous Hope Diamond—the largest-known deep blue diamond in the world—to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. It arrived in a plain brown package by registered mail, insured for one million dollars. Surrounded by 16 white pear-shaped and cushion-cut diamonds and hanging from a chain with 45 diamonds, the rare gem attracts 6 million visitors a year to the Natural History Museum.

Diamonds Unearthed

In the final installment of this three-part series, diamond expert Jeffrey Post discusses the histories behind the Smithsonian collection

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Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Parasitic plants, zebra tarantulas and wobbles in Earth’s orbit

"Canopy Meg," pioneer of forest ecology, recalls her adventures in her new book, It's a Jungle Up There.

Interview: Margaret Lowman

Bugs in trees and kids in labs get their due in a new book by “Canopy Meg”

Peter Beard at Hog Ranch in 2014 feeding giraffes

Beard’s Eye View

When elephants began dying, Peter Beard suspected that poachers were not entirely to blame

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Mirror Image

The first evidence that elephants can recognize themselves

The fragments now rest in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Old World, High Tech

An ancient Greek calendar was ahead of its time

The surface of Wild 2 is pockmarked with craters.

Clues from a Comet

The first mission to collect space matter from beyond the moon offers insights into the solar system’s creation

Jeweler Harry Winston donated the famous Hope Diamond—the largest-known deep blue diamond in the world—to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. It arrived in a plain brown package by registered mail, insured for one million dollars. Surrounded by 16 white pear-shaped and cushion-cut diamonds and hanging from a chain with 45 diamonds, the rare gem attracts 6 million visitors a year to the Natural History Museum.

Diamonds Unearthed

In the first installment of a multi-part series, Smithsonian diamond expert Jeffrey Post explains how the rare crystals form

Zion's dwindling cougar population traces its roots to the late 1920s, when the park's management made efforts to increase visitation.

It All Falls Down

A plummeting cougar population alters the ecosystem at Zion National Park

A gypsy moth larva crawls along a leaf.

Unwelcome Guests

A new strategy to curb the spread of gypsy moths

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