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Nature

A pre-flood view of Vernazza

Springtime Comes to the Flood-Damaged Cinque Terre

The future is looking brighter for the cliffside Italian villages ravaged by last fall’s rains

El Capitan, as seen here from the floor of Yosemite Valley, was once considered almost unclimbable.

A Short Talk With a Legend of Rock

“Climbing without risk isn’t climbing,” says Yvon Chouinard, American rock climbing pioneer and founder of Patagonia

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Ask Smithsonian: What Is Lightning? How Do Bees Make Honey? How Do Cats Purr?

Smithsonian experts answer your burning questions

Wilson says our instinct to settle down both ensures our success and dooms us to conflict.

Edward O. Wilson’s New Take on Human Nature

The eminent biologist argues in a controversial new book that our Stone Age emotions are still at war with our high-tech sophistication

A new exhibition will examine the ecological and cultural ramifications of cell phones.

Coming Soon: A Natural History of the Cell Phone

An upcoming Natural History Museum exhibit will look at the cultural and ecological effects of mobile phones

Mahanoy Mountain shows the scars of strip mining.

A Short Trip to Coal Country

The model of Titanoboa will be on view at the Natural History museum starting tomorrow.

Titanoboa, the 48-Foot Monster Snake, Slithers Into the Natural History Museum

See the giant prehistoric snake everyone’s been talking about at the Natural History Museum, starting Friday, March 30 through January 6, 2013

Jess Findlay's winning submission, a red fox caught in a snowstorm.

Q&A with Jess Findlay, Nature’s Best Youth Photographer of the Year

The winners of the Nature’s Best Photography awards go on display at the Natural History Museum on Friday

The Great Blue Hole of Belize was named by Jacques Cousteau as one of the world's top diving sites.

The Greatest Diving Sites in the World

The vertiginous void of the Great Blue Hole offers divers the feeling of facing off with the edge of the world

A replica model of the 45-foot-long snake thought to be of Anaconda descent

Snake Found in Grand Central Station!

Sculptor Kevin Hockley unveils his fearsome replica of Titanoboa

The author and his bike stand about 850 feet above San Francisco on Conzelman Road. Repeated 10 times, this little hill amounts to a world classic of climbing.

The World’s Best Uphill Bike Rides

Long, steady climbs on a bicycle are the holy grail of athletic conquests. We hill climbers measure the worth of a landscape by its rise over run

The Shape of Fruits to Come

How our need for convenience is redesigning our food supply

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Nature in Focus at the Environmental Film Festival

Environmental Film Festival highlights on view at Smithsonian locations

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Ask Smithsonian: Can Birds Be Identified Just From Their Feathers? Questions from Our Readers

Our new feature, Ask Smithsonian, is all about finding the answers. Do you have a question for our curators?

An ocotillo flower

Wildflower Hunting in the California Desert

March is the traditional time to view the fab flora in Joshua Tree National Park

At the American Indian Museum, Thirza Defoe performs traditional songs and hoop dance daily until March 17.

Events March 13-15: Public Murals in Southeast DC, The Last Reef, and Hoop Dance with Thirza Defoe

This week, discuss the varying views on public murals, take a 3-D journey of the world’s coral reefs, and perform a People’s Dance with Thirza Defoe

A reconstruction of a new fossil beluga relative, described by Smithsonian scientists, is in the foreground. Its living relatives, the beluga and narwhal, are illustrated left to right in the background. Coloration of the extinct whale is speculative.

Behind-the-Scenes With Curator Nick Pyenson: A New Fossil Whale

Around the Smithsonian, routine work can often reap scientific discovery

17,000 feet

More Great Walks of the World

Which hikes are the best in the world, and which ones did we miss?

Meadows, lakes, snow and granite are the enduring elements of California's John Muir Trail, which leads through 211 miles of some of the world's most beautiful alpine wilderness.

Great Walks of the World

The fact that people opt to walk today tells us there is something virtuous and irresistible in the plodding of one foot forward after the other

This scene from Lake Wanaka captures much that is great about New Zealand, like the Southern Alps and the country's many gleaming lakes.

New Zealand: What’s Hot and What’s Not

From Stewart Island in the south to the Surville Cliffs in the north, New Zealand is a country almost as geographically diverse as the United States

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