Smithsonian articles

Recent articles from Smithsonian

Empire of Science: An 1838 Expedition Pushed Back the Borders of the Unknown
April 1, 2013... At 3 p.m., August 18,1838, six ships got under way on the ebb tide and made for the Cape Henry Lighthouse in Norfolk, Virginia. The vessels were packed with books, the latest scientific and navigational equipment, and a crew of 346 men--including a linguist, a mineralogist, two botanists and...

On the Front Lines: Photos Reveal Life on the World's Borders
April 1, 2013... THE RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOK On Borders features the work of German photographers who captured images of boundaries both literal and metaphorical. Espen Eichhoefer chose to be in South Sudan on July 9, 2011, the day it became an independent state, formally demarcating the line separating it from...

Phenomenon: Borders Define Limits-But Not Our Limitations
April 1, 2013... To casual stargazers, space seems to have no boundaries. Yet fans of NASA's farthest-flung spacecraft can't stop talking about how the probe is on the verge of piercing a border surrounding the planets and plunging into the realm beyond. [paragraph] Since Voyager 1 blasted off in 1977, it has...

From the Editor
April 1, 2013... In 1960, people around the world made 25 million trips outside their home countries. Last year, that number passed one billion. Tourism has become one of the most powerful, most influential and least-examined forces in the world. It produces $6.5 trillion of the global economy and employs one...

From the Castle
April 1, 2013... When "Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America" opened at the National Museum of the American Indian in 2009, it explored the cultural cross-pollination between Native American teenagers and the "outsider" sport they'd adopted. The exhibition didn't simply skid to a halt when it closed...