Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Scientists

None

Wanted: Chief Scientific Advisor for MI5

Frustrated by human error, mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage designed a machine to perform mathematical functions and automatically print the results.

Booting Up a Computer Pioneer’s 200-Year-Old Design

Charles Babbage, the grandfather of the computer, envisioned a calculating machine that was never built, until now

None

Patricia Zaradic, Conservation Ecologist, Pennsylvania

The trouble with “videophilia”

None

Trials of a Primatologist

How did a renowned scientist who has done groundbreaking research in Brazil run afoul of authorities there?

None

Symbolically Speaking

A Q&A with hieroglyphs expert Janice Kamrin

None

Down to Earth

Anthropologist Amber VanDerwarker is unraveling the mysteries of the ancient Olmec by figuring out what they ate

“His scientific contributions are joyful, spark curiosity and inspire the young,” computer scientist Jeannette Wing says of her colleague Luis von Ahn (on the Carnegie Mellon campus, seated upon one of the “guest chairs” he keeps in his office).

The Player

Luis von Ahn’s secret for making computers smarter? Get thousands of people to take part in his cunning online games

None

Richard Lerner

The Tufts University developmental scientist challenges the myth of the troubled adolescent in his new book, “The Good Teen”

None

Writer Turned Scientist

In this interview, Mary K. Miller, author of “Reading Between the Lines,” describes becoming a shift supervisor in the lab

Smithson (in 1816 portrait) was viewed as a dejected recluse.

A Man in Full

A new biography depicts benefactor James Smithson as an exuberant, progressive man enamored of science

An image of Augustine erupting on January 13, 2006, from about 50 miles away from the volcano.

Volcanic Lightning

As sparks flew during the eruption of Mount St. Augustine in Alaska, scientists made some new discoveries

"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”

For his new book, Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity, economist David Galenson conducted a study of artistic greatness.

Interview: David Galenson

Pondering the nature of artistic genius, a social scientist finds that creativity has a bottom line

None

Frozen in Time

Glaciers in the Pacific Northwest have recorded hundreds of years of climate history, helping researchers plot how quickly the planet is warming

None

Neanderthal Man

Svante Pääbo has probed the DNA of Egyptian mummies and animals. Now he hopes to decode the DNA of our evolutionary cousins

35 Who Made a Difference: Douglas Owsley

Dead people tell no tales—but their bones do, when he examines them

35 Who Made a Difference: Richard Leakey

The leader of the Hominid Gang asks what he can do for his continent

None

Newton’s Vice

Some say alchemy inspired our greatest scientist

None

Let the Bones Talk’ Is the Watchword for Scientist-Sleuths

When the FBI moved in across the street 60 years ago, Smithsonian anthropologists began a tradition of helping to solve crimes

Page 10 of 10